CHAPTER V.
ANALYSIS OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE—GERMANIC ELEMENTS.
[§ 103]. The population and, to a certain extent, the language of England, have been formed of three elements, which in the most general way may be expressed as follows:—
a. Elements referable to the original British population, and derived from times anterior to the Anglo-Saxon invasion.
b. Anglo-Saxon, Germanic, or imported elements.
c. Elements introduced since the Anglo-Saxon conquest.
[§ 104]. Each of these requires a special analysis, but that of the second will be taken first, and will form the contents of the present chapter.
All that we have at present learned concerning the Germanic invaders of England, is the geographical area which they wholly or partially occupied, and the tribes and nations with which they were conterminous whilst in Germany. How far, however, it was simple Saxons who conquered England single-handed, or how far the particular Saxon Germans were portions of a complex population, requires further investigation. Were the Saxons one division of the German population, whilst the Angles were another? or were the Angles a section of the Saxons, so that the latter was a generic term, including the former? Again, although the Saxon invasion may be the one which has had the greatest influence, and drawn the most attention, why may there not have been separate and independent migrations, the effects and record of which, have in the lapse of time, become fused with those of the more important divisions?
Questions like these require notice, and in a more advanced state of what may be called minute ethnographical
philology will obtain more of it than has hitherto been their share. At present our facts are few, and our methods of investigation imperfect.
[§ 105]. In respect to this last, it is necessary to distinguish between the opinions based on external, and the opinions based on internal evidence. To the former class belong the testimonies of cotemporary records, or (wanting these) of records based upon transmitted, but cotemporary, evidence. To the latter belong the inferences drawn from similarity of language, name, and other ethnological data. Of such, a portion only will be considered in the present chapter; not that they have no proper place in it, but because the minuter investigation of an important section of these (i.e., the subject of the English dialects) will be treated as a separate subject elsewhere.
[§ 106]. The Angles; who were they, and what was their relation to the Saxons?—The first answer to this question embodies a great fact in the way of internal evidence, viz., that they were the people from whom England derives the name it bears=the Angle-land, i.e., land of the Angles. Our language too is English, i.e., Angle. Whatever, then, they may have been on the Continent, they were a leading section of the invaders here. Why then has their position in our inquiries been hitherto so subordinate to that of the Saxons? It is because their definitude and preponderance are not so manifest in Germany as we infer (from the terms England and English) it to have been in Britain. Nay more, their historical place amongst the nations of Germany, and within the German area, is both insignificant and doubtful; indeed, it will be seen from the sequel, that in and of themselves we know next to nothing about them, knowing them only in their relations, i.e., to ourselves and to the Saxons. The following, however, are the chief facts that form the foundation for our inferences.
[§ 107]. Although they are the section of the immigration which gave the name to England, and as such, the preponderating element in the eyes of the present English, they were not so in the eyes of the original British; who neither knew at the time of the Conquest, nor know now, of any other name for their German enemies but Saxon. And Saxon is the
name by which the present English are known to the Welsh, Armorican, and Gaelic Celts.
| Welsh | Saxon. |
| Armorican | Soson. |
| Gaelic | Sassenach. |
[§ 108]. Although they are the section of the immigration which gave the name to England, &c., they were quite as little Angles as Saxons, in the eyes of foreign cotemporary writers; since the expression Saxoniæ trans-marinæ, occurs as applied to England.
[§ 109]. Although they are the section of the immigration which gave the name to England, &c., the material notice of them as Germans of Germany, are limited to the following facts.
