HEBREW LANGUAGE, 
. » and admit of very little flexion. The names of places 
are defcriptive of their nature, fituation, accidental circum- 
Ttancesy &c. "The compounds are few, and inartificially 
‘conjoined 3 and it is lefs burdened with ‘thofe artificial affixes, 
which diftinguifh other cognate diale€ts, fuich asthe Chaldean, * 
‘Syrian, Arabian, Pheenician, &c. Fromthea ge of Mofes to 
‘we compare the Hebrew with other languages, fuch as the 
: - which have contended with 
it for originality, we find thefe to have been fo varied by 
of its having been more improved. mden, indeed, man 
ral learned writers, have afcribed pri- 
conceive, without fufficient 
Erpenius, indeed, in his oration for the Hebrew 
‘tongue, having confidered the arguments for and againtt 
‘the alleged 
claims of thefe two languages, hefitated in de- - 
‘ciding the queftion. : 
The gen 
derns Bochart, Heidegger, Selden, and Buxtorf. 
"The chief argunfent, alleged by many of them to prove the 
Hebrew to have origin iguage, is taken from 
perfons mentioned before the confufion of 
are 
‘from Hebrew 
. fon of Japhet, and 
‘can, which feems 
w this argument to be conclufive, 
patriarchal e 
“derivation, than there are 
Maforetic “addi har 
all. thofe prefixes xes, which 
introduced, in order to give it com 
‘ and pre: ift a ; 
‘it has the happieft and richeft fecundity in its 
kn 
‘variation of ‘a letter or two, which, : 
‘cannot be done without circumlocution. Properly i 
‘it has but one fimple conjugation, 
‘ 
‘mutt reftri@ our-attention to the indeclinable radix or root, 
parate from rious voices, moods 
ge now extant, was the 
true original tongue in fuch a fenfe, that all other languages 
were derived from it as their fource and matrix; but that 
this, and the other oriental tongues, were either coeval and 
‘perhaps one and the fame, or that they all fprung from‘or - 
many different diale&s of that firtt language, which 
is itfelf now loft among them: juit as the Italian, French, 
and Spanifh are none of them the languages of the ancient 
Romans, but all derived from it. See Lanevac 
and Roman languages. Its words follow each other with- 
out intricacy or tranfpofition. Above all, not withftanding 
its fimplicity and concifenefs, and purity of original radicals, 
verbs of any 
own tongue, either ancient or modern, which is owing to 
‘the variety and fufficiency of its conjugations ; by means 
which, as Bellarmine obferves, in his 
ebrew grammar, all 
the variety of fignifications, into which it is poflible fora 
verb to be branched out, are expreffed with a very fi 
. 
which, in any other languages 
but this is varied in cg 
verb feven or eight different ways, which ‘has ‘the effect: 
fo many different conjugations, and affords a great number 
of expreflions, by which to reprefent, under one fingle words 
all the different modifications of a verb, and f ideas at 
once; which inthe modern, and moft of the ancient seen 
ed languages, are expreffible only by phrafes. It derives alfo 
great advantage, with refpeét to brevity and variety of ¢x- 
: preflion, from its few prefixes and affixes, which annexed to 
the radi fignification almoft at 
and when the radix is a verb, exhibit the gender of ot 
jet introduced. Its nouns have no flexion befides t 
whi : to indicate the poset See: Lar 
Its cafes are diftinguifhe CS, 
oa of zi word ; its pro 
nouns are fingle letters affixed, and the preps Sl 
fixed'to words. § arned men, fays Dr. 
had 
. 
fupra’ ‘will have it to ‘be the langua fpoken by Adam ia 
“paca: ask ‘the site Wil Tacks in 3 alleg 
ich fhall be given und all “in 
inet og eg? B we muft alfo = ah 
