Anglo-Saxon Grammar.-Although throughout the preceding pages the points of contrast between Anglo-Saxon and modern English, with respect to Grammar, have been systematically shown, it may be useful to present a summary of them here also :

There were two chief dialects of Anglo-Saxon-the North

ern and the Southern.

navian peculiarities.

The former was tinged with Scandi

The Scandinavian Element.-The incursions of the Danish pirates, beginning in 787 A.D. at Dorchester, and culminating in a Danish dynasty that held the English throne for twenty-four years (1017-1041 A.D.), affected the English language to some extent.

The River Tees may be taken as a boundary-line, separating regions in which different forms of the Scandinavian element predominated. North of that stream the Norwegian element prevailed-south of it, the Danish.

The following are traces of this element :—

1. By in names of towns; as Whitby, Derby. By this syllable we trace the progress of the Danes even to remote places like Tenby in Wales. The Norwegian

word is wick, changed in England to wich. The strongholds of by-that is, of the Danish settlements—were in Lincolnshire and Yorkshire.

2. The Scottish dialect (which some regard as a separate language) was much influenced by the Scandinavian element. This is thought to have caused the broadening of the vowel-sounds, heard north of Tweed. As specimens of Scandinavian words we may give—

3. Son, so common in our surnames as a patronymic termination, as Johnson, Wilson, &c., is Danish. The Anglo-Saxon affix, to correspond, was ing.

The chief advantage Anglo-Saxon had over modern English was, that the abundance of terminations allowed a freedom of arrangement quite impossible in an English sentence. But the Anglo-Saxon had no Future Tense, either inflectional or formed by auxiliaries. The idea of futurity was conveyed by a Present Tense with an Adverb of future time; I give to-morrow, for example.

SEMI-SAXON.

(1066 A.D.-1258 A.D.)

This name has been given to the Second Stage of our language, which differed from the Anglo-Saxon almost entirely in the loss of inflections. The student must here be cautioned against the error, that the difference between Anglo-Saxon and Semi-Saxon consisted in a large intermixture of Norman-French words, resulting from the Norman Conquest. It was not until the Third or Early English Stage that the Norman-French element began to influence

our language to any considerable extent. Scarcely any trace of the Norman-French is found in the Semi-Saxon, which is in the main Anglo-Saxon, divested of certain terminations. Indeed it has been suggested, with some probability, that the Semi-Saxon was only some spoken dialect, which had been on the lips of the people before the Norman Conquest, and had survived among the down-trodden thralls after the fall of the Saxon throne.

There existed in England during this period three distinct languages :

1. The Semi-Saxon, just referred to.

2. The Norman-French, which became by a slight infusion of English the Anglo-Norman.

3. The Latin, spoken and written by the Clergy.

The Norman-French, which was that Romance dialect of northern France known as the Langue d'Oyl, began to be fashionable in England in the time of Edward the Confessor. The Norman Conquest established it in England as the speech of the Government and the Courts of Law. But it remained throughout the Semi-Saxon period quite separate from the native tongue, which was influenced but very slightly by its existence in the land, except in being thrust aside and trodden down.

The Norman-French came into common use :

1. In the Schools, where the pupils translated their Latin lessons into French.

2. In the Courts of Law, where the trials were conducted in French, or, at least, in Anglo-Norman.

3. In the Popular Literature, which took the shape of the Norman-French Romance.

But, when the first century after the Norman Conquest

was over, a reäction began; and the Semi-Saxon, drawing strength from its rival, after a time cast that rival out, and held undisputed sway in England as the English Language. Semi-Saxon Literature.-The remains of the Semi-Saxon are scanty:

1. The later portions of the Saxon Chronicle, which closed in 1154 A.D.

2. Layamon's Brut-a translation from the French chronicler Wace.

3. The Ancren Riwle-a set of laws in prose for the guidance of the ladies in a certain nunnery.

4. The Ormulum, (so called from its writer)—a metrical paraphrase of Scripture.

Semi-Saxon Vocabulary.-In the thirteenth century SemiSaxon contained about 8000 words, so far as can be ascertained from its Literature. Of these only 1000 were of Latin or Romance origin.

Semi-Saxon Grammar.-The chief differences, distinguishing Semi-Saxon from Anglo-Saxon, are :—

1. The dropping off of inflections from the Noun. The Genitive es, and the Nominative Plural as, lingered longest; and still survive in English, but without the vowels.

2. The neglect of Feminine terminations in Adjectives and Pronouns.

3. The use of a as an Article.

4. The thinning of the Anglo-Saxon endings an and a into en and e.

5. The use of the Weak Conjugation (i.e., addition of t or ed) in the Verb instead of the Strong.

6. The use of to as a sign of the Infinitive Mood.