n by the fact
that in Webster's Unabridged Dictionary there are nearly 100,000 words.
But it should be observed that 3,000 or 4,000 serve all the ordinary
purposes of oral and written communication. The Old Testament contains
5,642 words; Milton uses about 8,000; and Shakespeare, whose vocabulary
is more extensive than that of any other English writer, employs no
more than 15,000 words.

4. The PRINCIPAL ELEMENTS of the English vocabulary are words of
Anglo-Saxon and of Latin or _French-Latin_ origin.

5. ANGLO-SAXON is the earliest form of English. The whole of the grammar of
our language, and the most largely used part of its vocabulary, are
Anglo-Saxon.

I. Anglo-Saxon belongs to the Low German[4] division of the Teutonic
stock of languages. Its relations to the other languages of Europe--all
of which are classed together as the Aryan, or Indo-European family of
languages--may be seen from the following table:--

/ CELTIC STOCK..........................as Welsh, Gaelic.
| SLAVONIC STOCK........................as Russian.
INDO- | / Greek / Italian.
EUROPEAN < CLASSIC STOCK \ Latin < Spanish.
FAMILY. | \ French, etc.
| / Scandinavian:.......as Swedish.
| TEUTONIC STOCK< / High Ger:.as Modern German.
\ \ German <
\ Low Ger....as Anglo-Saxon.

II. The term "Anglo-Saxon" is derived from the names _Angles_ and
_Saxons_, two North German tribes who, in the fifth century A.D.,
invaded Britain, conquered the native Britons, and possessed themselves
of the land, which they called England, that is, Angle-land. The Britons
spoke a Celtic language, best represented by modern Welsh. Some British
words were adopted into Anglo-Saxon, and still continue in our language.

6. The LATIN element in the English vocabulary consists of a large number
of words of Latin origin, adopted directly into English at various periods.

The principal periods, during which Latin words were brought directly
into English are:--

1. At the introduction of Christianity into England by the Latin
Catholic missionaries, A.D. 596.

2. At the revival of classical learning in the sixteenth century.

3. By modern writers.

7. The FRENCH-LATIN ele