ACQ 



tinguilTi tlie feftions, pcviodt;, and niembevs of periods, in a 

 dircourfe ; and to anfwer the fame piirpofes with the puiuts 

 in other hingviages. Their accents are divided into em- 

 perors, kings, dukes, &c. each bearing a title anfwerable 

 to the importance of the diftinftion it makes. — Their em- 

 peror rules over a whole phrafe, and terminates the fenfe 

 eomplctely ; anfvvering to our full point. — Their king cor- 

 refponds to our colon ; and the duke to our comma. The 

 king, however, occafionally becomes a duke, and the duke a 

 king, a$ the phrafes are more or lefs (liort. — It mud be noted, 

 by the way, that the management and combination of thefe 

 accents differ in Hebrew poetiy from what they are in profe. 

 The ufe of the tonic or grammatical accents has been 

 much controverted ; fome holding that they dillinguifli the 

 fenfe, while others maintain that they are only intended 

 to regulate the mufic or finging : alleging, that the Jews 

 fnig, rather than read, the icriptures in their fyiiagogues. 

 The truth feems here to lie between tlie two opinions : 

 for though we incline to think, that the priman- intention 

 of thefe accents was to direft the finging ; yet, the finging 

 feems to have been regulated aceordinj to the fenfe ; fo 

 that the accents might ferve not only to guide the finging, 

 but alio to point out the dillinftions. — Though it mull be 

 confefi'ed, that many of thefe diftinftions arc too fubtle and 

 inconfiderabli ; nor can the modern writers, nor the editors 

 of old ones, agree in opinion on this fubjeil : fome of them 

 making tv/ice as many of thefe diltinftions as others. The 

 Hebrew accents have, indeed, fomething common Avith thofe 

 of the Greeks and Latins ; and fomething peculiar to 

 lliemfelves. What they have in common is, that they mark 

 the tone ; fliowing how the voice is to be raifcd and funk, 

 in certain fyllables. Wliat they have peculiar is, that they 

 perfoiTn the office of the points in other languages. The 

 llx following are of this latter kind, viz. Svlluk,Athnach, 

 Rebhiamg, Segolta, Zakeph-kacon, and Zakeph- 

 GADHOL. To which we might alfo add, Tiphtha and 

 Sarka, on account of their occafional application to the 

 fame purpofe. It is certain the ancient Hebrews were not 

 acquainted with thefe accents ; fo that, at beft, they are 

 not jure dlvino. — The opinion which prevails among the 

 learned is, that they were invented by the Jcwifli dotiors of 

 the fchool of Tiberias, called the Ma sorites. The learned 

 Hennin affirms them to be of Arabic invention ; and to 

 have been adopted and transferred thence into the Hebrew 

 by the Maforites, efpecially by the celebrated Rabbi Ben 

 Afcher ; and it is faid they were introduced on occafion of 

 the emperor Juftinian's prohibiting the reading of their 

 traditions in their fynagogues, or about the middle of the 

 fixth century. However, the revifal of the facred writings 

 by Rabbi Afeher on the part of the Weftern Jews, and by 

 Rabbi Neptbali on that of the Eaftern Jews, was folely em- 

 ployed about the accents and points : and thefe two Rabbis 

 lived, according to fome writers in the llth century, and 

 according to others about the year 940. See Mafclef's 

 Heb. Gram. vol. ji. p. 24. Hennin adds, that they were 

 firft brought to their degree of perfeiSion by- Rabbi Judah 

 Ben David Chiug, a native of Fez, , in the nth century. 

 It is indeed poflible the Jews might borroiv their points from 

 the Arabs ; but how they fliould have their accents from 

 them it is not eafy to conceive, fince the Arabic language 

 has no fuch thing as accents, cither in pvofe or verfe. 



The introduftion of accents by the Maforites has been 

 the fource of gi-eat difficulty in learning the Hebrew Ian- 

 guage, and of equal confufion and error in the interpretation 

 of it. Few of them have nov.- any known ufe, except tl>at 

 of diilinguilhing periods. Biblical interpreters are difagreed 

 concerning the pofition, neceffity, and utility of thtra. The 



A C C 



do£lilne of Helircw accents lia« occafioncd much difput*- 

 amongft learned critics. Sei.' Buxtorf'a Thtf.iuruj, and 

 Evcrard Vander Hooght's Pref. to the Bibles of Atliias, 1 70J. 

