382 Observations oti Language, 



English, introduced by conquest, has chiefly supplanted 

 the Gaelic ; and has retained its place, in a dialectic 

 form, down to the present time. 



There is one subject, of considerable importance in 

 this investigation, which has scarcely been touched in 

 the coarse of these remarks. This is the diversity of 

 the manner, in whieh languages are constructed. The 

 things, in which, so far as my knowledge extends, this 

 diversity has been most conspicuous, are the variations 

 of meaning by prefixes, and suffixes ; and the expression 

 of relations, on the one hand, by terminations of nouns, 

 and, on the other, by prepositions ; and the cunveyance of 

 diversities of Action, in some languages by the various 

 endings of verbs, and in others by auxilia?ies. Of the 

 first of these it will be unnecessary, here, to say any 

 more, than that it existed, not only in the Hebrew, but 

 in the language of the Mohekaneeivs, that of the Aran- 

 canianSf and, if I mistake not, a num^ber of others. 

 With respect to the diversity in the last cases mention- 

 ed, it is well known, that the Greek and Boman langua- 

 ges depended, to a great extent, for the expression of 

 relations, on the terminations of their nouns, and of the 

 shades of action on those of their verbs ; and that the 

 modern languages of Europe denote, chiefly, the former 

 by prepositions, and the latter by auxiliaries. 



Concerning this subject, I observe in the first place, 

 that the use of auxiliaries seems chief y to have been a 

 ■modern inventiofi. The Greeks used the substantive 

 verb, in a very small degree, as an auxiliary. The Ho- 

 mans adopted this form of phraseology more extensive- 

 ly : but neither of these nations had any other auxilia- 

 ry ; and in the use of this, both were comparatively con- 

 fined. In the English language there are no less than 

 eight auxiliary verbs ; and these are combined in a pro- 

 digious variety of forms. But neither of the languages, 

 from which the En'^lish is derived, was constructed in 

 this manner. The Roman, and to a considerable degree 

 the Saxon, depended on terminations to express the re- . 

 lations, and variations, of thought. We have not, 

 therefore, followed the analogy of either of the parent 

 languages ; but have created a new one, and that, inde- 



