Biography of the English Language
by Arthur MacArthur
Category: Literary Collections

Excerpt from Biography of the English Language: With Critical Remarks Upon the Works of Ancient and Modern Authors, and Some Account of Their History; Also an Examination Into the Present Position of English Among the Languages of the World In the remote wilds of Northern Europe a number of nations existed, each having a distinct name but all speaking dialeets of the same language. The Saxons were one of these tribes, and several others who were near neighbors joined them on their settlementin Britain. The Angles, who were probably the most numerous of the confederates, gave their name to the island, and the Saxons on the other hand gave their name to the race, and the names of both were merged into the double compound anglo-saxon. At that time Germany consisted of many nationalities that were known under the general terms of Saxons, Goths, Germans, and Teutons. We therefore speak of our forefathers' speech as Saxon, Gothic, Ger manic, and Teutonic. These, however, mean the same people and the same language, and in speaking of the-english it is understood by any one or all of these names, and in that sense I use them inter changeably in the present volume. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.