HIGH SCHOOL ENGLISH BOOK TWO CHAPTER I WORDS 1. The English Language. Our modern English is a composite language. The parent stock, as we call it, was brought into England by invading tribes from Germany, and it therefore belongs to the Germanic or Teutonic group of languages. This relationship is attested by the similarity of such words as mother, mutter; house, haus; home, heim; uncle, oncle; field, feld; and many hundreds of others. The speech of the invaders suffered many changes. Conquests and further invasions have continued to produce changes by bringing in new words, by changing idiom and pronunciation, and by amalgamating other languages, even down to our day. We first know the speech of England as a written language in the time of King Alfred. The oldest recorded specimens of the language we call Anglo-Saxon. Other epochs are distinguished by such names as Old English, Middle English, Early English. The language now in use is called simply English. 2. The English Vocabulary: Sources. The words in the English dictionary bear witness to much of the history of the English-speaking people. The story of the invasion of England is suggested by the many words cognate with German; the Saxon words mark the Anglo-Saxon period; French words, the Norman-French invasion and conquest; while words of Latin and Greek origin show the influence of the Renaissance. These are only a few of the sources from which the English language has drawn its stock of words, but they are the important sources. In America, every element of a composite population has contributed more or less to the common stock of words and has enriched the English vocabulary. 1. Saxon Words. The main body of English words is the contribution of the Angles and Saxons who took possession of Britain during the fifth and sixth centuries. Their language had acquired considerable stability by the tenth century and was used by Alfred in his Chronicle. The speech of this period of five hundred years is to-day the basis of our English vocabulary. Our words of the home, domestic life, the farm, the forest, and the sea are Saxon words; as, Horse, tree, chair, plow, work, ride, rain, rest, barn, father, mother, home, friend, wife, child, marriage, guest, ship, boat, shore, storm, wreck, wave, flood. 2. French Words. When the Norman-French conquered Britain in 1066, French became the lan |