PHILOLOGICAL INQUIRIES. 477 



many examples occur of giving fignificant names to new 

 objeds, and in difficult cafes, after, mature deliberation.* 

 To (race the early rudiments of languages is therefore im- 

 portant in feveral refpedts : — Words made for new objeds, 

 prove the previous want of them. — If their etymology can 

 be afcertaincd, it fhows the relation of thefe objedls with 

 other previous things. — The funiba'ity and diverfity of pri- 

 mitive terms points out the early diftindlions of tribes ; and 

 guards againft the hiftorical errors, fo common, of tracing 

 whole nations from the fame flock, by whatever fimilarity 

 of languages, without difcri.nninating what refults from the 

 mingling of diiferent flocks. — Among the great part of man- 

 kind, that has neither writings, nor other monuments, a 

 contemplation of their languages, will yet difcovcr many 

 things otherwife infcrutable. — Nations that have authentic 

 ancient records, and other monuments, will yet derive 

 kncwledgeof greater antiquity from a critical ftudy of their 

 language, becaiife their anceftors fpoke on many things be- 

 fore they could write hiftory, compofe fables, or form any 

 fignificant and lafting fpecimcns of arts. Though languages 

 change from various caufes, and Ibmetimes from whim, 

 yet mankind in general do not make fudden and great al- 

 terations : old words will for a long period retain their ef- 

 fential features; and when difmiffcd from general ufe, re- 

 main for ages in local diltrids, or among the fnnple claffes 

 of fociety : when finally loft, they often leave kindred 



words 



* G. H. Lofkiel i-el.-ites in his hiftory of the Evangelical Moravian Miflkm 

 among the Indians in North America, that fcrnietimes a large afffmbly con- 

 fults on the moft proper name for fome new iniereftiiig objeifl : thus, f. e. they 

 named Irazuc by a word that means a medium between black and white ; they 

 called fhoe buckles mc/ij/Jic lands, i ft part, 2.6. art. 



The people of Kamtfchatca called bread the Rujpai root, becaufc it was un- 

 known to them before the arrival cf that people, and the)- make ufe of a root, 

 called Saianna, in lieu of it. I'hey alio called the llullian clergyman Bog- 

 bog, becaufe he oft^n repeated Zi'iJf, the Ruffian name for G oil. D«e Steller's 

 Tr.avels. 



