J A A 
JAB 
I and J 
&?8 
J r IS in Englilh confidered both 35 a vowel and Conto¬ 
is nant; though, fince the vowel and confonant differ 
in their form as well as found, they might perhaps more 
properly be accounted two letters. 
The vowel I has a long found, as five, thine, which is 
ufually marked with an e final; and a ihort found, as fin, 
thin. Prefixed to e, it makes a diphthong of the fame found 
with the foft i, or double e, ee: thus, field,yield, are fpoken 
as field, yeeld except friend , which is l'poken /rend. Sub¬ 
joined to a or e, it makes them long, as fail, neigh ; and 
to o, makes a mingled found-, which approaches more 
nearly to the true notion of a diphthong, or found com- 
pofed of the founds of two vowels, than any other com¬ 
bination of vowels in the Englilh language ; as oil coin. 
The found of i before another i, and at the end of a word, 
is always expreffed by y. In numerals, this, as being the 
fmalleft letter, is put for the l'malleft number, I. one ; II. 
two, &c. Set before the mark of a larger number, it fub- 
tracis itfeif; as IV. four; though we [till ufe IIII. to 
exprefs four upon the dial-plates of clocks and watches ; 
IX. nine, &c. but, when let after it, fo many are added 
to the larger number as there are ones added ; thus, VI. is 
5 + i, or fix; VII. 5 -\- 2, or feven ; VIII. 5 4 -3, or eight. 
The ancient Romans, we are told, ufed Ifj for 500, CI3 
for 1000, &c. but this feems to have been only.a clumfy 
way of forfning a D or an M, which are the proper marks 
for thofe numbers. 
I, pronoun perfonal. [ ik, Gothic ; 1C, Sax. ick, Dut.] 
The pronoun of the firft perfon ; myfelf.—I do not like 
thefe fevefal councils, I. Shakefpeare. —There is none greater 
in this lioufe than /. Gen. xxxix. 9. —Be of good cheer, it 
is I: be not afraid. Mat. xiv. 27. 
What (hall I do to be fop ever known. 
And make thy age to come my own ; 
1 fhall like hearts or common people dye, 
Unlefs you write my elegy. Cowley. 
Me is in the following paffage written for 7 .—There is put 
one man whom (lie can have; and that is me. Clarijfa. 
I, adv. [in Shakefpeare and other old and carelefs writers, 
•written ay. ] Yes, ay, verily: 
Hath Romeo flain himfelf ? Say thou but I, 
And that bare vowel, /, fhall poifon more 
Than the death-darting eye of cockatrice. Shakefpeare. 
J, or }a, or Jod ; the I confonant, fo called by forne 
grammarians to diftinguifh it from the vowel. It has in¬ 
variably in Englifh the found of our foft g in giant ; as, 
jade, jet, jilt, jolt, jvfl. But in German it is founded like 
the vowel i, or rattier like/; for jafjr is pronounced nearly 
like the Englifh word year, which if alfo denotes. And 
Ainfworth obferves, that, if we would follow analogy, we 
fitould call this letter ye-, as we fay .be, ce, See. 
I'A, the daughter of Midas, who married Atys. 
JAA'COB, a learned Jewifh rabbi, who flouriflied in 
the early part of the fixteenth century. He reiided at 
Jerusalem in the year 1517, where he compiled a learned 
work, entitled, the Eye of Ifrael, which was a collcftion 
of the various exjmfitions of the law which are found in 
the Talmud. Several doftors htid before compiled all 
that concerns the queftions of Jewifh rights, and religious 
ceremonies ; but Jaacob collected thofe that relate to the 
law, and are fcattered throughout that large work. He 
did not live to finifh his defign, but left it to his fun 
Levi, who was no lefs learned than his father; and who 
completed and publifhed it in 1538, with a preface con¬ 
taining lively expreffions of forrow on account of his fa¬ 
ther’s untimely death. 
JAA'KAN, [Hebrew.] A man’s name. 
