The Anglo-Saxon was the foundation, or basis; while the Norman
French is observed to be the principal modifying element.
Since the Norman conquest, numerous other elements have entered, most of
them quietly, without the concomitant of political revolution or foreign
invasion.
Thus the Latin, being used by the Church, and being the language of
literary and scientific comity throughout the world, was constantly adding
words and modes of expression to the English. The introduction of Greek
into Western Europe, at the fall of Constantinople, supplied Greek words,
and induced a habit of coining English words from the Greek. The
establishment of the Hanoverian succession, after the fall of the Stuarts,
brought in the practice and study of German, and somewhat of its
phraseology; and English conquests in the East have not failed to
introduce Indian words, and, what is far better, to open the way for a
fuller study of comparative philology and linguistics.
In a later chapter we shall reconsider the periods referred to, in an
examination of the literary works which they contain, works produced by
historical causes, and illustrative of historical events.
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