Extract from Tacitus.—This merely connects them with certain other tribes, and affirms the existence of certain religious ordinances common to them—
"Contra Langobardos paucitas nobilitat: plurimis ac valentissimis nationibus cincti, non per obsequium, sed prœliis et periclitando tuti sunt. Reudigni deinde, et Aviones, et Angli, et Varini, et Eudoses, et Suardones, et Nuithones, fluminibus aut silvis muniuntur: nec quidquam notabile in singulis, nisi quod in commune Herthum, id est, Terram matrem colunt, eamque intervenire rebus hominum, invehi populis, arbitrantur. Est in insula Oceani castum nemus, dicatumque in eo vehiculum, veste contectum, attingere uni sacerdoti concessum. Is adesse penetrali deam intelligit, vectamque bobus feminis multâ cum veneratione prosequitur. Læti tunc dies, festa loca, quæcumque adventu hospitioque dignatur. Non bella ineunt, non arma sumunt, clausum omne ferrum; pax et quies tunc tantùm nota, tunc tantùm amata, donec idem sacerdos satiatam conversatione mortalium deam templo reddat: mox vehiculum et vestes, et, si credere velis, numen ipsum secreto lacu abluitur. Servi ministrant, quos statim idem lacus haurit. Arcanus hinc terror, sanctaque ignorantia, quid sit id, quod tantùm perituri vident."[[11]]
Extract from Ptolemy.—This connects the Angles with
the Suevi, and Langobardi, and places them on the Middle Elbe.
Ἐντὸς καὶ μεσογείων ἐθνῶν μέγιστα μέν ἐστι τό, τε τῶν Σουήβων τῶν Ἀγγειλῶν, οἵ εἰσιν ἀνατολικώτεροι τῶν Λαγγοβάρδων, ἀνατείνοντες πρὸς τὰς ἄρκτους μέχρι τῶν μέσων τοῦ Ἄλβιος ποταμοῦ.
Extract from Procopius.—For this see [§ 129].
Heading of a law referred to the age of Charlemagne.—This connects them with the Werini (Varni), and the Thuringians—"Incipit lex Angliorum et Verinorum (Varni); hoc est Thuringorum."—Zeuss, 495, and Grimm. G.D.S.
[§ 110]. These notices agree in giving the Angles a German locality, and in connecting them ethnologically, and philologically with the Germans of Germany. The notices that follow, traverse this view of the question, by indicating a slightly different area, and Danish rather than German affinities.
Extracts connecting them with the inhabitants of the Cimbric Peninsula.—a. The quotation from the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle of [§ 16].
b. From Bede; "Porro de Anglis, hoc est illa patria, quæ Angulus dicitur, et ab eo tempore usque hodie, manere desertus inter provincias Jutarum et Saxonum perhibetur."—Angl. i. 15.
c. From Alfred, "And be wæstan eald Seaxum is Albe muða þære ea and Frisland. And þanon west norð is þæt land, the man Angle, hæt and Sillende, and summe dæl Dena."[[12]]—Oros. p. 20.
Also, speaking of Other's voyage,[[13]] "He seglode to þæm porte þe man hæt Hæþum; se stent betwuhs Winedum and Seaxum, and Angle, and hyrð in on Dene ... and þa
twegen dagas ær he to Hædhum come, him wæs on þæt steorbord Gothland and Sillende and iglanda fela. On þæm landum eardodon Engle, ær hi hiðer on land comon."[[14]]—Oros. p. 23.
d. From Etherwerd, writing in the eleventh century—"Anglia vetus sita est inter Saxones et Giotos, habens oppidum capitale, quod sermone Saxonico Sleswic nuncupatur, secundum vero Danos Hathaby."[[14]]
[§ 111]. The district called Angle.—The district of Anglen, so called (where it is mentioned at all) at the present moment, is a part of the Dutchy of Sleswick, which is literally an Angle; i.e., a triangle of irregular shape, formed by the Schlie, the Flensborger Fiord, and a line drawn from Flensborg to Sleswick; every geographical name in it being, at present, Danish, whatever it may have been previously. Thus some villages end in bye (Danish=town) as Hus-bye, Herreds-bye, Ulse-bye, &c.; some in gaard (=house), as Oegaard; whilst the other Danish forms are skov=wood (shaw), hofved=head, lund=grove, &c. In short it has nothing to distinguish it from the other parts of the peninsula.
