ANGLO-SAXON, NORMAN-FRENCH, LATIN, AND OLD ENGLISH.
Although we are always told that our present English language is
directly derived from that of our Saxon forefathers, this information
gives us very little, if any, help towards deciphering the old
Anglo-Saxon documents. The Saxons, we are told, were not one nation,
but rather composed of an aggregate of tribes of Germanic and
Scandinavian origin, whose piratical instincts led them to seek
adventure by sea and land and form new colonies, just as at the present
day Englishmen go forth in search of fame and fortune in the uttermost
parts of the earth.
[Illustration: EXTRACT FROM DOMESDAY.[1]]
Thus the Saxon language, although derived from one identical base, was
a collection of dialects banded together, which, in its educated and
scholastic form, greatly resembled German in its construction.
The language of the Anglo-Saxon (so far as Great Britain is concerned)
has been classified under three distinct headings, the first being pure
Anglo-Saxon, _i.e._, the language as spoken by the first settlers,
with an admixture of Celtic or British; secondly, this same combination
with the addition of Danish; and thirdly, the three above-named
languages combined, with the further addition of Norman-French, having
in all a Saxon dialect for the basis, to which were afterwards added
new words brought into it by foreign invaders or emigrants from over
the seas. Since the invention of printing great changes have taken
place in our language, and to go back prior to that epoch reveals
greater changes still.
The writings of early chroniclers and poets are so full of words
and phrases now obsolete that many books and dictionaries have been
compiled to explain their meanings.
The Lord’s Prayer, as given in the Durham Book. This is a copy of the
Gospels of the Anglo-Saxon period. It was formerly in the Cottonian
Library, now in the Manuscript Department of the British Museum. It
is known as ‘Nero D. iv.’ Old Sir Robert Cotton had busts of the
Roman Emperors over his book-shelves, and the names survive), looks
to us hopelessly foreign--only a few words are familiar. The personal
pronouns ‘us,’ ‘we,’ ‘he,’ ‘him,’ and the preposition ‘to,’ as well
as the conjunction ‘and,’ are unchanged, but the verbs are conjugated
quite differently to the correct English of to-day; still, if we
would seek for a living example resembling old Saxon dialect, it can
easily be found in several parts of England, such as Devonshire,
Dorsetshire, and other counties, the country-folk still speaking almost
pure Anglo-Saxon, though this is fast dying out before the advance
of education and Board-school science. The Anglo-Saxon alphabetical
characters differ only from the Roman in the letter ‘w,’ written ƿ.
In their alphabet there are also two additional double letters--‘th,’
represented by the following letter þ, and ‘dh,’ ð, these last being
frequently used in the construction of words.
The early Saxon handwriting was bold and clear. Most of it now existing
consists of monastic copies of books or charters. The Saxons were a
clever and industrious people, plodding and practical. Their abbeys
were more of the nature of large seminaries or colleges, where learning
was carried on; and in this respect the northern parts of England
were better supplied than the south, a result caused probably by each
fresh influx of tribes landing on the northern and eastern coasts of
the country, and spreading inland from thence. There seems to be no
doubt that the reign of King Alfred did much to promote study and an
increased attention to literature, previously neglected except among a
few professed scholars.
A learned King would naturally set the fashion to his subjects, and
Alfred must have possessed immense energy. It was an extraordinary
thing for a middle-aged man to be able to educate himself sufficiently
to master the difficulties of a foreign language so opposed in
construction to his own native tongue as Latin, which in nowise
resembles Saxon. He must have toiled hard to have completed the many
translations from Latin into Saxon which are accredited to him.
Alfred was a popular hero, and, like all heroes, was invested by
tradition with the credit of every improvement in literature or art
which took place within his era. Be this as it may, there is no doubt
that he did stimulate his fellow-countrymen to make efforts towards
self-improvement, by setting them a practical example in himself. Such
examples are unfortunately rare; they must always be productive of good
results--an ‘ounce of practice is worth a pound of precept.’
