would borrow from the natives some words of frequent use -such as masters may learn from their servants, or slaves— and that slaves might borrow some words from their masters' vocabulary.

These are suppositions that must be further tested by comparison of the two languages-Cymraeg and English—as spoken in the oldest times of which we have any knowledge. It is well known that the Cymraeg, as now spoken in Wales, contains many words having stems like those found in English words. But this fact of likeness may be ascribed partly to causes having no reference to any remote antiquity.

A likeness of stems found in Modern English and in the language still spoken in Wales, tells nothing of any mixture of the two languages in the period of FIRST ENGLISH. In every case where a likeness of stems is noticed, several questions must be well studied, before any theory can be founded on the likeness. 'Is that likeness more than may be ascribed to the common, remote origin of the two languages? To take as examples the two words 'glyn' and 'glen'having the same meaning-our first questions must be 'How old is the word 'glen' in English?' and 'What is the oldest date of glyn in Welsh?' Modern importations of words from one tongue into the other have but slight interest, since they cast no light on that obscure yet attractive part of history, the English invasion of Britain. It may be added that care should be taken, lest study should be expended on likenesses that are merely accidental. As fragments of various rocks are carried down by a stream, and are, by slow degrees, worn, rounded, and made alike, so words coming from various sources are, in the course of time, reduced to likeness or identity of form. For example, 'pert,' in Moderr Welsh, is in form, as well as in use, like the English word 'pert,' which is the stem of the Latin word 'a-pert-us.'

With these mere hints respecting its interest and its difficulty, we leave open the question-'What proportionate part of Cymraeg words does Old English contain?' [See § 39.]

In the seventh century some knowledge of the Christian Religion was spread among the English people. In the following hundred years the land was greatly disturbed by factions; two of the more pacific rulers retired into convents; others made pilgrimages to Rome, and left their people without government. Meanwhile, the general migratory movement of the Teutonic peoples had not ended with the several invasions of Britain in 450-600. Near the close of the eighth century, bands of Northmen (called 'Danes') made attacks on the English coast. Their incursions were repeated in the ninth century, and spread dismay over the land, until they were for a time suppressed by Alfred.

Soon after his death, men coming from the shores of the Baltic and the North Sea invaded England; a series of battles followed, and the tenth century closed with a massacre of 'the Danes.' It has been supposed that these circumstances had a considerable effect in changing the language spoken in England; but in the tenth century the abbot and bishop ELFRIC wrote in English' (that he might be understood by the unlettered people') a treatise On the Old and the New Testament.'

In the early part of the next century the King of Denmark invaded England, and his son (CANUTE) ruled over the land in 1018-36.

Still the language of the people remained English, and in that language CANUTE'S secular laws were written and published; because they were intended to be understood and to be held valid throughout all England-'ofer eall Engla-land.'

After CANUTE's two sons had reigned in succession, the crown was given to EDWARD, the Confessor, who had been educated in Normandy. He knew but little of the English Language, and despised it, while he encouraged the use of Norman-French at his Court, where Norman manners prevailed. EDWARD'S reign was followed by the defeat of the English at the battle of Hastings.

1100-1558.-The Norman Conquest confirmed the innova

tion in language that had been prevalent at the English Court during the reign of EDWARD, the Confessor. And the same event gave greater freedom to the analytical tendency that had, most probably, been active during the times of socalled 'Danish' invasions. The English Language, left mostly to the care of the common people, lost, during the time 11001250, many of the inflexions belonging to the Oldest English, and changes in the order of words in sentences followed the loss of inflexions.

Among the higher classes, English, for some time after the Conquest, was treated with contempt. Among other classes it was spoken with increasing neglect of its literary forms. The process of reducing the language from the synthetic to the analytic form, was accelerated by several results of the Conquest. French minstrels lived in England during the twelfth century, and Norman-French was established as the language of the Court and of all the upper ranks of society. Laws were promulgated in that language, and it was employed in the universities, in courts of law, and in Parliamentary records. The sons of gentlemen 'began their study of French in the nursery,' and afterwards were taught to translate Latin into French.

