CHAPTER III. Early history of a language to be learnt from a comparison with others-foreign influence on Teutonic speeches before the English conquest of Britain-loan-words from Latin-from Celtic-Celtic Britain as a Roman province-results as regards language-contrast with GaulLatin of the First Period-relations between Celts and English-origin of the word Wales-the Celtic stock-earliest borrowings from Celtic ---later borrowings-geographical names. Knowledge of the early history of a language to be got by a comparison of it with others. 1. In the preceding chapter has been illustrated the possi bility of tracing back the history of words beyond the stage which they shew in the earliest known specimens of the language in which they occur; comparison with kindred forms furnishes material from which such knowledge may be derived. Thus the continuous thread of change, which can be traced back through English during the whole period in which we know it from existing monuments, instead of being broken at the point where that period begins, is extended into a remote past. But leaving now the consideration of such early history, the possibility of gaining some knowledge of which is implied in accepting for English a place in the Aryan family, we may turn to notice some points which belong to times less remote, yet preceding the settlement of the English in this island. Foreign influence on Teutonic speeches be lish conquest 2. For a knowledge of the changes that during such times were being effected in the language material that was as the result of them to take the shape shewn by the speech of the conquerors of Britain, we must depend upon the comparison of English fore the Engwith its Teutonic relatives, and from such comparison it will appear, that not only were those modifications of form taking place, which are continuously to be traced in later times, but also another modification, which, too, in varying degrees has continuously marked the development of the language during the period when it is known from its written monuments. These shew that words have been admitted into the vocabulary from other languages, with which from various causes English has been brought in contact; and that such borrowing took place in yet earlier times may be shewn by help of the comparison referred to above. Teutonic tribes by intercourse with the Romans were brought under the influence of Latin, and as a result accepted some of its words. To determine whether such loan-words were to be found in the language of the Teutons who came to Britain is not possible from an examination of the Old English alone, for we know the language only when it had for a long time been settled in a country that had once been a province of the Roman Empire, and after it had been exposed to the Latin influence that accompanied Christianity. The presence of a Latin word, then, even in our earliest specimens, could not, if we took English alone, justify the inference that it was already in the language of those who came to Britain. But by the help of other languages such an inference may be possible. Words borrowed from Latin, that appear both in Old English and in the earliest monuments of several other Teutonic dialects, may well have been used in their continental home by the forefathers of the English. Among such early borrowings may be placed Lat. vinum, which gave to English win, and a corresponding form to every Loan-words from Latin. other Teutonic dialect. The word for vinegar is in Old English eced; Gothic, Old Saxon, O.H. German also shew like forms; all of them are from Latin. The Latin mango = a defrauding trader, gives rise as well to the Old English mangere (cf. iron-monger), a trader, and to the verb mangian, to trade, as to Old Saxon mangōn, to trade, and to O.H. German mangari mercator. The coinage of the Romans (moneta) may have been known in the same early times, for alongside the Old English mynet (cf. mint), a coin, and mynetere, a coiner, may be placed Old Saxon muniteri, a coiner, munitōn, to coin, and O.H. German munizari and munizōn. On the same level stands Old English pund, seen in the same form in Gothic, and in O.H. German as pfunt, from Latin pondo. Words, too, connected with some of the characteristic Roman works are widely spread, and would seem to have been early adopted by the Teutons e.g. Latin strāta gives Old Englisn stræt, Old Saxon strata, Old Frisian strěte, O.H. German strāza; Latin vallum, Old English weall, Old Saxon wall, Old Frisian wal; Latin porta, Old English port, Old Saxon porta, Old Frisian porte, O.H. German phorta; Latin vicus, Old English wic, Old Saxon, Old Frisian wik, O.H. German wich. The names of the days of the week. Such instances may at least make it probable, that the language, which the conquerors of Britain brought with them, had been already influenced by Latin. Even native words may be appealed to for evidence in the same direction. With the exception of Saturday the names given to the days of the week are English words, but they are used to represent Latin originals; Sunday is dies solis, while the Teutonic gods, after whom other days are named, are those which corresponded respectively most nearly to the Latin gods after whom the days were called. The influence of Latin, then, which soon after their migration from the continent was to be exercised upon the language of the English, and in one or other way was to continue to operate until the present day, might already have been traced in the speech of those by whom the migration was made. Loan-words from Celtic. 3. And it was not to Latin only that this speech was indebted. With others than the Romans the early Teutons had been in contact, with a race which was found not only in Britain, but on the continent-the Celts; and from their speech material had made its way into the vocabularies of Teutonic peoples. From a Celtic source is derived the material, represented in every Teutonic dialect, which in Old English produced rice, power, rice, powerful, and ricsian, to rule; words which, in the case of the noun and adjective, also helped in combination with material found in English to form others, e.g. biscop-rice, a bishop-rick, cyne-rice, a kingdom, heofon-rice, the kingdom of heaven, sige-rice, victorious. Many proper names contain this material, so that not only in bishop-rick, but also in names like Frederick and Roderick, is the trace of the early borrowing yet to be seen. Another case of borrowed material, spread as widely as the preceding among Teutonic dialects, is furnished by words connected with a Celtic form which in a Latin dress, ambactus, is given by Caesar'. Old English shews ambeht, alone and in compounds, and German still keeps amt, both words expressing the idea of service. In the case of Celtic, as in the case of Latin, the traces of early influence are slight in comparison with those left by later contact, which, thanks to the conditions under which English developed, has been in the case of each language practically continuous, since Britain, once a Roman province with a native Celtic population, passed into the power of the English. 1 Speaking of the knights of Gaul he says: 'Atque eorum ut quisque est genere copiisque amplissimus, ita plurimos circum se ambactos clientesque habet.' And Festus says: 'Ambactus lingua Gallica servus appellatur.' 2 In rich and embassy Modern English has words which have the same origin as have Old English rice and ambeht, but which have come to it from Romance languages. But something will have been gained in respect to our knowledge of the language which the Teutonic invaders of Britain brought with them, if we can recognise in the vocabulary inherited from them by their descendants words borrowed by their forefathers from the Latin or the Celtic of the continent. Celtic Britain as a Roman province : results as regards language. 4. As has just been said, in coming to Britain the invaders were bringing their language within reach of Latin and Celtic influence. The island had been visited by Julius Caesar in 55 B.C. and again in 54 B.C., but had not, like Gaul, been conquered; it was not till towards the close of the next century that a Roman province was established in it. With the Roman conquest came Roman civilization, of which the traces may still be seen in the remains of villas and of the great military roads-streets--which were constructed in different parts of the country. The map, too, still offers evidence of the Roman occupation in the numerous placenames containing Latin elements (e.g. those with -caster, -cester, -chester, the Latin castra), which may be found in it. But it was not only by such material results that the Roman influence was marked. Latin learning came in the train of the conquerors, and apt scholars seem to have been found among the conquered, for we hear of Britons excelling in eloquence their neighbours of Gaul. But in their latest acquired and remotest western province the Romans seem not to have effected the transformation which they wrought elsewhere, and consequently the language conditions of Britain offer a contrast with, for example, those of Gaul. There in the first century of the Christian era a form of Latin was the current speech of nearly the whole country; the original Celtic was preserved only in certain districts: it was a form of Latin, then, containing some few words adopted from Celtic, with which the Teutonic conquerors of Gaul were brought into contact. It was otherwise in Britain, as the prolonged life of Celtic shews. For an |