The record-union., 1899-05-01
SOME VERY GID WORDS.
The Debt Of the English Language
to the Greeks, Romans, Etc.

"a ollOIl ClOIy VI the EISISIl IdL-
guage" is the title OF page of the May
st. Nicholas" written by Jessie A.
Chase. When Caesar went to Britain,
in 90 B. c. (and that is the first time
that we hear of the Britons in history,
there was no such thing as the Eng
lish language. No; it is only about
1,2O0 years old And for the first hun
bred years or so it was a baby Ian
guage! For it did not grow to look
and sound at all as it does now until
after 1000 A D. But where and when
was it born?
The Romans, from Caesars time on,
ruled large part of Europe Spain
and Portugal and France are still called
Latin countries, as well aug Italy, be-
cause in all these regions the Latin
race and the Latin language became
Not So with England III the fifth
century the Roman soldiers gave It up
and left Britain. The peopiehad adopt
ed some of the Latin words but the
language of the natives was old Celtic
This, however, was not the mother
tongue of English the mo6ern forms
of Celtic are Scotch-Gaelfc, Irish
Welsh, Manx.
No; our English is the child neither
of the Latin nor of the Celtic, but is
descended from an ancient Germanic
language brought to- Britain in the fifth
and sixth centuries by somestr tribes from
the shores of the Baltic Sea--the AN
giles, Saxons, and Jutes.4s The dialects
of these tribes were much alike, and
We're gradually woven into1 one Ian
crr,s lI4l q
afterward Old English Crom the most
powerful tribe-the Angles.
But surely, when we study Latin and
French, we find a large number of
words that look like English words of
the same meaning. Where did these
come from? English has always been
a great borrower; and just as England
has colonies all over theseworld. so
that the sun never SETS on the
Queens dominions, so English has
words taken from all langua ges.
We have noticed that some Of the Ro-
man soldiers words were left in COM
mon use among the Britons of the fifth
century; these were adopted, in turn
by the Anglo Saxons; and as the Ro-
mans said strata via for a paved way
so the Anglo-Saxon said straet, and we
say street" I wonder if Caesar would
recognize the word! In 597 some Chris
tan missionaries went over from Rome.
and many more Latin words We're
adopted by the Saxons-"church,' -
priest" psalm; also, words for
plants and animals-"lily," pea" lob
ster,'' trout
In the ninth century the; Danes in
vaded England, and left some of their
words. ...4s
In the eleventh and twelfth centuries
France and England were closely unit
ed. the English King and court being
for a long time Norman French; and
English then adopted a. multitude of
French words, which, in their begin
ming, had been, most of them. Latin
And since that time English has been
taking words from Greek and Latin.
from French, Spanish, and Italian. from
German, Dutch, Russian-even from
Hebrew, Persian, Arabic, Turkish and
North American Indianl
For example, when we say amen"
at the close of a prayer, we are using
a word taken straight from the ancient
Hebrews. -.
When we say telescope" we are using
llie WOIuS d creek boy might nave
used 1000 years ago: .sTele skopeo''-I
see at a distance" When we call
certain study geography we are put
ting together two words that to the
Greek boy meant writing of the
earth" When we name a certain forma-
ton of land peninsula" we take
two Latin words for almost an isl
and"
When we say "boudoir", we use an
old French word that meant a place to
go and ''pout" in. And if we call a
certain little animal a squirrel" we
are speaking, also with the old Greeks,
of little creature sitting in the shad
ow of it's tail"
Ought we not to remember always
that even for our language we owe so
much to those that have lived before
urselves-some in distant countries,
and many in the far-off centuries, even
before history begins?
Switzerland took in last year $685. S42
francs in fares on it's Alpine stage lines.
- Is ssG9
Liquor dealers in Indiana, paid in fees
and fines last year S94S,525. ,as. .ssy