A Brief History of the English Language and Literature Part 1

A Brief History of the English Language and Literature.

by John Miller Dow Meiklejohn.

PREFACE.

This book provides sufficient matter for the four years of study required, in England, of a pupil-teacher, and also for the first year at his training college. An experienced master will easily be able to guide his pupils in the selection of the proper parts for each year. The ten pages on the Grammar of Verse ought to be reserved for the fifth year of study.

It is hoped that the book will also be useful in Colleges, Ladies'

Seminaries, High Schools, Academies, Preparatory and Normal Schools, to candidates for teachers' examinations and Civil Service examinations, and to all who wish for any reason to review the leading facts of the English Language and Literature.

Only the most salient features of the language have been described, and minor details have been left for the teacher to fill in. The utmost clearness and simplicity have been the aim of the writer, and he has been obliged to sacrifice many interesting details to this aim.

The study of English Grammar is becoming every day more and more historical-- and necessarily so. There are scores of inflections, usages, constructions, idioms, which cannot be truly or adequately explained without a reference to the past states of the language-- to the time when it was a synthetic or inflected language, like German or Latin.

The Syntax of the language has been set forth in the form of RULES. This was thought to be better for young learners who require firm and clear dogmatic statements of fact and duty. But the skilful teacher will slowly work up to these rules by the interesting process of induction, and will-- when it is possible-- induce his pupil to draw the general conclusions from the data given, and thus to make rules for himself.

Another convenience that will be found by both teacher and pupil in this form of _rules_ will be that they can be compared with the rules of, or general statements about, a foreign language-- such as Latin, French, or German.

It is earnestly hoped that the slight sketches of the History of our Language and of its Literature may not only enable the young student to pa.s.s his examinations with success, but may also throw him into the att.i.tude of mind of Oliver Twist, and induce him to "ask for more."

The Index will be found useful in preparing the parts of each subject; as all the separate paragraphs about the same subject will be found there grouped together.

J. M. D. M.

PART III.

THE HISTORY OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE

INTRODUCTION.

1. +Tongue, Speech, Language.+-- We speak of the "English tongue" or of the "French language"; and we say of two nations that they "do not understand each other's speech." The existence of these three words-- +speech+, +tongue+, +language+-- proves to us that a language is something +spoken+,-- that it is a number of +sounds+; and that the writing or printing of it upon paper is a quite secondary matter.

Language, rightly considered, then, is an +organised set of sounds+.

These sounds convey a meaning from the mind of the speaker to the mind of the hearer, and thus serve to connect man with man.

2. +Written Language.+-- It took many hundreds of years-- perhaps thousands-- before human beings were able to invent a mode of writing upon paper-- that is, of representing +sounds+ by +signs+. These signs are called +letters+; and the whole set of them goes by the name of the +Alphabet+-- from the two first letters of the Greek alphabet, which are called _alpha_, _beta_. There are languages that have never been put upon paper at all, such as many of the African languages, many in the South Sea Islands, and other parts of the globe. But in all cases, every language that we know anything about-- English, Latin, French, German-- existed for hundreds of years before any one thought of writing it down on paper.

3. +A Language Grows.+-- A language is an +organism+ or +organic existence+. Now every organism lives; and, if it lives, it grows; and, if it grows, it also dies. Our language grows; it is growing still; and it has been growing for many hundreds of years. As it grows it loses something, and it gains something else; it alters its appearance; changes take place in this part of it and in that part,-- until at length its appearance in age is something almost entirely different from what it was in its early youth. If we had the photograph of a man of forty, and the photograph of the same person when he was a child of one, we should find, on comparing them, that it was almost impossible to point to the smallest trace of likeness in the features of the two photographs. And yet the two pictures represent the same person. And so it is with the English language. The oldest English, which is usually called Anglo-Saxon, is as different from our modern English as if they were two distinct languages; and yet they are not two languages, but really and fundamentally one and the same. Modern English differs from the oldest English as a giant oak does from a small oak sapling, or a broad stalwart man of forty does from a feeble infant of a few months old.

4. +The English Language.+-- The English language is the speech spoken by the Anglo-Saxon race in England, in most parts of Scotland, in the larger part of Ireland, in the United States, in Canada, in Australia and New Zealand, in South Africa, and in many other parts of the world.

In the middle of the +fifth+ century it was spoken by a few thousand men who had lately landed in England from the Continent: it is now spoken by more than one hundred millions of people. In the course of the next sixty years, it will probably be the speech of two hundred millions.

5. +English on the Continent.+-- In the middle of the fifth century it was spoken in the north-west corner of Europe-- between the mouths of the Rhine, the Weser, and the Elbe; and in Schleswig there is a small district which is called +Angeln+ to this day. But it was not then called +English+; it was more probably called +Teutish+, or +Teutsch+, or +Deutsch+-- all words connected with a generic word which covers many families and languages-- +Teutonic+. It was a rough guttural speech of one or two thousand words; and it was brought over to this country by the +Jutes+, +Angles+, and +Saxons+ in the year 449. These men left their home on the Continent to find here farms to till and houses to live in; and they drove the inhabitants of the island-- the +Britons+-- ever farther and farther west, until they at length left them in peace in the more mountainous parts of the island-- in the southern and western corners, in Cornwall and in Wales.

6. +The British Language.+-- What language did the Teutonic conquerors, who wrested the lands from the poor Britons, find spoken in this island when they first set foot on it? Not a Teutonic speech at all. They found a language not one word of which they could understand. The island itself was then called +Britain+; and the tongue spoken in it belonged to the Keltic group of languages. Languages belonging to the Keltic group are still spoken in Wales, in Brittany (in France), in the Highlands of Scotland, in the west of Ireland, and in the Isle of Man.

