CHAPTER III.
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.
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.