[§ 112]. Add to these the Danish expression, that Dan and Angul were brothers, as the exponent of a recognised relationship between the two populations, and we have a view of the evidence in favour of the Danish affinity.
[§ 113]. Inferences and remarks.—a. That whilst the root Angl- in Tacitus, Ptolemy, Procopius, and the Leges Anglorum, &c., is the name of a people, the root Angl- in the Anglen of Sleswick, is the name of a district; a fact which is further confirmed by the circumstance of there being in at least one other part of Scandinavia, a district with a similar name—"Hann átti bu a Halogolandi i Aungli."[[14]]—Heimskringla, iii. 454.
b. That the derivation of the Angles of England from the Anglen of Sleswick is an inference of the same kind with the one respecting the Jutes (see [§ 20]), made by the same writers, probably on the same principle, and most likely incorrectly.
c. That the Angles of England were the Angli of Tacitus,
Ptolemy, Procopius, and the Leges Anglorum et Werinorum, whatever these were.
[§ 114]. What were the Langobardi, with whom the Angles were connected by Tacitus? The most important facts to be known concerning them are, (1) that the general opinion is in favour of their having belonged to the High-German, or Mœso-Gothic division, rather than to the Low; (2) that their original locality either reached or lay beyond the Elbe; a locality, which, in the tenth century, was Slavonic, and which, in the opinion of the present writer, we have no reason to consider to have been other than Slavonic during the nine preceding ones.—That they were partially, at least, on this side of the Elbe, we learn from the following:—"Receptæ Cauchorum nationes, fracti Langobardi, gens etiam Germanis feritate ferocior; denique usque ad flumen Albim ... Romanus cum signis perductus exercitus."[[15]]—Velleius Paterc. ii. 106.
[§ 115]. What were the Suevi, with whom the Angles were connected by Tacitus? The most important facts to be known concerning them are, (1) that the general opinion is in favour of their having belonged to the High-German or Mœso-Gothic, division, rather than to the Low; (2) that their original locality either reached or lay beyond the Elbe; a locality, which, in the tenth century, was Slavonic, and which, in the opinion of the present writer, we have no reason to consider to have been other than Slavonic during the nine preceding ones. In other words, what applies to the Langobardi applies to the Suevi also.
What the Suevi were, the Semnones were also, "Vetustissimos se nobilissimosque Suevorum Semnones memorant." Tac. Germ., 39. Speaking, too, of their great extension, he says, centum pagi ab iis habitantur.[[15]]
Velleius states that there were Suevi on the west of the Middle Elbe, Ptolemy, that there were Suevi to the east of it, i.e., as far as the River Suebus (Oder?).—Καὶ τὸ τῶν Σουήβων τῶν Σεμνόνων, οἵτινες διήκουσι μετὰ τὸν Ἄλβιν ἀπὸ τοῦ εἰρημένου μέρους
(the middle Elbe) πρὸς ἀνατολὰς μέχρι τοῦ Σουήβου ποταμοῦ.[[16]]
In the letter of Theodeberht to the Emperor Justinian, we find the North-Suevians mentioned along with the Thuringians, as having been conquered by the Franks; "Subactis Thuringis ... Norsavorum gentis nobis placata majestas colla subdidit."[[16]]
[§ 116]. What were the Werini, with whom the Angles were connected in the Leges Anglorum et Werinorum? Without having any particular data for connecting the Werini (Varni, Οὐάρνοι) with either the High-German, or the Mœso-Gothic divisions, there are in favour of their being Slavonic in locality, the same facts as applied to the Suevi and Langobardi, with the additional one, that the name probably exists at present in the River Warnow, of Mecklenburg Schwerin, at the mouth of which (Warnemunde) the town of Rostock stands.
