Although, however, it was the Northern French that was brought over at the Norman Conquest, the Provençal language and literature were also made familiar in England after another century by the accession to the crown (in 1154) of Henry (Plantagenet), Earl of Anjou, as Henry II., whose marriage with Eleanor of Poitou had made him master of Poitou and Guienne in the south-west of France, in addition to Normandy and his paternal domains of Anjou, Maine, and Touraine. Several Provençal compositions are attributed to his son and successor, Richard the First.

VII. It would thus appear that the languages which have been imported into and established in England by the successive populations that have conquered or settled in it, and which may each, therefore, have in a greater or less degree contributed to the formation of its existing language, belong to three several branches of the Indo-European Family; the Celtic, the Gothic, and the Classical.

WHAT is called the Indo-European family of languages may be conveniently considered as distributed into the following branches:

1. The Sanscrit, including all the Asiatic tongues

which appear to be derived from the Sanscrit, or from the Zend (the language of the ancient Persians, or, rather, of the Medes). This is sometimes called the Iranian or Arian branch, from Iran, the native name of Persia, of which Aria and Ariana appear to be other forms which came latterly to be commonly applied to particular provinces of the empire.

2. The Celtic.

3. The Classical, comprising the Greek and the Latin, with their modern derivatives, the Romance tongues of Italy, France, and Spain.

4. The Gothic.

5. The Slavonic, or Sarmatian (under which may be included, not only the languages of the Russians, Poles, Bohemians, and other proper Slaves, but also the Old Prussian, and the dialects of Lithuania

and Courland, which are known by the names of the Lettonian or Lettish, and the Curonian or Livonian).

The term Indo-European has been substituted for IndoGermanic since it has come to be generally admitted that the Celtic languages belong to this family.

It will be seen from what has been stated that in investi

gating the immediate sources of the English tongue we have nothing to do with either the Iranian or the Sarmatian branch of the Indo-European family.

VIII. But the facts constituting the External or Historical Evidence that we have regarding the sources of the language leave us nearly altogether uninformed as to the proportionate amount of each of its several probable ingredients, and as to the precise results that have been produced by their intermixture. This we can only learn from the Internal Evidence, or that afforded by the language itself.

WHENEVER two or more populations, speaking different languages, are placed alongside of one another, under the same government, there arises a tendency, which, sooner or later, will, to a greater or less extent, become operative, towards the establishment of uniformity of speech. No such tendency arises in the case of contiguous populations living under different governments. The result of such a competition of any two languages will depend partly upon the genius and circumstances of the languages, partly upon those of the populations speaking them. This is, probably, all the length that we can safely go in stating the general law. The languages will be distinguished from each other in respect of their comparative states of advancement and cultivation, the facility with which they may be acquired (which, again, may vary with the acquirers), the degree of tenacity and affection with which they are clung to (depending, it may be, upon their inherent qualities, it may be upon merely their history and fortunes, or those of the races by whom they are spoken), and the attractions which they hold out, either by their

natural beauty and capabilities, their expressiveness, their convenience or importance politically, commercially, or for general purposes, or the amount and value of their literary stores. The populations speaking them will be distinguished by their comparative numbers, by the political relation in which they stand to each other, by their respective social conditions, and even by the disposition of each, on the one hand to adopt new customs, or on the other to impose its own laws and usages upon its neighbours. The result, therefore, it is manifest, may be infinitely modified, both in itself and in the manner in which it is brought about.

The following cases, among others, may be considered:

The retention of their proper language by the Greeks throughout all the vicissitudes of their history.

The establishment of the Latin language in Gaul and several other countries after their conquest by the Romans.

The imposition of their own language by the Turks in those portions of their empire that were earliest wrested from the Christians.

The substitution of the Arabic for the old languages in Egypt and the other Mahometan countries along the northern coast of Africa.

The substitution, after the overthrow of the Roman empire, in some of its provinces of a Gothic, in others of a semi-Gothic, speech, in place of the Latin.

The abandonment of their ancestral languages by the Franks, after their conquest of Gaul; by the Normans, after their settlement in England; and by the Manchoos, after their conquest of China.

The retention of their ancestral language by the Angles and Saxons after their conquest of Britain.