by Grant Allen
The tongue spoken by the English and Saxons at the period of their invasion of Britain was an almost unmixed Low Dutch dialect. Originally derived, of course, from the primitive Aryan language, it had already undergone those changes which are summed up in what is known as Grimm’s Law. The principal consonants in the old Aryan tongue had been regularly and slightly altered in certain directions; and these alterations have been carried still further in the allied High German language. Thus the original word for father, which closely resembled the Latin pater, becomes in early English or Anglo-Saxon fæder, and in modern High German vater. So, again, among the numerals, our two, in early English twa, answers to Latin duo and modern High German zwei; while our three, in old English threo, answers to Latin tres, and modern High German drei. So far as these permutations are concerned, Sanscrit, Greek, and Latin may be regarded as most nearly resembling the primitive Aryan speech, and with them the Celtic dialects mainly agree. From these, the English varies one degree, the High German two. The following table represents the nature of such changes approximately for these three groups of languages: —
Greek, Sanscrit, Latin, Celtic
p.
b.
f.
t.
d.
th.
k.
g.
ch.
Gothic, English, Low Dutch
f.
p.
b.
th.
t.
d.
ch.
k.
g.
High German
b.
f.
p.
d.
th.
t.
g.
ch.
k.
In practice, several modifications arise; for example, the law is only true for old High German, and that only approximately, but its general truth may be accepted as governing most individual cases.
Judged by this standard, English forms a dialect of the Low Dutch branch of the Aryan language, together with Frisian, modern Dutch, and the Scandinavian tongues. Within the group thus restricted its affinities are closest with Frisian and old Dutch, less close with Icelandic and Danish. While the English still lived on the shores of the Baltic, it is probable that their language was perfectly intelligible to the ancestors of the people who now inhabit Holland, and who then spoke very slightly different local dialects. In other words, a single Low Dutch speech then apparently prevailed from the mouth of the Elbe to that of the Scheldt, with small local variations; and from this speech the Anglo-Saxon and the modern English have developed in one direction, while the Dutch has developed in another, the Frisian dialect long remaining intermediate between them. Scandinavian ceased, perhaps, to be intelligible to Englishmen at an earlier date, the old Icelandic being already marked off from Anglo-Saxon by strong peculiarities, while modern Danish differs even more widely from the spoken English of the present day.
The relation of Anglo-Saxon to modern English is that of direct parentage, it might almost be said of absolute identity. The language of Beowulf and of Ælfred is not, as many people still imagine, a different language from our own; it is simply English in its earliest and most unmixed form. What we commonly call Anglo-Saxon, indeed, is more English than what we commonly call English at the present day. The first is truly English, not only in its structure and grammar, but also in the whole of its vocabulary: the second, though also truly English in its structure and grammar, contains a large number of Latin, Greek, and Romance elements in its vocabulary. Nevertheless, no break separates us from the original Low Dutch tongue spoken in the marsh lands of Sleswick. The English of Beowulf grows slowly into the English of Ælfred, into the English of Chaucer, into the English of Shakespeare and Milton, and into the English of Macaulay and Tennyson.
Old words drop out from time to time, old grammatical forms die away or become obliterated, new names and verbs are borrowed, first from the Norman-French at the Conquest, then from the classical Greek and Latin at the Renaissance; but the continuity of the language remains unbroken, and its substance is still essentially the same as at the beginning. The Cornish, the Irish, and to some extent the Welsh, have left off speaking their native tongues, and adopted the language of the dominant Teuton; but there never was a time when Englishmen left off speaking Anglo-Saxon and took to English, Norman-French, or any other form of speech whatsoever.
An illustration may serve to render clearer this fundamental and important distinction. If at the present day a body of Englishmen were to settle in China, they might learn and use the Chinese names for many native plants, animals, and manufactured articles; but however many of such words they adopted into their vocabulary, their language would still remain essentially English. A visitor from England would have to learn a number of unfamiliar words, but he would not have to learn a new language. If, on the other hand, a body of Frenchmen were to settle in a neighbouring Chinese province, and to adopt exactly the same Chinese words, their language would still remain essentially French. The dialects of the two settlements would contain many words in common, but neither of them would be a Chinese dialect on that account. Just so, English since the Norman Conquest has grafted many foreign words upon the native stock; but it still remains at bottom the same language as in the days of Eadgar.
