The English Language Part 13

9. That by a similar lat.i.tude the words _Francic_ and {57} _Alemannic_ have been occasionally used as synonymous with _Germanic_.

10. That the origin of the word _Germani_, in the Latin language, is a point upon which there are two hypotheses.

_a._ That it is connected with the Latin word _Germani_=_brothers_, meaning either tribes akin to one another, or tribes in a degree of _brotherly_ alliance with Rome.

_b._ That it grew out of some such German word as _Herman_, _Irmin_, _Wehrmann_, or the _Herm-_ in _Hermunduri_, _Hermiones_, &c.

Neither of these views satisfies the present writer.

For all the facts concerning the word _Germani_, see the Introduction to the third edition of the Deutsche Grammar.

-- 99. _Dutch._--For the purposes of Philology the meaning given to this word is inconvenient. In England, it means the language of the people of Holland.

In Germany, Holland, and Scandinavia, it means the language of the people of Germany in _general_; and this _general_ power of the word is retained even with us in the expression High-Dutch, and Low-Dutch. In the present work the term is avoided as much as possible. Nevertheless, wherever it occurs it means the Dutch of Holland.

The origin of the word has been a subject of much investigation; the question, however, may be considered to be settled by the remarks of Grimm, D. G.--_Introduction to the third edition_.

1. It was originally no national name at all.

2. In the earliest pa.s.sage where it occurs, the derivative form _iudisko_ corresponds with the Greek word [Greek: ethnikos]--_The Moeso-Gothic Translation of the New Testament_--_Galatians_, ii. 14.

3. The derivation of the word from the substantive _iudu_=_a people_, _a nation_, is undoubted.

4. So also is the derivation of the modern word _Dutch_, in all its varied forms:--Old High-German, _Diutisc_; Anglo-Saxon, _eodisc_; Latin, _Theodisca_, _Theudisca_, _Teutisca_; Italian, _Tedesco_; Danish, _Tyske_; English, _Dutch_; the latter part of the word being the adjectival ending _-isc_=_ish_. {58}

5. The original meaning being _of, or belonging to, the people_, or _of, or belonging to, the nation_, secondary meanings grew out of it.

6. Of these the most remarkable are _a_) the power given to the word in Ulphilas (_heathen_), ill.u.s.trated by the similarly secondary power of the Greek [Greek: ethnikos]; _b_) the meaning _vernacular_, _provincial_ or _vulgar_ given to it as applied to language.

7. This latter power was probably given to it about the ninth century.

8. That it was not given much before, is inferred from negative evidence.

The word _theotisca_ is not found in the Latin writers of the sixth, seventh, and eighth centuries, although there are plenty of pa.s.sages where it might well have been used had it existed. The terms really used are either _patrius sermo_, _sermo barbaricus_, _sermo vulgaricus_, _lingua rustica_; or else the names of particular tribes, as _lingua Anglorum_, _Alamannorum_.

9. That it was current in the ninth century is evident from a variety of quotations:--_Ut quilibet episcopus homilias aperte transferre studeat in rusticam Romanam linguam, aut _eotiscam_, quo tandem cuncti possint intelligere quae dicantur._--Synodus Turonensis. _Quod in lingua _Thiudisca_ scaftlegi, id est armorum depositio, vocatur._--Capit. Wormatiense. _De collectis quas _Theudisca_ lingua heriszuph appellat._--Conventus Silvacensis. _Si _barbara_, quam _Teutiscam_ dic.u.n.t, lingua loqueretur._--Vita Adalhardi, &c.--D.G., i. p. 14, _Introduction_.

10. That its present national sense is wholly secondary and derivative, and that originally it was no more the name of a people or a language than the word _vulgate_ in the expression _the vulgate translation of the Scriptures_ is the name of a people or a language.

