Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1890-11-06
OUR yERNAcuLAR.
1rxhe Structure of the Present English
Language.

The Structure OF the Present English
Language.
Until the conquest of England by Will
lam, Duke of Normandy, A. D. 1866, the
Saxon language was spoken through
out that Kingdom. William under
took the difficult task of abolishing
the Saxon tongue; and, therefore, ordered
the youth of his newly-acquired dominion
to be instructed in the French language
The pleadings in the Supreme Courts of
Judicature, the title deeds to estates, and
the laws of the land were written in Nor
man-French, and no other language was
spoken at court. But the necessary inter-
course between the conquerers and the
conquered gave rise to the gradual forma-
ton of adialect compounded of the Anglo
Saxon and Norman-French, in order that
they might render themselves mutually
Ineligible; and from this necessity arose
the structure of the present English Ian
guage, which has been SO richly improved
by importations from the classical Ian
guages and from those spoken by the
southern nations of Europe. About 1850
may be dated the decline of pure Saxon.
Richard J., who died in 1899, was not
known to have uttered an English word
About 1850 may be dated the beginning of
pure English. The psalms of David were
done in meter in 1870 Plays were per-
formed in English in 1928. Wills and
settlements were first written in English
In 1347. In 1881 Courtney, Bishop of
London, preached in English. 1t was not
until 1855 that children in the schools of
England were taught the English, to the
exclusion of the French tongue. Evening
prayer was read for the first time in En-
glish in Edward WIS chapel on the 18th
day of April, 154S.
Cover, Chaucer and Wickliffe arose at
the beginning of the latter half of the
fourteenth century, after which our
language underwent no further violent
oh es; and as lie lrning advanced AMI
name improved, it gradually assumed
the form in which it is exhibited to us in
those two works, which may be considered
the standards of pure English, our ver-
sion of the Bible and the writings OF
Shakespeare
The Cromwell Bible, so-called, printed
In 1868, is in the style now in use; conse-
quently our vernacular has undergone no
material change during two and half
centuries.
About ive-eighths of all the words in
the English language are derived from the
Anglo-Saxon. OF the sixty-six words
composing the Lords Prayer all but five
are Anglo-Saxon. Gray's "Elegy" con-
tains 991 words, Of which TIE Anglo-Saxon
furnishes 81, the Latin lbs, the French
fifteen, the Italian seven and the Greek
twenty-three. The soliloquy of Hamlet
contains eighty-one words, of which all but
thirteen are Anglo-Saxon.
The English language consists of about
10000 radical words, of which Shakespeare
uses about $4,000, and is the vernacular of
125,G00,000 of human beings.
THE LORDS PRAYER AT DIFFERENT
PERIODS.
The following will exhibit in our YER
nacular specimens of the Lords Prayer, at
different periods:
A. D. 1850.
Fadur ure in heune, halewede beoth thi
neune, cume1 thi kuneriehe, thi vote
booth idon in heune and in erthe. IRE
euerych dave breid gif vus thilk, dave.
And vorzef ure deltes, as vi vorzefeu ure
bettoures, and lede vus nouzt into tempta-
ton, but deliueri vus of uvel. Amen.
A. d. 1900.
Fader cure in hevene Halewd be thi
name Come thi kingdom. Thi willie be
done as in heven and in erthe Cure eche
dayes bred geve US to-day. And forgive