HISTORY OF ENGLISH LANGUAGE 207 



I must, however, mention here especially one language of para- 

 mount importance for the study of Oldest English, namely Frisian. 

 The Frisians were the neighbors on the Continent of the tribes that 

 invaded Britannia; so much the more must we regret that no very 

 old monuments exist to show us the state of the Frisian language at 

 the time of the invasion or shortly afterwards. But even those 

 monuments we have, from the thirteenth century on, have not been 

 studied by philologists with the care we might expect, considering 

 their importance for the history of English. In fact, Frisian has been 

 the stepchild among Germanic tongues. Now, however, this seems to 

 be in a fair way of becoming otherwise, and Anglists to borrow that 

 very convenient name for " students of English " should heartily 

 welcome the endeavors of Dr. Wilhelm Heuser, who has in a very 

 handy little volume made the Old Frisian language readily accessible 

 to everybody, and who has there and elsewhere called attention to 

 some very important conclusions that can be drawn from Frisian 

 phonology with regard to Old English dialects. 1 It is to be hoped that 

 this line of research will in future receive all the attention it deserves. 



As already hinted above, English philology has to deal very largely 

 with loan-words from various sources. Celtic philology, however, 

 is not so important to the Anglist as might appear likely at first, 

 because there are really very few Celtic words in English, a fact 

 which is easily accounted for by the theory of speech-mixtures put 

 forward lately by the eminent Celtologist Windisch. 2 This question 

 is largely mixed up with another question which has been much 

 discussed of late years, namely, what language did the Angles and 

 Saxons find generally spoken on their arrival in England? Had Latin 

 supplanted Celtic, totally or partially? This, however, need not occupy 

 us long here, as it really falls outside of the history of English proper. 3 



In whatever direction it may be finally settled, the fact remains 

 that Latin loan-words are extremely numerous and important in the 

 English language. All educated people are well acquainted with 

 those innumerable scientific, technical, and other Latin words which 

 have been adopted during the last five centuries and which have 

 stamped the English vocabulary in so peculiar a way. But this class 

 of words, together with the Greek words, which are inseparable from 

 them, offer no serious difficulties to the philologist. They are book- 

 words, taken over through the medium of writing in the form cor- 

 responding with that of the golden age of classical literature, and 



1 Wilhelm Heuser, A Ufriesisches Lesebuch. Heidelberg, 1903. Indo-german- 

 ische Forschungen, Anzeiger xrv, p. 29. 



2 E. Windisch, Zur theorie der mischsprachen und lehnw&rter. Berichte uber die 

 verhandlungen der sacks, gesellschaft der wissenschaften, XLIX (1897), p. 101 ff. 



3 A. Pogatscher, Zur lautlehre der griechischen, lateinischen und romanischen 

 lehnworte im Atienglischen. Strassburg, 1888. J. Loth, Les mots latins dans les 

 langues brittoniques. Paris, 1892. Pogatscher, Angelsachsen und Romanen, 

 Englische Studien, xix (1894), p. 329 ff. 



