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 Caesar 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 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 firths of Dunbarton 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, K. Vortigern, about the year 410, 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 glost on the Evangelists, by bishop Edfrid, in which the three first articles of the Lord's prayer run thus:
"Uren fader thic arth in hcofnas, fic gehalgud thin noma, fo cymeth thin ric. Sic thin willa sue hcofnas, 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 subduced 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 cart on heofenum, si thin nama gehalgod;" By these instances, and many others that might be given, it appears, that the English Saxon language, of which the Normans depoiled us in a great measure, had its beauties, was significant and emphatical, and preferable to what they imposed on us. "Great, verily (says Cambden), 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 see 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 Welsh, &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.