s. 180. In Chaucer and Mandeville, and perhaps in all the writers of the reign of Edward III., we have a transition {123} from the Old to the Middle English. The last characteristic of a grammar different from that of the present English, is the plural form in _-en_; _we tellen_, _ye tellen_, _they tellen_. As this disappears, which it does in the reign of Queen Elizabeth (Spenser has it continually), the Middle English may be said to pass into the New or Modern English. s. 181. The _present_ tendencies of the English may be determined by observation; and as most of them will be noticed in the etymological part of this volume, the few here indicated must be looked upon as illustrations only. 1. The distinction between the subjunctive and indicative mood is likely to pass away. We verify this by the very general tendency to say _if it is_, and _if he speaks_, for _if it be_, and _if he speak_. 2. The distinction (as far as it goes) between the participle passive and the past tense is likely to pass away. We verify this by the tendency to say _it is broke_, and _he is smote_, for _it is broken_, and _he is smitten_. 3. Of the double forms, _sung_ and _sang_, _drank_ and _drunk_, &c. one only will be the permanent. As stated above, these tendencies are a few out of a number, and have been adduced in order to indicate the subject rather than to exhaust it. s. 182. What the present language of England would have been had the Norman Conquest never taken place, the analogy of Holland, Denmark, and of many other countries enables us to determine. It would have been much as it is at present. What it would have been had the _Saxon_ conquest never taken place, is a question wherein there is far more speculation. Of France, of Italy, of Wallachia, and of the Spanish Peninsula, the analogies all point the same way. They indicate that the original Celtic would have been superseded by the Latin of the conquerors, and consequently that our language in its later stages would have been neither British nor Gaelic, but Roman. Upon these analogies, however, we may refine. Italy, was from the beginning, Roman; the Spanish Peninsula was invaded full early; no ocean divided Gaul from Rome; and the war against the ancestors of the Wallachians was a war of extermination. * * * * * {124} CHAPTER III. ON THE LOWLAND SCOTCH. s. 183. The term _Lowland_ is used to distinguish the Scotch of the South-east from the Scotch of the Highlands. The former is English in its immediate affinities, and Germanic in origin; the latter is nearly the same language with the Gaelic of Ireland, and is, consequently, Celtic. The question as to whether the Lowland Scotch is a dialect of the English, or a separate and independent language, is a verbal rather than a real one.