xamples of words, largely synonymous, from the Saxon, the
Norman-French, and the Latin, respectively. These facts explain why
modern English has such a wealth of expression, although probably more
than one half of the Anglo-Saxon vocabulary has been lost.

The Superiority of the Composite Tongue.--While we insist on the
truth that Anglo-Saxon gained much of its wonderful directness and
power from standing in close relations to earnest life, it is
necessary to remember that many words of French origin did, by an
apprenticeship at the fireside, in the field, the workshop, and the
laboratory, equally fit themselves for taking their place in the
language. Such words from French-Latin roots as "faith," "pray,"
"vein," "beast," "poor," "nurse," "flower," "taste," "state," and
"fool" remain in our vocabulary because they were used in everyday
life.

Pure Anglo-Saxon was a forcible language, but it lacked the wealth of
expression and the flexibility necessary to respond to the most
delicate touches of the master-musicians who were to come. When
Shakespeare has Lear say of Cordelia:--

"Her voice was ever soft,
Gentle, and low; an excellent thing in woman,"

we find that ten of the thirteen words are Saxon, but the other three
of Romance (French) origin are as necessary as is a small amount of
tin added to copper to make bronze. Two of these three words express
varying shades of quality.

Lounsbury well says: "There result, indeed, from the union of the
foreign and native elements, a wealth of phraseology and a
many-sidedness in English, which give it in these respects a
superiority over any other modern cultivated tongue. German is
strictly a pure Teutonic speech, but no native speaker of it claims
for it any superiority over the English as an instrument of
expression, while many are willing to concede its inferiority."

The Changes Slowly Accomplished.--For over a hundred years after the
Conquest, but few French words found their way into current English
use. This is shown by the fact that the _Brut_, a poem of 32,250
lines, translated from a French original into English about 1205, has
not more than a hundred words of Norman-French origin.

At first the Normans despised the tongue of the conquered Saxons, but,
as time progressed, the two races intermarried, and the children could
hardly escape learning some Saxon words from their mothers or nurses.
On the other hand, many well-to-do Saxons, like pare