a HEBREW LANGUAGE. 
fome of which contribute more than others to the pronuns 
It has been fuppofed by many very learned men, that the 
Hebrew charaéters or letters were often ufed hierogly- 
phically, and that each had its feveral diftinét fenfe under- 
_tkood as a hierog ic. ann, who feems t 0 have 
he fays, is a char 
activity ; 3, deth, fignifies, 1 j mater body, fubftance, thing; 
2. Place, {pace or capacit _ 3. In, within or contain- 
ed; ‘} 3 are ftands i flexi 
an 
ociation, fociety, or a kind of 
ioe ofition, orcombination things together ; (), ¢eth, 
ftands for the withdrawing, drawing back, or recefs of any 
thing ; 9, jod, fignifies extenfion and length, whether in 
matter or in time ; 4, caph, exprefles a turning, curvednefs 
or concavity ; 5, /amed, ftands for an addition, accefs, im- 
pulfe, or oa and fometimes jae. 
aum _— or the third degree, or the ut 
of a 3 J tan, exprefles a fequel, eee mg or 
fucce on any t thin 
According to this explication, as the fev eral particu 
letters of the Hebrew alphabet feparately fignify the sient 
of motion, matter, fpace, and the feveral modifications of 
matter, es, and motion, it oe et that a language, the 
determinate feparate ge s, muft convey the 
idea of all the matters contained in the fenfe of the feveral 
and be at once a name and a definition, or fuc- 
cin& defcription of the phe, and all things material as 
well as fpiritual, all o he natural and moral world, 
ult be known as foon as Shee names are known, and their 
feparate letters confidered. 1e Hebrew language 
the h encomiums in ce to all others or the 
Rot, yet its we nticated antiquity, and the venerable 
tone of its writings, furpafs any thing left upon record in any 
diale€&t_ now extant in the wer By this lage 
: God has thought fit iS paged a of his revelations 
to mankind, and aga: ure of the OI id Feftament penned 
in this | Vath concted ith thofe of the 
New, that the fudy of it may i to the {cho- 
, and particularly to the divine. 
In the Hebrew language, which i is written from the 
to the left hand 
grammarians into guttural, yg dental, labi 
is taken Eon from the feveral 
oo divifion organs of. ail 
<" 
=: 
, there are 22 letters, dt divided iby ee 
tion of certain letters. The -Ietters, with their na names, 
2 and founds, are exhibited in the" ora table. © 
Name. Figure. Sound. © : 
Alep x a, as in pom 
Beth - 5, nev 
Gimel 2 % bed as , gone. 
Daleth se 
He Fa; 4 or e, a gentle afpiration, as, 
in holy, at the —— of 
aword, andaintheendofa . 
word, or é on ly 
Pao | w, always a ¥ 
Zain . ? z, foft, like Gr. zeta, as in rofe. 
Hheth nm bh,a trong guttural, as x, or é, 
i é k eta. 
Teth 0 ty like the Greek tan, 
Jod ) i, oo a vowel. 
Caph 5 d, or hard. 
Lamed 5 i. 
Mem Y me 
Nun 3 ne 
Samech D 
in Ny N 
Phe 5 x hr tke like eae ®. 
Tfade y t/, or fz. 
Koph P $ or Greek x. 
e 
Schin or fhin 4 vo 
Thau th, ot ce Sor. 
N. B. The Pato five letters, viz. y 
the end of a word written thus, } a ida dea vi as 
N and ¢ are fometimes made to coaiefce, thus 
Of the above 22 letters 16 are confonants, an according 
to the diftribution of Mafclef, the following fix are vowels, 
-. rg MIT four of which, viz. 9} & are fimple and 
n 
rt, and two, viz. [| and y, double and long, becaufe they 
are more ftrongly afpirated. 
os of this character, viz. x >}, and 9, a, u, andi; and 
they have been es lectionis,”” or the parents 
of reading, to which alee gy have added --, com- 
prifing them all in the technical word TN chevi. Acé 
cording to this arrangement, the vowels im the Hebrew 
, alphabet are 
a. 
efhort, or Greek ¢. 
rm é long, or Greek «. 
’ ior y. 
vy 0. 
} 
Wiehcg thefe vowels an it will not be “arias to pro» 
nce Hebrew words ; but words and fyllables often oc- 
ci “Cid confift merely of ry iat onants, and in which none of 
open x0 ~—_ are found. If we rejeét the 
cite, w are fuch fyllables and words 
to be cabacned We may obferve, in general, that 
they are if not altogether, the 
a witho 
though Ao ie Badia dain we long vowels, to 
note the confonants only 5 ; concluding, as they np at 
* try doy ea in his abbrevia ted form the 
are evi- - 