From the time of King Alfred’s re-introduction of Latin into this
country it gradually gained ground as the language of scholars. Learned
ecclesiastics coming to England found it convenient as the medium for
exchange of thoughts and ideas. It was for many centuries the accepted
‘Volapuk,’ understood by all who professed any learning.
Rome was the light of the Western world, the centre from whence
religion and learning was disseminated to the less enlightened parts of
Europe. Careful study of the old authors necessitated an acquaintance
with both Greek and Latin. The emissaries of the Pope, either as
legates or missionaries, spread all over civilized Europe, and carried
with them the learning of their age.
Intercourse between England and France was somewhat checked by
dissensions and wars both at home and abroad, but with the Conquest
came a large body of monks. The chief wealth of Normandy was invested
in its rich abbeys, from whence Duke William had borrowed large sums
of money to fit out his expedition upon the security of his future
possession of England. These loans he honestly and amply repaid by
large grants of land out of his new kingdom; hence new abbeys sprang up
in England, filled with foreign monks, who brought over their language,
arts and sciences, to teach in the new country they had adopted as
their own. The language of the court was of necessity Norman-French,
which differs as much from the French of to-day as ancient from modern
English. But a knowledge of French makes these early deeds easy to
understand.
[Illustration: NORMAN-FRENCH DEED.]
The lower orders of the people clung persistently to their own old
Saxon tongue, a fact clearly demonstrated by the way the old Saxon
field-names are to the present day retained, and flowers, animals, and
matters of everyday country-life bear names of evident Saxon origin.
The Saxons were a conquered race, and as such became the servants of
their conquerors. The animals which in life they tended were eaten by
the Norman nobles, who called them, when used as food, by names of
French derivation. Thus the Saxon ‘sheep’ when dead became ‘mutton’;
‘pig’ turned into ‘pork’; ‘calf’ into ‘veal,’ etc.
With the names of many wildflowers French origin is traceable,
especially with cultivated sorts. We know the monks of the Middle
Ages were clever gardeners, and probably by them the wildflowers were
named. In Berkshire the village children call field-daisies ‘margs,’
abbreviated, without doubt, from the French _marguerite_. Among
garden flowers there are pansies, French _pensé_; gillyflower,
_giroflél_, and many others; but as a whole there are few words of
distinctly Latin origin to be found in the English dialects relating
to everyday affairs. Norman-French did not come into immediate use in
legal documents after the Conquest. The earliest deeds of the Norman
kings were written in Latin, but after a while French, the everyday
language of the upper classes, superseded it for law work--possibly
there were duplicate copies of the deeds in both languages--but
only for a comparatively short period, a statute being passed in the
thirty-sixth year of King Edward III. deciding upon Latin as the law
language of the realm, and from this date the use of Norman-French died
out, and the English language may be said to have commenced.
The growing dislike of the English to foreign prelates led to a
steady resistance of their claims, culminating in the Statutes of
Mortmain, Provisors and Præmunire, and finally in the suppression
of all alien priories and foreign cells. This stopped the influx of
French and Italian monks to our shores; so it was that, after nearly
four centuries, the Norman-French language died out and was forgotten.
During the Middle Ages, and until the time of the Reformation, the
monasteries still continued to be the principal seats of learning
throughout the country, and Latin held its ground among scholars and
lawyers.
The introduction of printing, and, finally, the changes wrought by the
Reformation, disturbed the pre-existing course of things. The English
language was gradually settling down into its present form, and about
the end of the fifteenth century it began more and more to be used for
law business transactions.
The law-Latin, as used in England, degenerated greatly; it became
interspersed with words of native origin, Latinized by the lawyer.
Old court-rolls especially are full of obsolete words; so, too, are
the public rolls, but there are now many dictionaries explaining their
meanings. Although of course, here and there an unknown word may occur,
yet the context will usually explain or help towards its significance.
The legal Latin became, finally, merely a series of mechanical forms;
these at last were translated into English. For this reason a careful
study of the wording of a deed of the eighteenth century in English
will show that it is the counterpart of the same class of document in
its older Latin form.
