PHILOLOGICAL INQUIRIES. 509 



Imlary cf Baijln, Sec. On a Ihoit acquaintance with the Celtic he perceives 

 the grois error of thofe Englilh hiilorians who alTerted that the modern Enp-- 

 lifh is a pure inheritance ironi their Saxon anceftors becauie theli: totally de- 

 itroyed the Britons (how general ami longlived it was is well proved by the 

 Rev. IFitiacre in his hiilory of Mancheller) : by attentive iUidy he difcovcrs 

 Teutonic affinities beyond the knowledge cf the beft Celtic antiquaries, 

 among whom excels Lhnyd, author of Archxo^ogia Britannica ; and marks 

 alio the rcliques of feveral different idioms, which guard him agalnll the 

 opinion that die ancelb'y of mofl: European nations had one Celtic tongue, 

 which Pdlouikr in his HiJJo'ue dcs Ccltes, Vailiincey, author of an Uerno-Cilllc, 

 or Irijh, grammar. Sec. and others, have endeavoured to prove (writers 

 neverthelels ellimable). A Swede is at firR puzzled in the Sclavonian 

 woods ; but he foon finds that the Poles and Rullians with whom his ancef- 

 tors continually fought, are his coufins, though thefe for want of L fay Gs/- 

 lariil, Gemlurg, &c. 



My aids in the Sclavonian have been : the above mentioned Bohemian 

 Grammar by Pohl, and the New Teftament in that language : the Ruffian- 

 German-French Didionary of NordJ'.ct, publiilied at Peterfbiu-g 17S0: 

 another very good, original Lat'in-Gcrman tranflated into RuQian ; a New 

 Grammar; a few books: the Poliili-French-German Diiflionary of Trotz, 

 printed at Leipfig 1764; another in German ; the Polilh Bible, Telemach. 

 The Hungarian-German Grammar of Farlailsfalva, printed at Vienna 

 1779 has been of peculiar, though not exclufive, fervice in that langnage. 

 In the Celtic I have had confiderable refourccs, as the Welch Bible, Anl'i- 

 quities of Corn-wall, by Borlas, diverfe Britiih, Irifh and Erfe pieces, Box- 



iorii's Origines Gallict, &c. My knowledge of the Afiatic and American 



is far inferior ; but the fpecimens are carefully felcded : tlie Chinefe are 

 partly in Dubahie's Work, and partly in Bayer's Mufunn Simcnm, printed 

 1730 : the Japanefe and Malcfe are in Tl.'unbsrg's Travels : the C. M. Perfian, 

 Turkilh, Manlhuri, and odicrs not fpecified, are taken from the Vocabularla 

 Comparal'iv.i, and judicious Travellers, -.i^ Slrahlenlerg, Bell, Sec. I owe the 

 American to feveral authors, among whom Dr. B.irton merits honourable 

 mention, who has begun a comparifbn of American with Afiatic languages, 

 in his New Vicivs of the Origin of the Tribes and Nations of America, I chofe 

 the H. Ch as embracing much of the Syric, Arabic, &c. the fpecimens are 

 found in Simonis Lexicon Manuals Hehraicum el Chaldaicum, improved by 

 Eichhorn, ard printed 1793. 



The Ruffian has befides die Greek feme other letters totally different 

 from all European ; want of types for thefe obliged me to fubilitule fuch 

 Roman, as nearly convey die found. A fimilar defeift is die reafon why 

 fome of the Polifh / have not the oblique crofs-line which alters their 

 found ; and why fome of the Swedifh diphthongs have only a half circle 

 in lieu of a whole. 



The limits of this eff.iy do not permit detailing die rules of pronunciation, 

 and die changing modes of kindred words in feveral languages ; a touch on 

 them would not be necelFary for the learned, and of little ufe to odiers. 



MEMOIR 



