A Brief History of the English Language and Literature, Vol. 2 | Page 7

words; and the Church which they founded introduced ever more and more words from Rome. The Danes began to come over to this island in the eighth century; we had for some time a Danish dynasty seated on the throne of England: and hence we possess many Danish words. The Norman-French invasion in the eleventh century brought us many hundreds of Latin words; for French is in reality a branch of the Latin tongue. The Revival of Learning in the sixteenth century gave us several thousands of Latin words. And wherever our sailors and merchants have gone, they have brought back with them foreign words as well as foreign things-- Arabic words from Arabia and Africa, Hindustani words from India, Persian words from Persia, Chinese words from China, and even Malay words from the peninsula of Malacca. Let us look a little more closely at these foreign elements.
6. +The Keltic Element in English.+-- This element is of three kinds: (i) Those words which we received direct from the ancient Britons whom we found in the island; (ii) those which the Norman-French brought with them from Gaul; (iii) those which have lately come into the language from the Highlands of Scotland, or from Ireland, or from the writings of Sir Walter Scott.
7. +The First Keltic Element.+-- This first contribution contains the following words: Breeches, clout, crock, cradle, darn, dainty, mop, pillow; barrow (a funeral mound), glen, havoc, kiln, mattock, pool. It is worthy of note that the first eight in the list are the names of domestic-- some even of kitchen-- things and utensils. It may, perhaps, be permitted us to conjecture that in many cases the Saxon invader married a British wife, who spoke her own language, taught her children to speak their mother tongue, and whose words took firm root in the kitchen of the new English household. The names of most rivers, mountains, lakes, and hills are, of course, Keltic; for these names would not be likely to be changed by the English new-comers. There are two names for rivers which are found-- in one form or another-- in every part of Great Britain. These are the names +Avon+ and +Ex+. The word +Avon+ means simply water. We can conceive the children on a farm near a river speaking of it simply as "the water"; and hence we find fourteen Avons in this island. +Ex+ also means water; and there are perhaps more than twenty streams in Great Britain with this name. The word appears as +Ex+ in +Exeter+ (the older and fuller form being Exanceaster-- the camp on the Exe); as +Ax+ in +Axminster+; as +Ox+ in +Oxford+; as +Ux+ in +Uxbridge+; and as +Ouse+ in Yorkshire and other eastern counties. In Wales and Scotland, the hidden +k+ changes its place and comes at the end. Thus in Wales we find +Usk+; and in Scotland, +Esk+. There are at least eight Esks in the kingdom of Scotland alone. The commonest Keltic name for a mountain is +Pen+ or +Ben+ (in Wales it is Pen; in Scotland the flatter form Benis used). We find this word in England also under the form of +Pennine+; and, in Italy, as +Apennine+.
8. +The Second Keltic Element.+-- The Normans came from Scandinavia early in the tenth century, and wrested the valley of the Seine out of the hands of Charles the Simple, the then king of the French. The language spoken by the people of France was a broken-down form of spoken Latin, which is now called French; but in this language they had retained many Gaulish words out of the old Gaulish language. Such are the words: Bag, bargain, barter; barrel, basin, basket, bucket; bonnet, button, ribbon; car, cart; dagger, gown; mitten, motley; rogue; varlet, vassal, wicket. The above words were brought over to Britain by the Normans; and they gradually took an acknowledged place among the words of our own language, and have held that place ever since.
9. +The Third Keltic Element.+-- This consists of comparatively few words-- such as clan; claymore (a sword); philabeg (a kind of kilt), kilt itself, brogue (a kind of shoe), plaid; pibroch(bagpipe war-music), slogan (a war-cry); and whisky. Ireland has given us shamrock, gag, log, clog, and brogue-- in the sense of a mode of speech.
10. +The Scandinavian Element in English.+-- Towards the end of the eighth century-- in the year 787-- the Teutons of the North, called Northmen, Normans, or Norsemen-- but more commonly known as Danes-- made their appearance on the eastern coast of Great Britain, and attacked the peaceful towns and quiet settlements of the English. These attacks became so frequent, and their occurrence was so much dreaded, that a prayer was inserted against them in a Litany of the time-- "From the incursions of the Northmen, good Lord, deliver us!"