THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE AND ITS GRAMMAR. CHAPTER I. GENERAL VIEW OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE. 1. The English Language. A language is usually named from the people who originally spoke it, or from the country in which it was developed. Therefore the English language may be defined as that spoken by the people of England, and by all those who speak like them throughout the world. 2. Its Character. The English is the most composite of languages, being made up of elements from many sources; and it is necessary to know something of the history of the people who produced it, in order to account for its structure. 3. The Early History of England. The country which we know as England was unknown to the civilized world until the year 55 B.C., at which date its inhabitants were conquered by the Roman army under Julius Cæsar. This general reported that the island was inhabited by a barbarous people of Celtic race, similar to the earliest known people of France and Spain, 9 that they were called Britons, and the country Britain. For a time the Romans did little to hold their conquest; but finally camps were fortified, towns were established, and for several hundred years a considerable degree of civilization prevailed under the Roman occupancy. The natives who were not subdued retired to the mountains of the West, and, living by themselves, retained their Celtic speech to such an extent that to-day the Welsh, which is simply a modernized form, is our best example of the ancient Celtic tongue. 4. The Anglo-Saxon Conquest. During the fourth and fifth centuries a remarkable movement of the barbarous peoples inhabiting northern and eastern Europe occurred. They swept down upon the civilized nations of the South, overturning their governments, mingling with them, and making great changes in their languages and customs. During the early years of the fifth century the Roman soldiers were called home from Britain to defend Rome, leaving the conquered and enervated Britons defenceless. A part of this invading host passed westward, and seized upon Britain, conquered, slaughtered, or drove off the natives, and took possession of the island. These people belonged to the Teutonic branch of the European stock, and consisted of several tribes, the chief being the Angles, Saxons, and Jutes. They came from the region bordering the North Sea, the Angles from Sleswick, the Saxons from Holstein, and the Jutes from Jutland. This conquest was a sheer dispossession of the conquered. Those who remained were enslaved; and Germanic language, customs, and laws were superimposed upon a people too weak to |