186 OUR INSULAR DIALECT. 



The accompanying genealogical tree shows very faith- 

 fully the Norman pedigree ; it is copied from the introduction 

 to the 2nd edition of " Patois Poems," by Mr. J. L. Pitts, 

 F.S.A. 



Noble as our dialect is, I cannot claim for it that 

 antiquity and honour which is claimed by a certain 

 Rev. — . Harris for the Welsh tongue, which he asserts is 

 that which was spoken in Paradise by Adam and Eve. 



From Mr. Pitts I also gather that we have little or no 

 local literature dating earlier than the present century, while 

 Welsh dates from the 5th century or earlier. 



Our patois, as you see by the annexed tree, belongs to 

 the Romance languages, so called from their having come 

 more or less directly from the Latin, which, after the conquest 

 of Gaul by the Romans in the 1st century, overspread the 

 country, but which in time was itself modified very consider- 

 ably by the natives. 



While the Romans were fighting they preserved their 

 own tongue, but settling peacefully and becoming agricultur- 

 ists they soon adopted local words, corrupting their own 

 tongue in various ways and thereby developing a new language, 

 which eventually divided itself into two main branches, the 

 Langue d'Oc in the south and the Langue d'Oil in the north ; 

 a line from La Rochelle to Grenoble approximately represent- 

 ing the frontier between them. 



These divisions did not take practical form till the 7th 

 century, but Littre, in his " Histoire de la Langue Francaise," 

 tells us that no literature of so early a date has been preserved, 

 though Benoit alludes to some satirical verses written in 

 Langue d'Oil about a Count of Poictiers who conducted 

 himself dishonourably in a skirmish with Norman pirates. 



Saintsbury, in his short history of French literature, 

 gives us also the Strasburg Oath taken in A.D. 842. 



Littre states that only three documents exist or can be 

 traced in this language from 1001 to 1100 : — " Eulalie," "A 

 Poem on the Passion," and " The Life of St. Leger." 



The 11th and 12th centuries appear to be the classical 

 age of our tongue, Froissart closing its career in the 14th 

 century with his "Chronicles of the Wars between England 

 and France." 



All this time the Isle de France branch had been in the 

 background, but in the 14th century it gained the ascendancy 

 through the conquest of the provinces by the Capets, so that, 

 in 1515, Francis I. declared it the language of the court and 

 country, although to this day only the lesser half of France 



