PART IV.-RELATIONS OF ENGLISH TO OTHER LANGUAGES. § 316. Languages are arranged in Families according to resemblance in their Grammar and Vocabulary. § 317. The most important Family is the INDO-EUROPEAN, so called from its comprising the greater number of languages that are or have been spoken from India to the western limits of Europe. It is also called the ARYAN* Family, from an ancient Asiatic race of that name. § 318. The Indo-European Family is divided into groups. of languages bearing more intimate relations to each other. Among these groups (or "branches") the following are the most important:-- 1. Indian—including Sanskrit, the classic language of India. This language exhibits the Indo-European Grammar in its most perfect form. 2. Persian the earliest literary form of which is called Zend. In their oldest inscriptions the Persians call themselves Aryans. 3. Græco-Latin-including Greek and Latin, with the so-called Romance languages derived from Latin. These are six in number--French, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, Wallachian, and Roumanch or Romanese, spoken in the Grisons in Switzerland. 4. Slavonic-including Russian, Lettish, Lithuanian, Polish, Bohemian [Czechish], &c. 5. Teutonic-including the German and Scandinavian branches, the latter comprising the Icelandic, Swedish, Norwegian, and Danish. 6. Keltic-divided into two dialects, the Gaelic and Cymric: the Gaelic comprising the Irish or Erse, * Root AR-, meaning brave, noble. Hence, "Ap-ns, àp-eth. the Scottish Gaelic or Highland Scotch, and the Manx of the Isle of Man; and the Cymric including the Welsh, the Cornish, now extinct, and the Armorican of Brittany. N.B.-Among European languages, Hungarian [i.e. Magyar], Finnish, and Turkish, are of a totally distinct family, having been introduced from Central Asia in comparatively modern times. § 319. ENGLISH belongs to the German branch of the Teutonic family of languages. It was brought into England by a German people speaking a Low-German dialect; that is, a German dialect spoken on the coast of the German Ocean. The term Low-German is used by way of distinction from High-German, which denotes the kind of German spoken in the interior. § 320. The vocabulary of the English language has been largely enriched from Latin and other sources. Of the foreign elements, the Latin is so extensive and important as to render all the others insignificant in comparison. Hence we often speak of Saxon [Teutonic] and Latin as the Two factors of which the English language is composed. § 321. The attempt has been made to show the relative importance of the Teutonic and Latin elements by computing the number of English words belonging to each. Such calculations are misleading. The difference between the two elements is one of function, not of quantity or number. Thus 1. The grammatical construction is entirely Teutonic, not Latin. 2. The Pronominal Forms, the Auxiliary Verbs, the Prepositions, and almost all the Conjunctionswithout which we could not frame a single sentence-are all Teutonic. : 3. Nearly all the most common and necessary NOUNS are Teutonic such are, God, man, father, mother, brother, sister, son, daughter; sun, moon, star, wind, rain, frost, snow, water, fire [not air]; bird, fish, fowl, &c. 4. Nearly all the most common and necessary ADJECTIVES are Teutonic: as, good, bad, hot, cold, hard, soft, long, short, black, white, red, green, bitter, sweet, &c. 5. Nearly all the most common and necessary VERBS are Teutonic: as, live, love, eat, drink, breathe, sec, hear, swell, feel, speak, tell, sing, cry, &c. § 322. The English Teutonic ["Saxon "] Vocabulary belongs to a period of less advanced civilisation than the present. It is almost entirely monosyllabic, and the words are of a simple and homely character. The conversation of country folk is almost entirely Teutonic; and words derived from Latin are used by such people with less propriety and accuracy. § 323. The Latin-English words are of two classes :— 1. Those taken direct from Latin. 