Nevertheless, Anglo-Saxon differs so far in externals from modern English, that it is now necessary to learn it systematically with grammar and dictionary, in somewhat the same manner as one would learn a foreign tongue. Most of the words, indeed, are more or less familiar, at least so far as their roots are concerned; but the inflexions of the nouns and verbs are far more complicated than those now in use: and many obsolete forms occur even in the vocabulary. On the other hand the idioms closely resemble those still in use; and even where a root has now dropped out of use, its meaning is often immediately suggested by the cognate High German word, or by some archaic form preserved for us in Chaucer, Shakespeare, or Milton, as well as by occasional survival in the Lowland Scotch and other local dialects.
English in its early form was an inflexional language; that is to say, the mutual relations of nouns and of verbs were chiefly expressed, not by means of particles, such as of, to, by, and so forth, but by means of modifications either in the termination or in the body of the root itself. The nouns were declined much as in Greek and Latin; the verbs were conjugated in somewhat the same way as in modern French. Every noun had gender expressed in its form.
The following examples will give a sufficient idea of the commoner forms of declension in the classical West Saxon of the time of Ælfred. The pronunciation has already been briefly explained in the preface.
Sing.
Plur.
(1.) Nom.
stan (a stone).
Nom.
stanas.
Gen.
stanes.
Gen.
stana.
Dat.
stane.
Dat.
stanum.
Acc.
stan.
Acc.
stanas.
This is the commonest declension for masculine nouns, and it has fixed the normal plural for the modern English.
Sing.
Plur.
(2.) Nom.
fot (a foot).
Nom.
fet.
Gen.
fotes.
Gen.
fota.
Dat.
fet.
Dat.
fotum.
Acc.
fot.
Acc.
fet.
Hence our modified plurals, such as feet, teeth, and men.
Sing.
Plur.
(3.) Nom.
wudu (a wood).
Nom.
wuda.
Gen.
wuda.
Gen.
wuda.
Dat.
wuda.
Dat.
wudum.
Acc.
wudu.
Acc.
wuda.
All these are for masculine nouns.
The commonest feminine declension is as follows: —
Sing.
Plur.
(4.) Nom.
gifu (a gift).
Nom.
gifa.
Gen.
gife.
Gen.
gifena.
Dat.
gife.
Dat.
gifum.
Acc.
gife.
Acc.
gifa.
Less frequent is the modified form:
Sing.
Plur.
(5.) Nom.
boc (a book).
Nom.
bec.
Gen.
bec.
Gen.
boca.
Dat.
bec.
Dat.
bocum.
Acc.
boc.
Acc.
bec.
Of neuters there are two principal declensions. The first has the plural in u; the second leaves it unchanged.
Sing.
Plur.
(6.) Nom.
scip (a ship).
Nom.
scipu.
Gen.
scipes.
Gen.
scipa.
Dat.
scipe.
Dat.
scipum.
Acc.
scip.
Acc.
scipu.
Sing.
Plur.
(7.) Nom.
hus (a house).
Nom.
hus.
Gen.
huses.
Gen.
husa.
Dat.
huse.
Dat.
husum.
Acc.
hus.
Acc.
hus.
Hence our “collective” plurals, such as fish, deer, sheep, and trout.
There is also a weak declension, much the same for all three genders, of which the masculine form runs as follows: —
Sing.
Plur.
Nom.
guma (a man).
Nom.
guman.
Gen.
guman.
Gen.
gumena.
Dat.
guman.
Dat.
guman.
Acc.
guman.
Acc.
guman.
Adjectives are declined throughout, as in Latin, through all the cases (including an instrumental), numbers, and genders. The demonstrative pronoun or definite article se (the) may stand as an example.
Sing.
Masc.
Fem.
Neut.
Nom.
se,
seo,
thæt.
Gen.
thæs,
thære,
thæs.
Dat.
tham,
thære,
tham.
Acc.
thone,
tha,
thæt.
Inst.
thy,
thære,
thy.
Plur.
Masc. Fem. Neut.
Nom.
tha.
Gen.
thara.
Dat.
tham.
Acc.
tha.
Inst.
—
Verbs are conjugated about as fully as in Latin. There are two principal forms: strong verbs, which form their preterite by vowel modification, as binde, pret. band; and weak verbs, which form it by the addition of ode or de to the root, as lufige, pret. lufode; hire, pret. hirde. The present and preterite of the first form are as follows: —
Ind.
