It will clearly be understood from the above tables that English is a low German Language, akin to Scandinavian, Modern German, and Dutch.

The High German spoken on the southern uplands of Germany gave birth to the language of Goethe and Schiller. Upon the flat heaths between the Eyder and the Rhine arose the Anglo-Saxon and the Dutch, which are kindred forms of Low German.

In A.D. 455 the Saxons first settled in England, occupying the south; next in inferior numbers came the Jutes, who seized Kent and its neighbourhood; and last, but most numerous,

appeared the Angles, who colonized the north, north-east, and

centre.

The successive migrations extended over about one hundred and twenty years.

The most numerous tribe, the Angles, gave its name to the country; and that tribe, which first appeared, imposed its title. upon all the settlers.

It is sufficiently correct to say that they all spoke sub-dialects

of Saxon.

Modern English, then, is only a somewhat altered form of the language which was brought into England by the Saxons and Angles, and which in its early form, before the changes consequent upon the Norman Conquest, is commonly called Anglo-Saxon. The grammatical framework of modern English is Anglo-Saxon still.

As regards its form, Anglo-Saxon (or old English) differed from Modern English in this respect, that it had a much greater number of grammatical inflections. Thus Nouns had five cases, and there were different declensions (as in Latin); Adjectives were declined, and had three genders; Pronouns had more forms, and some had a dual number, as well as a singular and plural; the Verbs had more variety in their personal terminations. The greater part of these inflections fell into disuse in the course of the three centuries following the Norman Conquest, the grammatical functions of several of them being now served by separate words, such as Prepositions and Auxiliary Verbs. This change is what is meant, when it is said that Anglo-Saxon (or ancient English) was an inflectional, and that Moden English is an analytical language.

Despite these natural changes, and the numerous foreign words introduced during the last nine hundred years, English is still, both in Grammatical Structure and Inflections, essentially Teutonic. As regards its Vocabulary, however, Modern English is, to a certain extent, a mixed language, inasmuch as many words have been obtained from non-Teutonic

sources.

Max Müller says -'It is indifferent by what name the language, spoken in the British Islands, be called, whether

English or British or Saxon; to the student of language, English is Teutonic, and nothing but Teutonic. Though every record were burnt, the English language, as spoken by any ploughboy, would reveal its own history if analysed according to the rules of Comparative Grammar.

'Without historical help, we should see that English is of the Low German branch of the Teutonic class of the Aryan family.—The Science of Language, Lecture II.

What is the Proportion of Foreign Words in English?

Modern English dictionaries contain about thirtyeight thousand words, exclusive of Past Tenses and Participles, and of this number twenty-three thousand or thereabouts have been found to be of Saxon origin. These words amount to about five-eighths, or 63 per cent., of the whole, and this fraction represents, with approximate accuracy, the proportion of Saxon words in common use.

But as, in common use, the Articles, Pronouns, Prepositions, Conjunctions, and Auxiliary Verbs recur more frequently than other words, and as these are generally of Saxon origin, the actual proportion of Saxon words in speech or writing exceeds the proportion as fixed by the dictionary. The excess differs in different writers, thus

Milton's Paradise Lost,

,, Pope's Essay on Man,

,, Macaulay's Essay on Bacon,

Percentage of Saxon Words.

Cobbett's Essay on Indian Corn, chap. xi.,.

Ruskin's Modern Painters, .

Ruskin's Elements of Drawing,

Tennyson's In Memoriam,.

-Professor Marsh. Quoted also by Angus and Daniel.

Poetry, it should be observed, contains more words of AngloSaxon origin, in proportion, than prose does. This is because the subjects of which it treats are not much influenced by modern discovery, nor is the phraseology which describes them.

DIFFERENT ELEMENTS OF THE ENGLISH
VOCABULARY.

1. PURELY ENGLISH WORDS.

2. THE KELTIC ELEMENT IN ENGLISH.
3. THE SCANDinavian Element.

4. THE GREEK-LATIN ELEMENT OF THE IST, 2ND,
3RD, AND 4TH PERIODS.

5. WORDS FROM THE SPANISH.

6. WORDS FROM THE PORTUGUESE.
7. WORDS FROM THE ITALIAN.

8. WORDS FROM THE DUTCH.

9. WORDS FROM THE GERMAN.

10. WORDS FROM MISCELLANEOUS SOURCES.

Meaning of Old English Words.

As might be expected, the purely English words denote mainly (besides natural objects) such objects and occupations as belong to a primitive state of civilisation. Though our ancestors had passed far beyond the stage of development

'When wild in woods the noble savage ran,'

their ideas were as yet comparatively simple, and we find a corresponding simplicity in their vocabulary. The purely English words include

Names of kindred, home, and domestic life, e.g. father, mother, hearth, roof, meat, drink, cradle.

of the simpler natural feelings of body or mind, e.g. smile, tear, glad, sorry.

of the most familiar objects of sense, such as the elements and their changes, e.g. fire, water, earth, wind, storm, rain.

of the seasons, e.g. spring, summer (not autumn), harvest, winter.

Names of the divisions of time, e.g. day, night, month, year, morning, noon, evening.

of the features of natural scenery, e.g. hill, dale, stream,

tree.

of the heavenly bodies, e.g. sun, moon, star, sky.

of the organs of the body of man and beasts, e.g. eye, ear, mouth, nose, hand, arm, horn, tail, hoof.

of the commonest animals and insects, e.g. cow, dog, duck, hen, frog, fly.

of the familiar qualities of natural objects, e.g. white, black, smooth, narrow.

of trees and plants, e.g. apple, ash, beech, birch, corn,wheat. of the ordinary transactions of the market-place and

the farm, e.g. trade, business, smelt, plough, waggon, sow, reap.

of the modes of bodily action and postures, e.g. sit, stand, sleep, wake, talk.

of those kinds of industry that were practised by the Low German settlers, e.g. ship, keel, heave, tan.

I. PURELY ENGLISH WORDS-their Grammatical

Characteristics.

Our grammar, it is often stated, is still English, though many foreign words have been introduced into the English vocabulary. The truth of this assertion is sufficiently evident when it is considered that the purely English words, as distinguished from those of foreign extraction, are the following:

1. (a) Demonstrative Adjectives—a, the, this.

The Pronouns.

The Numerals-except second (Lat. secundus), and million, billion, etc.

(b) The Auxiliary and Defective Verbs.

(c) Most Prepositions, Conjunctions, and Adverbs of time. and place.

(d) Nouns that form their Plural by vowel mutation.
(e) Verbs that form their Preterite by change of vowel.

Adjectives that form their Degrees of Comparison
irregularly.