Chapter 67

GERMANIC ORIGIN OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE.--DATE.

§ 1. The first point to be remembered in the history of the English language, is that it was not the primitive and original tongue of any of the British Islands, nor yet of any portion of them. Indeed, of the _whole_ of Great Britain it is not the language at the present moment. Welsh is spoken in Wales, Manks in the Isle of Man, and Scotch Gaelic in the Highlands of Scotland; besides which there is the Irish Gaelic in Ireland.

§ 2. The next point to be considered is the real origin and the real affinities of the English language.

Its _real_ origin is on the continent of Europe, and its _real_ affinities are with certain languages there spoken. To speak more specifically, the native country of the English language is _Germany_; and the _Germanic_ languages are those that are the most closely connected with our own. In Germany, languages and dialects allied to each other and allied to the mother-tongue of the English have been spoken from times anterior to history; and these, for most purposes of philology, may be considered as the aboriginal languages and dialects of that country.

§ 3. _Accredited details of the different immigrations from Germany into Britain._--Until lately the details of the different Germanic invasions of England, both in respect to the particular tribes by which they were made, and the order in which they succeeded each other, were received with but little doubt, and as little criticism.

Respecting the tribes by which they were made, the current opinion was, that they were chiefly, if not exclusively, those of the Jutes, the Saxons, and the Angles.

The particular chieftains that headed each descent were also supposed to be known, as well as the different localities upon which they descended.[1] These were as follows:--

_First settlement of invaders from Germany._--The account of this gives us A.D. 449 for the first permanent Germanic tribes settled in Britain. Ebbsfleet, in the Isle of Thanet, was the spot where they landed; and the particular name that these tribes gave themselves was that of _Jutes_. Their leaders were Hengist and Horsa. Six years after their landing they had established the kingdom of Kent; so that the county of Kent was the first district where the original British was superseded by the mother-tongue of the present English, introduced from Germany.

_Second settlement of invaders from Germany._--A.D. 477 invaders from Northern Germany made the second permanent settlement in Britain. The coast of Sussex was the spot whereon they landed. The particular name that these tribes gave themselves was that of _Saxons_. Their leader was Ella. They established the kingdom of the South Saxons (Sussex or Suð-Seaxe); so that the county of Sussex was the second district where the original British was superseded by the mother-tongue of the present English, introduced from Germany.

_Third settlement of invaders from Germany._--A.D. 495 invaders from Northern Germany made the third permanent settlement in Britain. The coast of Hampshire was the spot whereon they landed. Like the invaders last mentioned, these tribes were Saxons. Their leader was Cerdic. They established the kingdom of the West Saxons (Wessex or West-Seaxe); so that the county of Hants was the third district where the original British was superseded by the mother-tongue of the present English, introduced from Germany.

_Fourth settlement of invaders from Germany._--A.D. 530, certain Saxons landed in Essex, so that the county of Essex [East-Seaxe] was the fourth district where the original British was superseded by the mother-tongue of the present English, introduced from Northern Germany.

_Fifth settlement of invaders from Germany._--These were _Angles_ in Norfolk and Suffolk. The precise date of this settlement is not known. The fifth district where the original British was superseded by the mother-tongue of the present English was the counties of Norfolk and Suffolk; the particular dialect introduced being that of the _Angles_.

_Sixth settlement of invaders from Germany._--A.D. 547 invaders from Northern Germany made the sixth permanent settlement in Britain. The southeastern counties of Scotland, between the rivers Tweed and Forth, were the districts where they landed. They were of the tribe of the Angles, and their leader was Ida. The south-eastern parts of Scotland constituted the sixth district where the original British was superseded by the mother-tongue of the present English, introduced from Northern Germany,

§ 4. It would be satisfactory if these details rested upon contemporary evidence. This, however, is far from being the case.

1. _The evidence to the details just given, is not historical, but traditional._--a. Beda,[2] from whom it is chiefly taken, wrote nearly 300 years after the supposed event, i.e., the landing of Hengist and Horsa, in A.D. 449.

b. The nearest approach to a contemporary author is Gildas,[3] and _he_ wrote full 100 years after it.

2. _The account of Hengist's and Horsa's landing, has elements which are fictional rather than historical_--a. Thus "when we find Hengist and Horsa approaching the coasts of Kent in three keels, and Ælli effecting a landing in Sussex with the same number, we are reminded of the Gothic tradition which carries a migration of Ostrogoths,[4] Visigoths, and Gepidæ, also in three vessels, to the mouth of the Vistula."--Kemble, "Saxons in England."

b. The murder of the British chieftains by Hengist is told _totidem verbis_, by Widukind[5] and others, of the Old Saxons in Thuringia.

c. Geoffry of Monmouth[6] relates also, how "Hengist obtained from the Britons as much land as could be enclosed by an ox-hide; then, cutting the hide into thongs, enclosed a much larger space than the granters intended, on which he erected Thong Castle--a tale too familiar to need illustration, and which runs throughout the mythus of many nations. Among the Old Saxons, the tradition is in reality the same, though recorded with a slight variety of detail. In their story, a lapfull of earth is purchased at a dear rate from a Thuringian; the companions of the Saxon jeer him for his imprudent bargain; but he sows the purchased earth upon a large space of ground, which he claims, and, by the aid of his comrades, ultimately wrests it from the Thuringians."--Kemble, "Saxons in England."

3. _There is direct evidence in favour of their having been German tribes in England anterior to_ A.D. 447.--a. At the close of the Marcomannic war,[7] Marcus Antoninus transplanted a number of Germans into Britain.

b. Alemannic auxiliaries served along with Roman legions under Valentinian.[8]

c. _The Notitia utriusque Imperii_,[9] of which the latest date is half a century earlier than the epoch of Hengist, mentions, as an officer of state, the _Comes littoris Saxonici per Britannias_; his government extending along the coast from Portsmouth to the Wash.

§ 5. _Inference._--As it is nearly certain, that 449 A.D. is _not_ the date of the first introduction of German tribes into Britain, we must consider that the displacement of the original British began at an _earlier_ period than the one usually admitted, and, consequently, that it was more _gradual_ than is usually supposed.

Perhaps, if we substitute the middle of the _fourth_, instead of the middle of the _fifth_ century, as the epoch of the Germanic immigrations into Britain, we shall not be far from the truth.

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