2. Those which have come to us through the medium of French [French-Latin]. (1) The former are easily recognised as Latin, the only change for the most part being in the termination: as— longitude from longitudo equal from æqualis equality æqualitas &c. &c. &c. (2) The French-Latin words are often much more difficult to recognise as Latin, having undergone the wear and tear of the speech of another nation before being transferred to ours. Such are *No doubt formerly pronounced clair: as in Clare-mont, St. Clair, Sinclair. Compare Earle, p. 150. Obs. The difficulty of recognising French-Latin words as Latin is greatly increased by their having been in many cases developed from words unknown to pure Latinity: e.g. § 324. Some books contain few besides Teutonic words. In others the Latin words abound. This arises partly from difference of subject and partly from difference of style. A work such as Darwin's Origin of Species, or Ruskin's Modern Painters, could not be written without a frequent resort to the Latin Vocabulary. But a Fairy Tale, or any simple narrative, may be written in almost pure Saxon. Compare the two following paragraphs : A. SCIENTIFIC PASSAGE FROM "If under changing conditions of life, organic beings present individual differences in all parts of their structure, and this cannot be disputed; if there be, owing to the high geometrical ratio of increase of each species, a severe struggle for life at some age, season, or year, and this certainly cannot be disputed, then considering the infinite complexity of the relation of all organic beings to each other and to their conditions of life causing an infinite diversity in structure, constitution, and habits to be advantageous to them, it would be a most extraordinary fact if no variations ever occurred useful to each being's own welfare, in the same manner as so many variations have occurred useful to man." B. NARRATIVE PASSAGE FROM Silas Marner, chap. xii. "This morning he had been told by some of his neighbours that it was New Year's Eve, and that he must sit up and hear the old year rung out and the new rung in, because that was good luck, and might bring his money back again. This was only a friendly Raveloeway of jesting with the half crazy oddities of a miser, but it had perhaps helped to throw Silas into a more than usually excited state. Since the on-coming of twilight he had opened his door again and again, though only to shut it immediately at seeing all distance veiled by the falling snow. But the last time he opened it the snow had ceased, the clouds were parting here and there." Setting aside the common element of these extractsPronominal forms, Auxiliary Verbs, Prepositions, Conjunctions, &c.t-it will be seen that the vocabulary of the scientific passage is almost entirely Latin, while the *Taken directly from Greek Bλaopnμeiv. Many other Greek words have come to us through the Latin. "Link-words" (Earle). staple of the narrative passage is Saxon, though with a free intermixture of Latin. Paragraphs may without difficulty be found in the English Bible, and in the writings of Defoe and Bunyan, consisting almost entirely of Saxon words. § 325. Keltic Element.-Before the Saxon Conquest, the language spoken by the people of Britain was Keltic. But the language of the Britons was completely displaced by that of their conquerors; and, with the exception of names of places, rivers, and mountains, few Keltic words appear to have maintained their ground. Probably some portion of the original inhabitantsespecially British women-were preserved alive by the Saxons, and kept in a menial condition. This is rendered in the highest degree probable by the fact that many of the Keltic words preserved are names of implements with which serfs and menials would have most to do. Such are the nouns basket, clout, crock, flasket [a kind of large clothes-basket], mop, mattock, pail, pan.* Among Keltic geographical names may be mentioned, Kent, Thames, Exe, Avon [= water], Ouse [also water], Dee, Derwent, Man [Isle of], Pen-y-gant, Helvellyn, Aberdeen, &c. § 326. Greek Element.-A very large number of our philosophical and scientific words are from the Greek: as, logic, metaphysics, physics, philosophy, ethics, astronomy, electricity, hydrostatics, hydraulics, statics, theory, problem, diagram, &c. Many of these have come to us through the Latin. Also the terminations -ize, -ism, have been naturalised from the Greek: see § 199. § 327. Miscellaneous Elements.-Almost every language in the world has contributed some word or words to our Vocabulary. Thus the word taboo comes from the Sandwich Islands; the word tea is Chinese; the phrase a-muck (to run a-muck) is Malay, &c. &c. Some of the miscellaneous contributions are important enough to be noticed separately: e.g. Arabic algebra, almanac, alcohol, alembic, islam, tariff, zero, zenith, nadir, talisman, coffee, sugar, &c. *See Mr. Garnett's list, Student's Manual Eng. Lang. p. 45. |