LANGUAGE. 
Greece. The Thracians wei*e a greSt and mighty nation; 
inferior to none except the Indians, fays the father of 
Grecian hiftory. Thefe people at a very early period, had 
extended over all the northern parts of that country. 
They were, in ancient times, a learned and polifhed na¬ 
tion. From them, in fucceeding ages, the Greeks learned 
many ufeful and ornamental fciences. Orpheus the mu- 
fician, the legiflator, the poet, the philofopher, and the 
divine, is known to have been of Thracian extraction. 
Thamyris and Linus were his difciples, and highly re- 
fpedted among the Greeks for their learning and inge¬ 
nuity. That thefe people fpoke the fame language with 
the Greeks, is abundantly evident from the connection 
between them and thefe Thracian bards. The Thracian 
language, then, whatever it was, contributed in a great 
proportion towards forming that of the Greeks. From 
the remains of the Thraciart dialed there appears to have 
been a very ftrong refemblance between it and the Chal¬ 
dean. It appears, however, that the Thracians, Getre, 
and Daci or Davi, fpoke nearly the fame language. The 
Goths, fo much celebrated in the annals of the lower em¬ 
pire, were the defendants of the Getse and Daci, and con- 
fequently retained the dialed of their anceftors. The 
reader, therefore, muft not be furprifed, if, in tracing, the 
materials of which the Greek language is compofed, vve 
Ihould fometimes have recourfe to the remains of the Go¬ 
thic. 
We have now found out three branches of the Greek 
language ; that of the Ionim, or Aborigines, that of the 
Pelafgic tribe, and that of the Thracians. Thele three, 
we imagine, were only dialeds of the very fime original 
tongue. 
Some centuries after the arrival of the Pelafgi, Cadmus, 
an Egyptian by birth,, and a fojourner in Phoenicia, ar¬ 
rived in Breotia with a multitude of followers. This co¬ 
lony-chief and his countrymen introduced letters and fe¬ 
deral other ufeful improvements into the country in quef- 
tion. As thefe people were natives of Phoenicia and its 
environs, their alphabet was that of their native country, 
confining of fixteen letters. That the Phoenician alpha¬ 
bet was nearly the fame with the Samaritan and Hebrew, 
has been fo often and fo clearly demonftrated by the learn¬ 
ed of this and the former century, that it would be alto¬ 
gether fuperfluous to infill upon it in this thort inquiry. 
The Phoenicians, as is generally known, wrote from right 
to left, and the old Grecian characters inverted, exactly 
referable the other. The names of the Cad mean charac¬ 
ters are Syrian, which fliows the near refemblance be¬ 
tween that language and the Phoenician. They Hand 
thus: alpha , betha, gamla, delta, &c. The Syrians afed to 
add a to the Hebrew vocables ; hence alph becomes al¬ 
pha, beth, betha or beta, See. In the Cadmean alphabet 
we find the vowel letters, which is an infallible proof that 
this was the practice of the Phoenicians in the age of Cad¬ 
mus ; and this very circumftance furnilhes a prefump- 
tion that the Jews did the fame at the fame period. Af¬ 
ter all, it is evident that the oldeft Greek letters, which 
are written from right to left, differ very little from thofe 
ef the Pelafgi. The four double letters 0 , tp, |, are faid 
to have been added by Palamedes about twenty years be¬ 
fore the war of Troy. Simonides is generally luppofed to 
have added the letters £, jj, ■J' j though it appears by fome 
ancient inferiptions that fome of thefe letters were ufed 
before the days of Palamedes and Simonides. 
In the year of our Lord 1456 feven brazen tables were 
difeovered at Eugubium, a city of Umbria in the Appen- 
nines, of which five were written in Pelafgic or Etruf- 
can characters, and two in Latin. The firft of thefe 
tables is thought to have been compofed about 168 years 
after the taking of Trov, or 12.06 years before Chrift. By 
comparing the infeription on thefe tables with the old 
Ionic characters, the curious have been enabled to difeo- 
ver the refemblance. The old Ionic character, written 
from right to left, continued in general ufe for feveral 
.centuries; It was compofed of the Cadmean and Pelafgic 
Vol. XU, No. 8ao, 
177 
characters, with fomd variations of form, pofition, and 
found. The Athenians continued to ufe this character 
till the year of Rome 350. The old Ionic was gradually 
improved into the new, and this quickly became the reign¬ 
ing mode. After the old Ionic was laid afide, the bouf- 
tropedon came into cultom, which goes backwards and 
forwards as the ox does with the plough. They carried 
the line forward from the left, and then back to the right. 
