374 APPENDIX.— On GREEK ANALOCr. 



but the vowel founds ferving for the enunciation of the confo- 

 nants. It is altogether an error, therefore, to (late thefe as of 

 themfelves fignificant : but the framers of the analogical theory- 

 were mifled by this circumflauce, that as the vowel founds were 

 necefTary for the enunciation of the confonants ; as all founds 

 were meant to exprefs fome fpecies of adion ; and as all adion 

 neceflarily implies motion, or the ceflaiion of motion ; it feemed 

 therefore not unnatural, that the necefTary component of the fig- 

 nificant found fhould be fuppofed to denote the equally necef^ 

 fary component of the adion or idea fignified. 



Having afcertained the application of the vowel founds, the 

 next objed is to confider the application of the confonants. In 

 regard to this, it may be obferved, that whatever is thought of 

 the hypothefis of the duads, it at leafl implies nothing abfurd or 

 improbable to fuppofe, that when men began to name objeds 

 from their adion, as experienced in their efFeds, the fame or fi- 

 milar feelings would naturally be exprefTed by the fame or near- 

 ly fimilar founds ; that the expreffive part of thefe founds was 

 the confonant, and that, confequently, when the defire to indi- 

 cate a feeling or idea once fignified recurred anew, this would be 

 done by a repetition of the fame confonant found which had firfl 

 been employed to make it known. Hence it will follow, that 

 each different confonant, when enunciated, would foon come to 

 denote a particular I'ange of ideas, agreeing among themfelves in 

 fome common quality, diftind from what were expreffed by 

 any of the others. What particular clafs of ideas each confonant 

 was to denote, was purely arbitrary and accidental. This, there- 

 fore, can never be afcertained by theoretical conjedure : if it be 

 known at all, it mud be traced by the obfervation of fads, as 

 they adually occur in the exifting primitive languages. 



Whether, by fuch a mode of invefligation, the adual for- 

 mation of language could be fully and fatisfadorily developed, 

 I cannot pretend to determine. I muft own, however, that it 



feems 