Latin, like Norman-French, had had its day and was dying out. Finally,
by George III.’s Act of Parliament the native language was ordered to
be used for law work, and now Latin has become obsolete, so far as
practical work is concerned. Understanding old legal Latin--once a
necessity for a lawyer--has now become an antiquarian profession. One
relic of Anglo-Saxon remained on in our language for many centuries.
The double letter þ, ‘th,’ will be found in the written copies of
monkish chartularies for place-names beginning with ‘th.’ Even so
late as the fifteenth century we find it freely employed in English
documents. I possess a copy of the criminal charges made against De
la Pole, Duke of Suffolk, for high treason, 1450. Throughout the
manuscript the Saxon þ appears in such words as ‘other,’ ‘that,’ ‘the,’
etc., which look curious written ‘oþer,’ ‘þt,’ ‘þe.’
The þ in some words was printed ‘y,’ which continued in use until the
last century. I am not aware of any place-names having been altered
by this change of lettering, but it is quite possible that some
changes may have occurred through it. It would be easy for a person
unaccustomed to the Saxon þ to mistake it for other letters, as ‘th,’
‘p,’ or ‘y’ must be followed either by a vowel or the consonant ‘r,’
‘ph’ in old documents being usually replaced by an ‘f.’
Of late years many absurd mistakes have been made by the Ordnance
Surveyors in their maps, who, mistaking the local dialect, or from
preconceived ideas as to what the names ought to be, have set down
many incorrectly. On this subject I wrote formerly in a paper in
the _Berkshire Archæological Magazine_. A man from the South
of England fails to comprehend the Northern or Western dialects.
Country-folk from the North cannot understand a word spoken by
Southerners; this also would account for errors. Spelling, of course,
has so much altered that it is no safe guide towards derivation;
phonetic pronunciation of a word is more likely to give a clue to the
origin. Field-names have been handed down orally from generation
to generation; and it is very curious to observe how faithfully the
phonetic sounds have been preserved among an illiterate people, long
after the meanings of the words have disappeared.
The Saxons named their fields from ordinary things, or surroundings, or
the animals who fed in the meadows. The following Saxon words may be
found occurring constantly as field-names:
_Æcne_, fruitful; _Æcer_, field; _Æbesn_ or _Æfesne_, pasture;
_Ata_, _Atih_, tares, or oats--the latter were common.
_Birce_, birch-tree.
_Cyrc_, _Cyrce_, _Cyrice_, _Circ_, _Circe_, church--the last two
most common; _Culfre_, a dove; _Cealc_, chalk; _Ceorl_, churl or
husbandman.
_Ent_, a giant; _Eorisc_, a bulrush; _Errich_, stubble; _Enid_
or _Ened_, a duck; _Emn_, even.
_Fearras_, _Ferris_, oxen; _Fearh_, a little pig; _Fearh-Cwæl_,
swine-fever.
_Getreminc_, fortress; _Gat_ or _Yat_, a Goat.
_Halga_, a saint; _halig_, holy; _Hyd_, hide, a land measure;
_Ham_, home, homestead; _Hurst_, or _Hyrst_, a wood; _Holt_, a
grove; _Hleotan_, to cast lots (meadows were held in lots, or
allotments, from a very early period, and so continued up to the
time of the Enclosure Acts); _Hluton_, part allotted; _Halm_,
stubble.
_Ith Yrnth_, arable; _Ilt_, a sow.
_Ley_, _Lea_, _Leaze_ or _Lay_, _Lye_, meadow or grassland.
_Neolnes_, more properly spelt _Neowlnes_, an abyss.
_On-œl_, a burning.
_Riip_, harvest.
_Sul_, a plough; _Stret_, or _Stræt_, a street or public highway.
_Wong_, a meadow; _Welig_, a willow; _Wegleast_, a going out of
the way; _Wer_, an enclosure.
As a whole the English language has changed more during the past
century than at any time of the preceding ages. Railway and telegraph
have brought all parts of the kingdom into closer contact, and
intercourse with foreign countries accounts for constant alterations in
language and customs. New words are introduced and old ones die out; it
is the same in every language.
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