580 



LANGUAGE. 



Lsr gunge. 



No fncts to 

 be found in 

 history for 

 shewing 

 language 

 actually in 

 its rudest 

 elements. 



Reason of 

 this. 



Particular 

 facts may 

 throw some 

 light on the 

 primitive 

 organiza- 

 tion of lan- 

 guage. 



into their primitive forms. The investigation of this 

 point, forms l>y far the most valuable and interesting 

 part of Home Tooke's disquisitions ; for his analysis 

 of abstract nouns and adjectives, although certainly in- 

 prenious, yet are often unsatisfactory, and many cf 

 his derivations altogether chimerical and unfounded. 

 Home Tooke, indeed, was not the first who struck 

 into that path, similar views having previously been 

 entertained, though probably unknown to him, by 

 the Dutch etymologists, Schultens, Hemsterhuis, and 

 Linnep ; but his writings are most generally known, 

 and he is regarded as the founder of the system. The 

 system itself appears now to be so clearly established, 

 that in tracing the formation of language, it is unne- 

 cessary to go into fuller investigation of the origin of 

 adverbs, prepositions, and conjunctions, than just to 

 observe, that the adverb' is an adjective, with a noun 

 united in an abridged and compendious form ; the pre- 

 position either a noun, or an afljective, with a noun un- 

 derstood ; and the conjunction may generally be resolved 

 into the form of a mutilated verb. 



The foregoing detail exhibits what appears to us a 

 fair and just deduction, from the nature of man, and 

 the circumstances in which he is placed, of the origin 

 and gradual formation of language. It is admitted, 

 that it is what, from the very nature of the subject it 

 must be, in a great measure theoretical or conjectural. 

 It is evident, that we possess no documents from which 

 we might learn the actual rise and advances of this in- 

 teresting art. Wherever men have been found in so- 

 ciety, there always a language of some kind, more or 

 less perfect, yet always a formed language, has been 

 found to prevail ; the earliest rudiments, therefore, or 

 the first efforts at regular speech, are buried in entire 

 oblivion. If all the languages in the world were origi- 

 nally derived from one form of speech communicated 

 from our first parents, it is easy to see, that however 

 great and numerous variations might take place in it, 

 yet the art itself would never be lost, the mode of com- 

 municating thought in articulate signs could never be 

 forgotten. Even if we were to suppose, that language 

 arose untaught in many separate communities, yet 

 still as the absolute necessity of such a mode of com- 

 munication must have been powerfully felt even at the 

 very commencement of society, the progress of speech 

 to a certain point would unquestionably be most rapid, 

 and a language, in a great measure completely formed, 

 would very soon be in use. Upon either supposition, 

 then, it ceases to be matter of wonder, that no where 

 has a community been found, who had not advanced 

 beyond the first rudiments of speech, or among whom 

 all the essentials of language were not actually in use. 



But though, from these circumstances, it is evident 

 we can have no direct documents in which the earliest 

 stages of language are actually exhibited, yet particu- 

 lar facts occur in many existing tongues, which serve 

 to throw some light upon their origin and primitive 

 organization ; and these, so far as they can be traced, 

 tend to give validity to the conjectures now theoreti- 

 cally thrown out, as to the mode in which the various 

 classes of words originated. It is true, as observed by 

 a late writer, that in the more perfect and polished 

 languages, such as the Greek and Latin, and we may 

 perhaps add the Sanskrit and some others, the surface, 

 fto to speak, is so highly varnished, and the joints so 

 closely fitted, that it becomes difficult to get sight of 

 the original materials, or discover the size and shape of 

 the pieces thus nicely adjusted ; but in languages less 

 6 



refined, such as the Hebrew, the Celtic, and the Gothic, Language, 

 the structure lies more open to inspection. Accord. ~~~~f^* 

 inglv it was in these less [xJlished languages, that ety- 

 mologists first succeeded in discovering theieots j but 

 by degrees, aided by the light thus thrown upon the 

 origin of words, men of acuteness and penetration 

 have been able, in the best adjusted languages, even in 

 the Greek, perhaps the most complete with which we 

 are acquainted, to advance far in unfolding their ori- 

 ginal form and constitution. 



Wherever, then, we have been able fully to develope 

 the primitive roots, we find them ultimately resolvable 

 into verbs. In verbs we find, farther, that the imjx'rn- 

 tire contains always the radix of the verb with the 

 least possible addition, and sometimes without any ad- 

 dition at all. It is from verbs that the primitive nouns 

 and attributives are immediately formed, all of them 

 still retaining enough of the root, to mark distinctly 

 their origin. . Thus in Hebrew, where the roots of the 

 language form an important branch of its grammar, 



these roots are all either verbs, or plainly resolvable 

 into verbs. In Greek, and its corresponding language 

 Latin, the radical parts of the language have all been 

 traced by the most skilful etymologists to the verb. In 

 other original languages, the same remark will apply ; 

 and it is observable, that those very philologists who as- 

 sert most strongly that nouns were the parents of lan- 

 guage, yet in the analysis of individual words, generally 

 resolve them at last to a verb, as their ultimate source. 

 Farther, in analysing the parts of the verb, we find that 

 in Hebrew, for instance, the second person of the im- 

 perative, and the third person of the preterite, are the 

 same ; and it is this part of the verb which all their 

 grammarians and lexicographers unite in fixing upon 

 as the root. In the Greek and Latin verb, the impera- 

 tive of the present is that part which always approaches 

 nearest to the root. In the Celtic and the Gothic, and 

 the modern languages which have taken their origin 

 from them, the imperative verb Uniformly is that which 

 expresses often, without additional terminations or par- 

 ticles, the full action and intention of the word ; and 

 where some short termination is added, there is every 

 reason to think that this was not the very earliest form, 

 but a subsequent addition. We seem warranted then 

 in concluding, that the imperative of the verb is really 

 the radical part, to which all the others at first were 

 adjuncts. Afterwards, it is true, new verbs and nouns, 

 as well as other classes of words, would be formed from 

 the primitives ; but these are plainly derivatives, hav- 

 ing their rise in an advanced state of the language. 



The proof of these principles might be extended by 

 examples from many different languages; but such 

 a copious induction, however useful and curious, would 

 run this article into an inconvenient length. Those 

 who wish to go farther, will find, upon examination, 

 that in the principle now laid down, of using tire radix 

 of the verb as the imperative part of it, there- is an 

 agreement in languages nearly universal. 



It might be a curious object of inquiry, were it Form of 

 practicable to arrive at any certainty in regard to it, the P rul 

 what was the nature of the original radical sounds or '" 

 words, and from what principles did the application of 

 the different articulate sounds to contain particular 

 feelings, actions, or objects, at first arise ? Here, how- 

 ever, we have so few data to proceed upon, that very 

 little can be discovered; still something may be stated. 

 The conjecture then, we may observe, is not iinproba- 

 ble, that the primitive sounds by which men's feelings^ 

 were announced would be very short, perhaps most of 



