5. THE NORMAN PERIOD.

William the Conqueror came to England in the year 1066, bringing with him the Norman-French language. But though the Normans made themselves complete masters in this country, yet their language never superseded the Saxon. Still we find that the Normans were three hundred years in learning the Saxon, or, at least, in accepting it as the national language. And when at last they did accept it, they rejected nearly all its grammatical inflections. The Saxon was previously a highly inflected language, as already shewn. Its nouns had five cases, with different declensions; adjectives were declined, and were inflected for the three genders; pronouns had more inflections, and some had a dual number, as well as a singular and a plural; and verbs had many inflections. But the Normans refused to learn these, and hence their rejection.

Thousands of French words now began to pour into the English (as the language soon began to be called). Some of these words, conveying new ideas, enriched and extended the vocabulary; while others, though not conveying any new ideas, yet served to express the ideas of the Normans better than the corresponding words of the Saxon.

Terms employed in feudalism, war, law, and the chase, are principally Norman French :

*From the Latin equester (or esquester), relating to a knight (eques) through the French esquyer (now written ecuyer), an attendant upon a knight. Equus (a horse) is the rootword, eques being a horseman.

Many words of a general character were also introduced; as, abash, adventure, annoy, bachelor, benign, cavil, chamber, comfort, company, contrary, corps, counterfeit, courage, curious, debonair, defame, fancy, folly, frailty, fruit, &c.-Adams.

It seems as if the Saxons and the Normans who had agreed to live and work together (the Normans did not do much of the work, though), were willing that a Saxon and Norman word, meaning the same thing, should be coupled together in the closest manner. Hence we find such combinations as "to acknowledge and confess," we should not dissemble nor cloak them,” "when we assemble and meet together," etc. It is very obvious that such expressions were intended for two races of men who were blending their languages together. Some French words have been elevated above the corresponding words of the Saxon, such as beef, mutton, venison, pork, which are the French words for ox, sheep, deer, pig, etc., but only applied to these beasts when dressed up for the table. So that we have now two words to express the same thing, but one applied to the thing when living, and the other applied to it when dead. We see, too, from these words that the Saxons had the feeding and tending of the cattle, while their Norman masters had the eating of them.

The principal writers of this period were:-Wace; chief work, a History of England. Ormin; chief work, The Ormulum. Layamon; chief work, A Brut, or Chronicle of Britain. Robert de Brunne, Translations from the French. Richard Poor; The

Ancren Riwle.

The following were the principal changes during this period :—

(1) The articles se and seo were growing obsolete.

(2) The inflections of nouns, with the ablative case, were disappearing. (3) The ending of the infinitive was changed from an to e.

(4) The article the was of all genders, but had different case-endings. Grammatical gender in nouns was disappearing.

(5) The dual forms of personal pronouns were becoming obsolete.

(6) Participles were losing their declension; ing was taking the place of ende.

6. THE EARLY ENGLISH PERIOD.

This period ranges from the time of Henry the Third to that of Richard the Second, from the year 1272 to the year 1367. The following from the charter of Henry the Third may be taken as a specimen of the language of that time:

Lhoawerd of

'Henry thrug Godes fultome King on Englenloande, Irloand, Duk on Normand, send I greting to alle hise holde, ilaerde and ilewede on Huntindonschiere. That witen ge wel alle thaet we willen and unnen, that ure raedesmen alle other the moare del of heom, thaet beoth ichosen thurg us and thurg thaet loandes folk on ure Kuneriche, habbith idon and schullen don in the weorthness of God, and ure treowthe.

The meaning of the above may be thus rendered :--

"Henry, through God's help, King of (on) England, Lord of Ireland, Duke of Normandy, sends greeting to his subjects, learned and unlearned, in Huntingdonshire. This know ye well all that we will and grant what our advisers, all or the greater part of them (the more deal of them), that be chosen through us and through the land's folk of our kingdom, have done and shall do to the worthiness of God and our truth."

The principal writers of this period are Robert of Gloucester, Geoffrey of Monmouth, and Sir John Mandeville. Chief works: Of the first, a History of England; of the second, a British History; of the third, Voyages and Travels.

