S SCHC OL GRAMMAR O ''It OWN OPSIGNED OUR iSCHGOIS ANP ACAT)F!MIK\ TO THE “ PRIMARY ORAMM/R. OREEWPOROUGIT, tf. C STEltLIN'' ‘ CAM, JELL. Richmoni ' a., n . Haroe/ ve White. Charleston, S. C , M c C a r t e r a D a w so n * • « SMYTHE’S SCHOOL GRAMMAR. • ' • . OUR OWN SCHOOL GRAMMAR, DESIGNED FOR OUR SCHOOLS AND ACADEMIES, AS A SEQUEL TO THE “ PRIMARY GRAMMAR." r . By CHARLES W. SMYTHE, A. M., FRINCIPAL OF THE AND CLASSICAL SCHOOL, AND GRAMMAR. GREENSBOROUGII, N. C., STERLING, CAMPBELL & ALBRIGHT RICHMOND, VA.— W. HARGRAVE WHITE. CHARLESTON, S. C.— M’CARTER AND DAT'’ 1862. n a %kkod^e>- ^ S v c o * * . ^ VDv >-£X* x Vn <v>v CJTV^ ,Xo.;r\0 . •• V c /** % BOSTON ATHENJEUM ^ ........................................................................................................................... C*6./*)«!! y o w Entered according to Act of Congress, In the year one thousand eight hundred and sixty-two, by CIIAS. W. SMYTIIE, In the Clerk’s Office of the District Court in the District of Pamlico and State of North Carolina. STROTHER t MARCOlf, PRINTERS, RALEIGH, N. C. PREFACE % I offer this book to my Tellow-teachers and the public, as a sequel to my Primary Gram­ mar. While better adapted to follow that book iu regular course, it has been so arranged that it may be used independently. M y object in its preparation has been to co­ operate in supplying a home literature’, and to meet an immediate and pressing demand in our schools. I have endeavored to combine the staple of our common books with the results attained by the laborers in the higher ‘ departments of philological science, as well as in the special field of the English language; and to make it conform, as far as fitness would allow, to the highest standard reached. The past thirty years has been marked abroad by an enthusiastic, laborious, and thorough study of all the facts of language, and very much has been accomplished. I have endeavored, as far as possible, to make myself acquainted with the fruits of those la­ bors. I have not aimed at innovation, but wherever a fact or a term has become well es­ IV PREFACE tablished, and bears the evidence of truth upon it, scientific honesty warrants and demands its admission. I have made free use of the best works of American, English, and German authors. While I have aimed at simplicity and clear­ ness of statement I have not undertakenV to write an easy book, though I trust it will not be found a difficult one. M y object has been, not only to impart information, but to awaken thought and stimulate to farther sjudy. For that reason I have referred sparingly but generally to our Saxon original, and have dis­ cussed briefly some of the points in the philos­ ophy of language. Language is not only the product and vehicle of thought, but one of its highest objects; and whatever treats of it should have that idea clearly in view. What I have already done only makes me more conscious of my own weakness and igno­ rance. I commit this book to my fellow-teach- ers, asking them to point out freely all errors, either in conception or execution, that their knoAvledge or experience may dictate, assuring them that their suggestions will receive athought- ful and careful consideration. Owing to the difficulties of our situation, the PREFACE V mechanical dress of the book will of necessity be inferior to that of northern publications. Every possible improvement will be made hereafter. CHAS. W. SMYTHE. Lexington, N. C., Jan. 1862. THE ORIGIN OF TIIE E N G L I S H L A jSTG IT_A_G E. T iie English language is the language o f the larger portion of the people of Great Britain ?*nd their descendants in both hemispheres. It was not the original language of Britain and never has been spoken by all the British people at any one time. There are besides now existing, the Welsh in Wales, the Irish in Ireland, the Gaelic in Scot- • land, and the Manks in the Isle of Man. The earliest people of Britain, that we know of, were the Celts, related tc the earliest inhabitants of France, and the ancestors of the Welsh. The Romans conquered the larger part of the is­ land between 55 B. C., and 80 A. T)., and held it nearly 500 years. They built cities, temples, theatres, baths, and paved roads, and introduced quite a degree of civ­ ilization. • How much they affected the language of Britain we cannot tell, as no work of that day remains. It is probable that the language of the common people was changed but little. A few traces are found in the names of places; as, coin in Lincoln, from colonia a colony; streci from stra- 8 TIIE ORIGIN OF f . ♦ turn a