ENGLISH, or the ENGLISH TONGUE, the language spoken by the people of England, and, with some variation, by those of Scotland, as well as part of Ireland, and the rest of the British dominions.
The ancient language of Britain is generally allowed to have been the same with the Gaulic, or French; this island, in all probability, having been first peopled from Gallia, as both Cæsar and Tacitus affirm, and prove by many strong and conclusive arguments, as by their religion, manners, customs, and the nearness of their situation. But now we have very small remains of the ancient British tongue, except in Wales, Cornwall, the islands and highlands of Scotland, part of Ireland, and some provinces of France; which will not appear strange, when what follows is considered.
Julius Cæsar, some time before the birth of our Saviour, made a descent upon Britain, though he may be said rather to have discovered than conquered it; but, about the year of Christ 45, in the time of Claudius, Aulus Plautius was sent over with some Roman forces, by whom two kings of the Britons, Coidignus and Caractacus, were both overcome in battle: whereupon a Roman colony was planted at Malden in Essex, and the southern parts of the island were reduced to the form of a Roman province: after that, the island was conquered as far north as the friths of Dumbarton and Edinburgh, by Agricola, in the time of Domitian; whereupon, a great number of the Britons, in the conquered part of the island, retired to the west part called Wales, carrying their language with them.
The greatest part of Britain being thus become a Roman province, the Roman legions, who resided in Britain for above two hundred years, undoubtedly diffu-
feminated the Latin tongue; and the people being afterwards governed by laws written in Latin, must necessarily make a mixture of languages. This seems to have been the first mutation the language of Britain suffered.
Thus the British tongue continued, for some time, mixed with the provincial Latin, till, the Roman legions being called home, the Scots and Picts took the opportunity to attack and harass England: upon which, K. Vortigen, about the year 440, called the Saxons to his assistance, who came over with several of their neighbours, and having repulsed the Scots and Picts, were rewarded for their services with the isle of Thanet, and the whole county of Kent; but growing too powerful, and not being contented with their allotment, dispossessed the inhabitants of all the country on this side of the Severn: thus the British tongue was in a great measure destroyed, and the Saxon introduced in its stead.
What the Saxon tongue was long before the conquest, about the year 700, we may observe in the most ancient manuscripts of that language, which is a gloss on the Evangelists, by bishop Edfrid, in which the three first articles of the Lord's prayer runs thus.
" Uren fader thic arth in heofnas, sic gehalgud thin
" noma, so cymeth thin ric. Sic thin willa sue is
" heofnas, and in eorþo, &c."
In the beginning of the ninth century the Danes invaded England; and getting a footing in the northern and eastern part of the country, their power gradually increased, and they became sole masters of it in about two hundred years. By this means the ancient British obtained a tincture of the Danish language: but their government being of no long continuance, did not make so great an alteration in the Anglo-Saxon, as the next revolution, when the whole land, A. D. 1067, was subdued by William the Conqueror, duke of Normandy in France: for the Normans, as a monument of their conquest, endeavoured to make their language as generally received as their commands, and thereby rendered the British language an entire medley.
About the year 900, the Lord's prayer, in the ancient Anglo-Saxon, ran thus:
" Thue ur fader the eart on heofenum, si thin na-
" ma gehalgod; cume thin rice si thin willa on eorþan
" swa, swa on heofenum, &c."
About the year 1160, under Henry II. it was rendered thus by pope Adrian, an Englishman, in rhyme:
" Ure fader in heaven riche,
" Thy name be halyed ever lich,
" Thou bring us thy michell blisse:
" Als hit in heaven y doe,
" Evar in yearth beene it also, &c."
Dr Hicks gives us an extraordinary specimen of the English, as spoken in the year 1385, upon the very subject of the English tongue.
" As it is knowe how meny maner peple beeth in
" this lond; ther beeth also so many dyvers longages
" and tonges. Notheless Walschemen and Scots that
" beeth nought medied with other nation, holdeth wel
" nyh hir fiste longage and speche; but yif the Scottes,
" that were sometime confederate and woned with the
" Pictes, drawe somewhat after hir speche; but the
" Flemynges, that woneth on the weste side of Wales,
" haveth lost her strange speche, and speketh Saxon-
" liche now. Also Englishemen, they had from the
" bygyngynges three maner speche: northerne, fou-
" therne, and middel speche in the middel of the
" lond, as they come of three maner of peple of Ger-
" mania: notheless by commyxtion and mellynge first
" with Danes, and afterwards with Normans, in meny
" the contrary longage is apayred (corrupted.)
