Origin of Language in the British Islands [pp. 766-768]

SOUTHERN LITERARY MESSENGER.
light occasions also. It were wise, if practicable-and
I believe it practicable-to banish it too, from the
theatre, and from every scene, of intellectual recreation
or instruction. Its only appropriate places are the
circus, the puppet-show, and the bear-gardei.
M.
ORIGIN OF LANGUAGE
IN THE BRITISH ISLANDS.
Translated from " La Revue Frangaise," by Samuel F. Glenn.
Tile first language which was spoken in the British
Islands is entirely unknown now in England; but it
exists yet, with slight changes in its form, in the coun try of Wales, in the mountains of Scotland, and in
many parts of Ireland. This language is called, in
England, the Breton;* in Scotland, Gaelic; and in Ireland, the Irish. It was originally the language of a
numerous people called the Celts, who, man, years before the christian era, occupied the western parts of
Europe. But we find no more trace of this people except in WVales, in the mountains of Scotland, and
among some scattered colonies on the western banks of
France and Spain. A great number of names of places,
of rivers, and of mountains in England, and the lower
parts of Scotland, and many designations of natural
objects, are formed from this language; but the terms
are rarely employed in the ordinary tongue.
In the fifth century, a people called the Saxons came
from lower Germany, landed in the country which they
name at this day England, and soon chased away the
original inhabitants, who took refuge in the north and
west parts of the island, where they have always been
found, their descendants and their language. Consequently almost all the south of the island was invaded
and subdued by the Saxons, whose posterity forms at this
time the mass of the people in that part of the country.
From one of the first Saxon branches, called Angles,
the country took the name of Angle terre (England,)
while the new language was called the Anglo-Saxon.
This language was a branch of the Teutonic, the
language of the Teutons: a people who inhabited a
great part of the centre of Europe, while the Celts occupied the west. We consider the Danes, the Hollanders, the Germans and the English as being altogether of Teutonic origin; and their languages, though
different, possess a general resemblance.
From the sixth to the eleventh century, the AngloSaxon underwent little change in England. It received
* The first settlers in Britain were the Gaels, or Southern
Celts, termed Guydels, and their language Guydelic, by the
Welsh writers. These were subsequ ntly vanquished by the
Cymbri, of the North, the ancestors of the modern Welsh, who
style themselves Cymri, or Cumri, and their languag,e the Cymraig, or Cumraig, to the present day. This language is generally termed by English writers the Welsh. The Bretons, inhabiting Brittany in France, are the descendants of a colony
which proceeded thither from Britain in the fifth century. The
counties of Monmouth and Cornwall, are now inhabited principally by the descendants of the Cumri, or Welsh, and the language is still spoken by many persons in the former, and in the
latter has only become extinct within the present century.
[Ed. Mess.
merely some new words from the Latin, a language
brought by the Christian Missionaries, and from the
Danes, especially the Teutonic dialect, which was in troduced by the armies of Denmark, who enforced and
established themselves in England. At this epoch,
literature was not neglected by the Anglo-Saxons.
Their first writer known was Gildas, an historian, who
lived about the close of the year 560. Another, named
Bede, who was a priest, lived in the eighth century;
he was celebrated over all Europe for his knowledge
and literary productions. But most of the writers
of those times found it necessary to compose their
works in Latin; for it was the only method they had
of rendering themselves intelligible to the savans of
other countries, who were almost always their only
readers. The first example existing of a composition
in the Saxon language, is a fragment of Caedmon, monk
of Whitby, who wrote religious poetry in a sublime
style, in the eighth century, and who by reason of ig norance was obliged to employ his own tongue. King
Alfred, in the ninth century, translated into Saxon
several works for the use of his people, and soon after
they made some progress in the art of composing in
their own language. However, the different species of
literature were soon contemrned, and even for ordinary
correspondence the Anglo-Saxon was no more the
mode.
Towards the close of the tenth century, it became
the custom amnong the English nobles to send their chil dren to France for their education, in order there to
acquire what they called the most polite language.
In 1066, William, Duke of Normandy, invaded and
conquered Saxon-England, and as the country was immediately shared among the officers of the victorious
army, the Norman French became the language of
men of high rank, while the Saxon was only the language of the commonalty. By the combination of
these two tongues arose the actual language, while the
Saxon is yet employed to express the most familiar and
common-place ideas.
While the language was thus gradually progressing
towards its present perfection, in the 12th and 13th
century many writers took the occasion to compose, in
the popular language, the ihymning chronicles, which
have not, however, the least merit either as poems or
as histories. Towards the end of this period, when
the reunion of the Saxons and the Normans was more
cemented, there appeared a series of poets who wrote
romantic narratives in the manner of tihe Bards of
Provenge, and who are known also by the name of
Troubadours. To sing these histories in company with
their harps, in the presence of nobles, became the employment of a certain class of men called Minstrels,
many of whom were also at the same time poets as
well as musicians. But the greatest number of the
savans of the country devoted themselves still to learned
compositions in Latin. The poems of the minstrels,
despite their absurdity, have several good points. They
were based, however, upon the chronicles of the preceding centuries, which they rendered into metre with
less of truth than courtesy. By degrees they became
more correct in their compositions, and approached
more and more to the spirit of modern poetry. They
generally celebrated the actions of real heroes, such
as Clharlemnagne or Roland, whose examples were
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