ORIENTAL LANGUAGES. 49 



CHAPTER II. 



ORIENTAL LANGUAGES. 



WE class as Oriental Languages, those of civilized Asia ; including, 

 on account of their close resemblance, those of Egypt and Ethiopia. 

 The name is from the Latin oriens, rising ; but it signifies eastern, 

 in allusion to the rising sun. The Oriental Languages are doubtless 

 the most ancient of all ; though their relative antiquity is not pre- 

 cisely known. The Hebrew is probably the oldest ; and it became 

 known to the nations of Europe, as the language of the Bible, and 

 of the dispersed Jews: but the Arabic was little regarded, till after 

 the downfall of Rome, and the rise of Mohamedanism ; when it 

 became, for a time, the chief language of science. The British 

 conquest of India, has attracted the attention of scholars to the Sans- 

 crit tongue : and the labors of religion and commerce have at last 

 introduced us to a partial knowledge of the Chinese : but in these 

 latter tongues, much yet remains to be sought for and investigated. 

 We shall speak briefly of the Oriental Languages, under the four 

 divisions, or families, of Coptic, Semitic, Sanscrit, and Chinese. 



1. The Coptic Language, was the original language of Egypt; 

 and it is one of the most ancient that are known. It was expressed 

 by the characters commonly called Hieroglyphics; so named from 

 the Greek Ispa yA^*?, a sacred engraving. The earliest hieroglyphics, 

 appear to have been imitations, or natural symbols, of the objects 

 which they expressed ; and hence they are classed as figurative and 

 symbolical. Thus, an eye, with a sceptre beneath it, signified a king ; 

 a flying hawk, represented the wind ; and a crescent, resembling the 

 moon, was the symbol of a month. From these hieroglyphics, were 

 derived the phonetic characters ; so called because they represented 

 sounds ; and which constituted probably the earliest alphabet known. 

 In the phonetic hieroglyphics, each character stood for the sound, or 

 letter, which began the name of the object represented. Thus an 

 eagle stood for the letter A ; this being the initial letter of ahom, the 

 Coptic word for an eagle. On this principle was formed the Egyp- 

 tian Alphabet, (Plate II. No. 1), explained in the following table. 



A. Ahom, an eagle. 



B. Berbe, a censer. 

 E or A. Aka, a reed. 

 K. Klaft, a cup. 



L. Laboi, a lion. 

 M. Movu, water. 



N. Neph, an inundation. 



O. Osiris, a dog-headed deity. 



P. Presh, a mat. 



R. Ra, the sun. 



S. Sion, a star. 



T. Tot, a hand. 



This list may serve as a specimen of the phonetic characters ; but 

 numerous others were employed in the same manner, and to desig- 

 nate the same letters ; though a small number of them seems to have 

 been selected for common use.* All the characters expressing one 



* Some of these are shown in Plate II. No. 1 ; but we have not room to give the 

 Coptic names. No. 4, is the word ahom, in Coptic characters. 

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