and the kinds of words, which each contributed to assist in the formation of the English, is necessary for the student before beginning the study of those analyses, which follow this history.

a. The Celtic Language was used by the people of Britain at the time of its invasion by the Romans under Julius Cæsar, which took place in the fifty-fifth year before the Christian era. It is still used in some parts of Wales, Scotland, Ireland, and in Brittany or Bretagne. From it also the most of the languages in the Western and South-western parts of Europe are derived.

The Celtic language has contributed to the English; First. Some names of Persons and Places; as, Cobb, Jones, &c. Thames, Kent, &c., and names beginning with Mc., Fitz., &c.

Second. Some names of Common things; as, bran, darn, flannel, gruel, tartan, plaid, &c.

Beside the ordinary purposes of language, the Celtic was used in oratory and in poetry. Cæsar says that their Druids or priests knew how to write, but used it only as a means of concealing knowledge. This may have formed another item in the Celtic contribution to the English; otherwise the English has produced its own Druids.

The only specimens of Celtic eloquence occurring before the Saxon invasion, which have reached us, are the harangues of Queen Boadicea, of Carac'tacus, and of Galga'cus, a chieftain conquered by the Roman general, Agricola, in the seventyeighth year of the Christian era.

The Romans taught the Britains the arts of writing, agriculture, and architecture, and thus paved the way for the introduction of Christianity. The only monuments of this invasion are a few geographical names; as, Lincoln, Leicester, &c. coln signifies colony; cester, a camp.

b. The Gothic is supposed to have originated in Asia, and to have been brought into Europe by the barbarous tribes, who overran and occupied the country. It is not now used in its primitive form, but exists in several varieties or dia

lects, of which the principal are the Teutonic or Germanic, and the Scandinavian.

The Teutonic or Germanic dialect was used by the tribes inhabiting Germany, among the most powerful of whom were the Saxons and the Angles, who came into Britain in the four hundred and fiftieth year of the Christian era, and, exterminating a large portion of the native Celts, drove the remainder into the mountains of Wales and Scotland. The Angles gave their name to the conquered portion, Angleland, which was afterward modified to England; the Gothic dialect -the Germanic or Teutonic-which both people had helped to introduce, was called the Anglo-Saxon Language.

The Anglo-Saxon contributed to the English language;

First. Its modes of constructing sentences, and its peculiar idioms. Second. About five eighths of all the words now used in the English language. Twenty-three thousand in about forty thousand. They are short, easily understood, and have but few changes of form.

Third. The greater part of our grammatical forms.

Fourth. “It is the language of business; of the counting-house, the shop, the market, the street, the farm; and however, miserable the man who is fond of philosophy, or abstract science, might be, if he had no other vocabulary but this - we must recollect that language was made not for the few, but the many; and that portion of it which enables the bulk of mankind to express their wants and to transact their affairs, must be considered of at least as much importance to the general happiness, as that, which serves the purpose of philosophical science."

Fifth. Almost all our common names of material objects and of their properties; as the names of

Terrestrial Objects; Land, hill, dale, wood, water, sea, stream, &c. Natural Phenomena; Heat, cold, frost, light, lightning, thunder, rain, hail, snow, sleet, &c.

The Heavenly Bodies; Sun, moon, stars.

The Elements; Earth, fire, water. [Air is Latin.

The Seasons; Winter, spring, summer. [Autumn is Latin.

The Natural Divisions of Time; Year, month, week, day [h., min., sec., Lat.], morning, sunrise, midday, noon, evening, sunset. twilight, night, midnight.

Sixth. "It is the language of our national proverbs, in which so much of the practical wisdom of a nation resides, and which constitute the manual of 'hobnailed' philosophy."

Seventh. It furnishes the strongest terms, in which to express the passions, anger, contempt, rage, &c.; and also to express satire, invective, wit, humor, &c.

Eighth. It gives us names for the social relations; as, father (feeder), mother (producer), husband (provider), wife (weaver), child, son (hope), daughter (grace), brother (protector), sister (kind), kindred, friends.

Ninth. It names those objects, which suggest the social relations, as, home, roof, rooftree, fireside, hearth, &c.

Tenth. It names the emotions or feelings; as, love, anger, hope, fear, sorrow, shame, guilt, &c.

Eleventh. It names the outward signs of the emotions or feelings; as, the smile of love, the frown of anger, the brightness of hope, the shyness of fear, the tear of sorrow, the blush of shame, the gloom of guilt, &c.

