Teutonic languages

“ THE TEUTONIC LANGUAGES The barbarians who poured from the wilds of central Europe into the Roman world brought their languages with them. But the speech of the Goths, Vandals, Burgundians, and Lombards disappeared, while that of the Franks in Gaul, after their conversion to Christianity, gradually gave way to the popular Latin of their subjects. The Teutonic peoples who remained outside what had been the limits of the Roman world continued to use their native tongues during the Middle Ages. ”

“ Outside Europe we have to include also the very numerous populations in America, Africa, Australasia, &c., which have emigrated from the same countries. The statement that the Teutonic peoples are those which speak Teutonic languages requires a certain amount of qualification on one side. In the British Isles, especially Ireland, there is (in addition to the Celtic-speaking elements) a considerable population which claims Celtic nationality though it uses no language but English ”

“ In the earlier stages of the Teutonic languages differences of phonology are more marked than those of morphology, and afford surer criteria for determining the relations of these languages to one another. It is customary among scholars to classify the whole group in three main divisions, an eastern or Gothic, a northern or Scandinavian, and a western which includes English, Frisian and German. We have noticed above that Gothic began at an early date to show marked divergences from the other languages. ”

“ The word is, moreover, diffused through most of the Teutonic languages, and correctly represents Middle High German bûchen; only in the Bavarian dialect is the word unrecorded. Hence the existence of a Teutonic verbal root bûk (to which Anglo-Saxon bûc, ‘pail,’ is allied?) is undoubted, and the Romance cognate, French buer (Italian bucare) , ‘to wash,’ is more probably borrowed from the Teutonic than vice versâ. The Keltic origin of bauchen (Breton boukat, ‘to soften’) is impossible. ”

“ The early divergence of the eastern languages in general from those of the north and west is perhaps to be ascribed in part to the great extension southwards of the territories of the eastern tribes in the 3rd and 4th centuries. Yet it is not to be overlooked that all dialectical divergences within the Teutonic group seem to be of relatively recent origin, as compared, e.g., with the special characteristics of some of the Greek dialects. Indeed there is scarcely one of them of which we can say with certainty that it dates from before the beginning of our era. ”

“ TEUTONIC PEOPLES, a comprehensive term for those populations of Europe which speak one or other of the various Teutonic languages, viz., the English-speaking inhabitants of the British Isles, the German-speaking inhabitants of Germany, Austria-Hungary and Switzerland, the Flemish-speaking inhabitants of Belgium, the Scandinavian-speaking inhabitants of Sweden and Norway and practically all the inhabitants of Holland and Denmark. To these we have to add small German and Flemish-speaking communities in Italy and France and somewhat larger German and Swedish populations in Russia. ”

“ In the Teutonic group a large majority of those who speak Teutonic languages, as the English, Flemings, Dutch, North Germans and Scandinavians, 62are descendants of the Nordic race while the dominant class in Europe is everywhere of that blood. ”

“ The great mass of modern European nomenclature springs from the class of languages which it is convenient collectively to call Teutonic.
Nothing shows the identity of the entire Teutonic race more than the resemblance of the names in each of the branches. Many are found in each of the stems—Gothic, Scandinavian, and High and Low German—the same in sense, and with mere dialectic changes in sound, proving themselves to have sprung from a name, or from words, current in the original tribe before the various families parted from it. Others are found in some branches and not in others ”

“ Teutonic *herut-, from *herwut, *herwo-t, with a dental suffix, allied to Latin cervu-s (t occurs as a suffix in names of animals in Teutonic; compare Gemse, Krebs, and Hornisse) ; the latter is usually connected with Greek κεραός. ‘horned’ (allied to κέρας ; compare Horn) . Hence the stag in Latin and Teutonic may have been named from its antlers (the Old Teutonic languages naturally have a distinct word for the hornless female; see Hinde) . ”

