4. The use of at for to, as the sign of the infinitive mode, is Norse, not Saxon; as, at think, at do, instead of to think, to do. It is the regular prefix in Icelandic, Danish, Swedish, and Feroic. It is also found in the northern dialects of the Old English, and in the particular dialect of Westmoreland at the present day.

5. Formerly sum was used for as; e. g., swa sum, we forgive oure detturs (Dan. som). War is now used for was (Dan. var).

6. This list of words, which might be increased, are found in Northumberland and Yorkshire, and elsewhere:

The Danish or Norse element of the Anglo-Norman, as in the proper names Guernsey, Jersey, Alderney, constitutes the Indirect Scandinavian element of the English.-Rev. RICHARD GARNETT, Phil. Soc., vol. i., p. 79.

INTRODUCTION OF THE

ANGLO-NORMAN ELEMENT.

§ 70. The Norman French was spoken in the northern parts of France, from the Loire to the confines of Flanders. It is composed of three elements, the Celtic, the Latin, and the Scandinavian. The latter element was introduced by Rollo, a Norwegian chieftain, and the Northmen who settled in Normandy, and gave it its name. Norman-French was called Langue d'oil. Its position can be understood from the following statement: The Latin language of the classical stock, at first confined to Central Italy, was afterward spoken more or less through the Roman empire. Out of the union of the Latin with the several other languages spoken in that empire grew six principal dialects which deserve to be called languages; two eastern, the

Italian and Wallachian; two southern, the Spanish and Portuguese; and two northwestern, the Norman-French and the Provençal. This last was spoken in the south part of France.WOOLSEY on the Romanic Languages, New Englander, vol. v., p. 13. See § 405.

In the year A.D. 1066, William, duke of Normandy, having landed an army of sixty thousand men in England, at the battle of Hastings killed Harold the king, defeated his army, and thus put an end to the Anglo-Saxon dynasty. After he had ascended the throne, his followers were rewarded by the principal offices of trust in the kingdom, and by the estates of the nobility.

NORMAN-FRENCH

SPOKEN BY THE HIGHER CLASSE S.

71. The Norman-French, as a consequence, was spoken by the superior classes of society in England, from the Conquest to the time of Edward the Third, 1327; between two and three hundred years. The laws of the realm, the proceedings in Parliament and in the courts of justice, were in the French language. Grammar-school-boys were made to construe their Latin into French. In the statutes of Oriel College, Oxford, there is a regulation, so late as 1328, that the students shall converse together, if not in Latin, at least in French.

As exemplifying the profound ignorance of the English kings respecting the language of the greater portion of their subjects, we have the following anecdote: Henry II., who ascended the throne in 1154, having been addressed by a number of his subjects during a journey into Pembrokeshire, in a speech commencing with the words "Good olde Kynge!" asked of his attendants an interpretation of these words!

MIXTURE OF THE RACES.

§ 72. In the thirteenth century the mixture of the races was going on extensively and rapidly, and, of consequence, a literature sprang up between the two extremes, in which the two languages are, without any rule, more or less mixed together, and which belonged to a middle class of society, who spoke both languages.

In the fourteenth century the Anglo-Saxon principle seemed to have gained the upper hand. In 1350, John Cornwall, a

schoolmaster, brought in so great an innovation as the making of his boys read Latin into English. By a statute in 1362, all pleas in courts of justice are directed to be pleaded and judged in English, on account of the French being so much unknown.

During the fifteenth century the Anglo-Norman element seemed to be gaining the preponderance; but the proportions still continued to vary, until it became fixed in the age of Queen Elizabeth.

WHY ONE LANGUAGE IS USED RATHER THAN THE

OTHER.

§ 73. But the question arises, Why is any given object or idea expressed in English by a word derived from one of these languages in preference to a word derived from the other?

The general fact seems to be, that words were adopted into the common language from the Anglo-Norman or the Anglo-Saxon according as the objects or the ideas expressed by those words belonged more exclusively to the one race or the other. In this fact we have the answer. "Thus we may wonder why, while the Saxon titles of king and queen remained, the principal signs of royalty, the throne, the crown, and sceptre, should be designated by words of Anglo-Norman origin. The difficulty, however, is cleared up when we consider that, for several ages, the king in his state was an object from which the mass of the Anglo-Saxon population was so far cut off, that, although the title was continually in their mouths, they had almost forgotten these distinguishing marks of his office until they were made acquainted with them through the language of their Norman rulers. The Anglo-Saxon titles earl, lord, lady, and knight, superseded their Norman equivalents, being most popular titles in AngloSaxon society. Most other words of this class, such as prince, duke, baron, peer, dame, damsel, esquire, &c., are taken from the Anglo-Norman tongue, and originated in the manners of the Anglo-Norman aristocracy."

