A Handbook of the English Language. R. G. Latham

by the conquerors of ancient Rome; by the subjects of Hermanric, Alaric, Theodoric, Euric, Athanaric, and Totila.

      In the reign of Valens, when pressed by intestine wars, and by the movements of the Huns, the Goths were assisted by that emperor, and settled in the Roman province of Mœsia.

      Furthermore, they were converted to Christianity; and the Bible was translated into their language by their Bishop Ulphilas.

      Fragments of this translation, chiefly from the Gospels, have come down to the present time; and the Bible translation of the Arian Bishop Ulphilas, in the language of the Goths of Mœsia, during the reign of Valens, exhibits the earliest sample of any Gothic tongue.

§ 36. The Old High German, called also Francic^[24] and Alemannic,^[25] was spoken in the ninth, tenth, and eleventh centuries, in Suabia, Bavaria, and Franconia.

      The Middle High German ranges from the thirteenth century to the Reformation.

§ 37. The low Germanic division, to which the Anglo-Saxon belongs, is currently said to comprise six languages, or rather four languages in different stages.

      I. II.—The Anglo-Saxon and Modern English.

      III. The Old Saxon.

      IV. V.—The Old Frisian and Modern Dutch.

      VI.—The Platt-Deutsch, or Low German.

§ 38. The Frisian and Dutch.—It is a current statement that the Old Frisian bears the same relation to the Modern Dutch of Holland that the Anglo-Saxon does to the English.

      The truer view of the question is as follows:—

      1. That a single language, spoken in two dialects, was originally common to both Holland and Friesland.

      2. That from the northern of these dialects we have the Modern Frisian of Friesland.

      3. From the southern, the Modern Dutch of Holland.

      The reason of this refinement is as follows:—

      The Modern Dutch has certain grammatical forms older than those of the old Frisian; e.g., the Dutch infinitives and the Dutch weak substantives, in their oblique cases, end in -en; those of the Old Frisian in -a: the form in -en being the older.

      The true Frisian is spoken in few and isolated localities. There is—

      1. The Frisian of the Dutch state called Friesland.

      2. The Frisian of the parish of Saterland, in Westphalia.

      3. The Frisian of Heligoland.

      4. The North Frisian, spoken in a few villages of Sleswick. One of the characters of the North Frisian is the possession of a dual number.

In respect to its stages, we have the Old Frisian of the Asega-bog, the Middle Frisian of Gysbert Japicx,^[31] and the Modern Frisian of the present Frieslanders, Westphalians, and Heligolanders.

      § 39. The Low German and Platt-Deutsch.—The words Low-German are not only lax in their application, but they are equivocal; since the term has two meanings, a general meaning when it signifies a division of the Germanic languages, comprising English, Dutch, Anglo-Saxon, Old Saxon, and Frisian, and a limited one when it means the particular dialects of the Ems, the Weser, and the Elbe. To avoid this the dialects in question are conveniently called by their continental name of Platt-Deutsch, just as in England we say Broad Scotch.

§ 40. The most characteristic difference between the Saxon and Icelandic (indeed between the Teutonic and Scandinavian tongues) lies in the peculiar position of the definite article in the latter. In Saxon, the article corresponding with the modern word the, is þæt, se, seó, for the neuter, masculine, and feminine genders respectively; and these words, regularly declined, are prefixed to the words with which they agree, just as is the case with the English and with the majority of languages. In Icelandic, however, the article instead of preceding, follows its noun, with which it coalesces, having previously suffered a change in form. The Icelandic article corresponding to þæt, se, seó, is hitt, hinn, hin: from this the h is ejected, so that, instead of the regular inflection (a), we have the forms (b).

		a.
	Neut.	Masc.	Fem.
Sing. Nom.	Hitt	Hinn	Hin.
Acc.	Hitt	Hinn	Hina.
Dat.	Hinu	Hinum	Hinni.
Gen.	Hins	Hins	Hinnar.
Plur. Nom.	Hin	Hinir	Hinar.
Acc.	Hin	Hina	Hinar.
Dat.	Hinum	Hinum	Hinum.
Gen.	Hinna	Hinna	Hinna.
		b.
Sing. Nom.	-it	-inn	-in.
Acc.	-it	-inn	-ina (-na).
Dat.	-nu	-num	-inni (-nni).
Gen.	-ins	-ins	-innar (-nnar).
Plur. Nom.	-in	-nir	-nar.
Acc.	-in	-na	-nar.
Dat.	-num	-num	-num.
Gen.	-nna	-nna	-nna.

      Whence, as an affix, in composition,