THE LORD'S PRAYER IN TEUTONIC LANGUAGES. thu bist in in be Coinmon English of German of Lower German Gothic of English. Wiclif (1380). Luther. Saxon (1151). (720 A.D). Ulphiias (360, our oure unser unser uneeer unsar father fadir fater fatter atta whu that de du thee pist in den hyme hiinele hiuinam mel len hallowed halowid geheiliget gehyliget wihi be weihnai dinan thein wame name Dame nain un namo theins kingdom kyngdom reich ryke rihi thiudinassus Cone come to komme to comme chweme quimai thy thi dein dyn din theing will wille wille wille willo wilja be de werde werde done don wairthal on in ana earth erthe erden der erde erdu airthai as it as wie also 80 Bwe jah thy thy be geschehe auf in in is im in gif day in in in den bymir hinila Heaven heavene himmel himile himina cle give give gib kip gif us to us uns uns uns uns this this heute hiutu himma hyte day caga our ouro unser unse . unseer unsarana daily täglich degelike emezhic bread breed brot broath hlaif jah forgive forgeve vergib forgif oblaz aflet us to us uns uns uns uns Our oure unser unse unseero thatei debts dettis schuld schulde sculdi skulano sijaimo as as wig alse 80 swaswe jah we we wir wy wir weis forgive forgiven vergeben forgeven oblazen afletam our to our unsern unsen uns unsaraim debtors dettouris schuldigern schuldeners skuldikem skulain lead lede führe enleyde tirletti briggais US uns NUS nii into in to in temptation temptacioun versuchung bekoringe khorunka fraistubnjai but but sondern sonder uZz ak deliver dely ver erlöse lose erlosi lausei unsih Uus fona evil yvel dem übel obele ubile ubilin This table is full of instruction. Go through it carefully word for word, making due allowance for diversity of spelling; for instance our word come re-appears in come to, comme, to comme, chweme. and quimai. In the “bist” of the Lower Saxon I recognise an old mood common in the South of England in my boyish days, where and when the present tense of the verb to be was thus conju. in us af gated, I be, thou bist, he bees, we be, you be, they be. The Gothic of Ulphilas offers the most striking points of comparison. I will go through it and point out the words wbich still form a part of the English tongue; unsar, our; thu, who; in, in; himinam, heaven ; weihnai, vowed ; thein, thy ; namo, name; quimai, come; wilga, will; ana, on; airthai, earth ; gif, give; uns, our ; daga, day; unsarana, our ; hlaif, loaf; briggais, bring; lausei, loose ; af, of; ubilin, evil. It is thus seen that our mother tongue had a substantive existence as early as the year of our Lord 360. And it is curious to observe that in this the oldest form of the Teutonic languages we find in several instances the nearest approach to our modern words and forms : e.g., himinem, heaven ; thein, thy, thine ; airthai, earth; gif, give ; uns, us; daga, day ; blaif, loaf, the ancient word for bread ; briggais, bring; lausei, loose. These facts will enforce the advice I have given to the effect that you should let the Saxon come in for its full share in your phraseology. But here, as in all cases, moderation is necessary. And doubtless some usages connected with the Saxon are to be avoided. How freely and how loosely is the verb to get employed in ordinary life. I am not fond of giving specimens of bad English as a means of teaching persons to speak and write good English, for I think such a practice subversive of its object, and, therefore, I abstain from supplying you according to the usual practice with exercises in bad English for correction ; but I may, and from time to time I sball, explain and enforce my meaning by examples of what is wrong, particularly when the examples given are so gross as to be beyond imitation. Here is a specimen of the hard labour which get is made to undergo. On getting home, I got my dinner; and, getting the bad news you sent, got on horseback within ten minutes after I got your lelter. When I got to Canterbury, I got a chaise for town, but I got wet through in getting to the inn; and I have in consequence got such a cold as I shall not be able to get rid of in a hurry; happy shall I be if I get bither by the time you get back. Being, however, compelled to see the minister, I got shared and dressed as soon as I arrived in London, and getting some refreshment, got lo the Treasury. I soon got into the great man's favour, and got out of him the secret of getting a memorial before the board, but I could not get an answer then; bowever a few days ago I got intelligence that I shall get an answer