DUTCH-PLATT-DEUTSCH.

365

The Dutch contains two principal dialects, the Dutch proper and the Flemish, the former occupying its part of the Netherlands to the exclusion of all other idioms, the latter struggling with the increasing power of the French. Dutch and Flemish are, however, essentially the same language, the difference extending hardly beyond the manner of writing the two dialects. The Dutch as a spoken language is not soft and musical, but sonorous, dignified, and emphatic. For purposes of comparative philology, its great power of composition is especially important. Almost all technical terms, for which the English and even the German borrow words from exotic sources, are in Dutch composed from their own roots. The principal dialects, as well as the Dutch itself, have a literature only since a comparatively late period of their existence; the Dutch, however, far more numerous and valuable writings than is commonly known or appreciated.

The popular language of the countries between the Rhine and Weser, and the Weser and Elbe, where it is not Dutch or Frisian, belongs to the old Saxon. Approaching closely the Dutch, the Platt-Deutsch differs essentially from the Anglo-Saxon. Old Saxon, Middle-Low-German and Low-German (Platt-Deutsch), are thus not so much contemporary varieties as different forms of the same idiom, belonging to successive periods. The PlattDeutsch is more soft and flowing than the High-German; it changes the sch of the latter into s; the harsh sz or z into t, and delights in pure, full vowels. Possessing a moderate literature of its own, it is spoken all along the northern coast of Germany, and extends even beyond into the provinces that were originally and are still in part at least Slavic, as far as the interior of Courland and Livonia.

CHAPTER LV.

High-German.

ESSENTIALLY differing in forms and laws of euphony from these dialects is the High-German, a language which had already an independent existence and a high degree of perfection at a time when the Gothic was still a national tongue. Of those distant days and ancient forms it bears even now unmistakable marks, as, for instance, in the carefully-preserved Instrumentalis. Its most characteristic feature, the commutation of sounds, seems, however, not to have been observed before the eighth or ninth century. From the Low-German it differs especially in sounds, as, for instance, in the introduction of z and s for the t of the latter, not to speak of a thorough change of the simple vowels, which it exchanges for long vowels or diphthongs. Rich in literary documents from the very earliest times, and thoroughly known through the researches of eminent scholars, it is commonly divided into three principal dialects, the Suabian, Bavaro-Austrian, and the Frankish. This division is already observed in the old High-German, which was spoken and written from the seventh to the eleventh century, as well as in the middle High-German, which prevailed until the days of Luther. The Reformation and the Bible-translation of the great Reformer gave the new High-German, the dialect of a single

province, inhabited by Slaves, the supremacy over all rival dialects. The town of Meissen, the central place of that province, belonged then, as it partly does now, to the Sorabian district; and Slavic writers point with pride to the fact that modern High-German owes its supremacy, as they believe, to the admirable pliancy of Slavic organs of speech applied to the pronunciation of a Germanic idiom. It is well known that in like manner the most highly-prized Italian is the Tuscan dialect spoken by Romans, lingua Toscana in bocca Romana. The German has preserved much more of ancient grammar and inflection than the English, Dutch or Danish; still, it has lost many full and pure vowels, which it has a tendency to change into c, and is, in this respect especially, far inferior to the fullsounding, euphonious Swedish. The Low-German, as well as all former dialects of the High-German, still continue as provincial or local idioms, which occasionally appear, for specific purposes, even in literature, and serve as an inexhaustible mine of old and precious forms for the increase and development of the written language. It is fortunate that Germany, so fatally divided in a political point of view, and possessing so many radically different dialects, has at least succeeded, by the aid of a sacred cause and its noble standard-bearer, to unite its numerous parts by the strong tie of a common language for all the higher purposes of life. The German has, moreover, since it has thus become the language of the Church, the learned and the press, increased in perfection as it has advanced in extent, and is now one of the most cultivated and extensive of all Germanic dialects. It is not only spoken in Germany proper, but also in parts of Switzerland, Hungary, and Transylvania, in

Slesvig and Southern Jutland, and to the east, mixed with LowGerman, beyond the limits of Courland. The irrational orthography of the German and the continued use of certain peculiarities, as, for instance, the employment of capital initials for all nouns, will, it is hoped, soon yield to the increasing reluctance to continue them merely because they have existed for ages, and the influence of examples set by such men as Grimm and his pupils. The latter object, for similar reasons, to the use of the peculiar letters of the German, which they qualify as merely corrupt and disfigured imitations of Latin letters, and instead of which they employ the usual Roman characters.

CHAPTER LVI.

CELTIC GROUP.

Cymric-Welsh-Cornish-Breton (Armorican)-Gaelic-Irish-Manx Gaelic

proper.

For a long time the Celtic was considered as a language that had no connection with the Indo-European family; many saw in it a relic of the original inhabitants of Europe, and some even maintained its relationship with the Basque. It has since been established, and, thanks to the admirable works of Prichard, generally admitted, that the Celtic belongs to the same IndoEuropean family, of which we have mentioned the principal members, and that it has no connection whatever with the Basque.

The Celtic is that branch of this great family which has penetrated farthest west in Europe; for the isolated case of a special transportation of Indo-European idioms to Iceland, and their still more recent introduction into the American continent, does not affect the original, ante-historical arrangement of great languages in Europe. The Celtic was, it is well known, once extensively spoken in various portions of Europe; the Celts themselves, owing to their migratory instincts and habits, being one of the most widely-spread nations of the earth, and extending their rule from the pillars of Hercules to Asia Minor, and from the banks of the Tiber to the Ultima Thule. Possessing a limited and now but imperfectly-known literature, endowed with insufficient means of resistance, they have been driven westward into the most remote corners of Europe, and it seems to be their fate slowly to become extinct under the tread of advancing civilization.

The Celtic, which is now only spoken in single provinces or isolated colonies in the midst of other races, is no longer a national tongue. Ireland and Wales are its strongholds; in Scotland and Cornwall it is said to be either extinct or rapidly disappearing. Besides these, Celtic is spoken on the Hebrides and some English islands, as well as by the inhabitants of the French province of Bretagne. Being, if not the first settler of Europe as was formerly believed, certainly the first immigrant from the south of Asia and of the stock of Japhetic idioms, it exhibits even in its much modified modern form marks of the highest antiquity and rudest originality. Striking peculiarities of these idioms are the want of inflection in nouns, which often have but one case, the dative, and still more the manner in which