mar. (1) ETYMOLOGY (Tuμoλoyia, true wordformation), Gramthe doctrine of Letters and Words. (2) SYNTAX (ouvragis, construction), the doctrine of Sentences and Discourse. PROSODY (poowdia), which treats of Quantity, Rhythm, and Metre, is not a necessary part of Grammar, but is usually appended to it. 2 Latin The Latin Language, so called from the Latini, or The people of Latium, in Italy, who used it, was the pre- Lan valent scion of the Italic branch of the great Indo- guage. European or Aryan family. 1. Various languages were formed by various races of mankind in their several habitations. When migrating bodies sought new seats, they carried with them their native language, which, amidst the changes wrought by time, always retained traces, more or less strong, of kinship to other branches of the primitive stock. Such kindred languages constitute a Family. Among the families of human speech, two have been most operative in the work of civilisation-the Semitic and the Indo-European or Aryan. The Semitic family (to which we owe the origin of alphabetic writing) occupied south-western Asia; comprising the Aramaic (Syriac and Chaldee), Hebrew, Phoenician, and Arabic branches. The Aryan race was seated in central Asia; whence, by a long series of migrations, it sent forth language to most parts of Europe, and to various regions of the Asiatic continent. The European branches of this family are: (1) the Keltic; (2) the Teutonic or German; (3) the Sclavonic; (4) the Lithuanian; (5) the Italic (Latin); (6) the Hellenic (Greek). The Asiatic branches are: (1) the Indic or Sanskrit, in India; (2) the Iranian (of which the Zand is the chief scion) or speech of Persia, Bactria and adjoining districts. B 3 English. Influ ence of Greek. 2. The Italic branch, like the Hellenic, was from early times divided into various dialects. The principal of these were the Umbrian in the north-east of Italy, the Sabellian and the Oscan in the central districts, and the Latin in Latium. Umbrian, Sabellian, Oscan, and others were destined to fade away, leaving a few scattered monuments of their former existence. Latin survived to be the parent of learning and language in Western Europe. Rome, founded on the Tiber by Latins, according to tradition, B.C. 754, became, on the fall of Alba, the head of the Latin race and name (nomen Latinum); and the clannish pride of the Romans led them to call their language, and afterwards their literature, Latin rather than Roman. 3. By Roman conquest and dominion the Latin speech was extended, with dialectic varieties, to all Italy and to other neighbouring countries. From this source are derived the following modern languages Italian, French (in both its divisions, Oc and Oil), Spanish, Portuguese, Wallachian, and the Romansch of the Swiss Grisons. They bear the common title of Romanic or Romance languages. All are more or less alloyed with the Teutonic dialects which barbarian conquest carried into Western and Southern Europe in the fifth and following centuries. English is the single instance of a Teutonic language largely alloyed, without being disorganised, by the speech of Romanic conquerors. When the Romans quitted Britain in the fifth century, the island, after a brief interval, was overrun by Teutonic hordes (Saxons, Angles, and Jutes), who formed no fusion with the Keltic natives, but either extirpated them gradually, or drove them (as Wälsche, Welsh, or foreigners) into mountainous and barren districts. The rest of the country south of the Tweed came to be called England (Angle-land), and its speech (Anglo-Saxon) was the parent of the later English. The conversion of the Saxons to the Christian faith brought into England some knowledge of Latin, and incorporated many Latin words with the English tongue. By the Norman conquest, A.D. 1066, a dominant race came in, who, though comparatively few in number, filled most places of rank, power, and influence. Hence their speech-Norman-French, a Romanic dialect-became that of courtly society and of law; Latin, its mother-tongue, became the vehicle of religious service and learned intercourse; whilst English continued to be spoken by the great bulk of the population. In the fusion of these varieties, by which modern English was gradually formed, the usage of the yeomanry and peasantry prevailed over that of the nobles, the law, and the church. English is structurally a Teutonic language, and the number of Teutonic words holds to those of Latin origin a proportion of about two to one. This shews that, without a knowledge of Latin, it is impossible to gain a thorough knowledge of English. It must also be remembered that the Teutonic element in English has itself a distant kinship to Latin. The influence of Greek civilisation upon Besides their original affinity the Greek race contact with the Latin at two distinct eras. Latin was immense. came into influential The first of these was when the Greek colonies in Sicily and Italy became active in commerce and literature. This activity may be dated as beginning about 550 B.C. The Aeolic city of Cumae in Campania appears to have been the chief medium of communication between Rome and the Greek colonies, and to the influence then exercised may perhaps be ascribed those facts of language which led grammarians to derive Latin from the Aeolic Greek Dialect. Hence too the Romans probably drew the peculiarities which characterise the Latin Alphabet, as the letter Q and the V consonant, which the Aeolic Greeks had kept in the Dorian alphabet at Cumae. 5 Litera Again, when literary activity began at Rome in the third Sketch century B.C., Grecian literature supplied most of the forms and of Latin much of the matter. Rome had no models to furnish. Inscriptions, ture. laws, crude annals, with fragments of ritual songs and coarse farces, are all it has to shew within its first five centuries. The credit of authorship is ascribed first to Livius Andronicus, who wrote dramas for the stage B.C. 240. He was succeeded by a crowd of authors, among whom may be mentioned Naevius, Ennius, the father of epic poetry at Rome, and Lucilius, whose subject and reputed invention, satire, is the most original product in Latin literature. But of these writers mere fragments remain. The comedies of Plautus (Plaut.)1 and Terentius (Ter.), founded on those of the later Attic stage, with the remnant De Re Rustica of the elder Cato, are the only literary works extant in Latin before 85 B.C., the date of Cicero's earliest writings. From this time to A.D. 14 extends what is usually called the Golden Age of Latin. Its most eminent authors are: The so-called Silver Age, to A.D. 117, contains among others : 'The letters following the names shew the abbreviations used for them in this Grammar The next period, extending to the fall of the Western Empire, A.D. 476, has been termed the Brazen Age. The writers who come nearest to the classic style during this period, are :— In the Iron Age, which succeeded, Boëthius may be named as the most successful imitator of classic purity.' Other abbreviations used in this Grammar: Pr. Primitive (Sound or Root). Sk. Sanskrit. Gr. Greek. E. L. Early Latin (before 186 B.C.). R. L. Republican Latin (from 186 to 30 B.C.) I. L. Latin of Imperial Age (from 30 B.C. C. L. Classical Latin. L. L. Later Latin. U. Umbrian. O. Oscan. S. Sabellan. F. Faliscan. V. Volscian. M. Lucr. Munro on Lucretius. C. Corssen (Aussprache). Curt. G. Curtius (Gr. Etymologie). Three dots (...) following a word imply that other derived or kindred words are to be included. In Sanskrit words: drepresents the palatal sound ch (as in 'church'): ric' is sounded 'rich.' G. Cur- represents the slightly aspirated sibilant, which often corresponds to Greek and ri is a Sanskrit vowel, which may be written ar. Ex.-yuj, to yoke (Curt. jug'). See p. 578. |