[§ 117]. What were the Thuringians, with whom the Angles are connected in the Leges Anglorum, &c.; Germanic in locality, and most probably allied to the Goths of Mœsia in language.
[§ 118]. Of the Reudigni, Eudoses, Nuithones, Suardones, and Aviones, too little is known in detail to make the details an inquiry of importance. Respecting them all, it may be said at once, that whatever may be the Germanic affinities involved in their connection with the Suevi, Langobardi, Angli, &c., they are traversed by the fact of their locality being in the tenth century Slavonic.
[§ 119]. The last tribe which will be mentioned, is that of the Angrarii, most probably another form of the Angrivarii of Tacitus, the name of the occupants of the valley of the Aller, the northern confluent of the Weser.
As this word is compound (-varii=ware=inhabitants), the root remains Angr-, a word which only requires the r to become l in order to make Angl-. As both the locality and the relation to the Saxons, make the Angrivarian locality one of the best we could assume for the Angles, the only
difficulty lies in the change from r to l. Unfortunately, this, in the Saxon-German, is an unlikely one.
[§ 120]. The last fact connected with the Angles, will be found in a more expanded form in the Chapter on the Dialects of the English Language. It relates to the distribution over the conquered parts of Britain. Their chief area was the Midland and Eastern counties, Norfolk, Suffolk, Cambridgeshire, Huntingdonshire, Leicestershire, &c., rather than the parts south of the Thames, which were Saxon, and those north of the Wash, where Danish influences have been considerable.
[§ 121]. The reader has now got a general view of the extent to which the position of the Angles, as a German tribe, is complicated by conflicting statements; statements which connect them with (probably) High-German Thuringians, Suevi, and Langobardi, and with (probably) Slavonic Varni, Eudoses, Suardones, &c.; whereas in England, they are scarcely distinguishable from the Low-German Saxons. In the present state of our knowledge, the only safe fact seems to be, that of the common relation of both Angle and Saxon, to the present English of England.
This brings the two sections within a very close degree of affinity, and makes it probable, that just, as at present, descendants of the Saxons are English (Angle) in Britain, so, in the third and fourth centuries, ancestors of the Angles were Saxons in Germany. Why, however, the one name preponderated on the Continent, and the other in England is difficult to ascertain.
[§ 122]. By considering the Angles as Saxons under another name (or vice versâ), and by treating the statement as to the existence of Jutes in Hampshire and the Isle of Wight as wholly unhistorical, we get, as a general expression for the Anglo-Germanic immigration, that it consisted of the closely allied tribes of the North-Saxon area, an expression that implies a general uniformity of population. Is there reason to think that the uniformity was absolute?
[§ 123]. The following series of facts, when put together, will prepare us for a fresh train of reasoning concerning the different geographical and ethnological relations of the
immigrants into England, during their previous habitation in Germany.
1. The termination -as is, like the -s in the modern English, the sign of the plural number in Anglo-Saxon.
2. The termination -ing denotes, in the first instance, a certain number of individuals collected together, and united with each other as a clan, tribe, family, household.
3. In doing this, it generally indicates a relationship of a personal or political character. Thus two Baningas might be connected with each other, and (as such) indicated by the same term from any of the following causes—relationship, subordination to the same chief, origin from the same locality, &c.
4. Of these personal connections, the one which is considered to be the commonest is that of descent from a common ancestor, so that the termination -ing in this case, is a real patronymic.
5. Such an ancestor need not be real; indeed, he rarely if ever is so. Like the eponymus of the classical writers, he is the hypothetical, or mythological, progenitor of the clan, sept, or tribe, as the case may be; i.e., as Æolus, Dorus, and Ion to the Æolians, Dorians, and Ionians.
Now, by admitting these facts without limitation, and by applying them freely and boldly to the Germanic population of England, we arrive at the following inferences.