JAA'KGBAH, [Hebrew.] A man’s name. 
JAA'LA, [Hebrew.] A man’s name. 
JAA'LAM, [Heb. a young man.] The fon of Efau^ 
a man’s name. 
JAA'LONS, a town of France, in the department of 
the Marne, and chief place of a canton, in the diltrift of 
Chaalons : three leagues weft of Chaalons. 
JAANA'I, [Hebrew.] A man’s name. 
JAA'PHAR EBN THOPHAIL, a learned Arabian 
philofopher and phyfician in the twelfth century, was a 
native of Seville- in Spain, and preceptor to Maimonides 
and Averroes. He was famous for his medical fkill, and 
for his knowledge of the peripatetic philofophy. He 
wrote an elegant philofophical romance, entitled the Hif- 
tory of Hai Ebn Yokdhan, &c. This tale deferibes the 
life of a man, who, having been expofed when an infant, 
was nourifhed by a hind in an uninhabited illand, and 
grew up in the woods, without any intercourfe with hu¬ 
man beings ; and who, by the unaided exertion of his 
powers, attained to the knowledge of things natural and 
fupernatural, and arrived at the felicity of an intuitive 
intercourfe with the Divine Mind. The piece is written 
with luch elegance of language, and vigour of imagination, 
that, notwithftanding the improbability of the ftory, it 
has been univerfally admired. It was tranflated into He¬ 
brew in the fixteenth century, by Rabbi Mofes of Nar- 
bonne, and illurtrated with a large commentary. In 1671 
it was publifiied at Oxford, by Mr. Edward Pococke, fon 
of the celebrated Dr. Pococke, profeffor of the Oriental 
languages, with an accurate Latin verfion, in 8vo. In 
1686 an indifferent Englilh tranfiation of it was publifiied 
from this verfion at London, in 8vo. and in 1708, Simon 
Ockley, afterwards profeffor of Arabic at Cambridge, 
gave to the public a tranfiation of it from the Arabic, en¬ 
titled, The Improvement of Human Reafon, exhibited in 
the Life of Hai Ebn Yokdhan, &c. 8vo. with notes and 
an appendix. 
JAAREBOR'EGIM, [Hebrew.] A man’s name. 
JAA'SAN, [Hebrew.] A man’s name. 
JAASI'EL, [Hebrew.] A man’s name. 
JAA'ZAH, [Hebrew.] The name of a city. 
JAA'’ZANIAH, [Heb. one who is attentive to the 
Lord.] A man’s name. 
JAA'ZER, [Hebrew.] The name of a place. 
JAB, a town of Africa, fituated on the river Gambia, 
in the kingdom of Ouly, or Wooly. 
JABA'JAHITES, a left of the Mahometans who deny 
the prefcience of the Divine Being. 
JA'BAL, [Heb. that which glides away.] A man’s name. 
JABA'RII, a feci among the Muffehnen, who hold that 
God may deal with good and bad in the day of judgment 
without any regard to their moral character. 
JA'BAZ, a town of Aliatic Turkey, in the province of 
Natolia : twenty miles north-weft of Angura. 
To JAB BER, v. n. [gabberen, Dut.] To talk idly ; to 
prate without thinking; to chatter: 
We fcorn, for want of talk, to jabber 
Of parties. Swift. 
JAB'BER,yi Prate, idle talk. 
JAB'BERER,yi One who talks inarticulately or unin¬ 
telligibly : 
Out-cant the Babylonian labourers 
At all their dialefts of jabberers. Hudibras. 
JAB'BERING, f. The aft of talking unintelligibly. 
JAB'BOK, [Heb. di'fipation.] A brook on the other 
fide of the Jordan, the fpring whereof is in the mountains 
of Gilead. It falls into Jordan pretty near the lea of Ti¬ 
berias, to the fouth of this fea. Near this brook the pa¬ 
triarch Jacob wreltled with the angel. (Gen. xxxii. 21,) 
The Jabbok feparated the land of the Ammonites from 
