They may be divided into Low German and High German dialects, of which the latter may be subdivided into South German and Middle German. Since the time of Luther these historical peculiarities of speech have however in a great measure disappeared, and are heard only among the lower classes.-Languages. Of all the numerous Teutonic tongues of ancient times, only five languages, German, Dutch, English, Danish, and Swedish, are now in a flourishing condition. Linguists consider the Scandinavian, Gothic, and German forms of speech as descended, in common with the modern idioms of India, Persian, Greek, Latin, Celtic, Slavic, and Lithuanian, from a single parent tongue, Sanskrit. It was, however, deemed necessary to go further, and to derive the whole group of Indo-European tongues from a primitive language, which was also the mother of Sanskrit. This language, of which no monuments exist, has been constructed by the science of comparative grammar, not as the primitive tongue from which all forms of speech are derived, but as one of many primitive languages, and as the parent of Sanskrit, Greek, Latin, Gothic, etc, as Latin is the mother of French, Italian, and Spanish. The following table exhibits the probable course of development of the Teutonic tongues:

Scandinavian.........

W.Scandinavian, Old Norse..........

Icelandic.

Low German ..

E.Scandinavian..........

Swedish.

Danish.

.....................

Old Frisian..............

Frisian.

PRIMITIVE GERMANIC

OR

TEUTONIC.

Saxon...............

Anglo-Saxon. ..

. English.

Middle Dutch. .

. Dutch.

Old Saxon ....

Piatt-Deutsch.

Gothic.

High German.. ..

Old High German...

Middle High German..........

German.

Among the Indo-European languages, Gothic diverges widely from the primitive tongue, and must be considered as a younger sister of Sanskrit. Gothic was not the oldest of the Germanic tongues, though its literary documents date back further than any other. Old High German, old Norse, Anglo-Saxon, and Gothic were probably sister dialects; at least no one of them appears to be derived from any of the others. Old High German comprises a number of dialects which were spoken chiefly in South Germany, as the Thuringian, Frankish, Swabian, Alsatian. Swiss, and Bavarian.

, They are found in literary records dating from the 8th to the middle of the 11th century. A gradual change took place subsequently in the language, and it became the mother of a new dialect, which is called the middle High German, and which survived it in the same districts of upper Germany. The literature of middle High German reaches from the 12th to the end of the 15th century, and it is so clear, grand, refined, and melodious, that it has been called the first classical period of German literature. A new modification of the old High German, and a daughter of the middle High German, made its appearance for the first time in a literary production of note in Luther's translation of the Bible, and in its rapid development seems to have reached, its culminating point in the literature of the present century. Under the term Low German are comprised all the dialects spoken in the lowlands of Germany. The old Saxon, which belongs to this group, was spoken between the Rhine and the Elbe, in the districts which lie at the foot of the central plateau of Germany. Its literary documents date from between the 9th and 11th centuries, and had their origin in the districts of Minister, Essen, and Cleves. The old Saxon is the mother of the middle Low German, which is to be distinguished from the middle German and middle Netherlandish or middle Dutch, and also from the modern derivative of it called modern Low German, or Platt-Deutsch. While old Saxon most closely approaches old High German, the dialect spoken in the districts of Thuringia and the region between upper and lower Germany formed a kind of transition between High and Low German. On the N. coast of Germany, between the Rhine and the Elbe, and beyond the latter river as far as Jutland, extended the old Frisian dialect.

Its literary records are of comparatively late date, but it displays a very antique cast, resembling most closely the old High German. The Dutch language has no literature earlier than the 16th century, but it is still a literary and national language; while Flemish, which was also used during this period in the courts of Flanders and Brabant, had to give way to the official languages of Holland and Belgium, and its use is almost completely confined to the Flemish peasantry. Anglo-Saxon is-also a Low German dialect. The four Germanic tribes that invaded Britain have left no record in the dialects peculiar to each, and there are no facts from which to determine the precise nature of their speech. The Jutes who settled in Kent, Hampshire, and the Isle of Wight probably did not speak an old Norse dialect, as no traces of it are found in those districts. The Angles, coming from a settlement adjacent to the Saxons, may also have spoken a Saxon dialect. The Saxons of England called themselves simply Saxons, in distinction from the old Saxons, or those who had remained on the continent; but it is still doubtful whether they belonged exactly to one and the same tribe.

The term Anglo-Saxon

No.

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

10

Primitive.

aina-

dua, dva

tri-

katvar

kankan

ksvaks

saptan

aktu

navan

dakan

Sanskrit.

eka-

dva

tri-

chatiir

panchan

shash

saptan

ashtau

navan

dasan

Greek.

Germanic Races And Languages 700368

Germanic Races And Languages 700369

Germanic Races And Languages 700370

Germanic Races And Languages 700371

Germanic Races And Languages 700372

Germanic Races And Languages 700373

Germanic Races And Languages 700374

Germanic Races And Languages 700375

Germanic Races And Languages 700376

Germanic Races And Languages 700377

Latin.

unus

duo

tres

quatuor

quinque

sex

septem

octo

novem

decern

0.

II. G.

ein

zwene

dri

vior

fimf

sehs

sibun

ahto

niun

zehan

M.H.Ger.

ein

zwene

dri

vier

vunf

sehs

siben

aht

niun

zehen

German.

ein (s)

zwei

drei

vier

funf

sechs

sieben

acht

neun

zelm

Gothic.

ain (s)

tvai

preis

fidvor

fimf

saihs

siun

ahtau

niun

taihun

Old

Norse.

ein

tveir

prir

fiowr

fimm

sex

siau

atta

niu

tin

Swedish.

en (ett)

tva

tre

fyra

fern

sex

sju

atta

nio

tio

Danish.

een (eet)

to

tre

fire

fem

sex

Syv

aatto

ni

ti

Old Fris.

6n

twene

thre

fiwer

fif

sex

sigun

achta

nigun

tian

Old Sax.

en

tuena

thria

fiwar

fif

sehs

Germanic Races And Languages 700378

ahto

nigun

tehan

Dutch.

een

twee

drie

vier

vijf

zes

zeven

acht

negen

tien

Ang. Sax.

an

twegen

prii

feover

fif

six

seofen

ahta

nigon

tin

Old English.

an, on

twey, tuo

pre

four

five

sixe

sou en

eigte, aught

nyne, nye

ten

Engl.

one

two

three

four

five

six

seven

eight

nine

ten

is however applied to all Germanic dialects spoken in England after the 5th century. The language of the period extending to the end of the 10th century is distinguished as old Anglo-Saxon, with two principal dialects, the Saxon and Anglian* or southern and northern, of which the Anglian or northern was the most affected by Norse influences. The language of the subsequent period was a strange mixture of Anglo-Saxon with the Norse of the Danes and Norwegians, and the Norse-French of the Norman conquerors; and the literary documents are characterized by a considerable loss of the inflectional forms. Modern Anglo-Saxon or English is divided into three periods: old English, middle English, and modern English. Old English continued to disregard the old inflectional forms, especially in the declension of substantives. Middle English is characterized by an almost total absence of declensions of nouns and adjectives, and a great diminution of strong verbs. Modern English continued the same decline, and has now been stripped of all inflectional forms with the exception of the s and st of the present and the ed and en of the preterite of verbs, the ing of the present participle, the s of the genitive and plural, the degrees of comparison of adjectives and adverbs, and a few pronominal cases.