Part 1 (1/2)

A Handbook of the English Language

by Robert Gordon Latham

PART I

GENERAL ETHNOLOGICAL RELATIONS OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE

CHAPTER I

GERMANIC ORIGIN OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE--DATE

-- 1 The first point to be ree, is that it was not the priue of any of the British Islands, nor yet of any portion of theuage at the present moment Welsh is spoken in Wales, Manks in the Isle of Man, and Scotch Gaelic in the Highlands of Scotland; besides which there is the Irish Gaelic in Ireland

-- 2 The next point to be considered is the real origin and the real affinities of the English language

Its _real_ origin is on the continent of Europe, and its _real_ affinities are with certain languages there spoken To speak e is _Geres are those that are the es and dialects allied to each other and allied to the lish have been spoken from times anterior to history; and these, for inal languages and dialects of that country

-- 3 _Accredited details of the different irations from Germany into Britain_--Until lately the details of the different Gerland, both in respect to the particular tribes by which they were made, and the order in which they succeeded each other, were received with but little doubt, and as little criticis the tribes by which they were made, the current opinion was, that they were chiefly, if not exclusively, those of the Jutes, the Saxons, and the Angles

The particular chieftains that headed each descent were also supposed to be known, as well as the different localities upon which they descended[1]

These were as follows:--

_First settleives us AD 449 for the first permanent Germanic tribes settled in Britain

Ebbsfleet, in the Isle of Thanet, was the spot where they landed; and the particular naave theist and Horsa Six years after their landing they had established the kingdom of Kent; so that the county of Kent was the first district where the original British was superseded by the lish, introduced from Germany

_Second settlement of invaders from Germany_--AD 477 invaders from Northern Germany made the second permanent settlement in Britain The coast of Sussex was the spot whereon they landed The particular naave themselves was that of _Saxons_ Their leader was Ella They established the kingdom of the South Saxons (Sussex or Su-Seaxe); so that the county of Sussex was the second district where the original British was superseded by the lish, introduced from Germany

_Third settlement of invaders from Germany_--AD 495 invaders from Northern Germany made the third permanent settlement in Britain The coast of Hampshi+re was the spot whereon they landed Like the invaders last mentioned, these tribes were Saxons Their leader was Cerdic They established the kingdom of the West Saxons (Wessex or West-Seaxe); so that the county of Hants was the third district where the original British was superseded by the lish, introduced from Germany

_Fourth settlement of invaders from Germany_--AD 530, certain Saxons landed in Essex, so that the county of Essex [East-Seaxe] was the fourth district where the original British was superseded by the lish, introduced from Northern Germany

_Fifth settleles_ in Norfolk and Suffolk The precise date of this settleinal British was superseded by the lish was the counties of Norfolk and Suffolk; the particular dialect introduced being that of the _Angles_

_Sixth settlement of invaders from Germany_--AD 547 invaders from Northern Germany made the sixth permanent settlement in Britain The southeastern counties of Scotland, between the rivers Tweed and Forth, were the districts where they landed They were of the tribe of the Angles, and their leader was Ida The south-eastern parts of Scotland constituted the sixth district where the original British was superseded by the lish, introduced from Northern Germany,

-- 4 It would be satisfactory if these details rested upon conte the case

1 _The evidence to the details just given, is not historical, but traditional_--a Beda,[2] from whom it is chiefly taken, wrote nearly 300 years after the supposed event, ie, the landing of Hengist and Horsa, in AD 449

b The nearest approach to a contemporary author is Gildas,[3] and _he_ wrote full 100 years after it