Still the common people held fast their own language, and, for a considerable space of time, it might be said truly that two peoples, speaking two languages, were living apart from each other in England. An old writer says: "The Normans could speak nothing but their own tongue, and spoke French just as they did at home; but the low people held to their English.' He adds words to the effect that every man who would be esteemed respectable must study French.

Then a long and quiet contest for the mastery took place between the two languages, and English was victorious.

The loss of Normandy and the French wars of EDWARD III. aided in leading to this result. It was late when victory was formally proclaimed in high places. In 1349 boys ceased to learn Latin by means of translation into French. In 1362

orders were issued by Parliament, that thenceforth pleadings in the law courts should be conducted in English.

Meanwhile the language of the people had lost a great part of its inflexions and of the syntactical laws belonging to its early literature; but its vocabulary was still rich in several departments, and in others the aid afforded by Norman-French was valuable.

The Englishman held fast his old names for all that he knew of nature-such names as 'hill,' 'dale,'' wood,' 'stream,' 'field,' and 'orchard;' the names of materials for every-day' use- 'loam,' 'earth,'' sand,' 'stone,'' wood;' the names of many plants and trees-'oak,' 'grass,' 'alder,' 'beech, 'apple,' 'barley,' 'hawthorn,' and 'groundsel;' and many names of quadrupeds, birds, fishes, reptiles, and insects. He kept his own ready words for expressions of his sensations, and transitions in nature were still described by such words as 'blow,'' shine,' 'flow,' 'slide,' 'glide,' 'rain,' and 'thunder.' He had, moreover, a good store of old names for the furniture of his house, and for implements used in farming, and not a few belonging to navigation; such as 'ship,' 'boat,' 'raft,' 'oar,' 'sail,' 'mast,'' helm,'' rudder,'' sound,' and 'soundingline.' From Norman-French he borrowed, in the course of time, many terms belonging to architecture, armour, costume, the chase, and warfare. The new tongue supplied, moreover, some additions to the vocabulary of the larder. But English was chiefly indebted to Norman-French for new words belonging to courts of law, or descriptive of feudal tenures, of rank in society, and of offices held under Government.

Among the French words introduced soon after the Conquest several were originally Teutonic; for example, nearly all words beginning with 'gu' were variations of Teutonic words beginning with 'w.'

We

In Grammar the old tongue maintained the mastery. may partly ascribe to the Conquest the subsequent prevalence of 'es' as the suffix used to form the plurals of nouns. But this 'es' represented 'as,' one of the plural suffixes in the Oldest English. Its general use, as a substitute for other

forms, was one of the changes gradually made in the course of the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries.

These changes included also the following:-the article lost both gender and case; the several declensions of nouns were reduced to one, and at last nouns lost all case-inflexions, save the possessive. The verbal noun lost, in the nominative, the suffix 'an,' and, in the dative, ‘anne,' or 'enne;' the participial suffix ende' (or 'inde') was changed into 'inge' and 'ing;' the prefix 'ge-' (or 'i-,' or 'y-'), used with verbs, was more and more restrictively used as a prefix to the perfect participle, and, at last, was used mostly as an archaism.

6

These and other changes, leading to a general disuse of inflexions, were not made with equal speed in all the three dialects of Old English :—the Northern, the Midland, and the Southern. Of these the second was the most extensive, and, in the sixteenth century, assumed the character of Standard English.

ORM, one of the earliest writers in the Midland dialect, was followed by ROBERT MANNING (of Bourne, in Lincolnshire), and, in the latter half of the fourteenth century, by WYCLIFFE, GOWER, and CHAUCER. One of the most important works of the fourteenth century is 'The Vision of William, concerning Piers the Ploughman,' which was written by WILLIAM LANGLAND, in the time 1362-99.

During the fifteenth century the course of transition in the forms of the English Language was accelerated by the introduction of printing. In the sixteenth century the language of GOWER was called obsolete, and a special glossary was wanted for reading CHAUCER.

1558.--Modern English is not divided from Old English by any hard and precise line, but may be described as assuming a definite form about the time when ELIZABETH began to reign. The poet SPENSER may be classed with the early writers of Modern English, for his archaic forms were mostly chosen as harmonizing well with the tone of his poetry. But it would be no great error if the period of Modern English were defined so as to include SIR THOMAS