A few words-- very few-- from the speech of the Britons, have come into our own English language; and what these are we shall see by-and-by.

7. +The Family to which English belongs.+-- Our English tongue belongs to the +Aryan+ or +Indo-European Family+ of languages. That is to say, the main part or substance of it can be traced back to the race which inhabited the high table-lands that lie to the back of the western end of the great range of the Himalaya, or "Abode of Snow." This Aryan race grew and increased, and spread to the south and west; and from it have sprung languages which are now spoken in India, in Persia, in Greece and Italy, in France and Germany, in Scandinavia, and in Russia. From this Aryan family we are sprung; out of the oldest Aryan speech our own language has grown.

8. +The Group to which English belongs.+-- The Indo-European family of languages consists of several groups. One of these is called the +Teutonic Group+, because it is spoken by the +Teuts+ (or the +Teutonic race+), who are found in Germany, in England and Scotland, in Holland, in parts of Belgium, in Denmark, in Norway and Sweden, in Iceland, and the Faroe Islands. The Teutonic group consists of three branches-- +High German+, +Low German+, and +Scandinavian+. High German is the name given to the kind of German spoken in Upper Germany-- that is, in the table-land which lies south of the river Main, and which rises gradually till it runs into the Alps. +New High German+ is the German of books-- the literary language-- the German that is taught and learned in schools. +Low German+ is the name given to the German dialects spoken in the lowlands-- in the German part of the Great Plain of Europe, and round the mouths of those German rivers that flow into the Baltic and the North Sea. +Scandinavian+ is the name given to the languages spoken in Denmark and in the great Scandinavian Peninsula. Of these three languages, Danish and Norwegian are practically the same-- their literary or book-language is one; while Swedish is very different.

Icelandic is the oldest and purest form of Scandinavian. The following is a table of the

GROUP OF TEUTONIC LANGUAGES.

[The table was originally printed in full family-tree form, using the layout below. The full text is here given separately.]

T.

____________|_____________ | | | LG HG Sc ______|____ __|__ _____|_____ | | | | | | | | | | | Du Fl Fr E O M N I Dk Fe Sv (Nk) (Sw)

TEUTONIC.

LOW GERMAN.

Dutch.

Flemish.

Frisian.

English.

HIGH GERMAN.

Old.

Middle.

New.

SCANDINAVIAN.

Icelandic Dansk (or Norsk).

Ferroic.

Svensk (Swedish).

It will be observed, on looking at the above table, that High German is subdivided according to time, but that the other groups are subdivided according to s.p.a.ce.

9. +English a Low-German Speech.+-- Our English tongue is the +lowest of all Low-German dialects+. Low German is the German spoken in the lowlands of Germany. As we descend the rivers, we come to the lowest level of all-- the level of the sea. Our English speech, once a mere dialect, came down to that, crossed the German Ocean, and settled in Britain, to which it gave in time the name of Angla-land or England. The Low German spoken in the Netherlands is called +Dutch+; the Low German spoken in Friesland-- a prosperous province of Holland-- is called +Frisian+; and the Low German spoken in Great Britain is called +English+. These three languages are extremely like one another; but the Continental language that is likest the English is the Dutch or Hollandish dialect called _Frisian_. We even possess a couplet, every word of which is both English and Frisian. It runs thus--

Good b.u.t.ter and good cheese Is good English and good Fries.

10. +Dutch and Welsh-- a Contrast.+-- When the Teuton conquerors came to this country, they called the Britons foreigners, just as the Greeks called all other peoples besides themselves _barbarians_. By this they did not at first mean that they were uncivilised, but only that they were _not_ Greeks. Now, the Teutonic or Saxon or English name for foreigners was +Wealhas+, a word afterwards contracted into +Welsh+. To this day the modern Teuts or Teutons (or _Germans_, as _we_ call them) call all Frenchmen and Italians _Welshmen_; and, when a German, peasant crosses the border into France, he says: "I am going into Welshland."

11. +The Spread of English over Britain.+-- The Jutes, who came from Juteland or Jylland-- now called Jutland-- settled in Kent and in the Isle of Wight. The Saxons settled in the south and western parts of England, and gave their names to those kingdoms-- now counties-- whose names came to end in +s.e.x+. There was the kingdom of the East Saxons, or +Ess.e.x+; the kingdom of the West Saxons, or +Wess.e.x+; the kingdom of the Middle Saxons, or +Middles.e.x+; and the kingdom of the South Saxons, or +Suss.e.x+. The Angles settled chiefly on the east coast. The kingdom of +East Anglia+ was divided into the regions of the +North Folk+ and the +South Folk+, words which are still perpetuated in the names _Norfolk_ and _Suffolk_. These three sets of Teutons all spoke different dialects of the same Teutonic speech; and these dialects, with their differences, peculiarities, and odd habits, took root in English soil, and lived an independent life, apart from each other, uninfluenced by each other, for several hundreds of years. But, in the slow course of time, they joined together to make up our beautiful English language-- a language which, however, still bears in itself the traces of dialectic forms, and is in no respect of one kind or of one fibre all through.

CHAPTER I.

THE PERIODS OF ENGLISH.

1. +Dead and Living Languages.+-- A language is said to be dead when it is no longer spoken. Such a language we know only in books. Thus, Latin is a dead language, because no nation anywhere now speaks it. A dead language can undergo no change; it remains, and must remain, as we find it written in books. But a living language is always changing, just like a tree or the human body. The human body has its periods or stages.

There is the period of infancy, the period of boyhood, the period of manhood, and the period of old age. In the same way, a language has its periods.