1. That where we meet two (or more) households, families, tribes, clans, or septs of the same name (that name ending in -ing), in different parts of England, we may connect them with each other, either directly or indirectly; directly when we look on the second as an offset from the first; indirectly, when we derive both from some third source.
2. That when we find families, tribes, &c., of the same name, both in Britain and in Germany, we may derive the English ones from the continental.
Now neither of these views is hypothetical. On the contrary each is a real fact. Thus in respect to divisions of the population, designated by names ending in -ing, we have
1. In Essex, Somerset, and Sussex,—Æstingas.
2. In Kent, Dorset, Devonshire, and Lincoln,—Alingas.
3. In Sussex, Berks, and Northamptonshire,—Ardingas.
4. In Devonshire, Gloucestershire, and Sussex,—Arlingas.
5. In Herts, Kent, Lincolnshire, and Salop,—Baningas.
6. In Norfolk, Suffolk, Surrey, Sussex, and the Isle of Wight,—Beadingas.
7. In Kent, Devonshire, Lincolnshire, Herefordshire, Salop, and Somerset,—Beringas.
8. In Bedford, Durham, Kent, Lancashire, Lincolnshire, Norfolk, Northamptonshire, Northumberland, Salop, Sussex, and the Isle of Wight,—Billingas, &c.—the list being taken from Mr. Kemble, vol. i. p. 64.
[§ 124]. On the other hand, the following Anglo-Saxon names in -ing, reappear in different parts of Germany, sometimes in definite geographical localities, as the occupants of particular districts, sometimes as mentioned in poems without further notice.
1. Wælsingas,—as the Volsungar of the Iceland, and the Wælsingen of the German heroic legends.
2. Herelingas,—mentioned in the Anglo-Saxon poem known by the name of the Traveller's Song, containing a long list of the Gothic tribes, families, nations, &c.
3. Brentingas.—Ibid.
4. Scyldingas.—Ibid.
5. Scylfingas.—Ibid.
6. Ardingas.
7. Baningas, Traveller's Song, mentioned as the subjects of Becca.
8. Helsingas.—Ibid.
9. Myrgingas.—Ibid.
10. Hundingas.—Ibid.
11. Hocingas.—Ibid.
12. Seringas.—Ibid.
13. Dhyringas=Thuringians. (?)
14. Bleccingas.
15. Gytingas.
16. Scydingas.
17. Dylingas.
[§ 125]. We will still, for argument's sake, and for the sake
of the illustration of an ethnological method, take these names along with the observations by which they were preceded, as if they were wholly unexceptionable; and, having done this, ask how far each is known as German. So doing, we must make two divisions:
a. Those which we have no reason to think other than Angle or Saxon.
b. Those which indicate elements of the migration other than Angle or Saxon.
[§ 126]. Patronymics which do not necessarily denote a non-Saxon element.—Of these, the following are so little known, that they may pass as Saxons, simply because we have no grounds for thinking them aught else; the Brentings, Banings, Helsings, Serings, Ardings, Hundings, Blekings, Herelings, Gytings, Scydings, Dylings. The Scyldings and Scefings, belong, in a more positive way, to the Anglo-Saxon division; since their eponymi, Scyld and Sceaf, form a portion of the Anglo-Saxon mythology.
[§ 127]. Patronymics indicating a non-Saxon, rather than a Saxon element.—a. The Wælsings—In the way of tradition and mythology, this is a Frank gentile name.
b. The Myrgings.—Ditto. This is the German form of the Merovingians.
c. The Hocings.—This is the German form of the Chauci, and, as such, a Frisian gentile name.
d. The Dhyrings.—Perhaps Thuringians of Thuringia.
Thus, then, if we still assume that the method in question is unexceptionable, we have, from the evidence of what may be called either the gentile forms, or the patronymics in -ing, reasons for believing that Frank Myrgings, Frisian Hocings, and Thuringian Dhyrings, formed part of the invasion—these, at least; possibly others besides.
