Chap. V. ANTIENT METAPHYSICS. 343 



another nation, living, as it often happens, in a difFerent climate, 

 and therefore with organs of pronunciation different, and fo pro- 

 nouncing the fame letters differently, the change in the language 

 muft be very great. 



Of thefe changes of words brought from other languages, or of 

 derivatives in the fame language from their radicals, he has given 

 us, in his third volume *, fix tables, containing the feveral changes 

 of vowels into vowels, or vowels into confonants, and of additions 

 made to the fame word, or diminutions of it ; and in thefe tables 

 he has taken his examples both from the languages of Europe, an- 

 tient and modern, and from the Oriental languages. As to vowels, 

 he has obferved, very properly "f, that the vowels change more eafi- 

 ly into one another than the confonants. And indeed if we confi- 

 der, that the vowels, as I have obferved in another place J, are no- 

 thing more than a certain modification of the breath, by which the 

 confonants are pronounced, it is no wonder that the vowels fhould 

 be changed into one another ; or, in other words, that the confo- 

 nants fhould be pronounced by a different modification of the 

 breath : Whereas the confonants articulate the vowels, and make 

 language of them, which, without them, would be nothing elfe but 

 vocal founds. The changes, therefore, of confonants into one an- 

 other, make a much greater difference in the language, than the 

 changes of vowels, though the difference be not fo great when con- 

 fonants of the fame organ are changed into one another, as B into 

 P, or M or F into V, which are all labial confonants : And according- 

 ly, in the different dialects of the fame language, they are frequent- 

 ly ufed one for the other, of which our author gives many exam- 

 ples. And when to thefe changes, the other changes he mentions 



are 



* P. 152, and following. •;■ Ibid. p. iji- 



i P. III. of this vol. 