Common articles of dress are Anglo-Saxon, as shirt, breeches, hose, shoes, hat, and cloak. But other articles, subject to the changes of fashion, are Anglo-Norman, as gown, coat, boots, mantle, cap, bonnet, &c.

The word house, a common residence, was Anglo-Saxon. But

palaces, and castles, and manors, and mansions, and hostles, are Anglo-Norman. The words room and kitchen are Saxon; the words chambers, and parlors, and galleries, and pantries, and laundries, and larders, are Anglo-Norman. Hearth, and threshold, and wall, and roof, and window, are Anglo-Saxon; chimney is Anglo-Norman, perhaps because the Saxon portion of the population had no chimney. Stool, bench, bed, board, bolster, pillow, sheet, are Anglo-Saxon; but table, chair, couch, carpet, curtain, are Anglo-Norman.

The names ox, calf, sheep, pig, boar, deer, are Anglo-Saxon, because that part of the population were engaged in tending these animals while they were living; but beef, veal, mutton, pork, brawn, venison, are Anglo-Norman names, because that part of the population were accustomed to eat their flesh when they were killed. The same is the case with fowls, which is an Anglo-Saxon name given to the birds while living, while poultry is an Anglo-Norman name given to them when killed for eating.

SCOTT'S DESCRIPTION.

§ 74. Walter Scott describes the same thing in his sprightly

way.

"Why, how call you those grunting brutes running about on their four legs?' demanded Wamba.

6

"Swine, fool, swine,' said the herd; 'every fool knows that.' "And swine is good Saxon,' said the Jester; but how call you the sow when she is flayed, and drawn, and quartered, and hung by the heels like a traitor?'

"Pork,' answered the swineherd.

"I am very glad every fool knows that too,' said Wamba; 'and pork, I think, is good Norman-French; and so when the brute lives, and is in charge of a Saxon slave, she goes by her Saxon name; but becomes a Norman, and is called pork, when she is carried to the castle hall to feast among the nobles. What dost thou think of this doctrine, Friend Gurth, ha?"

"It is but too true doctrine, friend Wamba, however it got into thy fool's pate.'

666

'Nay, I can tell you more,' said Wamba, in the same tone. 'There is old Alderman Ox continues to hold his Saxon epithet

while he is under the charge of serfs and bondmen such as thou, but becomes beef, a fiery French gallant, when he arrives before the worshipful jaws that are destined to consume him. "Mynheer Calf," too, becomes "Monsieur de Veau" in the like manner. He is Saxon when he requires tendance, and takes a Norman name when he becomes matter of enjoyment.” ”—Ivanhoe, chap. i.

INFLUENCE OF THE NORMAN CONQUEST.

§ 75. "Had the Plantagenets, as at one time seemed likely, succeeded in uniting all France under their government, it is probable that England would never have had an independent existence. The noble language of Milton and Burke would have remained a rustic dialect, without a literature, a fixed grammar, or a fixed orthography, and would have been contemptuously abandoned to the use of boors. No man of English extraction would have risen to eminence except by becoming, in speech and habits, a Frenchman."-MACAULAY'S History of England, p. 14.

"The influence of the Norman Conquest upon the language of England was like that of a great inundation, which at first buries the face of the landscape under its waters, but which, at last subsiding, leaves behind it the elements of new beauty and fertility. Its first effect was to degrade the Saxon tongue to the exclusive use of the inferior orders; and by the transference of estates, ecclesiastical benefices, and civil dignities to Norman possessors, to give the French language, which had begun to prevail at court, from the time of Edward the Confessor, a more complete predominance among the higher classes of society. The native gentry of England were either driven into exile, or depressed into a state of dependence on their conqueror, which habituated them to speak his language. On the other hand, we received from the Normans the first germs of romantic poetry; and our language was ultimately indebted to them for a wealth and compass of expression which it probably would not otherwise have possessed."-THOMAS CAMPBELL'S Essay on English Poetry, p. 4.