APPENDIX.— On GREEK AN A LOOT. 373. 



jefts were therefore named, (in whatever manner the language 

 originated), from their qualities, as difcovered in their adings 

 or effe<5ls in regard to us. Hence it follows, that the verb is the 

 root of all language. The founds by which thefe feelings were 

 conveyed, were the fhorteft pofTible, and would therefore be all 

 monofyllables, confifting probably of one confonant and one 

 vowel found only. As the vowel founds are often uncertain 

 and variable in their enunciation, not only in different lan- 

 guages, but in different diale<Ss of the fame language, they muft 

 therefore have been frequently interchanged in common fpeech, 

 and no variation in thefe founds could be fuppofed to affed the ex- 

 preflion of the particular idea meant to be conveyed. It was to 

 the confonant founds alone, in which the diverfity was fixed and 

 obvious, that recourfe was neceffarily had, as the radical and uni- 

 form figns by which the diverfity of ideas or feelings was to be 

 exprefled. Each confonant, therefore, had a particular fignifica- 

 tion, which it always retained, with whichever of the vowel 

 founds it was united ; the vowel founds ferving only as the 

 neceffary means of enunciating the confonants ;. and it being con- 

 fequently a matter of indifference which of the vowel founds 

 were thus employed. 



Here, then, we may look for the adual roots of language^ 

 traced to their remote and primitive origin ; fimple monofylla- 

 bic founds, containing one confonant only, enunciated indifcri- 

 minately by any of the vowel founds, at the arbitrary option of 

 the fpeaker. 



In applying this theory to the ftrudlure of the Greek lan- 

 guage, the Hemfterhufian fyftem of Greek analogy comes op- 

 portunely to our afliftance, at once fupporting and fupported by 

 the general obfervations now thrown out. The duads «», ia, nu. 

 Oil, and vu, from which, according to this theory, all the words 

 in the language emanate, are in fadl, after removing the a, (which, 

 as already mentioned, is an adventitious termination), nothing 



but 



