1. =WHAT A LANGUAGE IS.=--A language is a number of different sounds which are made by the =tongue= and the other organs of speech. But a spoken language is, or may be, written or printed upon paper by the aid of a number of =signs= or =symbols=--which are generally printed in black ink upon white paper.--The parts of a spoken language are called =sounds=; the smallest parts of a written or printed language are called =letters=.--A language is also called a _tongue_ or a _speech_.--A language, like a living being, does not remain always the same. It _grows_. As it grows, it alters in appearance; small and great changes take place in it; and the story of these changes is called the _History of the Language_. 2. =THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE= is the name given to the language which is spoken in Great Britain and Ireland, in the United States, in Canada, in Australia and New Zealand, in South Africa, and in many other parts of the world where Englishmen, Scotchmen, and Irishmen are found. In the middle of the =fifth century= it was spoken by a few thousand men who came over to Britain from the north-west of Europe, and by many thousands of men and women who dwelt on the banks of the lower parts of the great German rivers--the Rhine, the Elbe, and the Weser. It is now spoken by more than 100 millions of people. But the English spoken in the fifth century was a very different language from the English that is spoken now. It was different, yet still the same. It was different in appearance, as a child of one year old is different in looks from a man of forty; but both the English of to-day and the English of the fifth century are the same--because the one has grown out of the other, just as the tall strong man of forty has grown out of the child of one year old. 3. =FAMILY.=--To what family of languages does our English speech belong? It belongs to the =Indo-European family= of languages. This family is so called, because the languages which belong to it are spoken both in India and in Europe. Many thousand years ago, the people from whom we are descended lived on the high table-lands in the heart of Asia. Bands of them kept travelling always farther and farther west; and it is from their language that most of the tongues spoken in Europe are derived. These bands left their friends and relations and country, just as young men and women nowadays leave the homes of their parents to go and settle in distant countries. The Indo-European is also called the Aryan family of languages. Altogether, it embraces seven great languages--(1) The Indian or Sanskrit; (2) Persic; (3) Greek; (4) Latin; (5) Keltic; (6) Teutonic; and (7) Slavonic, which includes Russian, Polish, &c.