7. THE MIDDLE ENGLISH PERIOD.

This period extends from the time of Richard the Second to that of Queen Elizabeth. At the beginning of this period flourished the father of English bards, Geoffrey Chaucer, author of the Canterbury Tales. The following version of the Lord's Prayer will convey a pretty correct idea of the language at this time:

"Our Fader that art in hevenys; halewid be Thi name; Thi kyngdom come; to be Thi will done in erthe as in hevene; give to us this day oure breede ovir othir substaunce; and forgive to us our dettis as we forgiven to our dettouris; and lede us not into temptacioun ; but delyvere us from yvel. Amen."

Wicliff, "the Morning Star of the Reformation," and translator of the Bible, was contemporary with Chaucer. Next comes William Caxton, who introduced from Holland the art of printing. This, of course is a very important epoch in the history of the English language. Many new ideas burst forth, and many new words burst forth to express them. The language was now gaining precision, volume and strength to a most surprising extent, as if preparing itself to bear up under the weight of two of the greatest writers that the world ever

saw, Shakespeare and Milton.

Augustan age of English literature.

This has been styled the

Principal writers of this period with those already mentioned:-Lawrence Minot, Poems celebrating Edward's Victories; Robert Langland, The Vision of Piers Plowman; Barbour, The Bruce: a History of Scotland.

8. THE MODERN ENGLISH PERIOD.

This period, which extends from the time of Elizabeth to the present time, has not been marked by many important changes in the language. Still it has been greatly enriched and highly polished by the labours of Dryden, Pope, Addison, Steele, Swift, Samuel Johnson, and their imitators. The style of these writers is laboured, accurate, and stiff. A reaction against this style has been apparent in the present century. More attention has been bestowed upon the matter presented than upon the style or manner in which that matter has been presented. Hence a bolder, freer, and less accurate style is seen in Thomas Carlyle, Charles Dickens, Lord Lytton, William M. Thackeray, and many others.

QUESTIONS FOR EXAMINATION.

In looking at the history of the language, What have we also to do? Into how many periods may the history of the language be divided? 1. What was the language spoken by the Ancient Britons? 2. Give an account of the Latin period. 3. Of the Saxon period. 4. What is said of the Danish invasions? 5. Give an account of the Norman conquest, and of its influence on the language. 6. Give a short account of the early English period, and a specimen of the language at that time, with the names of the principal writers of the period. 7. The Middle English period, with the names of the principal writers. 8. Give an account of the modern English period.

SPECIMENS FOR ANGLO-SAXON AND OLD ENGLISH EXERCISE.

In Anglo-Saxon and Old English.

Observations.

The Anglo-Saxons received their spoken language from Germany and their written characters from Rome. Hence our alphabet, being Roman is the same as that of the Anglo-Saxon. There are, however, two exceptions, namely, the two sounds expressed by th in the words thin and then. The former was p (ith) and the latter (the), as in par, there, coude, could.

The following passage occurs in the writings of Alfred the Great, and afterwards in the Saxon Chronicle ::

From the Ormulum written in the thirteenth century :

And whase wilenn shall pis boc,

Efft operr sipe writenn,

Himm bidde icc patt hett write rihht,

Swa sum piss boc himm tæchepp;

All pwerrt utt affterr patt itt iss

Oppe piss firrste bisne,

Wipp all swilc rime als her iss sett,
Wipp alse fele wordess;

And tatt he loke well patt he
An boc-staff write twiggess,*
Eggwhær pær itt uppo piss boc
Iss writenn o patt wise :

Loke he well patt hett write swa,

Forr he ne magg noht elless,

On Englissh writenn rihht te word,

patt wite he well to sope.

1. In these lay a gret multitude of syke men, blinae, crokid, and drye.— Wicliffe, Jon. v.

2. In all the orders foure is non that can
So much of dalliance and faire language,
He hadde ymade ful many a marriage-
His tippet was ay farsed ful of knives,
And pinnes for to given faire wives.

Chau., Prol.

3. And al the cuntre of Judee went out to him, and alle men of Jerusalem. -Wicliffe, Mark i. 5.

4. He ghyueth lif to alle men, and brething, and alle thingis; and made of von al kynde of men to inhabit on al the face of the erthe.-Wicliffe, Dedis of Apostlis, xvii. 25, 26.

* Write one letter twice.