Gothic that was
spoken by the conquerors of ancient Rome; by the subjects of Hermanric,
Alaric, Theodoric, Euric, Athanaric, and Totila.

In the reign of Valens, when pressed by intestine wars, and by the
movements of the Huns, the Goths were assisted by that emperor, and settled
in the Roman province of Moesia.

Furthermore, they were converted to Christianity; and the Bible was
translated into their language by their Bishop Ulphilas.

Fragments of this translation, chiefly from the Gospels, have come down to
the present time; and the Bible translation of the Arian Bishop Ulphilas,
in the language of the Goths of Moesia, during the reign of Valens,
exhibits the earliest sample of any Gothic tongue.

s. 36. The Old High German, called also Francic[24] and Alemannic,[25]
was spoken in the ninth, tenth, and eleventh centuries, in Suabia, Bavaria,
and Franconia.

The Middle High German ranges from the thirteenth century to the
Reformation.

s. 37. The low Germanic division, to which the Anglo-Saxon belongs, is
currently said to comprise six languages, or rather four languages in
different stages.

I. II.--The Anglo-Saxon and Modern English.
III. The Old Saxon.
IV. V.--The Old Frisian and Modern Dutch.
VI.--The Platt-Deutsch, or Low German.

s. 38. _The Frisian and Dutch._--It is a current statement that the Old
Frisian bears the same relation to the Modern Dutch of Holland that the
Anglo-Saxon does to the English.

The truer view of the question is as follows:--

1. That a single language, spoken in two dialects, was originally common to
both Holland and Friesland.

2. That from the northern of these dialects we have the Modern Frisian of
Friesland.

3. From the southern, the Modern Dutch of Holland.

The reason of this refinement is as follows:--

The Modern Dutch has certain grammatical forms _older_ than those of the
old Frisian; e.g., the Dutch infinitives and the Dutch weak substantives,
in their oblique cases, end in -en; those of the Old Frisian in -a: the
form in -en being the older.

The true Frisian is spoken in few and isolated localities. There is--

1. The Frisian of the Dutch state called Friesland.

2. The Frisian of the parish of Saterland, in Westphalia.

3. The Frisian of Heligoland.

4. The North Frisian, spoken in a few villages of Sleswick. One of the
characters of the North Frisian is the possession of a dual number.

In respect to its stages, we have the Old Frisian