1825.] On the Similarity between the German and English Languages. § 
imagine, give the heayiest possible da- 
mages; as such accidents can only 
occur through culpable negligence of the 
directors of the company, in either em- 
ploying persons with whom, in some 
Indirect manner, one or more of them 
participate in the profits of pipe-laying ; 
by having the pipes laid by incompetent 
persons, who are ignorant of the prin- 
ciples: on which the work should be 
done; or by reducing the price below 
that at which the contractor can afford 
to bestow a sufficient quantity of lead 
and Jabour on each joint. The fre- 
quency of accidents of laté renders this 
a subject of public importance. 
The neglect of the directors is the 
more unpardonable, as, in most in- 
stances, I am informed, they secure to 
themselyes very good salaries: parti- 
cularly those who, as they term it, take 
an active part in the management, or 
rather mismanagement of the affairs of 
the company. The gas escaping from 
the gas-main into the water-main is a 
proof that both must be badly laid. I 
am not aware what company supplies 
the gas in the Lisson-green district; 
but this is easily ascertained, 
Your’s truly, 
A Frienp to Gas (when 
7th Jan. 1824. properly conducted). 
——————— | 
_ For the Monthly Magazine. 
On the Simitarrry between the GERMAN 
and Encuisu LancuaceEs. 
; OTWITHSTANDING the num- 
ber of ages which have elapsed 
since the English and German were the 
same language, they still are very similar 
in their vocabularies, inflexions. and 
idioms. The German vocabulary, rich 
as it is in compound words, is reducible 
to an inconsiderable number of roots. 
Of these, not a few are the same with 
the English roots; many slightly differ 
from them; and a very large proportion, 
not perhaps of obvious resemblance in 
the opinion of the hasty and careless 
observer, are so far similar, that an 
Englishman, once knowing their signifi- 
cation, will never forget it. But in order 
to trace the relationship and observe 
the resemblance between words, it is 
necessary to be acquainted with the 
principles regulating and limiting those * 
deviations. from their original, which 
characterize the different dialects of any 
language. 
The rejection of some letters in a 
word, for the sake of harmony or bre- 
vity, and the transposition taking place 
in others,—alterations not uncommon 
in the English,—occur only where the 
letters, (by which word I mean the 
sounds represented by letters) so rejected 
or transposed, are unimportant features 
in the word. Nor are the changes which 
certain letters undergo, by any means 
arbitrary and unlimited; but are permit- 
ted between those only, which are so 
similar, as to be rather varieties of the 
same, than distinct sounds, and which 
are consequently considered as equiva- 
lents. Of these equivalents, different 
dialects often employ different letters to 
form the same word, each generally ad- 
hering to its favourite sound, or combi- 
nation of sounds. The following are 
the classes of equivalents, named from 
the part of the vocal-organ on which 
the letters they contain are formed, and 
exhibiting by this mode of nomenclature 
a convincing proof, even in opposition 
to the evidence of an inexperienced ear, 
that the letters, said to resemble each 
other, must do so, in a greater or less 
degree :— 
The dentals, or letters formed upon 
the teeth, are d, t, th, s; the palaics, or 
letters formed upon the palate, c (hard), 
or k,* ch final (formerly pronounced as 
an 
* We might object to the anatomical 
definitions of the elements, given by. our 
very ingenious correspondent, in more in- 
stances than this: and indeed we have 
never yet met with any anatomical defini- 
tion and arrangement of them, to some 
parts of which we did not object. But 
minute investigations of this description 
might lead into more detail than might be 
either convenient or decorous in the shape 
of incidental notes; and might draw into 
controversy that which is fitter, perhaps, 
for calm and connected disquisition. We 
deem it, therefore, best to let our valuable 
communicant be heard, uninterrupted ; that 
his ingenious essay may be estimated for 
the merits of the whole, not cavilled at for 
minutiz, which may perhaps be question- 
able: the more especially as we have it in 
contemplation (if we can persuade our- 
selves that the detail of such a subject can 
be rendered acceptable to the readers in 
general of this miscellany) to submit to 
them, in a series of articles, continued from 
month to month, all that has ever been 
reduced to writing of the anatomical and 
physiological series of the courses of lec- 
tures which, some years ago, were delivered 
at the institution for the cure of impediments 
and cultivation of the science and accom- 
plishments of elocution, in Lincoln’s-Inn- 
Fields. {t ought, however, to be stated, that 
our objections, to the anatomical definitions 
of our correspondent, do not interfere with 
the validity of his argument, or detract 
from the practical value of his disquisition. 
