_English Language._--The language spoken in England from the settlement of the Anglo-Saxons to the Norman Conquest (say 500-1066) is popularly known as Anglo-Saxon, though simply the earliest form of English. (See _Anglo-Saxons_.) It was a highly inflected and purely Teutonic tongue presenting several dialects. The Conquest introduced the Norman-French, and from 1066 to about 1250 two languages were spoken, the native English speaking their own language, the intruders speaking French. During this period the grammatical structure of the native language was greatly broken up, inflexions fell away, or were assimilated to each other; and towards the end of the period we find a few words written in a language resembling the English of our own day in grammar, but differing from it by being purely Saxon or Teutonic in vocabulary. Finally, the two languages began to mingle, and form one intelligible to the whole population, Normans as well as English, this change being marked by a great infusion of Norman-French words, and English proper being the result. English is thus, in its vocabulary, a composite language, deriving part of its stock of words from a Teutonic source and part from a Latin source, Norman-French being in the main merely a modified form of Latin. In its grammatical structure and general character, however, English is entirely Teutonic, and is classed with Dutch and Gothic among the Low German tongues. If we divide the history of the English language into periods, we shall find three most distinctly marked: first, the Old English or Anglo-Saxon, extending down to about 1100; second, the Middle English, 1100-1400 (to this period belong Chaucer, Wycliffe, Langland); third, Modern English. A more detailed subdivision would give transition periods connecting the main ones. The chief change which the language has experienced during the modern period consists in its absorbing new words from all quarters in obedience to the requirements of advancing science, more complicated social relations, and increased subtlety of thought. At the present time the rapid growth of the sciences already existing, and the creation of new ones, have caused whole groups of words to be introduced, chiefly from the Greek, though unfortunately not a few are hybrid words, coined by some scientist who had small Latin and less Greek.--Cf. H. Sweet, _New English Grammar, Logical and Historical_.