pofiefs the niiiv 



™ The Greek tongue, as it was fpoken in different pro- 

 vinces, «as divided into different .foto called the ^«,., 

 the lonk, tlie Dork, and the JEolh: The Attic is that 

 which u-as ufed at Athens, and in the adiacent country ; 



GREEK LANGUAGE. 



mufic arc i'l everv tone, and enthufiafm and enchantment refined (the fame orighial term hence fplitting into many), 

 muhc aie i.i ^J"^ yj°"^' ^^.^j-^ ^j,^^ „.ith tafte and judg- was afterwards d.vcri-.hed uUo d>ftn. • d.al.ots. Pnd at length 

 ' loll in diilinft languages. Nor H • , wc .:oncuve, beyond 



the reach of philological enquir.. ' vo prov^ that the limple 

 terms of any one language hav- their kindred terms in all 

 other languages, difguifed ind -ed by the difil-rences of 

 charader, termination, and meaning ; and that tlicy may be 

 thofe who ha^-e particularly diftinguiilied themHves in this traced back through the feveral Ilages of focialhfe, till thcjr 

 dialea, are Thucydides, Ariitopb.anes, l;>huo,^llocrates, meet, hKe lo many fltoots, in one common root. 



Tiie Greek language is a very copious fubjeft, and a full 

 account of it would carry us beyond the limits ncceffarily 

 prefcribed by our plan ; we Ihall iherefere content ourfelves 

 with fome remarks cal.uLited i<j afc-rtain its origin, and to 

 unfold thofe analogies by whit!, it grew from a few fimple 

 roots to the copioufncfs and reiiii-ment which diltinguilh it 



Xenophon, and Demollhenes. The Ionic differed very 

 httle from the ancient Attic ; but havmg afterwards made 

 its way into fome towns of Alia Min..r, and mto tiie ad- 

 jacent illands which were colonies of the Athemans and 

 Achaians, (among which are reckoned bamos, Miletus, 



Ephefus, Smyrna, and fome others,) It imbibed a ne>v.mc- , n .y , 



tu?e, and feU ver - far ibort of that delicacy to which the beyond moft other tongues, . , „ . 



\lhenians afterwards attained. The principal writers in In enqu.rmg into the ongm of the Greek tongue, or la 



ihis dialed were Hippocrates and Herodotus. The Done referrmg it to a higher dialecl, we of courfe mean its roots 



firft prevailed amono- the Lacedxn-.cr.ians and the inhabitants or pnn.Kval words, «h.ch were iu>.p!e, fevv in number and 



of Arws It trav-elled afterwards into Epirus, S.cily, conhlbng of two, three, or at molt four letters ; wlule Us 



Rhodes and Crete This dialeft has been ufed by Archi- compound terms, which are exceedingly numerous and 



medes ard Theocritus, (both of Syracufe.) and Pindar, divedijied, mult have been md,g.',.ous, the products of time. 



The MoWc was fpoken at firlt am.nig the Bieotians and their and ot improvement m knowledge and the arts of life, long 



neidibours, and afterwards it palled into iEolia. a province after the mtrodudion of its more elementary parts into 



of Alia Minor, between Ionia and Mylia, which included Greece. A\ ith this hmitatien we have no hehtation in 



ten cities, all Greek colonies. Tlie chief writers m thi* iaying, that the hmple words of the Greek language are 



dialeft were Sappho and Alcjrus, of whofe writings l.tde aU derived from the Hebrew Arabic, and Perhan, and 



has furvived the lofs of ancient learning ; but this id.om is principally from the i.rft of tlK-fe tongues And for the 



occalionallv blended with the ufe of the oth.r dialects in tiie affirmation that the Greek is derived from the Hebrew, or 



compolitions of Homer, Theocritus, Pindar, and others, that the Greek primitives are Hebrew radicals we offer the 



