PHILOLOGICAL INQUIRIES. 489 



how numerous are the words in all thefe languages relative 

 to water and fire ! and how many have no radicals yet 

 known in any part of the world ! without infiftlng that 

 fuch implying necefTary origines from fire and water, the 

 number of thofe which were of primitive ufe, as rain, a 

 fpr'ing, &c, is fo great as to confirm the great improbabi- 

 lity of all languages having a common iource. Whoever 

 has leifure and ability to compare the numerous words for 

 other things, as for the principal members of the body, 

 &c. will be the more convinced of this truth. 



We can difcover among a great part of mankind very 

 fcanty and rude commencements of language, marks of a 

 very fimple ftate, yet ftamped by the rational faculty : a 

 glimpfe of this animates thefe laborious inquiries, which 

 would otherwife be fatiguing dreams. 



The firfl. number feems not to have had an original ab- 

 ftraft fenfe, but to have denoted fomething, and been ap- 

 plied to all the objedts which had yet no fpecific name. 

 It is accordingly ftill ufed in many languages as an article : 

 — in all the Teutonic, as : E. a man — G. ein viivi — S. en 

 man — in the French, Spanifh, Italian, and Portuguefe, as 

 Fr. un homme — Po. huma porta a gate — in the Finnic, as 

 yxi 'waimo, a woman. It has alfo a plural in feveral lang- 

 uages, of a fimilar meaning, as E. ones — S. enar, thofe, 

 fuch — Fr. Ics uns, fome. 



Several names of the fecond number imply addition and 

 tmtchy as appears from their near affinity with the terms 

 for thofe : Go. to;, too — G. zuviel and H. te veel, too much. 



Several names of the third relate to words expreffive of 

 greatnefs and ftrength : — »%i£" a military chief — Tf-c and 

 ter were ufed to exprefs the extraordinary, both fimply 

 and in compounds. Some of the others are alfo ana- 

 logous with terms for augmenting: as the Hebrew 4 with 



— "?"' to increafe ; and its c and 1 o with Arabic words for 



.11 . , -^ 



thicknefs and confociation. 



3 S The 