“ TEUTONS.—The English language was introduced into this country by bands of warlike colonists from Northwestern Germany, who drove the old inhabitants to the mountainous regions in the west of the island. Those colonists were variously called Angles, Saxons, and Jutes; but they all belonged to the Teutonic race, and their speech was a branch of the Teutonic group of languages. The Teutonic group of languages contains three main sections, from which all the others spring. These three main sections{9} are: High-German, Low-German, and Scandinavian. ”

“ German was to become the language of central Europe. Interposed between the territories of Romanic and Slavic languages, the area of German speech occupies a magnificently commanding position. Originally the language spoken west of the Elbe and Saale rivers, it had advanced considerably to the east in the first century of the Christian era. The imposition of Teutonic language on Slavic populations is one of the results of this ancient expansion of Germanic peoples. During the past thousand years very little change in the distribution of the main German dialects is believed to have taken place. ”

“ The subject of the work is, indeed, nothing less than the history which lies hidden in the words of the German language—the oldest national history of the Teutonic tribes determined by means of language. For this purpose he laboriously collects the scattered words and allusions to be found in classical writers, and endeavours to determine the relations in which the German language stood to those of the Getae, Thracians, Scythians, and many other nations whose languages are known only by doubtfully identified, often extremely corrupted remains preserved by Greek and Latin authors. ”

“ The Teutonic root is laþ, the meaning of which is indicated by Gothic laþôns, feminine, ‘calling, consolation, redemption,’ the adverb laþaleikô, ‘very willingly,’ and Modern High German Luder. Some such idea as ‘to treat affectionately, beg,’ must be regarded as the original sense; a root lat with this meaning has not yet been found in the other Aryan languages. ”

“ Italy, Burgundian Aosta and the Seven German Communes—if these last still keep their Teutonic language,—fall under the rule that there are some things too small for laws to pay heed to.
But it must not be forgotten that all this simply means that in the lands of which we have just been speaking the process of adoption has been carried out on the largest scale. Nations, with languages as their rough practical test, have been formed; but they have been formed with very little regard to physical purity of blood. In short, throughout Western Europe assimilation has been the rule. ”

“ During the past fifty years the learned men of many nations have investigated philology and comparative mythology so thoroughly that they have ascertained beyond the possibility of doubt “that English, together with all the Teutonic dialects of the Continent, belongs to that large family of speech which comprises, besides the Teutonic, Latin, Greek, Slavonic, and Celtic, the Oriental languages of India and Persia.” ”

“ If the latter indicates Gothic *niuzô, neuter, the Teutonic class has no further cognates; but if we are to assume Gothic *niurô, niurjô, corresponding forms may be found in the other Aryan languages, which have numerous terms for parts of the body in common with Teutonic ”

“ Old High German nîgan, from hnîgan, strong verb, ‘to bow,’ and neigen, weak verb, ‘to incline, bend.’ It corresponds to Old Saxon hnîgan, hnêgian, Anglo-Saxon hnîgan, hnœ̂gan, Gothic hneiwan, verb, ‘to bow, sink,’ hnaiwjan, verb, ‘to humiliate, bend’ (for *hneigwan, *hnaigwjan) ; the weak verb is the causative of the strong verb. The Teutonic root hnîgw, from pre-Teutonic knī̆gh (or rather knī̆q?) , is uncertain in the other Aryan languages. Perhaps Latin co-nîveo, nîco, nicto, ‘to wink, nod,’ are connected with the Teutonic cognates. ”

“ These derivatives, which appear in several dialects, are based on the common Teutonic meaning ‘to lend.’ The correspondences in the cognate languages prove that this is only a specialisation of a general sense, ‘to leave,’ The Aryan root lik occurs with the meanings ‘to leave behind, forsake, set free, relinquish’ ”

“ Teutonic tribes. In fact we still possess, preserved down to our own times, primitive northern runic inscriptions, the oldest upon the utensils found at Vi in Schleswig and Thorsbjerg in Denmark, dating back to about A.D. 250-300, which, together with the MS. fragments of Ulfilas' Gothic translation of the Bible, about two hundred years later in date, constitute the oldest genuine monuments of any Teutonic tongue. ”