shortly. On my way back I got a beefsteak, and while trying to get the newspaper, I got my foot under a chair and got thrown down. I got up as well as I could and getting back to my own inn, got my supper, and got to bed. It was not long before I got to sleep. When I got up in the morning, I first got my breakfast, then getting a walk, I got a bath. After that, I got dressed, got a morning paper, and, ordering the waiter to get me a cab, got into it forth. with that I might get in time to get an answer to my memorial. I got the answer, and without delay got pen, ink, and paper to write to you; and this is all I have got to say, THE CELTIC ELEMENT. The Celtic element in the English language has received far less attention than it deserves. Till recently, indeed, its existence was scarcely known ; and when at length it compelled recognition, its appearance was restricted to names of places, particularly the great outlines of the country, such as hills, mountains, headlands, rivers, &c. The ordinary teaching of the schools was, that the original British patives of these islands were extirpated by the invading and con: quering Saxons to such an extent that the former were able to sustain themselves only in the mountain fastnesses of the extreme parts of the country, Scotland in the north, Cornwall in the south, and Wales in the west. In those parts, unquestionably, the native British successfully withstood their Saxon invaders, and there transmitted their vernacular tongue from generation to generation. Not less is it true that the British element in the population of the lowlands was neither uprooted nor absorbed. Extermination is a rare event in the migrations and changes of tribes and nations, Scarcely would it be too much to affirm that extermination never takes place. And even absorption is only partial. Besides, if blood is absorbed it does not lose its primitive qualities. Still less easy of absorption is a language. A living language,-that is, a language vernacular to the aboriginals of a country-stamps itself on the entire land and on the whole life of the people. That impres. sion is all but indelible. Only the attrition and abrasion of centuries can wear the image down, much less wholly efface it. The language of the cottage is one of the few permanent things on earth; and when, by the extruding power of the language of the court, and of books, and of commerce, it is compelled to withdraw into narrower and parrower limits, it ceases to be a language only to become a dialect and a patois (the language of the peasants of a province); and still maintains an existence in what we call provincialisms and vulgarisms, when at length it is wholly banished from cultivated society. Nor only there does it survive; it lives on in the warp and the woof of the spoken and written tongue. These allegations are borne out by the fact that in our present English, the original Celtic of these islands still remains to no inconsiderable extent.. The Celts (or, as the fashion now is, the Kelts), as far back as history goes, were the primitive inhabitants of England, Wales, Scotland, and Ireland. The race at large, in an ante-historic period, migrated from Central Asia into Europe, and, spreading over its surface, penetrated to its western limits. The Celtic language is now acknowledged to have affinities with the important group of languages denominated the Indo-Germanic, of which the Sanscrit, the Greek and the German may be taken as representatives. At the same time, the Celtic language, as being a language spoken by an independent family of nations, possesses essentially independent features. There are still six Celtic tongues or dialects recognised in Europe. Of these, four belong to the British islands. A fifth, the Coruish, now nearly or quite extinct, also pertained to the same insular home of the Keltai or Celts. The sixth, the Armorican, belongs to Brittany, a country connected with Britain in history as well as name, TAB CELTIC TONGUES. I. The GALLIC OR BRITISH. II. THE GAELIC OR ERsB. including including 1. Cymric or Welsh. I 1. Penic or Irish. 2. Cornish. 2. Gaelic or Highland Scotch. 