Subj.
Pres. sing.
1.
binde.
binde.
2.
bindest.
binde.
3.
bindeth.
binde.
plur.
1, 2, 3.
bindath.
binden.
Pret. sing.
1.
band.
bunde.
2.
bunde.
bunde.
3.
band.
bunde.
plur.
1, 2, 3.
bundon
bunden.
Both the grammatical forms and still more the orthography vary much from time to time, from place to place, and even from writer to writer. The forms used in this work are for the most part those employed by West Saxons in the age of Ælfred.
A few examples of the language as written at three periods will enable the reader to form some idea of its relation to the existing type. The first passage cited is from King Ælfred’s translation of Orosius; but it consists of the opening lines of a paragraph inserted by the king himself from his own materials, and so affords an excellent illustration of his style in original English prose. The reader is recommended to compare it word for word with the parallel slightly modernised version, bearing in mind the inflexional terminations.
Ohthere sæde his hlaforde, Ælfrede cyninge, thæt he ealra Northmonna northmest bude. He cwæth thæt he bude on thæm lande northweardum with tha West-sæ. He sæde theah thæt thæt land sie swithe lang north thonan; ac hit is eall weste, buton on feawum stowum styccemælum wiciath Finnas, on huntothe on wintra, and on sumera on fiscathe be thære sæ. He sæde thæt he æt sumum cirre wolde fandian hu longe thæt land northryhte læge, oththe hwæther ænig monn be northan thæm westenne bude. Tha for he northryhte be thæm lande: let him ealne weg thæt weste land on thæt steorbord, and tha wid-sæ on thæt bæcbord thrie dagas. Tha wæs he swa feor north swa tha hwæl-huntan firrest farath.
Othhere said [to] his lord, Ælfred king, that he of all Northmen northmost abode. He quoth that he abode on the land northward against the West Sea. He said, though, that that land was [or extended] much north thence; eke it is all waste, but [except that] on few stows [in a few places] piecemeal dwelleth Finns, on hunting on winter, and on summer on fishing by the sea. He said that he at some time [on one occasion] would seek how long that land lay northright [due north], or whether any man by north of the waste abode. Then fore [fared] he northright, by the land: left all the way that waste land on the starboard of him, and the wide sea on the backboard [port, French babord] three days. Then was he so far north as the whale-hunters furthest fareth.
In this passage it is easy to see that the variations which make it into modern English are for the most part of a very simple kind. Some of the words are absolutely identical, as his, on, he, and, land, or north. Others, though differences of spelling mask the likeness, are practically the same, as sæ, sæde, cwæth, thæt, lang, for which we now write sea, said, quoth, that, long. A few have undergone contraction or alteration, as hlaford, now lord, cyning, now king, and steorbord, now starboard. Stow, a place, is now obsolete, except in local names; styccemælum, stickmeal, has been Normanised into piecemeal. In other cases new terminations have been substituted for old ones; huntath and fiscath are now replaced by hunting and fishing; while hunta has been superseded by hunter. Only six words in the passage have died out wholly: buan, to abide (bude); swithe, very; wician, to dwell; cirr, an occasion; fandian, to enquire (connected with find); and bæcbord, port, which still survives in French from Norman sources. Dæg, day, and ænig, any, show how existing English has softened the final g into a y. But the main difference which separates the modern passage from its ancient prototype is the consistent dropping of the grammatical inflexions in hlaforde, Ælfrede, ealra, feawum, and fandian, where we now say, to his lord, of all, in few, and to enquire.
The next passage, from the old Englis
h epic of Beowulf, shows the language in another aspect. Here, as in all poetry, archaic forms abound, and the syntax is intentionally involved. It is written in the old alliterative rhythm, described in the next chapter: —
Beowulf mathelode
bearn Ecgtheowes;
Hwæt! we the thas sæ-lac
sunu Healfdenes
Leod Scyldinga
lustum brohton,
Tires to tacne,
the thu her to-locast.
Ic thæt un-softe
ealdre gedigde
Wigge under wætere,
weore genethde
Earfothlice;
æt rihte wæs
Guth getwæfed
nymthe mec god scylde.
Beowulf spake,
the son of Ecgtheow:
See! We to thee this sea-gift,
son of Healfdene,
