Comparison of Ancient and Modern Languages. [Aug. 1, 



30 



suddenlj' or progressively; and that, at 

 a fieriotl, beyond the seojie ofall history, 

 exeepling wliat is recorded in the Bihle 

 to have occurred at Babel. 



2. All subsequent lai)gnap;es aro 

 formed out oftlic materials, or ruins, of 

 the original one. as can be denio.'istratcd 

 by tracing those ruins in tlicir cou- 

 strticlion. 



3. There are some ancient languages, 

 vhicli, by not having undergone :sny 

 very \iolent rcvolulions, are tbrnied of 

 more entire masses, as it were, of those 

 ruins, than othtrs ; so that, by eombiiiing 

 together the masses so found m their 

 str'iictHrc, the leading charaeleristics of 

 the venerable original may be traced 

 out; but those languages, of more mo- 

 dern date, which have arisen out of the 

 inlerniixture of nations, or which have 

 been polished, as it is called, arc so 

 irre»'ular, and their basis so defaced, 

 that" their afiinity to tiicir parent could 

 scarcely be idenlified witli(iut the aid 

 of the t()rmer, which have escaped such 

 accidents. 



4. By the data already mentioned, 

 that first lang»iagc of mankind can be 

 demonstrated to have been more sys- 

 tematic, copious, and expressive, than 

 all others, formed out of its ruins; and 

 even far superior to any thing hypothe- 

 tically conceived by philosophers to be 

 the perfection of speech. 



6. It had for its basis all the radical 

 and simple sounds, or articulations, 

 williin tlie compass of the human voice, 

 amounting to the munber of nearly 

 three hundred; which being the signs of 

 so many simple, absliuct ideas, they 

 formed a scale, ])r<ibably as perfect in its 

 application as that of music; out of 

 xvhich arose all the pfissible combina- 

 tions necessary for representing every 

 idea, whether simple or complex. 



6. Radical and simple sounds are 

 such elementary words, as consist of one 

 or two vowels, or of a vowel joined to 

 one consonant; as for example. «, aw, 

 nb,al,en,ci,da,fo,ma, t]), to, and the 

 Jrkc. 



7. So long as the primitive language 

 existed in a iicrfcet stale, every articu- 

 latiim of the human voices was sigaili- 

 cant of some meaning or idea therein, 

 equally determined as any note in the 

 musical scale; so that no sound could 

 have l»eeii uttered, without eonveyuig 

 an idea thereby; and a combination of 

 ariy number of sounds gave so many 

 ideas, in the like state of combination. 

 To illustrate this, the word ex-com-mu- 

 w-ai-ti-on may sufl^ee, which ought, 



agreeably to the foregoing principle, (o 

 impress on the mind s( ven simple idea* 

 combined; Avhereas it gives us only one 

 idea; and its scnen component parts 

 separately mean nothing. 



8. In that periert stale, also, the ori- 

 ginal language could be represented by 

 those symbols, termed hieroglyphics, so 

 as to be read with equal facility as the 

 symbols of numbers ; beeutisc that, as 

 every elementary sound m as signilicant 

 of a simple and abstract idea, it also 

 became the name of tlie thing, which 

 obviously had its predominant charac- 

 teristic described thereby. Thus the 

 word to, meaning, abstractedly, uhat is 

 out, over, exterior, or covering, would 

 be. and is, the appropriate name for a 

 roof, and its aggTegate plural form of /// 

 would mean a house: and it is a curious 

 circumstance, tiiat the form of its ori- 

 ginal symbol, and also its name, arc 

 even preserved by our alphabet writing, 

 in the letter T, howevw it may be mo- 

 dified. 



9. In some of the ancient languages, 

 already alluded to, there arc preserved, 

 conjointly, about one-half of all the ele- 

 mentary sounds, significant of the like 

 number of abstract ideas. 



The Arabic has 100 as uouns, and 48 

 as prepositions, &c. 



The Persian has 81 as uouns, and 41 

 as prepositions, &c. 



'I'he We(s/i lias 78 as nouns, and 135 

 as prepositions, &c. 



'i'he Hebrew has 35 as nouns, and 30 

 as i>rcpositions, Sec. 



\\'\\h respect to the Arabic, Persian, 

 and Hebrew, I am aware of drawing 

 results from imperfect premises; that is, 

 merely from lexicons ; but, were I as- 

 sisted by individuals, who had those 

 languages for their mother tongues, and 

 had made similar researches therein, 

 with what I have done with respect to 

 the 'V^'elsh, and no one else would be 

 comjjetciit, I am of opinion, that consi- 

 derable additions could thus be made, 

 so as to render my system more perfect. 



10. None of tlie modern languages 

 preserve tliose elementary sounds, ■j^ ith 

 their abstract significations, or signs of 

 ideas, in the strict form before alluded 

 to; and, indeed, in any state, they have 

 j)reserved only a very few of them, as 

 may be seen in the subjoined table; and 

 that, merely, as absolute names of things, 

 without an}- clue being atlbrded to find 

 the reason for their being so applied. 

 Nevertheless, by examining the eon- 

 siruetion of these languages, we clearly 

 discover that such elements, as before 



described; 



