2'25 



The Antiquary, 



[oa, \i 



For the Monthly Magazine. 

 THE ANTIQUARY. 



NO. VI. 



On the HISTORY and sTUDV of the 



ANGLO-SAXON LANGUAGE. 



IT is finguLir that toward the cl"fe of 

 the fifth century fo ftw traces cf the 

 pLiicy, manners, oi literature, of the 

 Rcmar-s fliould remain in any of their 

 co;iqueied provinces. In Bnain they 

 had erjoyed peaceful dominion near four 

 hundred years : yet fo calamitous was the 

 dtftruclion of the arts of peace, tha' the 

 Saxons were not only dark and illiterate 

 at their arrival, but fcierce was fdirccly 

 preferved for two centuries from total ex- 

 tinftion. Their converhoii in the feventh 

 century afforded it a fliniier degree of cul- 

 ture ; but previous to this converfion the 

 language which they fpoke was favage 

 and untrailable as thtmfelves. Their 

 ancient religion had rendered them inca- 

 pable either of fcitnce or civility : and it 

 is even yet a quef.ion, whether, in their 

 Pagan Hate, they were acquainted with 

 the ait of writing. 



That the parent of t'.e Saxon* was the 

 Gothicf language, is now, I bclie\e, 



• Verftigan, ftill valuable on many ac- 

 counts, has, with writers of ("mailer noto- 

 riety, advanced many extravagant things 

 concerning the great ant'quity and fuperior 

 excellence of the Anglo-Saxon tongue. See 

 Ills Reftitiition of Decayed Intelligence, 

 c. vii. p. 147. edit. 653. 



•f In the Gothic language the fyllables 

 are clogged with conlonants, which is the 

 imperft:tiion, more or lefs, of all the North- 

 ern tongues, and may arife partly from the 

 native roughnefs of the climate and temper 

 cf the people, and partly from tlie want of 

 that freer commerce wiih ti.2 rtiV of man- 

 kind, which is requifite. in every age, to 

 file a tongue, to wear oft' its rough corners 

 by mutual converfation, and to make it 

 fmoothand eafy. Its worJs are often mould- 

 ed like the Greek, allowing tor th^ dilterence 

 in harmony ; they are grefat and full in the 

 found, and mighty and forcible in meaning. 



One of its principal ufrs is, that i. is a key 

 to all the Northern tongues, which can ne- 

 ver be duly known without it. Socrates and 

 Sozomenus fay that UlpiiiUi, who will pre- 

 ftntly be more fully noticed, invented the 

 Gothic letters ; and Philoltorgius, that he 

 turned the whole Bible into Gothic, except 

 the Book of Kings, which he omitted in 

 fear that the Goths, a martial people, .bould 

 be more inflamed to w»f by the perufal of 

 them. 



univerfally agreed on ; as well as that the 

 Greek was the filler and tlie Periian thi 

 mother language of the Gcth.c. That 

 the Gothic tongue had its origin in Afia 

 is beyond contraii'ftinn : it abounds, we 

 are lold, with Pahla-vi, or old Perfic 

 words ; but v,7hether it was derived fronn 

 this diale6l in its primitive Itaie, or after 

 it had been corrupted by the Arabic, 

 Pheiiiciar., and Tartarian tongues, has 

 never yet been afcertained. Certain it is 

 that the Goths had anciently ifie name of 

 Geta : from Perha they feem to h ve firft 

 moved to Little Tariary, and from Tar- 

 taiy fo the North : and in Iceland we are 

 told Gala hill n eaus a ivandcrer. Of 

 (hf Gothic tongue but one ("ppcimen has 

 been produced in the Codex Argenleus,* a 

 mutilated verfion of the four GoCpels, 

 written about the year 367, b,. the hand 

 of Ulphilas, bifliopof the Maslian Goths. 

 At that time, we are credibly aH'ured, 

 fuch was the illiieraienefi of ihrlt- people, 

 that the Bifliop framed the very alphabet 

 for his verfion, partly ofGieek and partly 

 of Roman letters. f If, however, the 

 Goths bad no written language, it adds 

 plsufibiiity to the notion that they are di- 

 reif defcendants from the Tartais. rtad 

 they come immediately from Peifia, they 

 would have had at lealt a written lan- 

 guage ; but the Tartais, we are told, 

 have no hiftorical monuments of high an- 

 tiquity ; all their writings, even thofe in 

 the Mogul dialt£V, beiiig long fubfequent 

 to the time of Mahomet. Travellers h> 

 dtcd h.^.ve aflertcd, that they have if$n 

 inlcriptions in the Runic chaia6lcr anong 



* ThefeGofpels were publilhed (with the 

 Saxon ones) at Amfterdam and Dort, 1465- 

 4to. Again, in fac-fimile, at the inftigition 

 of Benzelius Archbiftiop of Upfal, by Mr. 

 Lye, in 1763. In the com.Tion letter, by 

 ProfcHor Ihre, about the fame time. And 

 again, with additions, at F^erlin, 1773. 



At the end of the laft edition, publiihed 

 under the direflion of Ant. Frid. Bufching, 

 are feveral Diflertations on the Verfion. 



A fragment of the Ulphilan verfion of St. 

 Paul's Epiftle to the Romans, difcovered and 

 publifhed in Germany in 1761, maybe like- 

 wife found in the Appendix to Mr. Lye'S 

 Saxon Diifiicnary. 



\ Doubts have been very plaufibly enter- 

 tained as to the truth of this pofition. Ovid, 

 who lived long previous to Ulphilas, profeffes 

 to have v. ritten a poem in the Getic lan- 

 guat,e (Ovid de Ponto. 1. iv. ep. xiii. v. 19) ; 

 though ecclefiaftical hiftorians exprefsly 

 afrribe the invention of the alphabet in th« 

 Codex Argenteus to Ulphilas. 



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