2 Introduction [§r or Welsh, Cornish, and Bas-Breton or Armorican (the oldest records of Cymric and Bas-Breton date back to the eighth or ninth century); (3) Gaelic, including Irish-Gaelic, Scotch-Gaelic, and Manx. The oldest monuments are the old Gaelic ogam inscriptions, which probably date as far back as about A.D. 500. IX. Baltic-Slavonic, consisting of: (r) The Baltic division, embracing (a) Old Prussian, which became extinct in the seventeenth century, (b) Lithuanian, (c) Lettic (the oldest records of Lithuanian and Lettic belong to the sixteenth century); (2) the Slavonic division, embracing: (a) the South-Eastern group, including Russian (Great Russian, White Russian, and Little Russian), Bulgarian, and Illyrian (Servian, Croatian, Slovenian); (b) the Western group, including Czech (Bohemian), Sorabian (Wendish), Polish and Polabian. X. Germanic, consisting of:— (1) Gothic. Almost the only source of our knowledge of the Gothic language is the fragments of the biblical translation made in the fourth century by Ulfilas, the Bishop of the West Goths. See pp. 195-7. (2) Scandinavian or North Germanic—called Old Norse until about the middle of the eleventh century—which is sub-divided into two groups: (a) East Scandinavian, including Swedish, Gutnish, and Danish ; (b) West Scandinavian, including Norwegian, and Icelandic. The oldest records of this branch are the runic inscriptions, some of which date as far back as the third or fourth century. (3) West Germanic, which is composed of:— (a) High German, the oldest monuments of which belong to about the middle of the eighth century. (b) Low Franconian, called Old Low Franconian or Old Dutch until about 1200. (c) Low German, with records dating back to the ninth