60 GLOSSOLOGY. 



Padre nueslro que estas en el cielo, sanctificado sea el tu nombrc; 

 venga el tu reino ; hagare tu voluntad, asi en la tierra como en el ciclo : 

 el pan nuestro de cada dia danos hoy; y perdonanos nitestras deu- 

 das, asi como nosotros peraonamos a nuestros deudores ; y no nos 

 dejes cacr en la tcntadon, mas libranos de mal: porque tuo es el reino, 

 y lapotencia, y la gloria, por los siglos. Jimen. 



The Portuguese language is the Galician dialect of the old 

 Spanish Romance language, with slight modifications. It became the 

 language of Portugal from the date of its independence, under 

 Alphonso I, A. D. 1139 ; -or, according to Sismondi, as early as the 

 year 1100, under Count Henry. The delicacy and richness of its 

 songs, has given it the name of i\\efloiver language. Its literature 

 is of minor importance ; but it is the language also of Brazil, and of 

 some parts of India and Africa ; and hence it is of considerable 

 interest to the commercial world. The Lord's Prayer in Portu- 

 guese, commences as follows : Padre nosso, que estas nos ceos, 

 sanctificado scio o tu nome ; venha tuo regno; sciafeita a tua votade, 

 assi nos ceos, como na terra. From this specimen, its close resem- 

 blance to the preceding languages may easily be traced. 



The French language, is founded on the Celtic, the language of 

 the Gauls ; but consists chiefly of abbreviated Latin words, intro- 

 duced by the Roman Conquest, and by the subsequent use of the 

 Latin language among the learned. By the mixture of the Latin, 

 with the Celtic and Gothic dialects, two distinct Jtomance languages, 

 so called, were formed ; the Southern or Provencal, called the 

 Langue d'Oc, in which the word oc signified yes ; and the Northern 

 or Langue d'Oui, or, d'Oil, in which yes was expressed by the 

 word oui. The former, according to Sismondi, originated at the 

 court of Bozon, king of Aries, in 880 ; and the latter, called also tho 

 Romance Wallon, at the court of William Longue Epee, of Nor- 

 mandy, in 930. The Provencal was the language of the troubadours ; 

 and is still spoken by the common people in the South of France 

 and east of Spain ; bearing, as it does, a resemblance to the Spanish. 

 But when Paris became the French capital, the northern dialect pre- 

 vailed, and took the national name ; though less poetical than the 

 Provencal, and abounding in obscurely sounded vowels. The French 

 is a language rather for oratory, than poetry ; and, under the French 

 Academy, it has acquired so much precision, with its vivacity, as to 

 have elicited Voltaire's remark that " whatever is not clear, is not 

 French." It became the language of courts of justice, in place of 

 the Latin, in 1539, under Francis I. : and it is, perhaps, the most 

 common language of European diplomacy ; owing partly to the efforts 

 made by the French to give it universal currency. Next to our own 

 language, it is perhaps the most valuable to us, for all the purposes of 

 information and communication. 



The French alphabet, differs from ours, only in wanting the letter 

 w. The simple vowels in it are pronounced as we have mentioned 

 under the Latin, (p. 57), except u, which has a sound compounded of 

 pur short i and long u. The vowel e, has often an obscure sound, as 

 in our word father, particularly at the end of monosyllables; which, 



