A Handbook of the English Language Part 1

A Handbook of the English Language.

by Robert Gordon Latham.

PART I.

GENERAL ETHNOLOGICAL RELATIONS OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE.

CHAPTER I.

GERMANIC ORIGIN OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE.--DATE.

-- 1. The first point to be remembered in the history of the English language, is that it was not the primitive and original tongue of any of the British Islands, nor yet of any portion of them. Indeed, of the _whole_ of Great Britain it is not the language at the present moment. Welsh is spoken in Wales, Manks in the Isle of Man, and Scotch Gaelic in the Highlands of Scotland; besides which there is the Irish Gaelic in Ireland.

-- 2. The next point to be considered is the real origin and the real affinities of the English language.

Its _real_ origin is on the continent of Europe, and its _real_ affinities are with certain languages there spoken. To speak more specifically, the native country of the English language is _Germany_; and the _Germanic_ languages are those that are the most closely connected with our own. In Germany, languages and dialects allied to each other and allied to the mother-tongue of the English have been spoken from times anterior to history; and these, for most purposes of philology, may be considered as the aboriginal languages and dialects of that country.

-- 3. _Accredited details of the different immigrations from Germany into Britain._--Until lately the details of the different Germanic invasions of England, both in respect to the particular tribes by which they were made, and the order in which they succeeded each other, were received with but little doubt, and as little criticism.

Respecting the tribes by which they were made, the current opinion was, that they were chiefly, if not exclusively, those of the Jutes, the Saxons, and the Angles.

The particular chieftains that headed each descent were also supposed to be known, as well as the different localities upon which they descended.[1]

These were as follows:--

_First settlement of invaders from Germany._--The account of this gives us A.D. 449 for the first permanent Germanic tribes settled in Britain.

Ebbsfleet, in the Isle of Thanet, was the spot where they landed; and the particular name that these tribes gave themselves was that of _Jutes_.

Their leaders were Hengist and Horsa. Six years after their landing they had established the kingdom of Kent; so that the county of Kent was the first district where the original British was superseded by the mother-tongue of the present English, introduced from Germany.

_Second settlement of invaders from Germany._--A.D. 477 invaders from Northern Germany made the second permanent settlement in Britain. The coast of Suss.e.x was the spot whereon they landed. The particular name that these tribes gave themselves was that of _Saxons_. Their leader was Ella. They established the kingdom of the South Saxons (Suss.e.x or Su-Seaxe); so that the county of Suss.e.x was the second district where the original British was superseded by the mother-tongue of the present English, introduced from Germany.

_Third settlement of invaders from Germany._--A.D. 495 invaders from Northern Germany made the third permanent settlement in Britain. The coast of Hampshire was the spot whereon they landed. Like the invaders last mentioned, these tribes were Saxons. Their leader was Cerdic. They established the kingdom of the West Saxons (Wess.e.x or West-Seaxe); so that the county of Hants was the third district where the original British was superseded by the mother-tongue of the present English, introduced from Germany.

_Fourth settlement of invaders from Germany._--A.D. 530, certain Saxons landed in Ess.e.x, so that the county of Ess.e.x [East-Seaxe] was the fourth district where the original British was superseded by the mother-tongue of the present English, introduced from Northern Germany.

_Fifth settlement of invaders from Germany._--These were _Angles_ in Norfolk and Suffolk. The precise date of this settlement is not known. The fifth district where the original British was superseded by the mother-tongue of the present English was the counties of Norfolk and Suffolk; the particular dialect introduced being that of the _Angles_.

_Sixth settlement of invaders from Germany._--A.D. 547 invaders from Northern Germany made the sixth permanent settlement in Britain. The southeastern counties of Scotland, between the rivers Tweed and Forth, were the districts where they landed. They were of the tribe of the Angles, and their leader was Ida. The south-eastern parts of Scotland const.i.tuted the sixth district where the original British was superseded by the mother-tongue of the present English, introduced from Northern Germany,

-- 4. It would be satisfactory if these details rested upon contemporary evidence. This, however, is far from being the case.

1. _The evidence to the details just given, is not historical, but traditional._--a. Beda,[2] from whom it is chiefly taken, wrote nearly 300 years after the supposed event, i.e., the landing of Hengist and Horsa, in A.D. 449.

b. The nearest approach to a contemporary author is Gildas,[3] and _he_ wrote full 100 years after it.

2. _The account of Hengist's and Horsa's landing, has elements which are fictional rather than historical_--a. Thus "when we find Hengist and Horsa approaching the coasts of Kent in three keels, and aelli effecting a landing in Suss.e.x with the same number, we are reminded of the Gothic tradition which carries a migration of Ostrogoths,[4] Visigoths, and Gepidae, also in three vessels, to the mouth of the Vistula."--Kemble, "Saxons in England."

b. The murder of the British chieftains by Hengist is told _totidem verbis_, by Widukind[5] and others, of the Old Saxons in Thuringia.

c. Geoffry of Monmouth[6] relates also, how "Hengist obtained from the Britons as much land as could be enclosed by an ox-hide; then, cutting the hide into thongs, enclosed a much larger s.p.a.ce than the granters intended, on which he erected Thong Castle--a tale too familiar to need ill.u.s.tration, and which runs throughout the mythus of many nations. Among the Old Saxons, the tradition is in reality the same, though recorded with a slight variety of detail. In their story, a lapfull of earth is purchased at a dear rate from a Thuringian; the companions of the Saxon jeer him for his imprudent bargain; but he sows the purchased earth upon a large s.p.a.ce of ground, which he claims, and, by the aid of his comrades, ultimately wrests it from the Thuringians."--Kemble, "Saxons in England."

