American telegraph. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1851-1851, 1851-08-19
AMERICAN51ELEGRAPH


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sysaxon-Engl glish, and Lntin-English.
fThe following extracts from the circular late-
~ issued by Professor Al Freitag, distin-
gulshed lmguist of Baltimore, will be found of
interest. DIR. f.. is engaged in the public High
School and at st. Maly's College, .e8lsf4 g,i
N locke, one hundred and fifty years ago, and
Horne Tooke, ninety years later, remarked,
that " the parent language ought long ago to
have made part in the education Of our YOUTH"
yet, It if only after 3Rask, the Dane, had pub
llshed his Anglo-Sa3on Grammar, and Grimm,
the German, his Tentonic Grammar, about; tltir-
~ years age, that the study of our mother
tongue began in England to be more generally
| appreciated, At present it is considered an
essential in the education of every well bred
Englishman. h With us in America, the Anglo
Saxon language has, indeed, figured in the cata-
logues Of our Colleges, but it was never taught
nor learned to. any extent, until recently, in
1S4S, DR.. Klipstein edited an Anglo Saxon
Grammar and Reader. Through his exertions
the study of Anglo-Saxon has been introduced
into the first Colleges and High Schools of our
country, and its claims to usefulness are now
becoming more and more understood Profes-
sor John s. Hart, Principal of the Centre High
School in Philadelphia-an institution which
compares fayorably with the very best Of its
kind in Europe, even in Germany, both for its
plan and management--writes, in his annual
report of l849-5O: .,-..., ...g5 ,,a......
!" The object of this department English and
Anglo Saxon) is to make the student familiar
with the. history and resources Of the mother
! tongue. Such a familiarity, and the study by
which it, is acquired, will soonest correct the
habit into WHICH men of liberal education are
wont to fall, of using Latin words and idioms,
instead of relying upon their own vernacular.
The English language, let it be, remembered, is
composed Of two main ingredients One of
l thn 49, IL IL 4
lish, and makes up more than three -fourths of
the whole The other is the Latin, q foreign
element, introduced partly from the Norman
French at the conquest, and partly from the
! continued cultivation of Latin and its modern
descendants, the French, Spanish and Italian,
as part of polite learning. This foreign ele-
ment of the language has been heretofore the
only part that has received any adequate degree
of attention. The Latin at least, and latterly
some one or more--of its descendants, have
formed a constituent part of every course Of lib
eral study among those who speak the English
tongue. Hence, our scholars have been the
chief corrupters of the language Being, by
their whole course of study, more familiar with
the Latin element than with the Saxon, they
very naturally say tpaternal,' and connubial,
and felicity where different course of study,
or even no study at all, would have led them to
say fatherly, and married. and .happiness'
If the study of Latin is important because from
Lit we derive one fifth of the words of the Ian
/ guage, how much more important is the study
of the Saxon, the mother tongue, which has
i given us the remaining four-ffths? If every
educated man could have, the same familiarity
with the Saxon that he is obliged to have with
THE Latin, he would add immensely to his
| knowledge of the power and resources of his
own language" ~ .7E Is.
The same sentiments are entertained by Pro-
- -.
| lsh Grammar in which, though for the first
time In America, the modern researches in the
| Teutonic languages are brought to bear upon
the origin and development Of the English Ian
guage. l would add that with us the Anglo
Saxon is the most practical of all the languages,
still in another point of view. Being partly the
| mother, partly the sister of the other Teutonic
languages, full two -thinds of it are up TO this
| day alive in German, Dutch, Danish, and Swed-
! ish. Upwards of five millions of Germans,
Dutchmen, Danes, and Swedes live already in
| America, and tens of thousands are coming
every year, who transmit to their offspring
| their mother tongue taught in their schools to-
gether with the English. BY making the Anglo
Saxon language part Of the education of our
schools, we advance that most important md
interesting feature in our national intercourse,
the oneness and sdniencss of language throughout
our Confcderacy, which we may regard as one
| of the strongest ties that bind our States in
union What can be more truly patriotic And
suppose il should be the case that those sounds
| Of the good old English words and thoughts
that may arise from the grave in which an un-
mindful posterity had buried them, should be
considered "vulgur" by few oyer-fastidious
Ldtan-Engiish scholars! This can be no reason
why our language should be deprived Of these
highly useful portions of it.
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