Page:The history of medieval Europe.djvu/448

 398 THE HISTORY OF MEDIEVAL EUROPE Middle Ages and a considerable literature was produced in Celtic medieval Ireland. But it remained apart from languages t h e ma j n currents of European literature and was not followed by any great modern literature. The Gallic variety of Celtic had disappeared in Gaul by the fourth century. But the Brythonic (British) dialects still existed in England at the time of the Anglo-Saxon conquest, and, although they were obliterated there by the Germanic invaders, they found a refuge in Wales, Cornwall, and Brittany, where Welsh, Cornish, and Breton dialects are still spoken to some extent to-day. Gaelic, the speech of the Goidels or third branch of Celts, was the language of Ire- land, where many still speak it. It also prevailed for a long time in the Scotch Highlands, but is now almost extinct there. The various Teutonic tongues may be classified in three groups: first, the eastern, or Gothic, which included the Ian- Teutonic guages of the Vandals and other German tribes languages ^o were j oca ted in the east of Europe before they invaded the Roman Empire; second, the northern or Scandinavian group, which was cut off from the others by Slavic inroads south of Denmark from the sixth to the ninth century; third, the western group, including High and Low German, Anglo-Saxon, Frisian, Dutch, and Flemish. Of the Teutonic languages during the early Middle Ages we know very little with the exception of the Gothic, of which a specimen is preserved in the Bible of Ulfilas. The next Germanic language of which we have considerable remains is the Anglo-Saxon spoken in England before the Norman Conquest. In Germany itself, using that name in a broad geograph- ical sense, the language divided into High and Low German. High and As the country consists of a lofty plateau Low German stre tching north from the Alps and a lower coastal plain including the mouths of the rivers Rhine, Elbe, and Oder, so the linguistic line of demarcation may be drawn approximately from Aachen and Cologne to the confluence of the Elbe and the Saale. High German was