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 Gallic, 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, Togodumnus and Caratacus, were both overcome in battle: whereupon a Roman colony was planted at Malden in Essex, and the southern parts of the island were redu-
VOL. VIII. Part I.
ced to the form of a Roman province: after that, the island was conquered as far north as the firths of Dunbar 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 200 years, undoubtedly disseminated 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 King Vortigern, 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 manuscript of that language, which is a gloss on the Evangelists, by Bishop Edfrid, in which the three first articles of the Lord's prayer run thus:
"Uren fader thic arth in heofnas, sic gehalgud thin noma, so cymeth thin rie. Sic thin willa suo is heofnas, and in eortho," &c.
In the beginning of the ninth century the Danes invaded England; and getting a footing in the northern and eastern parts of the country, their power gradually increased, and they became sole masters of it in about 200 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 nama gehalgod; cume thin rie sitlin will a on eorthan swa, swo 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 rich,
Thy name be halyed ever lich,
Thou bring us thy michel-blessie:
Als hit in heaven y doe,
Evar in yearth been it also," &c.
Dr Hicks gives us an extraordinary specimen of the English.
English. 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 medled with other nation, holdeth wel nyh hir firste 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 west side of Wales, haveth lost her strange speche, and speketh Saxonliche now. Also Englishmen, they had from the bygyngynge thre maner speche; northerne, southerne, and middel speche in the middel of the lond, as they come of thre maner of peple of Germania: notheless by commyxtion and melynge 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 things; oon is for children in scule agent the usage and maner of all other nations, beeth compelled for to leve hir own longage, and for to construe hir lessons and here thinges in Frensche, and so they haveth sethe Normans come first into Englonde. Also gentlemen children beeth taught to speke Frensche from the tyme that they beeth roked in here cradel, and kunmeth speke and play with a child's broche; and uplondische men will lykne hymself to gentilmen, and foundeth with great beynesse for to speke Frensche to be told of.—Hit seemeth a great wonder how Englishmen and hir own longage and tonge is so dyverie of sown in this oon iland; and the longage of Normandie is comlynge of another lond, and hath oon maner sown amonge alle men that speketh hit arigt in Englonde. Also of the foresaid Saxon tonge that is deled (divided) a three, and is abide scarceliche with fewe uplondische men is greet wonder. For men of the est, with men of the west, is, as it were, undir the same partie of hevene accordeth more in sownynge 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, parteners of the endes, understandeth better the side longes northerne and southerne, than northerne and southerne understandeth either other.—All the longage of the Northumbers and spechialliche at York, is so scharp, flitting, and frotynge, and unshape, that we southerne men may that longage unnethe understande," &c.
In the year 1537, the Lord's prayer was printed as follows: "O oure father which arte in heven, hallowe be thy name: let thy kingdome come, thy will be fulfilled as well in erth as it is in heven; 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 others 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 conceptions of the mind in their own tongue, without borrowing from any." Of this he gives several examples.
Having thus shown 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 anew, 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 have introduced 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 the opinion of some, is so far from being a disadvantage to the English tongue as now spoken (for all languages have undergone changes, and do continually participate with each other), that it has so enriched it, as now to render it the most copious, significant, fluent, courteous, and masculine language in Europe, if not in the world.