Twelfth. It is the language of the Bible. To the Bible we are mainly indebted for the preservation and development of the Anglo-Saxon; and to the Anglo-Saxon we are indebted for the simple and familiar dress of the truths of the Bible. By a careful computation, it has been found that twenty-eight twenty-ninths [38] of all the words in the Bible are of Saxon origin;* hence, the Bible, apart from its spiritual teachings, is still the best book of study for the student, who would learn the strongest and simplest language ever spoken, or written; and we should be slow to admit those modern innovations, which militate against its authority as a standard of the Anglo-Saxon Language.

The Saxons were taught Christianity by the Romans, and from these they also learned the art of writing. They adopted the Latin alphabet, to which they added two new characters; one to represent th, and the other, w. The introduction of letters awakened a zeal for learning, and laid the foundation of what is now known as the "Saxon Literature." It consisted of poetry, fictitious narrative, histories or chronicles, religious writings, and translations from the Latin authors, and from the Sacred Scriptures.

* Next to the Bible, in the use of Saxon words, are the writings of Dean Swift, eight ninths being Saxon; Milton, seven eighths; Shakspeare, five sixths; Addison and Thomson, four fifths; Johnson, three fourths; Pope and Hume, two thirds.

At first, the Saxon writers wrote in the Latin; among these are Gidas, Aldhelm, and the Venerable Bede. Afterward they began to use the Saxon; among the first of these were the "elder" and the "second Caedmon."

Among the Saxon kings, Alfred the Great was conspicuous for his wisdom, knowledge, and piety; and also for his zeal in providing his subjects with the means of scientific and religious instruction. He established the present University at Oxford. Alfred occupied the throne for a period of twentyeight years; from 872 to 900, A.D.

The Saxon language continued to be used in England until the Norman Conquest in 1066.

The Scandinavian dialect of the Gothic (see p. 510) was used by the tribes occupying the Scandinavian Peninsula, now comprising Norway, Sweden, and Denmark. These people, who are known in history as the Norsemen, or Danes, came into England in the year 1017, and conquering the Saxons, whom they found there, held possession for twenty-four years, or until 1041. As their language was only another dialect of the Saxon, they did not change the latter, except by adding a few words peculiar to their own dialect; but even these are now generally known as a part of the Saxon Language.

The ultimate effect, of which the Danish incursion was the first and principal cause, was to bring in the Normans and with these the Norman French, which took place in 1066, as we have said above. How this came to pass, we will deseribe briefly in the history of the Greek elements of the English language.

c. The Greek Language was brought into Europe by the immigration from Asia of the people using it; and was for a long time the language of eloquence, poetry, history, and also of a commercial, a warlike, and a victorious people. These causes served to make it known and to give it currency among the surrounding nations; and especially was it imitated by the Romans both in its idioms and in the Grammatical forms of its words. This prevailed to such a degree that the Roman language-originally a mixture of the

Celtic, and of the Sabine and the Latin tongues, from the last of which it took its name

of the Greek.

came to be only a dialect

The Romans were decidedly a warlike people, and wher éver they carried their arms they also carried their language; which, as much as was possible on their part, they caused the conquered nations to adopt. At the time he entered Britain, Cæsar was engaged in subjugating Gau [France], and that part of Germany, which was afterward known as Normandy. The Romans not only succeeded in conquering these people, but also in bringing them to adopt so large a number of Latin idioms and words, as to lay the foundation of that change in the Gallic language-the Celtic-which finally resulted in the modern French; and to change the Norman language—the Gothic-into that which was afterward known as the Norman French. Things were in this condition, when in 1066, William, Duke of Normandy, invaded England and ascended the throne as William I., the Conqueror.

In order to wean the people from their Saxon customs and laws, William caused the Norman French to be used as the language of the Court, and ordered that all the laws should be written in it, and that all law-suits, proceedings, and petitions, should be presented in it. By this act, he compelled all the Saxons holding property to become familiar with the Norman, as the language of business; and these Saxons soon learned it. In addition to this, William appointed Normans to all offices of honor and trust in his government, filling the menial offices with Saxons. This course not only compelled all aspirants for court-favors to become familiar with the Norman, but rendered its use a mark of superiority in wealth, or in station, or in both; while it made the Saxon a sign of servitude. Beside all this, the Norman, being the language of the Court, became the fashionable language, as it really had been ever since the accession of Edward the Confessor, who had learned it while a refugee in Normandy, whither he had fled from England, in 1043, to escape from the Danes.