The English Language Part 15

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 {71} of the ill.u.s.tration 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 pa.s.s 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 Waelsings--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 a.s.sume 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 {72} 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 ident.i.ty 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 ill.u.s.trating 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 _a priori_ probabilities are strongly in their favour._ This applies to--_a._ The Batavians. No direct evidence, but great _a priori_ probability.

_b._ _The Frisians._--Great _a priori_ probability, and {73} something more; [Greek: Brittian de ten neson ethne tria poluanthropotata echousi, basileus te heis auton hekastoi ephesteken, onomata de keitai tois ethnesi toutois Angiloi te kai Phrissones kai hoi tei nesoi h.o.m.onumoi Brittones.

Tosaute de he tonde ton ethnon poluanthropia phainetai ousa hoste ana pan etos kata pollous enthende metanistamenoi xun gunaixi kai paisin es Phrangous chorousin].[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 _baerna_=_to burn_), the Saxon in _-an_ (as _baernan_=_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 _baern-a_, and _baern-an_, both come out _baern_ (_burn_); so that the result is the same, though the original forms were different.

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CHAPTER VI.

THE CELTIC STOCK OF LANGUAGES, AND THEIR RELATIONS TO THE ENGLISH.

-- 132. The languages of Great Britain at the invasion of Julius Caesar were of the Celtic stock.

Of the Celtic stock there are two branches.

1. The British or Cambrian branch, represented by the present Welsh, and containing, besides, the Cornish of Cornwall (lately extinct) and the Armorican of the French province of Brittany. It is almost certain that the old British, the ancient language of Gaul, and the Pictish were of this branch.

2. The Gaelic or Erse Branch, represented by the present Irish Gaelic, and containing, besides, the Gaelic of the Highlands of Scotland and the Manks of the Isle of Man.

SPECIMENS.

BRITISH.

_The Lord's Prayer in Cornish._

_Old Cornish._

An Taz, ny es yn nef, bethens thy hannow ugh.e.l.les, gwrenz doz thy gulas ker: bethens thy voth gwraz yn oar kepare hag yn nef: ro thyn ny hithow agan peb dyth bara; gava thyn ny ny agan cam, kepare ha gava ny neb es cam ma erbyn ny; nyn homfrek ny en antel, mez gwyth ny the worth drok: rag gans te yn an mighterneth, and creveder, hag an' worryans, byz a venitha.

_Modern Cornish._