 As to the Greek atccnls, now feen both in manufcripl and 

 printed books, there has been no lefs difpule about tiuir 

 antiquity and ufe, than about the ufe of thofe of the He- 

 brews. On the fuhjetl of Uiis difputi- we may oliftn'c, in 

 general with a learned writer, Bifliop Lowlh, (rreliir. Difl". 

 to his Ifaiah, p. 10.) that there were certain laws of Hebrew 

 metre is veiy probable, and that the living Greek language 

 was modulated by certain rules of accent la beyond difpute ' 

 but a man born deaf may as rcafonably pretend to acquire 

 an idea of found, as the critic of thefe dajs to attain to the 

 true modulation of Greek by accent, and of Hebrew by 

 metre. To which wc may add, that tliough the ancient 

 Greeks had no accentual marks, they learned ihofc modi- 

 fications of voice by praftice from their infancy ; and in 

 pronunciation they are fo obferved to this day. 



li'aac Vofiius, in a trtatife " De Accenlibus Gnrcorum," 

 endeavours to prove that they are of modem invention, and 

 that anciently they had nothing of this kind ; but only a 

 few notes in their poetry, which were invented by Aristo- 

 phanes the Grammarian, al)Out the time of Ptolemy Phi- 

 lopater j and that thefe were of mufical, rather tiian of 

 grammatical ufe, fcrving as aids in the finging of their 

 poems ; and very different from thofe which were after- 

 wards introduced. This appears from infcriptions as well 

 as manufciipts, none of which, till 170 years after Chrift, 

 have either accent, fpirit, apollrophus, or ivra fubfcribcd. 

 He adds, that Arilfarchus, a difciplc of Ariilophanes, im- 

 proved on his niafter's art ; but that the wliole of what they 

 both did was only defigned to affill youth in the more readily 

 making of verfes. The fame Voffius (hows from fcveral 

 ancient Grammarians, that the manner of writing the Greek 

 accents in thofe days was quite diflerent from fuch as arc 

 now ufed in our book?. It is alleged by others, that ac- 

 centual marks, which, they fay, were invented by Arifio- 

 phanes, were not in common ufe till about the feventh 

 century ; at which time they were found in MSS. Ajnongft 

 thofe who totally rejeft the accents, on the fuppofition that 

 they would confound the quantity, as it is determined by 

 the rules of profody, we may reckon Beza, Scaliger, Spel- 

 man^ Ger. Jo. Vofiius (De Arte Gram. 1. ii. p. .174)1 ^>d 

 Salraafius in F.pilt. ad Sarrafium. 



Hen. Chrifh Hennin thinks, (fee his EJAmis-fiof op-^i'tJo,-, 

 feu Diffeitatio Paradoxica, Gr^cam I.inguani non efle 

 pronuntiandam fecundum Acceiitus, 1664,) that accents 

 were the invention of the Arabians fo late as the eighth 

 centuiy, and that they were only ul'ed in poeti-)' ; that 

 they were intended to afcertain the pronunciation of the 

 Greek, and to keep out that barbarifm, which was then 

 breaking in upon them ; tliat the ancient accents of Aiiflo- 

 phanes were perfectly agreeable to the genuine Greek 

 pronunciation, but that the mcdeni ones of the Arabs de« 

 llroy it. Wetftein, Greek profeffor at Bafil, in a learned 

 Differtation, endeavours to prove the Greek accent.s to be 

 of an older {landing : and that the Greeks, long before the 

 birth of Chrift, regulated their pronunciation by accents, 

 veiy much like thofe that are now in ufe. He o\vns that 

 they were not always formed in the fame manner by the 

 ancients j but thinks that difference owing to the different 

 pronunciation which obtained in the feveral parts of 

 Greece : and he adds, that accents weie not ufed except in 

 the fchools of grammarians, who rteuired to them in read- 

 ing the old poets. He brings fevcnJ rcalons a priori for 

 the ufe of accents, CTcn in the earhcll days ; as that, thea 

 they wrote wholly in capital letter* equidjiluut from tsi h 



Q_2 other, 