-- 100. _Teutonic._--About the tenth century the Latin writers upon German affairs began to use not only the words _Theotiscus_ and _Theotisce_, but also the words _Teutonicus_ and _Teutonice_. Upon this, Grimm remarks that the latter term sounded more learned; since _Teutonicus_ was a cla.s.sical word, an adjective derived from the Gentile name of the Teutones conquered by Ma.n.u.s. Be it so. It then follows that the connexion between _Teutonicus_ and _Theotiscus_ is a mere accident, the origin {59} of the two words being different. The worthlessness of all evidence concerning the Germanic origin of the Teutonic tribes conquered by Marius, based upon the connexion between the word _Teuton_ and Dutch, has been pointed out by the present writer in the 17th number of the Philological Transactions.[10] All that is proved is this, _viz._, that out of the confusion between the two words arose a confusion between the two nations. These last may or may not have been of the same race.

-- 101. _Anglo-Saxon_--In the ninth century the language of England was _Angle_, or _English_. The _lingua Anglorum_ of Bede is translated by Alfred _on englisce_. The term _Saxon_ was in use also at an early (perhaps an equally early) date--_fures quos_ Saxonice _dicimus vergeld_ eovas. The compound term _Anglo-Saxon_ is later.--Grimm, _Introduction to the third edition of_ D.G., p. 2.

-- 102. _Icelandic, Old Norse._--Although _Icelandic_ is the usual name for the mother-tongue of the Danish, Swedish, and Norwegian, the Norwegian philologists generally prefer the term _Old Norse_.

In favour of this view is the fact that Norway was the mother-country, Iceland the colony, and that much of what is called Old Icelandic was composed in Norway.

Still the reason is insufficient; since the present term _Icelandic_ is given to the language not because Iceland _was_ the country that _produced_, but because it is the country that has _preserved_ it.

This leads to the argument in its most general form--should a language be named from the colony, or from the mother-country? The Norwegians say from the mother-country. Let us consider this.

Suppose that whilst the Latin of Virgil and Cicero in Italy had been changing into the modern Italian, in some old Roman colony (say Sardinia) it had remained either wholly {60} unaltered, or else, altered so little as for the modern _Sardinian_--provided he could read at all--to be able to read the authors of the Augustan age, just like those of the era of Charles Albert; no other portion of the old Roman territory--not even Rome itself--having any tongue more like to that of the Cla.s.sical writers, than the most antiquated dialect of the present Italian. Suppose, too, that the term _Latin_ had become obsolete, would it be imperative upon us to call the language of the Cla.s.sics _Old Italian_, _Old Roman_, or at least _Old Latin_, when no modern native of Rome, Latium, or Italy could read them?

Would it be wrong to call it _Sardinian_ when every Sarde _could_ read them? I think not. _Mutatis mutandis_, this is the case with Iceland and Norway.

{61}

CHAPTER V.

a.n.a.lYSIS OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE--GERMANIC ELEMENTS.

-- 103. The population and, to a certain extent, the language of England, have been formed of three elements, which in the most general way may be expressed as follows:--

_a._ Elements referable to the original British population, and derived from times anterior to the Anglo-Saxon invasion.

_b._ Anglo-Saxon, Germanic, or imported elements.

_c._ Elements introduced since the Anglo-Saxon conquest.

-- 104. Each of these requires a special a.n.a.lysis, but that of the second will be taken first, and will form the contents of the present chapter.

All that we have at present learned concerning the Germanic invaders of England, is the geographical area which they wholly or partially occupied, and the tribes and nations with which they were conterminous whilst in Germany. How far, however, it was simple Saxons who conquered England single-handed, or how far the particular Saxon Germans were portions of a complex population, requires further investigation. Were the Saxons one division of the German population, whilst the Angles were another? or were the Angles a section of the Saxons, so that the latter was a generic term, including the former? Again, although the Saxon invasion may be the one which has had the greatest influence, and drawn the most attention, why may there not have been separate and independent migrations, the effects and record of which, have in the lapse of time, become fused with those of the more important divisions?

Questions like these require notice, and in a more advanced state of what may be called _minute ethnographical_ {62} _philology_ will obtain more of it than has. .h.i.therto been their share. At present our facts are few, and our methods of investigation imperfect.

