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Show 2 3 85 l S 5% 0u pe <. Li= O TT eIy INGLIS m LANGUAGE i i ni W l Ufl[} Vin b e 2t Wi b i ¢ o hetn i , Wi HOUGH the Britains or Welfh were th firft poffeflfors of this ifland, whofe name are recorded, and are therefore in civil hif tory always confidered as the predeceflors of th prefent inhabitants ; yet the deduction of the EngJifb language, from the earlieft times of which w have any knowledge to its prefent ftate, require 0o mention of them: for we have fo few word which can, with any probability, be referred to Bri2ifh roots, that we juftly regard the Saxons and /7elf as nations totally diftinét. It has been conjectured ithat when the Saxons feized this country, they {ufFered the Britaips to live among them in a ftate o -vaffalage, employed m the culture of the ground and other laborious and ignoble fervices. But i 1s fcarcely pofiible, that a nation, however deprefled o have been mixed with another in confider*fhoul E, t fome communication of thei witho numbe -abl had igongue, and therefore, it may, with great reafon, b imagined, that thofe, who were not fheltered in th -mountains, perifhed by the {word The whole fabrick and fcheme of the Ewnglif Of ‘the Gothick, the only monument remainin is a copy of the gofpels fomewhat mutilated, which from the filver with which the characers are adorned, is-called the filver book. 1t is now preferved a Upfal, and having been twice publifhed before, ha been lately reprinted at Oxford, under the infpec tion of Mr. Lye, the editor of Fumins., Whethe the diétion of this venerable manufcript be purel ‘Gothick ha bee doubted; it feem howeve t exhibit the moft ancient dialet now to be found o the Teutonick race an the Saxom whic is th original of the prefent Engli/h, was either derive from it, or both have defcended from fome common parent What was the form of the Saxon language, when about the year 450, they firlt entered Britain, cannot now be known They feem to have been people without learning, and very prebably with ou bee a alphabet alway their fpeech curfor an therefore extemporaneous havin muf have been artlefs and unconneted, without an modes of tranfition or involution of claufes; whic language is Gothick or Teutonick : it is a dialect o that tongue, which prevails over all the norther countries-of Europe, except thofe where the Sclaswomian is'{poken. Of thefe languages Dr. Hicke <has thus exhibited the genealogy abruptnefs and inconnetion may be obferved eve in their later writings This barbarity may b Juppofed to have continued during their wars with COTHICK came from Rome to convert them to Chriftianity AxcrLo-Saxon e e Dutc Frifick Englifh Yo I Francick e German €CIMBRICK I Tardick Norwegian Swedifh Danith the Britains whic for a tim left them no leifur for fofter ftudies; nor is there any reafon for fuppofing it abated till the year 570 when Auguftin The Chriftian religton always implies ‘or produce a certain degree of civility and learning; the then became by degrees acquainted with the Ro man language, and fo gained, from time to time fome knowledge and elegance ries they ha forme till in three centu a language capable of ex prefling all the fentiments ¢f a civilifed people, a appear |
