124 ANALOGY of GREEK LETTERS; 



the natural order of the elemental founds, and the affinity fub- 

 fifting among certain dalles of fuch founds. All fuch as are 

 labial, for inftance, might be claffed together, whether mutes 

 or femivowels, as (3, p, v, <p, -^ ; all fuch as are dental, to 

 wit, £, g>, <t ; all fuch as are lingual, to wit, $, 0, ?., v, r ; and all 

 fuch as are palatine, to wit, 7, k, y, |. And accordingly this 

 has been done by Hulewicz, one of the beft modern writers 

 on Greek grammar *. But this he has propofed, without re- 

 jecting the ufual arrangement, which he knew to be fo im- 

 portant in examining or explaining the ftruclure of the Greek 

 tongue. For though a divifion and arrangement of that fort 

 might anfwer the purpofe of a minute anatomical or physiolo- 

 gical inquiry concerning the organs of fpeech, yet as this was 

 not the circumftance chiefly attended to by the Greeks in the 

 progrefs of their language, though they did not by any means 

 neglect it, we mull: adhere to that other diftribution by the 

 grammarians, if we would wifh to comprehend clearly the real 

 ufe of the Greek letters. There is, for inftance, no doubt 

 that p is a labial confonant, as well as r, /3, or <p' and in fact 

 the Greeks in fome meafure attended to this, as will be after- 

 wards fhewn ; but the ufe of p as a liquid, and its partaking 

 in this refpect of the fame analogy with A, v, g, was a connection, 

 much more ftriking, and much more attended to in the prac- 

 tical application of the Greek alphabet "f. In the cafe of the 

 nine mutes, it is of very great confequence to confider how,, 



in. 



* See Alex. Gabr. Woiutyn Hulewicz, nobilis Poloni, Ihftitutiones Ling. Gracce, 

 p. 14. Lugd.Bat. 1746. 4/0. M. Beauzee, an ingenious French Grammarian, has alfo 

 propofed a very minute arrangement of the letters, according to an idea of this kind. 

 See Grammaire Generale, ou Expqfition raifonnee des Element necejfaires du Langage.. 

 2 tomes, Paris, 1767. 8^0. See alfo Bijhop Wilkins's EJfay, &c. p. 357. 



\ " Appellantur Liquids,— —quod poft mutam pofitae quafi lirjuefcentes ac evanef- 

 " centes, vim confonantes interdum amittant, neque vocalem praecedentem longam effi- 

 " ciunt, ut alise confonantes." Antesignajws apiid Cienar-cium, p. 3. Hanovitf, 

 1617. 4/0. 