The words were all placed dole together; and few final 1 
letters were ufed before the fourth century. If our curi¬ 
ous readers would wilh to know more of letters and al¬ 
phabets, we muft remit them to Chifhul, Morton, Poftel- 
lus, the great Montfaucon, Gebelin, Aftle, &c. 
The original materials of the Greek tongue were un¬ 
doubtedly rough and difeordant, as we have deferibed 
them above. They had been collected from different 
quarters, were the produce of different countries, and 
had been imported at very diftant periods. It would 
therefore be an entertaining, if not an inftruCling, (pecu¬ 
lation, if it were poffible to difeover by what men, and by 
what means, this wonderful fabric was founded, erected, 
and carried to perfection. The writers of Greece afford 
us no light. Foreigners were unacquainted with that ori¬ 
ginally infignificant canton. Every thing beyond Homer 
is buried in eternal oblivion. Orpheus is indeed reported 
to have compofed poems; but thefe were loon obliterated 
by the hand of time. The verfes now aferibed to that 
philofophical hero are none of his. Linus wrote, in the 
Pelafgic dialed, the achievements of the firft Bacchus; 
Thamyris the Thracian wrote ; and Pronapides the maf- 
ter of Homer was a celebrated poet. The works of all 
thefe bards did not long furvive; and it is a certain fact 
that the Greek tongue was highly polifhed even more 
early than the age in which thefe worthies flourifhed, 
Homer, no doubt, imitated their produdions, and fome 
are of opinion that he borrowed liberally from them. The 
Greeks knew no more of the original charader of their 
language, than of the original charader and complexion 
of their progenitors. They allowed, indeed, that their 
language was originally barbarous and uncouth ; but by 
what means or by what peifons it was polifhed, enriched, 
and finally arranged, was to them an impenetrable fecret. 
We have already demonftrated that the Ionim, or abo¬ 
rigines of Greece, were a race of barbarians ; that confe- 
quently their language, or rather their jargon, was of the 
fame contexture. The Pelafgi found both the people and 
their fpeech in this uncultivated date. Thefe people ar¬ 
rived in Greece about the year before Chrift 1760. It 
was then that the language of Greece began to be culti¬ 
vated. Before the age of Homer the work feems to have 
been completed. Nothing of confequence was afterwards 
added to the original ftock. The Pelafgi, as was faid be¬ 
fore, arrived in Greece B. C. 1760. Homer is thought to 
have been born B.C. 1041 ; confequently, the cultivation 
of the Greek tongue was completed in a period of about 
700 years. But, upon the fuppofition that Orpheus, Li¬ 
nus, Thamyris, &c. wrote long before Homer, as they 
certainly did, that language had arrived nearly at the 
ftandard of perfection two centuries before ; by which 
computation the period of its progrefs towards its ltationary 
point is reduced to 500 years. But, as the Pelafgi were a 
colony of foreigners, we ought to allow them one century 
at leaft to fettle and incorporate with the natives, and to 
communicate their language, laws, manners, and habits, 
to the aborigines of the country. By this deduction wc 
fhall reduce the terra of cultivation to lefs than four cen¬ 
turies. 
During this period Greece was furioufly agitated by tu¬ 
mults and infurreCtions. That country was divided into 
a number of independent Hates, which were perpetually 
engaged in quarrels and competitions. The profeflion of 
arms was abfolutely neceffary for the protection and pre- 
fervation of the ftate; and the man of conduct and prowefs 
was honoured as a demi-god, and his exploits tranfinitted 
with eclat., to pqfterity. The Greek tongue was then 
% z rough 