-- 105. In respect to this last, it is necessary to distinguish between the opinions based on _external_, and the opinions based on _internal_ evidence. To the former cla.s.s belong the testimonies of cotemporary records, or (wanting these) of records based upon transmitted, but cotemporary, evidence. To the latter belong the inferences drawn from similarity of language, name, and other ethnological _data_. Of such, a portion only will be considered in the present chapter; not that they have no proper place in it, but because the minuter investigation of an important section of these (_i.e._, the subject of the _English dialects_) will be treated as a separate subject elsewhere.

-- 106. _The Angles; who were they, and what was their relation to the Saxons?_--The first answer to this question embodies a great fact in the way of internal evidence, _viz._, that they were the people from whom _England_ derives the name it bears=_the Angle-land_, i.e., _land of the Angles_. Our language too is _English_, i.e., _Angle_. Whatever, then, they may have been on the Continent, they were a leading section of the invaders here. Why then has their position in our inquiries been hitherto so subordinate to that of the Saxons? It is because their definitude and preponderance are not so manifest in Germany as we infer (from the terms _England_ and _English_) it to have been in Britain. Nay more, their historical place amongst the nations of Germany, and within the German area, is both insignificant and doubtful; indeed, it will be seen from the sequel, that _in and of themselves_ we know next to nothing about them, knowing them only in their _relations_, _i.e._, to ourselves and to the Saxons. The following, however, are the chief facts that form the foundation for our inferences.

-- 107. Although they are the section of the immigration which gave the name to England, and as such, the preponderating element in the eyes of the present _English_, they were not so in the eyes of the original British; who neither knew at the time of the Conquest, nor know now, of any other name for their German enemies but _Saxon_. And _Saxon_ is the {63} name by which the present English are known to the Welsh, Armorican, and Gaelic Celts.

Welsh _Saxon_.

Armorican _Soson_.

Gaelic _Sa.s.senach_.

-- 108. Although they are the section of the immigration which gave the name to _England_, &c., they were quite as little Angles as Saxons, in the eyes of foreign cotemporary writers; since the expression _Saxoniae trans-marinae_, occurs as applied to England.

-- 109. Although they are the section of the immigration which gave the name to _England_, &c., the material notice of them as Germans of Germany, are limited to the following facts.

_Extract from Tacitus._--This merely connects them with certain other tribes, and affirms the existence of certain religious ordinances common to them--

"Contra Langobardos paucitas n.o.bilitat: plurimis ac valentissimis nationibus cincti, non per obsequium, sed proeliis et peric.l.i.tando tuti sunt. Reudigni deinde, et Aviones, et _Angli_, et Varini, et Eudoses, et Suardones, et Nuithones, fluminibus aut silvis muniuntur: nec quidquam notabile in singulis, nisi quod in commune Herthum, id est, Terram matrem colunt, eamque intervenire rebus hominum, invehi populis, arbitrantur. Est in insula Oceani castum nemus, dicatumque in eo vehiculum, veste contectum, attingere uni sacerdoti concessum. Is adesse penetrali deam intelligit, vectamque bobus feminis multa c.u.m veneratione prosequitur. Laeti tunc dies, festa loca, quaec.u.mque adventu hospitioque dignatur. Non bella ineunt, non arma sumunt, clausum omne ferrum; pax et quies tunc tantum nota, tunc tantum amata, donec idem sacerdos satiatam conversatione mortalium deam templo reddat: mox vehiculum et vestes, et, si credere velis, numen ipsum secreto lacu abluitur. Servi ministrant, quos statim idem lacus haurit.

Arca.n.u.s hinc terror, sanctaque ignorantia, quid sit id, quod tantum perituri vident."[11]

_Extract from Ptolemy._--This connects the Angles with {64} the _Suevi_, and _Langobardi_, and places them on the Middle Elbe.

[Greek: Entos kai mesogeion ethnon megista men esti to, te ton Souebon ton Angeilon, hoi eisin anatolikoteroi ton Langobardon, anateinontes pros tas arktous mechri ton meson tou Albios potamou.]