It may be remarked farther that the lapfe of time which follovv'ing obfervations. Mofes, in the tenth chapter of 



occafioned the difference of thefe dialeAs, as they arofe from Genefis, the fountain head of univerlal hiilory and geography, 



a common item, has moreover caufcd them to differ from enumerates thofe heads of fepai-ate families by whom the 



themfelves For intlance, in the Attic there is a wide earth was divided after the flood. He delcribes them by 



dillinction'betwcen the ityle of Demollhenes, and -that of thofe names which the nations that fprung from them, or the 



Thucydides Nor has the Ionic dialett invariably con- countries they feverally occupied, retained in his time. By 



tinned the fame, the people of Alia fpeaking it differently thofe parts of the earth, which he culls OMJH '\V, er di 



from the old lonians of Greece, who followed the ancient ijks of the nations, it is underftood that he means Europe, and 



language of Athens, and the fame obfervation holds in 

 regard to the Dorians and ^Eolians. 



The ramilieation of the Greek tongue into its feveral 

 dialeds, while it forms one leading caufe of its copioufnefs, 

 occahons one of the moft ferious difficulties m the acquiii- 

 tion of it by learners. This difficulty, however, wiU be much 



Its adjacent iflands. Thefe were divided by the fons and 

 grandions of Japhelh, or rather by Corner and Javan, and 

 their fons, — " In their lands every one after his tongue, after 

 their families in their nations." This divifion mult have 

 been regularly condudled. It muft have taken place in the 

 time of the patriarchs here mentioned ; for the adl was theirs. 



diminiihed ' if the dialects be reduced to thofe unavoidable and the nations retained their names to tlie time of Moles ; 



chancres, which are founded in the nature of language, and nay many of them long afterwards, for we find them recog- 



in the organs of fpeech. The changes we mean are fucli as nized by hiilory and geography. Javan is well known as 



flow^from the fluctuation of the vowel founds, from the the parent of the Greeks, the name /wranj being anciently 



different manner of combining, or of refolving any two con- applied from him to the feveral branches of that nation, 



current vowels, and lallly, from the fubftitution or inter- Tov: ©jaza,-, xa. A^aioi;,-, xai Boiireou; I 



change of the homogeneous confonants, i.e- the confonants n«.T^..; EXXnvac lacin,- c.i Ba^fiajc. =><aAo: 



of the fame organs. j- -i j 



Oriental grammarians, with much propriety, liave divided 



the confonants into three claffes, correfponding with the 



tirn-ans employed in founding them. Thus -, p, ?, being 



■^x.'xXo:,. Hefychius. 



But it appears from 

 the facred hiftory that Javan fpoke the Hebrew tongue ; 

 and he, with the colony under him, mult have introduced it 

 with them, and made it the firil language of Greece. The 

 leters of the Greek tongue refer its origin to the fame 



founded by the lips, are hence called labials. On the other oriental fource ; for they are nearly tlie fame with the Sama- 



hand v '' 5, -, ^> ■•) 5> enunciated by a contatl of the tongue ritan when inverted, or written after the European manner, 



with 'the 'extremities of the upper teeth, are, for a limilar from left to right ; and with little variation they have ever 



reafon Itvled dentals; while y., ',, xt uttered by a conirac- retained the names of the Samaritan or Hebrew alphabet, 



tion o'f the larynx, receive the name of gutturals. This This is confirmed by Diodorus the Sicilian, lib. v. who gives 



diilribution of the confonants, though here coiihned to the it as the opinion of j erkns in his days, that letters were 



Greek alphabet, neceffarily extends to any other fyilem of invented by the Syri,v:s, from whom the Phoenicians firft 



letters and well deferves the attention of liim who would leflnit their ufe, and then communicated them to the Greeks, 



acquire a phdofophical acquaintance with the origin and Thefe Affyrians, Herodotus defcribes (1. lii ) as the inha- 



derivatioH of words. To the interchange of the homoge- bitants of Jerufalem, to which he gives the name of Ci;</)'/;;/.r, 



eo'iS confonants, it is chiefly owing that the prim;Eval Ian- the name it had of old, and ilill continues to have in the 



rriiaffe of men, at tirlt rude and barren, became copious and Eaft. The authority of Herodotus and Diodorus, Ptiny, it 



