CONTENTS. The Moral Principle in Language.-Their Vocal and Musical Element- Grimm's Law of Commutation-The Accent-The "Click" of Hotten- The Decay of Languages.-The older a language the richer-The decay only apparent-The material reduced-The sounds simplified-The in- Borrowed Words.-They lose form and accent-Their original beauty and meaning-Remarkable instances in English-Injury to the vernacular. 250 CHAPTER XLVIII. Germanic Group-Low German.-Scandinavian-Icelandic-Swedish- Pago Invention of Letters.-The Ancients-Original Meaning of Letters-Uni- versal Alphabet-Arrangement of Letters-Number of Letters-Names Consonants and Vowels.-Variety of Sound and Value-Division into Sen- tences-Into Words and Syllables-Accents-Difference between writ- 398 INTRODUCTION. WE have but recently learned that each language has a life of its own, and that a history of that life might be written, as complete and as interesting as the biography of a hero or a martyr. Now, however, we know that no language remains long unchanged-neither the humble dialect, in the feeble sounds of which a once powerful tongue expires or a new idiom stammers forth its first words, nor the rich and refined national tongue of a whole race. Wherever we can follow the history of a language, there we see change in every epoch. Nor is this merely such a change as Dante's Italian exhibits, when compared with Cicero's Latin, or Goethe's polished style as contrasted with the rude speech of Charlemagne; for here, as in the English of Shakspeare, which is English still, and yet no longer that of the great Alfred, new elements have been introduced, and, with them, new laws and a new character. Even shorter periods, marked by no revolution or crisis in the history of a language, show not less striking changes. The language of Chaucer furnished, about three hundred years later, the learned Speght already with two thousand old, obscure words for his glossary, and Bishop Tyrwhitt found not less than three |