An Essay towards a Real Character, and a Philosophical Language/Chapter 2
CHAP. II.
I. Concerning the various changes and corruptions to which all vulgar Languages are obnoxious.II. Particularly concerning the changes of the English tongue.III. Whether any Language, formerly in use, be now wholly lost.IV. Concerning the first rise and occasion of new Languages.
§. I.THere are three Queres which may deserve some farther disquisition.1. Whether the purest of those Mother-tongues, which yet remain, be not now much changed from what they were at the first Confusion.2. Whether and how any of the Mother-tongues have been quite lost since the Confusion.3. Whether and how other new Languages have since arisen in the world.
I. To the first, Besides the common fate and corruption to which Languages as well as all other humane things are subject, there are many other particular causes which may occasion such a change: The mixture with other Nations in Commerce; Marriages in Regal Families, which doth usually bring some common words into a Court fashion; that affectation incident to some eminent men in all ages, of coining new words, and altering the common forms of speech, for greater elegance; the necessity of making other words, according as new things and inventions are discovered. Besides, the Laws of forein Conquests usually extend to Letters and Speech as well as Territories, the Victor commonly endeavouring to propagate his own Language as farre as his Dominions; which is the reason why the Greek and Latin are so universally known. And when a Nation is overspread with several Colonies of foreiners, though this do not alwaies prevail to abolish the former Language, yet if they make any long abode, this must needs make such a considerable change and mixture of speech as will very much alter it from its original Purity.
Those learned Languages which have now ceased to be vulgar, and remain onely in Books, by which the purity of them is regulated, may, whilst those Books are extant and studied, continue the same without change. But all Languages that are vulgar, as those learned ones formerly were, are upon the fore-mentioned occasions, subject to so many alterations, that in tract of time they will appear to be quite another thing then what they were at first.
Brerewood's Enquiries, chap. 2. & 6.The Liturgies of S. Basil and S. Chrysostom, which are yet used in the Greek Churches in their publick worship, the one for solemn, the other for common days, have been a long time unintelligible to that people; so much is the vulgar Greek degenerated from its former purity.
Histor. lib. 3.And Polibius testifies, that the Articles of truce betwixt the Romans and Carthaginians could scarce be understood by the most learned Roman Antiquaries 350 years after the time of their making.
§. II.Alex. Gill Logonom. Anglican. Preface.If any English man should now write or speak as our forefathers did about six or seven hundred years past, we should as little understand him as if he were a foreiner; of which it were easie to give several proofs by instance, if it were not inconsistent with my present design of brevity.
What the Saxons Language was at their first arrival into England about the year 440, doth not appear; but ’tis most probable that the changes and differences of it, have been somewhat proportionable in several Ages.
About the year of Christ 700 the Lord’s Prayer in English was thus rendred:
Uren fader thic arth in heofnas, sic gehalgud thin noma: to cymeth thin ric: sin thin willa sue is in heofnas and in eortho. Uren hlaf ofer wirthic sel us to daeg; and forget us scylda urna, sue we forgefen scyldgum urum; and no inlead usith in custnung. Ah gefrig urich from ifle. Amen.
About 200 years after, it was changed thus :
Thu ure fader the eath on heofenum. Si thin nama gehalgod. Cum thin ric. Si thin willa on eorthen swa, swa on heofenum. Sylo us to dægurn dægthanlican hlaf. And forgif us ure gyltas swa, swa we forgifath tham the with us agyltath. And ne led the us on sostnung. Ac alys us from yfle. Si it swa.
About the same time it was rendred in the Saxon Gospels, said to be Translated by King Alfred, after this manner.
Fæder ure thu the earth on heofenum, si thin nama Gehalgod to be cume thin Rice, Gewurthe thin Willa on eorthan swa swa on heofnum, urne ge dæghwanlican hlaf syle us to dæg. And forgyf us ure gyltas, swa swa we forgivath urum gyltendum. And ne gelædde thu us on costnung. Ac Alyse us of yfle.
