PROCEEDINGS 



OF 



THE ROYAL IRISH ACADEMY. 



1837. No. 7. 



November 13, 



Rev. B. LLOYD, D. D., Provost, T. C. D., President, 

 in the Chair. 



Robert Shaw, Esq., Bushy Park, was elected an ordinary, 

 and Captain W. H. Smith, an honorary member of the 

 Academy. 



Rev. Dr. Wall, Senior Fellow of Trinity College, read a 

 paper on the " Original State of the Text of the Hebrew 

 Bible, and on the Nature, Age, and Origin of the Sanscrit 

 Writing and Language ;" but he only touched upon the 

 first subject as far as was necessary for the introduction of 

 the second. 



All the letters of the Hebrew text, in its original state, 

 were employed as signs of syllables, beginning with conso- 

 nants, and ending with vowels. The vowel part of every 

 syllable being variable, it was left to the judgment of the 

 reader to determine, for each place of the occurrence of a 

 letter, the vowel which his knowledge of the language 

 showed him was required by the context. Even still, near 

 four-fifths of the vowels must, in reading the present un- 

 pointed text, be supplied in a similar manner ; the only dif- 

 ference being, that they are no longer considered to be 

 included in what the letters express, the powers of those 



K 



