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 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 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 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 content 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 thi arth in heofnas, sic gehalgod thin nama, so cymeth thin ric. Sic thin willa sue is heofnas, and in eortha," &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:
"Thune ur fader the earl on heofenum, si thin nama gehalgod; come thin rice sithin 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:
"Uro fader in heaven rich, "Thy name be halied ever lich, "Thou bring us thy michel blesse: "Als hit in heaven y doe, "Evar in earth been 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 known how many manner people beeth in this land; ther beeth also so many divers longages and tongues. Notethless Walschmen and Scots that beeth nought medled with other nation, holdest wel ynh his firste longage and speche; but yit the Scottes, that were sometime confederate and woned with the Picts, drawe somewhat after his speche; but the Flemynge, that woneth on the west side of Wales, hatheth lost her strange speche, and speketh Sexoniche now. Also Englishmen, they had from the begynnyng three manner speche; northerne, southerne, and middel speche in the middel of the land, as they come of thre manner of peple of Germania: notethless by commynxion 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 twyce things; oon is for children in scote agenst the usagge and manner of all other nations, beeth compelled for to leve his own longage, and for to construe his lessons and here things in Frensch, and so they haveth sethe Normans come first into Engeland. Also gentlemen children beeth taught to speke Frensch from the tympe that they beeth roked in here cradel, and kunneth speke and play with a childes breche; and upondissche men will lykne hymself to gentilmen, and fondeth with great besynesse for to speake Frensch to be told of.—Hit seemeth a great wonder how Englishmen and his own longage and tonge is so diverse of sown in this oon island; and the longage of Norman die is comlynge of another land, and hath oon manner sown amonge alle men that speketh hit ariget in Engeland. Also of the foresaid Saxon tonge that is deled (divided) a three, and is abide scarceliche with fewo upondissche 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 Engeland, as it were, parteners of the endes, understandeth bettre the side longes, northerne and southerne, than northerne and southerne understandeth either other.
All the longage of the Northumbers and specialliche at York, is so scharp, slitting, and frotynge, and unschape, that we southerne men may that longage unethe understande,” &c.
In the year 1537, the Lord’s prayer was printed as follows: “O oure father which arte in heven, hallowed be thy name; let thy kingdom 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 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 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.