About 260 years after, in the time of King Henry the ad, it was rendred thus, and sent over by Pope Adrian, an English-man, turned into meter, that the people might more easily learn and remember it.
Ure fadyr in heaven rich;
Thy name be hallyed ever lich,
Thou bring us thy michell blisse:
Als hit in heaven y-doe,
Evar in yearth beene it also.
That holy bread that lasteth ay,
Thou send it ous this ilke day,
Forgive ous all that we have don,
As we forgivet uch other mon:
Ne let ous fall into no founding,
Ac shield ous fro the fowle thing. Amen.
And about a hundred years after, in the time of Henry the third, it was rendred thus:
Fader that art in heavin blisse,
Thin helge nam it wurth the blisse,
Cumen and mot thy kingdom,
Thin holy will it be all don,
In heaven and in erdh also,
So it shall bin full well Ic tro.
Gif us all bread on this day,
And forgif us ure sinnes,
As we do ure wider winnes:
Let us not in fonding fall,
Dac fro evil thu syld us all. Amen.
Oure fadir that art in hevenes, halewid be thi name, thi kingdom come to thee, be thi wil don in eerthe, as in hevene, give to us this day oure breed over othre substanc, and forgive to us oure dettis, as we forgiven oure dettouris, and lede us not into temptation, but delivere us from ivel. Amen.
In another M.S. of Wickliffes Translation, who lived in Richard the 2ds time, it is rendred with very small difference from this.
About a hundred years after this, in a Bible set forth with the Kings licens, translated by Thomas Mathew, and printed in the year 1537, it was rendered thus:
O oure father which arte in heven halowed be thy name. Let thy kingdome come. Thy will be fullfilled, as well in erth, as it is in heven. Geve us this daye oure dayly bred. And forgeve us our treaspases, even as we forgeve oure trespacers. And lead us not into temptacion, but delyver us from evyll. Amen.
After the same manner it is rendered in the Translation of William Tyndall, with some little differences in the spelling.
This one instance may sufficiently manifest by what degrees this Language did receive its several Changes, and how much altered it is now from what it hath been, and consequently what is to be expected in future times. Since Learning began to flourish in our Nation, there have been more then ordinary Changes introduced in our Language: partly by new artificial Compositions; partly by enfranchising strange forein words, for their elegance and significancy, which now make one third part of our Language, and partly by refining and mollifying old words, for the more easie and gracefulfound: by which means this last Century may be conjectured to have made a greater change in our Tongue, then any of the former, as to the addition of new words.
And thus, in all probability , must it have been with all other vulgar Languages. So that ’tis not likely that any of these Mother-tongues now in being, are the same that they were at the first Confusion. So true is that of the Poet:
Ut sylvæ foliis pronos mutantur in annos,
Prima cadunt; ita verborum vetus interit etas,
Et, juvenum ritu, florent modo nata vigenique.
Debemur morti nos nostraque
And a little after,
Multa renascentur que jam cecidere, cadentque
Que nune sunt in honore vocabula, so solet usus;
Quem penes arbitrium est, & vis, & norma loquendi.
2. As to the second Quere, Whether any of the Ancient Languages be now quite lost, it may be answered, That if in some few hundreds of years a Language may be so changed as to be scarce intelligible; then, in a much longer tract of time it may be quite abolished, none of the most radical and substantial parts remaining: For every change is a gradual corruption. Before the flourishing of the Roman Empire, there were several native Languages used in Italy, France, Spain. In Italy we read of the Messapian, the Hetruscan, the Sabine, the Oscan, the Hetrurian or Tuscan Languages; which are now thought by Learned men to be utterly lost, and nowhere to be found in the World.
