IV. On certain Analogies obferved by the Greeks in the 

 Ufe of their Letters; and particularly of the Letter 

 SirMA. By Andrew Dalzel % M.&. F. R. S. Edin. 

 and Profejfor of Greek in the Univerfity of Edinburgh. 



[Read by the Author, Dec, 19. 1785, and Nov. 19. 1787.] 



INTRODUCTION, 



TH E power of pronouncing articulate founds is one of 

 the mod obvious marks which diftinguifh man from the 

 other animals. No philofophical inveftigation is neceffary for 

 pointing it out, and therefore it has not efcaped the notice of 

 the poets, the moft ancient of all authors. In the works of 

 Homer and Hesiod *, we often meet with the expreffion 

 {/Agore? cu>0gam>i t men having an articulate voice j the word yA^o^ 

 being evidently compounded of fK$g» t to divide, and ety, the 

 voice f. 



But 



* Vide Iliad. «', 250. y\ 402. /, 288. <&Y. Oper. & Dies, 109, 142. Anacreon has 

 alfo made ufe of the fame epithet, but without the fubftantive ; Od. III. 4. 



•f- Ai«; to ^sfxsgi^sujv *x,w rw oro, fays Hesychius, voce ftifoirt;. In which SumAS 

 agrees. Eostathitjs is more explicit. Mi^ams el av&t>&Toi } tcxfa, rh <p6o-ii fAiiAt^a-ftirnv tyitv 

 TJjv ottx its ts Xi%lis x.x) si? <rv\\iit@x<; kxI si? soiyuCL, jttijjtftia; t»? aAAij ?%et (pavy napa T«v ruv 

 uvfydww aih\v. Men are called ptpoirt;, from their naturally having their voice divided into 

 Words and Syllables and Elements, a quality which no voice prfjeffes, except hnman 

 Speech. Ad Iliad. «, 250. The Biftiop adds, That " thofe of his own facred fociety, 

 " the interpreters of holy Writ, derive the word from the divifion of tongues which 

 " took place at the building of the tower of Chalana," as he calls it ; which etymology 

 Erasmus has alfo taken notice of in his Dialogue de re&a Latini Gracique Sermonis pro- 



tutntiatione, 



