IV. On certain Analogies obferved by the Greeks in the 

 Ufe of their Letters; and particularly of the Letter 

 SITMA. ByAiiDREwDALZEL.M.A. F. R. S. Edin. 

 and Profejfor of Greek in the Univerftty o/" Edinburgh. 



{Read by the Author^ Dec. 19. 1785, and Nov. 19, 1787.] 



INTRODUCTION. 



THE power of pronouncing articulate founds is one of 

 the moft. obvious marks which diftinguifh man from the 

 other animals. No philofophical inveftigation is neceffary for 

 pointing it out, and therefore it has not efcaped the notice of 

 the poets, the moft ancient of all authors. In the works of 

 Homer and Hesiod *, we often meet with the exprefllon 

 ffA^oiTii; uvS^uvoi, men having an articulate voice ; the word f/A^o^ 

 being evidently compounded of ^s<ga>, to divide, and ©4', the 

 voice "I". 



But 



* FiJe Iliad, x, 250. /, 402. c-', 288. h'c. Oper. & Dies, 109, 142. Anacreon has 

 alfo made ufe of the fame epithet, but without the fubftantive ; Od. III. 4. 



■f- Aii TO ^£(i£5iT|K£»i)» 'X^" '''''' °^'*> '*y' Hestchids, voce fiifon;. In which SuinAs 

 agrees. Eostathius is more explicit. Me^o^ts; ei a»9§«Toi, wafi n (pint fciiit^n^jiim' >xti» 

 T^* o^flt EK Tg Xs^Ui x.x) lit; «/XA«3«s text iU S"«(X<r(», fCTi^EfAiet T*5 sAAl} ix^t fpvint ITAfOt. Tiiv ru9 

 Mfairai aiii^i. Men are called ^/poa-s;, from their naturally having their voice divided into 

 Words and Syllables and Elements, a quality -which no voice pojfejfes, except hnman 

 Speech. Ad IHad. a, 250. The Bifhop adds, That " thofe of his own facred fociety, 

 " the interpreters of holy Writ, derive the word from the divifion of tongues which 

 " took place at the building of the tower of Cbalana," as he calls it ; which etymology 

 Erasmus has alfo taken notice of in his Dialogue de re^o Lotini Gracique Sermonis pro- 



tmniiatione. 