“ In order to support the boldest and most impossible theories, the almost unparalleled power of combination of an eminent genius has brought together material which for the first time gave the suggestion of relationship between the Teutonic and the classical languages of Greece and Rome. Rudbeck was also the first to point out the unmistakable resemblance of the Old Norse and classical mythologies, as to the origin of which modern scholars have reached no absolute certainty, but radically different conclusions. ”

“ Historical information as to an early substratum of Celtic inhabitants in Britain, as to Saxon, Danish, and Norman invasions may be useful to him. But though every record were burned, and every skull mouldered, the English language, as spoken by any ploughboy, would reveal its own history, if analyzed according to the rules of comparative grammar. Without the help of history, we should see that English is Teutonic, that like Dutch and Friesian it belongs to the Low-German branch; that this branch, together with the High-German, Gothic, and Scandinavian branches, constitute the Teutonic class ”

“ Only such a pliancy of the primitive speech could keep pace with the higher intellectual development which we must assume for the progress of the Teutonic group after the first division of dialects. The capacity of our race for development is sufficient, even without the assumption of foreign influences, to account for the refinement and development of the conditions of life among the Teutons during the second period of the primitive history of our language. ”

“ Our learned men have therefore agreed to use the Keltic term which was customary among old historians, and which, according to the testimony of the Venerable Bede, was applied in England to the immigrant Anglo-Saxons by the Britons even in the 8th century. The national character of the Teutons and the type of their language were for a very long period after the division into tribes the same as before. In the last century before our era, when numerous Teutonic tribes became known to the ancient world, we have not the least evidence to show that the language had branched off into dialects. ”

“ Among those whose Aryan descent is generally recognized as beyond dispute are the Teutons, to whom the Angles and Saxons belonged.
The Teutonic or Germanic people, after dwelling together in a body, appear to have scattered in various directions, their language gradually breaking up into three main groups, which can be already clearly distinguished in the 4th century A.D., North Germanic or Scandinavian, West Germanic or Low and High German, and East Germanic, of which the only important representative is Gothic. ”

“ In our reckonings and prognostications we should keep in mind that the German is the centre body of the Teutonic race. He is down, but he is not finally beaten. His mind is resentful, and indeed full of the revenge instinct. ”

“ All the remainder of the empire—no, not even excluding Prussia, east of the Elbe—is less Teutonic in type, until finally in the essentially Alpine broad-headed populations of Baden, Würtemberg, and Bavaria, in the south the Teutonic race passes from view. The only difference, then, between Germany and France in respect of race is that the northern country has a little more Teutonic blood in it. ”

“ The beginning of the thirteenth century is as great an era in the history of German literature as the beginning of the nineteenth. The German mind was completely regenerated. Old words, old thoughts, old metres, old fashions, were swept away, and a new spring dawned over Germany. The various branches of the Teutonic race which, after their inroads into the seats of Roman civilization, had for a time become separated, were beginning to assume a national independence,—when suddenly a new age of migration threatened to set in. ”

“ It is curious how a certain strain or vein of temperament, like that just mentioned, will run through a nation's whole life, and colour its actions in all departments, recognized and commented on by the whole outside world, and yet remain unobserved by the nation itself.
Every one who has known the Germans at home—even years back—has been conscious of a certain strain in the Teutonic character which has had a like bearing in the German national life. ”

“ Old High German and Middle High German Kuonrât (without mutation, like Old High German and Middle High German kuonheit) , Anglo-Saxon Cênrêd (Gothic *Kônirêþs) , may have meant ‘giving wise advice.’ Teutonic kôn-i- (literally ‘one that can understand, sensible’) is originally a verbal adjective from the verb kennen, können, hence the West Teutonic sense ‘bold,’ compared with the Old Icelandic meaning, must be regarded as derivative. All intellectual and moral conceptions of the Old Teutonic period are related more or less to war and conflict (compare bald, schnell, and Krieg) . ”