DISCOURSE

is common among us, for one says Bert, Swert as much as Bart, Swart Stevin is noting vowel shifts in words meaning "Bright" and "Black.": It is also known that some use Wecht for Wacht [Watch/Guard]: From Guet French for "watch" or "lookout." come Guetter, Guette, Guetteur, etc. To watch, a watchman, etc. Again, instead of To War original Dutch: Ter Weere, meaning defense or resistance; the French use A la Guerre, from which is derived Guerroyer, Guerroyeur, etc. To wage war, a warrior. For In the Manner original: Op de Wyse; they say A la Guise, from which is made Guisarme, Disguise, Disguisement, A guisarme is a medieval shafted weapon; Stevin suggests even these specific terms have Germanic roots. and so with many others which we omit for the sake of brevity. From this general rule then of the shift from W to Gu (beyond the great multitude of other common words which they certainly have from the Germanic Stevin uses "Duytsch" here to refer to the broad Germanic language family, which he believes is most purely preserved in Dutch., which we omit for brevity, all the more because what is written above satisfies our purpose) it seems to be sufficiently concluded that the French formerly spoke Germanic—that is, that they were Germanic people—and consequently that the Germans were formerly a known and powerful people.

However, if that does not please you, and you prefer to think that they gathered those words formerly from the Germanic just as they now do from Latin (for one of the two must be true), the same conclusion follows. For if we take it so, it must have happened during their ruin original: verwoestheyt, referring to a period of societal or imperial collapse, or before it: Not after, because the Germanic language has not been held in any esteem among them since then; rather, they valued Latin, after which they have modeled their own tongue. It also could not have happened during their ruin, for it does not follow that a powerful people, who could fight and conquer Spain, Greece, and Italy, would have formed their speech after the language of savages original: wilden. That such a race would learn from savages how to give a name to the windlass original: windaes, a mechanical winch used for lifting heavy loads is too ridiculous, since they themselves were using windlasses even before the savages did. It is therefore necessary that they modeled these words after the Germanic before their ruin—namely, when they were great and powerful, and every other race had its eye upon them.

To this we may add that their language stretched further than others, a feat they could not have achieved in a state of ruin; for the idea that savages who do not trade, nor travel far, would spread their language further than other powerful peoples who had great lands and kingdoms under their rule, contradicts the common course of the world; it would be improper to allow such a thing. This wide spreading of the language, then, occurred before the ruin: from which it is also to be noted what power they must then have possessed, seeing that the scattered, monolingual remnant, after so great a number of years, stretched further than those who were currently in great power. These are truly causes which, together with the other reasons, force us to believe that the Spaniards formerly were also either Germanic, or that they directed their language after the Germanic. For they, like the French, also say Guante [Glove], Guardar [To Guard], from which comes...