Imágenes de páginas
PDF
EPUB

writers, and their influence was great; in England they aroused much enthusiasm for the literature and culture of Rome, and the English monasteries became famous centers of learning.

597. Normans. For many years Scandinavian sea rovers had plundered the people living along the shore of the North Sea. Early in the tenth century, after various raiding expeditions, a piratical band, led by the chief Rollo, received permission to settle peacefully in the northern part of France, about the mouth of the Seine River. These strangers came to be known as Normans (the name being a softened form of the Teutonic or Scandinavian word 'Northmen '), and their new country was called Normandy.

At first, quite naturally, the Normans continued to speak their Scandinavian language, and kept up the habits formed in their old home. After a time, however, they began to intermarry with the people about them, and gradually adopted from them the French language, French culture, and the Christian religion. The Normans became great builders in stone, and constructed splendid churches and castles. Their capital, Rouen, became one of the most enlightened centers of Europe. Other Norman towns, devoted to trade and manufacture, grew in population and wealth. Thus the Normans wielded a strong influence, and this influence made itself felt in England.

598. Norman Conquest. The Normans called their rulers dukes. About the middle of the eleventh century they had a duke named William, who was cousin to Edward, the king of England. William expected to succeed Edward; but when Edward died, Harold, the son of a Saxon nobleman, received the crown. William now gathered an army and crossed into England. He met and defeated the English in the great battle of Hastings (A.D. 1066), and was crowned king of England. Thus, for a time, the Norman-French tongue (§ 595) came to

be the language of the king of England and of his nobles, of the bishops and of the government officials, and was spoken by the Norman townspeople who came to England to engage in trade. It was also introduced into the universities and schools; but in the church service Latin continued to be used, and the learned books were written in that ancient language. English was looked on with contempt by the Normans. Although English continued to be spoken by the great body of the English people, it almost ceased to be written, and soon began to deteriorate. The Normans built splendid churches and castles. The towns became more important, and new trades and better methods of doing business were established.

599. Result of Norman Conquest. The Norman Conquest has been called the most important event in English history. Through intermarriage with the French the Normans had acquired the physical and mental activity of the south, and from a horde of marauders became the most brilliant and cultivated people of Europe. "It was through the Normans", says James Russell Lowell, "that the English mind and fancy, hitherto provincial and uncouth, were first infused with the lightness, grace, and self-confidence of Romance literature. They seem to have opened a window to the southward in that solid and somewhat sombre insular character, and it was a painted window all aglow with the figures of tradition and poetry."

In their daily intercourse in the market, at church, and elsewhere the English and the Normans tried to aid each other in the exchange of ideas. When an Englishman had to use a word unfamiliar to the Norman, he endeavored to put with it the corresponding French word; the Norman did likewise; and the language soon swarmed with pairs of English and French words. The poetry of Chaucer (in the latter part of the fourteenth century) abounds in them. Some of these phrases

still survive, such as 'will and testament', 'act and deed', aid and abet', ' acknowledge and confess', 'dissemble and cloak'. A picturesque illustration of this bilingualism will be found at the end of the first chapter of Scott's Ivanhoe.

But, as we have seen, French is descended from Latin (§ 595), and the borrowing of French words led to the borrowing of Latin words also. In modern English more than half the words have come from these two sources. Some Latin words have furnished two different English words, one through the French, the other directly from the ancient form. For example, from the Latin word histo'ria (originally a Greek word) have come the English words story and history; from fidelita'tem, fealty and fidelity; from oratio'nem, orison and oration; from traditio'nem, treason and tradition.

NOTE. In the study of French words, and of Latin words which have come into English from the French, it is helpful to note the accent of the original Latin words; for the syllables following the accent have usually fallen away, or have coalesced with the preceding syllable. For example, the Latin word humanita'tem becomes French humanité and English humanity; capitulum becomes French chapitre (two syllables) and English chapter; un'decim becomes French onze (one syllable); cor'pus becomes French corps and English corps and corpse; super becomes French and English sur- (as in sur-pass).

Since the increase in importations had made it easier to accept the foreign names of new objects than to create other names by compounding English words, as had been the custom ($593), the growth of English words almost stopped. Furthermore, many English words formerly in good use gave way to other words, chiefly of Latin and Greek origin. The English word book-house, for example, was supplanted by the Latin word library; finger-apple (= finger-shaped fruit), by date (from the Greek word meaning finger); rime-craft (=reckoningart), by the Greek word arithmetic.

For about three hundred years after the Norman Conquest there was little literature of high quality written in English ; the upper classes of the people still spoke French, and the scholars continued to use Latin.

600. Revival of Learning. In the year 1453 the Turks captured and sacked Constantinople, the Eastern capital of the Roman Empire, and the center of Greek learning and Greek civilization. The famous libraries of the city were scattered or destroyed. A hundred and twenty thousand manuscripts are said to have disappeared. The Greek scholars hastily packed up their own priceless literary treasures, and fled to Italy. Many of these learned men found refuge at Florence, where they became teachers of the ancient classics of Greece and Rome. Their lecture rooms were crowded with eager students, and their learning and system of education permeated the West. An additional impulse to learning was soon imparted by the invention of printing, and in a few years the cities of Italy were rivaling each other in the number and the elegance of their printed books.

In England one of the chief results of the study and translation of the classical authors of Greece and Rome was the introduction, into English, of an immense number of new words derived from these ancient sources. Such words were needed not only for the expression of new ideas, but for the reclassification of the old. From this time forward English has continued to enrich itself by borrowing from Latin and Greek.

601. Periods of English language; inflection. The development of the English language may be divided roughly into three periods, Anglo-Saxon (or Old English), Middle English, and Modern English. Anglo-Saxon was brought to Britain by the Jutes, Saxons, and Angles, and continued until about a century after the Norman Conquest (A.D. 449-1150).

In this period the nouns, pronouns, adjectives, verbs, and participles had a variety of endings or other changes of form, called inflection, to show their relation to each other in the sentence. Since the language was used by scholars and cultured people as well as by the masses, it kept most of its inflections. Middle English extended from about the year 1150 to about the year 1450. In the earlier part of this period the different endings of a word commonly became the same, and later were often dropped out of use. During this period many words were introduced from French. Modern English began about the year 1450 (a little more than a century before Shakespeare's time). In this period the language has almost no inflections. A large vocabulary has been acquired, not only from the languages of Europe, but from other foreign tongues.

602. Vocabulary. The language of the Jutes, Saxons, and Angles was spoken in England by a few thousand primitive people, and consisted of a few thousand words. Today English is spoken by a hundred and fifty million people, and has about two hundred thousand words. Of these words not more than a fourth or a fifth have come from the Anglo-Saxon (8 389); the others have been borrowed or formed from foreign languages, chiefly Latin and Greek, or from languages. descended from Latin (French, Italian, Spanish, and others).

603. Indo-European languages. Celtic, Anglo-Saxon, French, Spanish, German, Latin, and Greek, however much unlike each other they are today, are among the descendants of the ancient tongue already mentioned, spoken centuries ago by that nomadic people of Asia and Europe. This numerous family of languages, called the Indo-European (or, less properly, Aryan), is the most important in the world. Some of these languages, such as Sanskrit, Russian, Greek, and Latin, are highly inflected. English has the least inflection.

« AnteriorContinuar »