But they had been settled on French soil for about 150 years and had acquired a French dialect, the French of northern France, called the langue d'oil. The word oïl, the same word as oui, signifies yes. The langue d'oïl was the dialect in which people said oil for yes, as distinguished from the langue d'oc in which they said oc. This French language was in the main a form of Latin, containing, however, a certain amount of Keltic, for the Gauls were a Keltic race, though they adopted the speech of their Roman conquerors. So the French influence upon our English tongue is really a Latin influence in disguise.

The Revival of Learning. The sixteenth century is the time of the Revival of Classical Learning, or of the Renaissance as it is sometimes called. The capture of Constantinople by the Turks in A.D. 1453 had caused the flight of the cultured Greeks who lived there, and they sought refuge in the cities of Italy. To Florence flocked eager students out of many lands to acquire from these learned exiles a knowledge of ancient literature. Curiosity respecting Greek and Roman antiquities spread widely, and Greek and Latin writers were zealously read. The consequence was that an enormous number of new words, borrowed directly from the Latin, passed into our English vocabulary. Hundreds of words were introduced and dropped, as there was no need of them: hundreds more remained. Very different was the way in which words of Latin origin came in at this time from the way in which they came in under the influence of the Norman Conquest. At the Revival of Learning the words were borrowed by scholars from books. Under the Norman kings they were introduced by the daily speech of foreigners who had taken our England and made it their own.

11. Other incidents in our history deserve mention in an account of the influence of political events on the formation of our speech. Thus, in the reign of Mary, Spanish

influence was strong; in the reign of Elizabeth, English volunteers helped the Dutch against the Duke of Parma; in the reign of Charles II., French was the fashion at Court. But the Spanish and Dutch and French words which thus secured a footing in our language are few.

12. We will close this chapter with a short summary of the chief historical events which have affected the formation of our English speech as it exists to-day, and in the next chapter we shall say something about the character of the words which we owe to these events.

I. The original inhabitants of this country were Britons, a Keltic race, speaking a language like Welsh. They were subjugated by the Romans, who remained here from A.D. 43 to 410. They were then subjugated by the Jutes, Saxons, and Angles, tribes belonging to the Low German branch of the Teutonic stock. These English people came from the district north of the mouth of the Elbe at different times between A.D. 450 and 550, and their descendants have stayed in this country ever since.

2. A.D. 600 to 1000. The Christian missions introduced some words of Latin origin, and the growth of trade brought in others.

3. A.D. 800 to 1050. The Danes made frequent incursions, and from 1017 to 1042 Danish kings ruled in England. By 'Danes' are meant not only people of Denmark, but people of Norway and Sweden also. Like the English they were a Teutonic race, but we call theirs the Scandinavian branch.

4. A.D. 1066 to 1400. The Normans were also originally Scandinavians, but they had adopted the language of France during their occupation of that country for 150 years before they conquered England; and for 150 years after their conquest of England,—until the death of John and the final severance of England from Normandy, great efforts

were made to extend the use of the French language in this country. The blending of the Norman-French and English languages did not take place till long after the Conquest. The Normans in England continued to speak French: the English continued to speak English, and books were written in English. Nearly two centuries elapsed before there was a real amalgamation. About the year 1250 French words began to pass freely into the native vocabulary, and by the year 1400 French had ceased to be the speech of the nobility in England. The French language is in the main a form of Latin, though the Gauls were a Keltic race.

5. The Revival of Letters, or of Classical Learning, or the Renaissance, affected our language from the time of Henry VII. to the end of Charles I.'s reign, i.e. during the 16th and the first half of the 17th century.

9

CHAPTER II.

CONSTITUENTS OF THE ENGLISH VOCABULARY.

13. In the previous chapter we mentioned the leading events in the history of our country which have exercised an influence upon the formation of our language as it exists to-day. In this chapter we shall answer the question,— What sorts of words do we owe to these events in our history?

14. I. Keltic words in English. The Keltic words in our ordinary English speech are few. When we bear in mind that in some parts of our island the British inhabitants were nearly exterminated by their English conquerors and that British civilization was practically destroyed, we are not surprised to find that the influence upon our English speech of the intercourse between Britons and Englishmen was very slight. Keltic names of places indeed are numerous. Avon is a Keltic word for 'river,' and there are many Avons in England. Aber, as in Aberdeen, Aberystwith, Berwick (i.e. Aberwick), meaning 'the mouth of a river'; Pen or Ben, 'a mountain,' as in Penzance, Ben Nevis; Llan, 'a sacred enclosure,' as in Llandaff, Lampeter; Caer or Car, 'a castle,' as in Caermarthen, Carlisle,-all of these are of Keltic origin, and there are others besides, but geographical names have no claim to be reckoned as a part of our ordinary vocabulary. Several words which were formerly supposed to have passed from Keltic into English are now known to have

passed in a contrary direction from English into Keltic. A few Keltic words may have come to us through the Norman French. At a later date we borrowed a few more from Welsh, from Irish, and from Gaelic, the language spoken in the Highlands of Scotland, all of which belong to the Keltic group. But our indebtedness to Keltic is small. We may sum it up thus:

1. Geographical names, which are no part of our ordinary vocabulary :

2. A few words handed down from the original Britons, or introduced through the Norman French:

3. A few borrowed from Welsh (e.g. cromlech, flannel, flummery), from Irish (e.g. fun, shamrock, shillelagh), and from Gaelic (e.g. clan, gillie, whiskey).

15. II. The Latin Element in English. Though the Romans held this country for nearly four hundred years, they left us no Latin words in our vocabulary as a legacy from their occupation. But it must be remembered that the Romans never came in contact with the English after the English had established themselves here. The Romans took their final departure in A.D. 410, and it was not until A.D. 449 that the first English settlement was made. The Romans probably introduced many Latin words into the language of the Britons, but the Britons contributed very few words to our English speech, and of those which they did contribute none happened to be of Latin origin. We can trace the effect of Roman occupation however in several names of places. When we meet with a word like Don-caster, or Circen-cester, or Chester, we recognise the Latin castra and know that these places were once Roman military stations. So in Lin-coln we have colonia: in Wall's End and in Walton, vallum appears in disguise. When the English arrived and found a place called 'Chester,' they would continue to call it