‘Tis probable that there was not onely one Language in so vast a Territory as France, but that several Provinces spake several Languages: But what those Languages were, or whether yet extant, is uncertain. As for the Celta, who, inbabiting the inner part of the Country, were less subject to forein mixtures, ‘tis most probable that their Language might be the British or Welsh, which is yet spoken in some parts of France. Cæsar reports that the Gauls were wont often to pass over into Britain, to be instructed by the Druids, amongstwhom there was then no use of Books or Writing, and therefore they must communicate by Discourle. And Tacitus affirms that the Speech of the British and Gauls, differed but little.
It is conceived that one of the ancient Tongues of Spain was the Cantabrian, which doth now there remain in the more barren mountainous, inaccessible parts, where Conquerors are less willing to pursue, or desirous to plant; as our British dith in Wales. But 'tis probable that there might be several other Language besides this in so great a Continent, as well as in Italy, which are now wholly lost and unknown.
3. As to the third Quere, concerning the first Rise and occasion of new Languages, that may be sufficiently answered by what was before suggested, concerning those many particular emergencies which may contribute to the introducing a change in Languages.
Some think that the Italians, Spaniards and French, after they were totally subdued by the Romans, and planted with their Colonies, did, after, a certain space of time, receive the Latin Tongue as their most vulgar Speech, and retained it; till afterwards, being several times overrun by the Northern barbarous Nations, the Goths and Vandals, and other Tribes of the Germans, who mixed with them, and after several Conquests resided amongst them, sometimes 20, 60, 200 years together; this afforded time enough for such a thorough coalition betwixt them and the Natives, as could not but introduce a great change in the common Language, whilst the Nations were forced to attemper their Speech for the mutual understanding of one another.
Others conceive that those Countries did not at first perfectly receive the Latin from the Romans, but did onely make use of most principal radical words; neglecting the Grammatical rules of composition and inflection, and with all varying the way of pronunciation, according to the unusualness and difficulty of several sounds to several Countries: And that this was the first and chief occasion of thofe various Medleys or several Dialects now in use; which were afterwards somewhat farther changed from their Originals, by those several Inundations of the Barbarians
'Tis not much material to dispute, which of these causes had the principal influence in the extraction of these modern Tongues, so long as 'tis granted that both of them might contribute and suffice for this effect. As for our present English, this seems to be a mixture of the British, man, Saxon, Danish, Norman, according to the several vicissitudes of Plantations and Conquests, that this Nation hath undergone. And according as such Conquests have been more or less compleat and absolute, so have the Languages been more or less generally altered: which is the reason why the Saxon Tongue was by our progenitors more fully introduced in England, then either that of the Franks amongst the Gauls, or that of the Goths or ''Lumbards in Italy, or that of the Goths, Vandals or Moors in Spain.
That which seems to be the newest Language in the World, is the Malayan, which is now as general and common amongst the Natives of the East-Indies, as Latin or French is in these parts of the World. 'Tis said to be but of late invention, occasioned by the concourse of Fishermen from Pegu, Siam, Bengala, and several other Nations, who meeting together at a place convenient for Fishing, and finding that it was by situation exceeding commodious for Traffick from several parts, did agree to settle there a Plantation; and accordingly built the Town of Malacca, which hath since, for many years, been governed by the Portuguez, and is now under the power of the Hollander? And, for the more facil converse with one another, they agreed upon a distinct Language, which probably was made up by selecting the most soft and easy words belonging to each several Nation. And this is the onely Language (for ought I know) that hath ever been at once invented; if it may properly be styled a distinct Language, and not rather a Medley of many. But this being invented by rude Fishermen, it cannot be expected that it should have all these advantages, with which it might have been furnished by the rules of Philosophy.
I know that the Learned Golius doth affirm the China Language to be invented by Art; but, upon the best discovery to be made of it at this distance, from those who have lived many years in that Country, and pretend to understand the Language, it appears to be so exceedingly equivocal, and in many respects so very imperfect, that there is little reason to believe it had any such Original.