65 



II. Jn Essay on the Nature, Age, and Origin of the Sanscrit Writing and 

 Language. By Charles William Wall, D.D., M.R.I. A., Senior Fellow 

 of Trinity College, Dublin. 



Read 13th November, 1837. 



All the letters of the Hebrew text of the Bible, in its original state, were 

 employed as signs of syllables, beginning with consonants and ending with 

 vowels. The vowel part of every syllable was variable, and it was left to 

 the judgment of the reader to determine that part for each place of the occur- 

 rence of a letter, according to what his knowledge of the language showed 

 him the context required. Even still, near four-fifths of the vowels must, in 

 reading the present unpointed text, be supplied in a similar manner ; the only 

 difference being, that they are no longer considered to be included in what the 

 letters express, the powers of those letters having been decomposed, in conse- 

 quence of which they are now used as consonants. The remaining portion of 

 the text at present, indeed, exhibits signs for the vowel, as well as the consonantal, 

 ingredients of the syllables, three of the letters being occasionally diverted from 

 their original use to the purpose of vocal designation; but where those letters are 

 now so employed, or rather where they were so in former times as far back as 

 their pronunciation can be traced,* there they constitute no part of the original 



* This distinction is necessary on account of the difference between the ancient and the modern 

 pronunciation. Thus the word >"Q5?, which signifies a Hebrew, is now read HiBRI (the mark 

 under the H is used merely to point out that there is a difference in power between 5? and the 

 other Hebrew gutturals, although that difference is not now exactly known ; and the Italic serves 

 to show that there is no separate sign for it in the original group) ; but its Greek translation, 

 '£(3pa(0f, proves that, at the time when the Septuagint version was made, it was pronounced 

 HeBRdY, its sound terminating with that of the English monosyllable ay ; and, consequently, that 

 its final character belonged always to the text, although it is now read as a vowel letter when the 

 writing is unpointed. 



VOL. XVIII. I 



