The English Language Author:Robert Gordon Latham Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: The importance of this latter alternative, will soon be seen. § 26. The Menapians. — Locality, from the country of the Morini on the French side of the Strait... more »s of Dover, to the Scheldt. It is generally considered that these were not Germans but Celts. The fact, however, is by no means ascertained. If Germans, the Menapians were the tribes nearest to Britain. Again, supposing that the present Flemings of Belgium are the oldest inhabitants of the country, their origin is either wholly, or in part, Menapian. Mentioned by Caesar. § 27. The Batavians. — Mentioned by Caesar ; locality, from the Maas to the Zuyder Zee. Conterminous with the Menapians on the south, and with the Frisians on the north. If the present Dutch of Holland be the inhabitants of the country from the time of Caesar downwards, their origin is Batavian. § 28. The Frisians. — First known to the Romans during the campaign of Drusus — " tributum Frisiis transrhenano populo — Drusus jusserat modicum ;"' Tacitus, Ann. iv. 72. Extended, according to Ptolemy, as far north as the Ems — rriv f- iruguxtaftTtv xur't-fcovatv . . 01 tytaatot, Now, as the dialect of the modern province of Friesland differs in many important points from the Duteh of Holland and Flanders ; and as there is every reason to believe that the same, or greater difference, existed between the old Frisians and the old Batavians, assuming each to have been the mother-tongues of the present Frisian and Dutch respectively, we may consider that in reaching the parts to the north of the Zuyder- Zee, we have come to a second sub-division of the Germanic dialects ; nevertheless, it is not the division to which either the Angles or the Saxons belong, as may be ascertained by the difference of dialect, or rather language. § 29. The Chauci. — Connected...« less