ENGLISH LANGUAGE. SOURCES AND GROWTH OF THE ENGLISH I. ORIGIN OF THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE. The countries of Europe have been peopled by races who came originally from Asia. Most of those countries now contain inhabitants descended from the Indo-European, or Aryan family, which had its original seat north of the Himalaya Mountains. The various branches of the Indo-European family speak languages derived from the same source, and therefore resembling each other to a greater or less degree, according to various circumstances which have caused them to deviate less or more from the original and common language. English is one of the modern Indo-European languages. The ancestors of the modern Indo-European races introduced themselves into Europe in three great waves of migration, representing three principal offshoots from the same root. (1) The Celtic, or Keltic, who settled in Gaul, Germany, Italy, Spain, and the British Islands. The Celts were gradually driven farther west by the Teutonic tribes and the Greeks and the Italians, all of whom spring from the same stock. The Celtic dialects now spoken in Europe are Welsh, Irish, Gaelic (in the Highlands of Scotland), Manx (in the Isle of Man), Bas Breton (in Brittany). (2) The Gothic, or Teutonic, who first settled in the centre 5 |