The Story of Language (Paperback)

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1897 Excerpt: ...southern or inland races. The northern inhabited at an early period the Scandinavian peninsula, Denmark, and the islands and shores of the Baltic and the North Sea. They spoke dialects that have since been classified as Plait Deutsch, or Low German. Whether before or after their residence in these northern regions, it is not easy to say; but the Goths, who were certainly of the Low German kindred and are found historically in the region of the Baltic as well as in that of the Danube, were the first to have their language thrown into literary form. Before their speech was wholly lost to history in the south of Europe by the passing of the east and west Goths into the Italian and Spanish peninsulas, it was preserved for the use of philologists in our time by its use in the Bible of Vulfila, best known by the Latinized form of his name, Ulfilas. This manuscript, written in silver letters on a gold ground, is now in the University of Upsala. The Goths were the earliest of the Teutonic tribes to come in contact with the Roman Empire at the time of its decay, to overrun it, and to become absorbed in the populations over whom they established kingdoms. The other Low German tribes, among them the Goths of Scandinavia, spoke a similar language to the Mceso-Gothic of Vulfila. That spoken in Scandinavia has come down to us as the Old Norse, being preserved by its use in the Eddas compiled by the colony in Iceland. From this tongue in the course of centuries sprang modern Swedish, Danish, and Norwegian. German, even as now written and spoken, has many points of close resemblance to Greek in grammatical structure. But the Gothic branch of the German tongue was in this respect still closer to Greek, inasmuch as it retained the dual number, the middle voice for verbs, and...