Excerpt from The Origin of the English, Germanic and Scandinavian Languages, and Nations: With a Sketch of Their Early Literature and Short Chronological Specimens of Anglo-Saxon, Friesic, Flemish, Dutch, German From the Moeso-Goths to the Present Time, Icelandic, Norwegian, and Swedish This work was originally written as an introduction to the author's anglo-saxon Dictionary, with a View Of tracing the origin and progress of the Germanic languages, especially old-saxon and anglo-saxon, and Of shewing their connexion with English; but as he considered it too long and uninteresting to appear in the whole impression, it was only prefixed to a part of it a few copies, however, were printed in a separate form, with the title, The Origin of the Germanic Languages, &c. Chiefly for private distribution. Copies of the Dictionary, with this long preface, were SO much preferred, that it was twice found necessary to revise and reprint the preface - The copies printed in a separate form, being exhausted, the author was induced to add a chapter, on the origin of alphabetic writing in the east, and its gradual diffusion to the west, as collateral evidence of the oriental source of European population; and, after giving, in the conclusion, a brief summary Of the whole work, to prepare it for publication with its present title. It was then partly reprinted, that it might be published at the time, and in illustration of his Compendious anglo-saxon and English Dictionary, in which he was engaged. Protracted indisposition, and failing Sight, delayed the progress Of the Compendious Dictionary for some years; and, Of course, the appearance of this work. This delay renders it necessary to notice, in the following page, a few errors, and the chief works that have appeared in the interim. Though the book has again required much time and care, it is at last published, with a deep consciousness that it is still very imperfect. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.