" This apayrynge of the burth of the tunge is bycause
" of tweie thinges; oon is for children in scole agent
" the usage and maner of all other nation, beeth
" compelled for to leve hire own longage, and for to
" construe hir lessons and here thynges in French, and
" so they haveth sethe Normans come first into Eng-
" lond. Als gentlemen children beeth taught to
" speke Frensche from the tyme that they beeth rok-
" ked in here cradel, and kunneith speke and play
" with a childes broche; and uplondische men will
" lykne hymself to gentilmen, and fondeth wit: great
" besynesse for to speke Frensche to be told of.—Hit
" seemeth a greeet wonder how Englishemen and her
" own longage and tonge is so dyverse of fown in this
" oon ilond: and the longage of Normandie is com-
" lyng of another lond, and liath oon maner foun-
" amonge alle men that speketh hit arigt in Englonde.
" Also of the foresaid Saxon tonge that is deled (di-
" vided) a three, and is abide scarceliche with fewe
" uplondische men is greeet wonder. For men of the
" east, with men of the west, is, as it were, undir
" the same partie of hevene acordeth more in foun-
" ynge of speche, than men of the north, with men
" of the south. Therefore it is that Mercii, that
" beeth men of myddel Englonde, as it were, par-
" teners of the endes, understondeth better the side
" longages northerne and southerne, than northerne or
" southerne understondeth either other.—All the long-
" age of the Northumbers and spechialliche at York,
" is so sharp, flitting and frotyng, and unschape, that
" we southerne men may that longage unnethe un-
" derstonde, &c." Hicks's Theſaur. liter. sept.
In the year 1537, the Lord's prayer was printed as follows: " O oure Father which arte in heuen, ha-
" lowed be thy name: let thy kingdome come, thy
" will be fulfilled as well in erth as it is in heuen;
" geve us this daye in dayly bred, &c." Where it
" may be observed that the diction is brought almost to
" the present standard, the chief variations being only
" in the orthography. By these instances, and many o-
" thers that might be given, it appears, that the English
" Saxon language, of which the Normans despoiled us
" in a great measure, had its beauties, was significant and
" emphatical, and preferable to what they imposed on us.
" Great, verily," says Camden, " was the glory of our
" tongue before the Norman conquest, in this, that the
" old English could express, most aptly, all the concep-
" tions of the mind in their own tongue, without bor-
" rowing from any." Of this he gives several examples.
Having
Having thus shewn how the ancient British language was in a manner extirpated by the Romans, Danes, and Saxons, and succeeded by the Saxon, and after that the Saxon blended with the Norman French, we shall now mention two other causes of change in the language: the first of these is owing to the Britons having been a long time a trading nation, whereby offices, dignities, names of wares, and terms of traffic are introduced, which we take with the wares from the persons of whom we have them, and form them a new, according to the genius of our own tongue; and besides this change in the language, arising from commerce, Britain's having been a considerable time subject to the fee of Rome, in ecclesiastical affairs, must unavoidably introduce some Italian words among us. Secondly, as to the particular properties of a language, our tongue has undergone no small mutation, or rather has received no small improvement upon that account: for, as to the Greek and Latin, the learned have, together with the arts and sciences now rendered familiar among us, introduced abundance; nay, almost all the terms of art in the mathematics, philosophy, physic, and anatomy; and we have entertained many more from the Latin, French, &c. for the sake of neatness and elegance: so that, at this day, our language, which about 1800 years ago, was the ancient British, or Welch, &c. is now a mixture of Saxon, Teutonic, Dutch, Danish, Norman, and modern French, embellished with the Greek and Latin. Yet this, in our opinion, is so far from being a disadvantage to the English tongue, as now spoke (for all languages have undergone changes, and do continually participate with each other) that it has so enriched it, as now to become the most copious, significant, fluent, courteous, and masculine language in Europe, if not in the world.