3. _There is direct evidence in favour of their having been German tribes in England anterior to_ A.D. 447.--a. At the close of the Marcomannic war,[7] Marcus Antoninus transplanted a number of Germans into Britain.

b. Alemannic auxiliaries served along with Roman legions under Valentinian.[8]

c. _The Not.i.tia utriusque Imperii_,[9] of which the latest date is half a century earlier than the epoch of Hengist, mentions, as an officer of state, the _Comes littoris Saxonici per Britannias_; his government extending along the coast from Portsmouth to the Wash.

-- 5. _Inference._--As it is nearly certain, that 449 A.D. is _not_ the date of the first introduction of German tribes into Britain, we must consider that the displacement of the original British began at an _earlier_ period than the one usually admitted, and, consequently, that it was more _gradual_ than is usually supposed.

Perhaps, if we subst.i.tute the middle of the _fourth_, instead of the middle of the _fifth_ century, as the epoch of the Germanic immigrations into Britain, we shall not be far from the truth.

CHAPTER II.

GERMANIC ORIGIN OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE.--THE GERMANIC AREA OF THE PARTICULAR GERMANS WHO INTRODUCED IT.--EXTRACT FROM BEDA.

-- 6. Out of the numerous tribes and nations of Germany, _three_ have been more especially mentioned as the chief, if not the exclusive, sources of the present English population of Great Britain. These are the _Jutes_, the _Saxons_, and the _Angles_.

-- 7. Now, it is by no means certain that this was the case. On the contrary, good reasons can be given for believing that the Angles and Saxons were the same people, and that no such nation as the _Jutes_ ever left Germany to settle in Great Britain.

-- 8. The chief authority for the division of the German invaders into the three nations just mentioned is Beda; and the chief text is the following extract from his "Ecclesiastical History." It requires particular attention, and will form the basis of much criticism, and frequently be referred to.

"Advenerunt autem de tribus Germaniae populis fortioribus, id est Saxonibus, Anglis, Jutis. De Jutarum origine sunt Cantuarii, et Victuarii, hoc est ea gens quae Vectam tenet insulam et ea quae usque hodie in provincia Occidentalium Saxonum Jutarum natio nominatur, posita contra ipsam insulam Vectam. De Saxonibus, id est, ea regione quae nunc Antiquorum Saxonum cognominatur, venere Orientales Saxones, Meridiani Saxones, Occidui Saxones. Porro de Anglis hoc est de illa patria quae Angulus dicitur, et ab illo tempore usque hodie manere desertus inter provincias Jutarum et Saxonum perhibetur, Orientales Angli, Mediterranei Angli, Merci, tota Northanhymbrorum progenies, id est illarum gentium quae ad Boream Humbri fluminis inhabitant, caeterique Anglorum populi sunt orti"--"Historia Ecclesiastica," i. 15.

-- 9. This was written about A.D. 731, 131 years after the introduction of Christianity, and nearly 300 after the supposed landing of Hengist and Horsa in A.D. 449.

It is the first pa.s.sage which contains the names of either the _Angles_ or the _Jutes_. Gildas, who wrote more than 150 years earlier, mentions only the _Saxons_--"ferocissimi illi nefandi nominis _Saxones_."

It is, also, the pa.s.sage which all subsequent writers have either translated or adopted. Thus it re-appears in Alfred, and again in the Saxon Chronicle.[10]

"Of Jotum comon Cantware and Wihtware, aet is seo maeia e nu earda on Wiht, and aet cynn on West-s.e.xum e man gyt haet Iutnacyun. Of Eald-Seaxum comon East-Seaxan, and Su-Seaxan and West-Seaxan. Of Angle comon (se a sian stod westig betwix Iutum and Seaxum) East-Engle, Middel-Angle, Mearce, and ealle Norymbra."

From the Jutes came the inhabitants of Kent and of Wight, that is, the race that now dwells in Wight, and that tribe amongst the West-Saxons which is yet called the Jute tribe. From the Old-Saxons came the East-Saxons, and South-Saxons, and West-Saxons. From the Angles, land (which has since always stood waste betwixt the Jutes and Saxons) came the East-Angles, Middle-Angles, Mercians, and all the Northumbrians.

-- 10. A portion of these extracts will now be submitted to criticism; that portion being the statement concerning the _Jutes_.

The words _usque hodie--Jutarum natio nominatur_ const.i.tute contemporary and unexceptionable evidence to the existence of a people with a name like that of the _Jutes_ in the time of Beda--or A.D. 731.

The exact name is not so certain. The term _Jutnacyn_ from the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle is in favour of the notion that it began with the sounds of j and u, in other words that it was _Jut_.

But the term _Geatum_, which we find in Alfred, favours the form in g followed by ea.

Thirdly, the forms _Wihtware_, and _Wihttan_, suggest the likelihood of the name being _Wiht_.

Lastly, there is a pa.s.sage in a.s.serius[11] which gives us the form _Gwith_--"Mater" (of Alfred the Great) "quoque ejusdem Osburgh nominabatur, religiosa nimium fmina, n.o.bilis ingenio, n.o.bilis et genere; quae erat filia Oslac famosi pincernae aethelwulf regis; qui Oslac Gothus erat natione, ortus enim erat de Gothis et Jutis; de semine scilicet Stuf et Wihtgur, duorum fratrum et etiam comitum, qui accepta potestate Vectis insulae ab avunculo suo Cerdic rege et Cynric filio suo, consobrino eorum, paucos Britones ejusdem insulae accolas, quos in ea invenire potuerant, in loco qui dicitur, _Gwithgaraburgh_ occiderunt, caeteri enim accolae ejusdem insulae ante sunt occisi aut exules aufugerant."--a.s.serius, "De Gestis Alfredi Regis."