paved way; chcstcr and cester from castrum a camp, as in Dorchester, Lancaster, &c. About the end of the third century after Christ, the coasts of Britain began to be infested by a race of marauding seamen from the coasts of Germany, who seem to have been known under the name of Saxons from the short sword they carried, called a seax. They were first, the Frisians, who lived in the North of Holland and along the coast as far as the Elbe. They were tributary to the Saxons, who lived in the vallies of the Ems, the Weser, and the Elbe. Third, the Angles, who now lived in southern Denmark and about the mouth of the Elbe. Lastly the Jutes from Jutland in the Danish peninsula. "When the Romans were compelled to withdraw from Britain to defend their own homes, the Brit­ ons were exposed to the inroads of their northern neighbors. They are said to have called in the aid of Jutisli leaders and to have given them, as a reward, the island of Thanet. However this may have been, the pressure of the Northmen seems to have been the principal cause that sent the Angles and Saxons from their homes. Calling others to their aid, the Jutish leaders turned upon the Britons and after a hard struggle established the kingdom of Kent. 0 % . During the next hundred years, five other suc­ cessful invasions were made ; three by Saxons, ift Sussex, Wessex, and Essex; that is, South Saxons, West Saxons, and East Saxons; and two by An­ gles in the eastern and northern parts of England. TIIE ENGLISH LANGUAGE 0 The Britons made a determined resistance, and those who were not conquered and made slaves, fled to the west of England, of which they held possession for a longtime. The Britons were a more civilized people than their conquerors, and many of the names of tilings in every day life come from them, such as basket, harrow, button, bran, crock, gusset, darn (a patch), fleam, flannel, flaw, funnel, gown, hem, mop, pan, rail, rim, ridge, £c Many low terms, such as fudge, spree, sham, bulb/, are of the same origin and show their servile condition. The Saxons fixed their language upon the country they conquered, while the British, except mi these traces, disappeared. Nearly three centuries had passed, the Anglo- Saxons had become Christians and were settling down into oiie nation, when the Northmen ap­ peared on their coasts. They were connected with them in race,epoke a language resembling theirs, • and were pagan pirates as they had oncetbeen. They were the Danes, Norwegians, and Swedes. They infested the shores of the British islands, France, Germany, and Russia. In the reign ot Alfred they acquired possession of all the north and east of England, from which they were never entirely driven. Their part of England was called Danelagh, or the Danes’ com. munity, and was bounded on the southwest by the V atling Street, an old Roman road, running from. London to Chester.* Under Canute they ruled all England 26 years. ^Students’ Ilume, p. 44. 10 TIIE ORIGIN OF They exerted a wide influence upon the Anglo- Saxon language, and the form that grew up in the north of England is called Dano-Saxon. There were two forms prevailing before, the West Saxon, the language of the people of Alfred, and the Anglian, which prevailed in the north of England; both with an extensive literature. The next change resulted from the introduction of the Normans and theJNorman-French language. The Northmen under the son of a Norwegian earl had taken possession of the north of France, which was called from them Normandy. They gave up their own language, the Norse, the pres­ ent language of Iceland, and adopted the French. Among them the northerrf French flourished in its greatest purity. _ ^ They subdued England under William’the Con­ queror in 1066. To the haughty Normans, the Saxons were a despised and enslaved race, and their language a barbarous idiom. They endeavored to make their language, the language of England. It did become the language of law, of war, of the courts, and schools. The common people held fast hold upon their ancient language, and the struggle lasted for two hundred years. Finally, when the Normans lost their French possessions, they settled down a- mong their Saxon subjects, and from the un­ ion thus arising the English people and language arose. The Saxons furnished the larger part of the' words, the Normans stripped them of their end­ TIIE ENGLISH LANGUAGE 11 ings, and brought them to a form resembling their present condition. The English is the result of a mixture of lan­ guages, [moulded by the lapse of time, and the struggle between discordant elements.