And why should the reason be other than unexceptionable? Do we not in North America, believe, that, as a general rule, the families with particular names, coincide with the families so-called in England; that the names of certain places, sometimes, at least, indicate a population originating in places similarly designated here? that the Smiths and Johnstons
are English in origin, and that O'Connors and O'Neils are Irish? We certainly believe all this, and, in many cases, we believe it, on the ground of the identity of name only.
[§ 128]. Exceptions.—Still there are exceptions. Of these the most important are as follows:—
1. The termination -ing is sometimes added to an undoubtedly British root, so as to have originated within the island, rather than to have been brought from the continent, e.g., the Kent-ings=the people of Kent. In such a case, the similarity to a German name, if it exist at all, exists as an accident.
2. The same, or nearly the same, name may not only occur in different parts of one and the same division of the Germanic areas, but in different ones, e.g., the Dhyrings may denote the Thuringians of Thuringia; but they may also denote the people of a district, or town, in Belgium, designated as Dorringen.[[17]]
Still as a method, the one in question should be understood; although it has been too short a time before the learned world to have borne fruit.
N.B.—What applies to the coincidence of gentile or patronymic names on the two sides of the water, applies also to dialects; e.g., if (say) the Kentish differed from the other dialects of England, just in the same way, and with the same peculiar words and forms, as (say) the Verden dialect differed from the ones of Germany, we might fairly argue, that it was from the district of Verden that the county of Kent is peopled. At present we are writing simply for the sake of illustrating certain philological methods. The question of dialect will be treated in Part VII.
[§ 129]. German tribes where there is no direct evidence as to their having made part of the population of England, but where the à priori probabilities are strongly in their favour. This applies to—a. The Batavians. No direct evidence, but great à priori probability.
b. The Frisians.—Great à priori probability, and
something more; Βριττίαν δὲ τὴν νῆσον ἔθνη τρία πολυανθρωπότατα ἔχουσι, βασιλεύς τε ἑῖς αὐτῶν ἑκάστῳ ἐφέστηκεν, ὀνόματα δὲ κεῖται τοῖς ἔθνεσι τούτοις Ἀγγίλοι τε καὶ Φρίσσονες καὶ οἱ τῇ νήσῳ ὁμώνυμοι Βρίττωνες. Τοσαύτη δὲ ἡ τῶνδε τῶν ἐθνῶν πολυανθρωπία φαίνεται οὖσα ὥστε ἀνὰ πᾶν ἔτος κατὰ πολλοὺς ἐνθένδε μετανιστάμενοι ξὺν γυναιξὶ καὶ παισὶν ἐς Φράγγους χώρουσιν.[[18]]—Procop. B. G. iv. 20.
[§ 130]. I believe, for my own part, there were portions in the early Germanic population of Britain, which were not strictly either Angle or Saxon (Anglo-Saxon); but I do this without thinking that it bore any great ratio to the remainder, and without even guessing at what that ratio was, or whereabouts its different component elements were located—the Frisians and Batavians being the most probable. With this view, there may have been Jutes as well; notwithstanding what has been said in [§§ 16]-20; since the reasoning there is not so against a Jute element in toto, as against that particular Jute element, in which Beda, Alfred, and the later writers believed and believe.
[§ 131]. No exception against the existence of Batavian, Frisian, Frank, and other elements not strictly Anglo-Saxon, is to be taken from the absence of traces of such in the present language, and that for the following reason. Languages which differ in an older form may so far change according to a common principle, as to become identical in a newer one. E.g., the Frisian infinitive in verbs ends in -a, (as bærna=to burn), the Saxon in -an (as bærnan=to burn). Here is a difference. Let, however, the same change affect both languages; that change being the abandonment, on both sides, of the infinitive termination altogether. What follows? even that the two originally different forms bærn-a, and bærn-an, both come out bærn (burn); so that the result is the same, though the original forms were different.