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English.

number of words from other European lan- Modern
guages are introduced, as well as from the
Latin and Greek.

Note. For a list of writers of the different periods see page 180.

EXTENT TO WHICH NORMAN-FRENCH WAS USED.

man

After the Conquest till the reign of Edward Use of NorIII., the language of the people was Anglo- French. Saxon; that of the priests, etc., Latin; and Court that of the king, nobles, and their retainers, Norman.

language.

All letters, even those of a private nature, In letters. were written in Latin till the beginning of the reign of Edward I., soon after 1270 A.D., when a sudden change brought in the use of French.

In grammar schools, boys were made to In schools.` construe their Latin into French; and in the

statutes of Oriel College, Oxford, is found a Universities regulation so late as 1328 A.D., that students

shall converse together, if not in Latin, at least in French.

The minutes of the Corporation of London, Minutes. recorded in the Town Clerk's Office, were in

French, as well as the proceedings in parlia- Parliament. ment, and in the courts of justice.

Hence English was seldom written, and hardly ever employed in prose till after the middle of the fourteenth century.

Law courts.

works in

Sir John Mandeville's "Travels" were writ- First prose ten in 1356 A.D.; and this is our first English English. prose book.

Wicliffe's Translation of the Bible, a great

English prose works.

Introduction of English.

work that enriched the language very much, is referred to 1383 A.D.

Trevisa's version of the "Polychronicon of Higden" was in 1385 A.D.; and the "Astrolabe of Chaucer" in 1392 A.D.

up

A few public instruments were drawn in English under Richard II. (1377–1399 A.D.); and about the same time, probably, English In letters. began to be employed in epistolary correspondTrevisa says, that when he wrote (1385

ence.

A.D.) even gentlemen had much left off having In schools. their children taught French; and names the schoolmaster, John Cornwall, who, soon after

At court.

In the courts of law.

1350 A.D., brought in so great an innovation as the making his boys translate their Latin into English.

The disuse of French in the upper ranks of society seems to have taken place very rapidly; as, by a statute of Edward III. in 1362 A.D., all pleas in the courts of justice are directed to be pleaded and judged in English, on account of French being so much unknown. Notwithstanding this, the proceedings in parliament, with very few exceptions, appear to have been all in French for sixty years longer, till the accession of Henry VI. in 1422 A.D.; and the statutes continued to be published in the same language for above 120 years after the passing of Edward III.'s statute, till the accession of Richard III. in 1483 A.D.

GENERAL RELATIONS OF MODERN ENGLISH TO

ANGLO-SAXON.

modern

Anglo

The relation of the present English to Anglo- Relation of Saxon is that of a modern to an ancient lan- English to guage. Let the word smiða smith, be taken Saxon. as an example of this relation. It was declined as follows, in Anglo-Saxon:

[blocks in formation]

As far, then, as the above example is concerned, the Anglo-Saxon differs from the present English by expressing a fresh relation by a modification of the form of the root, called an inflection, whereas modern English denotes the same relation by the use of a preposition.

Example.

In other words, Saxon inflection is super- Disuse of

seded by a combination of words.

This is the case with all modern languages contrasted with their ancient form, and is called the process of simplification.

inflections.

Contrasted with the present English, Anglo- Contrast of Saxon has the following general differences :—

the two.

1. Nouns had their peculiar declensions ac- Nouns, cording to their terminations. These distinctions have disappeared in modern English.

The present plural termination -s, which is a Number. contraction for -as (as in smiðas = smiths), was in Anglo-Saxon confined to a single gender and declension.

N

Case.

and

With regard to case, the Anglo-Saxon had three cases, distinct in form; viz., the Nominative, Genitive, and Dative for the nouns ; the adjective and pronoun, had each four cases, viz., the Nominative, Genitive, Dative, and Accusative; and some few words had an Ablative or Instrumental case as well.

In modern English, the adjectives have no case at all; the nouns only two, the Nominative and Genitive, distinct in form; and the pronouns three, viz., Nominative, Genitive, and Accusative.

Adjectives. In Anglo-Saxon, the adjectives had three genders, Masculine, Feminine, and Neuter, with a distinct termination for each; and agreed with their substantives in gender, number, and case, as they do in Latin.

Verbs.

tendency of English.

In English there is no such distinction of gender, number, and case of adjectives.

The subjunctive mood, which in modern English (with one exception, If I were, the subjunctive of was) differs from the indicative only in the second and third persons singular, was considerably different in Anglo-Saxon.

The infinitive mood, in Anglo-Saxon, ended in -an; as, lufian = to love.

THE PRESENT TENDENCIES OF ENGLISH.

Present This process of simplification, i.e., the disappearance of inflections, is still going on in English, as may be seen in the following tendencies:

1. The distinction between the subjunctive Mood. and indicative moods is disappearing; as, If it is, is often used for, If it be.

2. Only one of the double forms of the past Tense. tense of some of the strong verbs will remain; as, She sang well is more general than She sung well, though both forms are correct.

The same is the case with He drank heavily, as compared with He drunk heavily.

3. The frequent use of the adjective for the Adverb. adverb tends to the disappearance of the latter; as, soft, no haste, for softly.

"A little learning is a dangerous thing,

Drink deep, or taste not the Pierian spring."-Pope.

HISTORICAL ANALYSIS OF ENGLISH WORDS.

English

Out of 43,000 words found in the English Analysis of dictionary, 29,000 are of classical origin, and words. only 13,000 of Saxon. (Max Müller.)

Out of every 100 words in English, as it is Percentage of English ordinarily written or spoken, 60 are Saxon, 30 in use. are Latin (including French), 5 are Greek, and 5 are miscellaneous. (Trench.)

tical

Notwithstanding this preponderance of clas- Grammasical words in the dictionary, still English be- structure. longs to the Teutonic branch of the family of languages, because its grammatical structure is decidedly Teutonic; and the particles, which are of commonest occurrence, are also of Teutonic origin.

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