3. Armorican or Breton. | 3. Jianx. I may confirm the statements I have made, as to the survival of the Celtic element in our national life and literature, by a quotation from an author of merit, whose studies and whose subject would naturally incline him to give predominance to Saxon claims : “Nothing is more common or less true than the exaggerated account of total exterminations and miserable oppressions in the traditional literature of conquered nations; and we may very safely appeal even to the personal appearance of the tea. santry in many parts of England as evidence how much Keltic blood was permitted to subsist and even to mingle with that of the ruling Germans; while the signatures to very early charters supply us witb names assuredly not Teutonic (or Saxon), and therefore possibly borne by persons of Keltic race, occupying positions of dignity at the courts of Anglo-Saxon kings."* In a list given by the very learned German philologist Adelung (Mithridates II., 40) of genuine Celtic words found gathered from very ancient sources, and found in Teutonic tongues, the following have representatives in the English of the present day: Aber, as in Aberc in way, and sereral other Welsh names, denotes the mouth of a ricer, the confluence of a river with the sea; and hence a bay or harbour; it is found in the French Havre (Havre-deGrace), and in the English harbour: Webster seems wrong when he gives harbour as from the Saxon here berga, the station of an army. Alpes, the ancient Gallic designation for any high land; Lence our Albion, so called from its lolly cliffs. Bard, the Gallic name for poet, singer, prophet. Bastard, from the Welsh bas, low, and tardd, to come forth; hence, persons of low and unworthy birth. Becco, Gallic, our beak. Beria, a level field, a plain; hence, the numerous instances of bery as a termination of English names of places. Braca, Gallic, a dam, a limit; Scotch, bray; French, braie, a hedge. Braccae, Gallic, breeches. Brace, i.e. corn ; whence the Gauls made their beer; hence, the words brewo, brewer, beer. Bria, briga, perhaps from the Welsh brig, brigyn, a hill-cop; briga itself signifies in the Celtic a town, as in Boroughbridge. Carn, a group of stones or rocks; hence our Carn or Cairn and Cornwall (stony Wales). • The Saxons in Eugland," by J. J. Kenble, 2 vols., 8vo., 1849; vol. I., p. 21. Carra, a Gallic four-wheeled carriage, a car, cart, to carry, carter. Carruca, among the Gauls a convenient travelling carriage; French, caroche; English, coach. Craig, in Welsh a rock, precipice; our crag. Foll, foolish, Welsh ffol, French fou, Scotch fou (tipsy), English fool, German toll. Lancea, Gallic for lance. Pen, a summit, head; as in Pencraig in Hereford, and Pengover in Cornwall, Penistone in Yorkshire, Penrith in Cumberland. Rit, a ford; hence the ending ritas in Camboritum, Cambridge. Soldurii (sol, bond, and wr, Latin vir) a man; boundmen, or men engaged to each other and to their leader in war, our soldier. Spatha, a two-edged sword; whence through the German spaten, is our spade. Tan, land, as in Britain (Brittania, the land of the Britti, or painted people; so we say the blacks, the whites, the fair). The names father, mother, sister, and brother, are of necessity among the first, they are also the most enduring. Consult then this table :Breton. Welsh. English. tad (dad), tad, father, dad, daddy. mamm, mam, mother, mamma, mammy. breur, brawd, brother. choar, chwaer, sister. Our words father and mother come to us from the IndoGermanic stem ; but the cottage words, the nursery words, the words of intimate affection, dad, daddy, mam, mamma, mammy, are derived from our British or Celtic forefathers. The oldest forms of a language are found in the cottage and on the hill-side. In both those spots, and in the provincialisms which still in a measure survive (but, alas! are fast giving way before railroads, and commerce, and ignorant euphuists, that is, seekers after finery in language), a considerable number of Celtic words remain. These words are among the most ex. pressive. Take the term mettle. Even Websier, after other great lexicographical authories, originally derived this from the Greek root which gives us metal, namely, metallan, to scrutinise, to scek for, by digging; as if a man of mettle and a man of metal, were not as much opposed to each other as a highspirited inan and a moncy-grub.* Turn to the Welsh and you find in meddwl, mind, courage, which by the vulgar is called pluck, the exact idea which mettle conveys, e.g., ; “ The winged courser, like a generous horse, Shows most true mettle when you check his course."— Pope. To fettle, is in the genuine Lancashire dialect a very expressive word, giving rise to the general idea of making a thing good, excellent, delicious; and occurring in such instances as to fettie a horse, means to restore him to soundness |