172 



ANGLO-SAXON. 



-S.vx<ix History. (See the article England 

 and. for further information, Turner's History of th 

 slnglo-Sajcvns, Lontlon, 1807 ; also the article Anglo- 

 Sajcon in t!>' AniiTican edition of the New Edinburgh 

 Kncyclopipdia.) ftnglo-Sti.roH Language ; that Ian 

 guage which, in the middle of die ;>tli century 

 was tr.m->|il;mUtl by the AII|CN, Savins, and some 

 other German tribes, into England, and continues 

 though much altered, to form the basis of the moderi 

 F.imii-h dialect. Tlie Gennaii language was early 

 di\'ided into two principal dialects, the Upper anc 

 Lower German, both derived from the Gothic, as we 

 find it in I'lphilas' translation of the Gospels. To 

 the Lower German belonged the idiom which was 

 spoken by the Saxons, a numerous and valiant Ger- 

 man tribe, who inhabited almost all the north o: 

 Germany, where this idiom prevailed, and branches 

 out, at a later period than the migration of the Anglo- 

 Saxons and Goths or Jutes, into various dialects, ol 

 which the Frisian was the earlier, the Dutch the 

 more recent, formation. It remained the prevailing 

 language, even after the subjugation of the Saxons 

 in Germany by Charlemagne, and continued, down 

 to the period of the reformation, not only the dialect 

 of conversation, but also of several valuable literary 

 works, in prose and verse, many of which, from the 

 period of the middle ages, are still preserved. At 

 the reformation, it gave way to the High German, 

 for the purposes of literary composition and the con- 

 versation of the higher classes ; though, to this day, 

 it continues to be the dialect of the people, and is 

 known by the name of the Low German. There is 

 no doubt that any one, who intends to investigate the 

 English language scientifically and thoroughly, trac- 

 ing the words, as well as the structure of the lan- 

 guage, as far towards their origin as possible, cannot 

 di-pcnse with studying Low German, which has been 

 too much neglected even by those eminent scholars 

 whose investigations have done so much service to 

 the English language. Few readers, probably, are 

 aware of the striking resemblance between Low 

 German and English, even as it is now spoken, and 

 we fef 1 induced to quote some lines of the famous 

 poem Reynard the Fox (q. v.) in Low German, first 

 published in 1498, with a literal interlineary transla- 

 tion into English. The poem begins thus : 



It shag up cncn Pinkste-dag, 



It chanced upon a Pentecost-day, 



Dal man de icolde unfelde sag 

 That men the woods and fields saw 



Crone itfin mid I6v tin grass, \-r. 

 Green stand with leaf and grass, &c. 



The difference between the Low and the High Ger- 

 man is, in many respects, striking. It is found in 

 the words, the grammar, the pronunciation, and in 

 the whole style of expression ; and it is very interest- 

 ing to see how many of these deviations from the 

 High German are common to the Low German with 

 the English : for instance, it has not the augment ge 

 of the participle ; it often cuts off the ends of words 

 which do not belong to the radix; and has many 

 more monosyllables than the High German ; it makes 

 no distinction between the accusative and dative ; 

 the masculine, feminine, and neuter articles are the 

 same ; the pronunciation of a is, in many cases, 

 mixed with the sound of o, as in the English all, and 

 often inclines strongly to the English sound a in case ; 

 it las often an *, where the High German has scA 

 (pronounced A), preceding a consonant ; in some 

 parts of Low Germany, sch (pronounced, generally, 

 sA), before a vowel, takes the sound of the English 

 stc ; instead of ch at the end of words, it takes a k or 

 c ; in afl which particulars it is nearer to the English 

 iliau to the High German. A deeper investigation 



would show the close connexion even of the Saxoa, 

 as it now forms a part of English, with the Lo* 

 German; to say nothing of the Innumerable words 

 which are almost the same in both languages. 

 ( A mong other works on this subject, see A Letter from 

 (ii-riinimj tti tin- 1'rinci'ss Rniful af England on the 

 English mid (irrinan Lnngutigfs ; liy Herbert ('roti; 

 London and Lcipsic, I7i>7.) The remarkable l-.ng- 

 lish pronunciation of the i is le>s common in the 

 dialects we have just spoken of, than in the German 

 dialect spoken in Dant/ic and l'nis>ia 1'roper. Ill 

 this dialect, the German ei (pronounced /) and the 

 German i (pronounced ee) are intend more in the 

 English way than in the other German dialects. 

 Probably this pronunciation, when the Sax.m con- 

 querors left Germany, was common to all (lie dialects 

 of the north of Germany. After the coni|ncsi <>i 

 England by the Angles and Saxons, the Saxon be- 

 came the prevalent tongue of that country, Ixirrowing 

 words, indeed, from the aborigines, and from tin- 

 Roman conquerors, but these were only .single and 

 detached parts, and did not constitute an integral 

 portion of the language. From this time to the con- 

 quest of the Normans, the Saxon idiom made very 

 considerable advances, as appears from the relics of 

 the Saxon literature. The Saxon language of that 

 time, moreover, seems to have been more sonorous 

 and finer sounding than its remains in the prc-mi 

 English tongue, in the same manner as the modern 

 German is of a less open sound, and is poorer in 

 vowels, than the ancient was. \Vho does not think 

 the words noma, eortho, urna, willa, finer than their 

 successors, name, earth, our, will? It is strange to 

 see how both the German and English languages 

 have lost many of their vowels and finer sounds, 

 whilst, at the same time, the Italian language has 

 always had a decided tendency to soften and eupho- 

 nize all the materials left from the Latin. After tin- 

 conquest by the Normans, the English language ex- 

 hibits the peculiar case, where languages ot u\o dif- 

 ferent stocks are blended into one idiom, which, by 

 the cultivation of a free and active nation and highly- 

 gifted minds has grown to a powerful, organised 

 whole. It cannot be doubted, on the one hand, that 

 the English language has derived great advantages 

 from the addition of the French stock, and the closer 

 connexion with Latin, and all the languages of Latin 

 origin, thus effected ; but, on the other hand, this 

 addition could not fail to prove injurious in some re- 

 spects, of which we will here mention only two , J, 

 tliat the power of formation, of composition and de- 

 composition, in which all the German idioms nearly 

 resemble the Greek, has been, in a considerable de- 

 gree, lost, so that we now very often find a word 

 :x>mmon to both languages, German and English, 

 but in the former putting forth many branches, and 

 jiving birth to a whole family of words for the. dif- 

 :erent shades of one idea or many connected ideas, 

 whilst in the latter it has remained like a stump with 

 no foliage ; and, 2, that the English language has 

 acquired too great a readiness to receive foreign 

 words, without seeking, in its own store, the means 

 of supplying the new want. In no period, perhaps, 

 las this disadvantage appeared more strikingly than 

 at the present, when a greater intercourse between 

 England and France exists -than ever, and fashion- 

 able works appear full of French intruders. If we 

 consider the Saxon stock in the present EnglWi 

 diorn, the following circumstances appear the most 

 triking: 1. By far the greater part of the lan- 

 guage is of Saxon or (to include the Danish) of Teuto- 

 lic origin ; almost all the verbs, particles, and other 

 words, which form the frame of our speech, being of 

 Teutonic descent, Mr Turner has shown this very 

 trikingly at the end of his History of the Anglo- 



