LANG 
Oe the SCLAVONIAN LANGUAGE. 
This language pervades a confiderable part of Europe, 
and feems to have originated in the eaft. It is fpoken by 
the Dalmatians, by the inhabitants of the Danubian pro¬ 
vinces, by the Poles, Bohemians, and Ruffians. The word 
flab (whence the French word efdave, and our word Jlavc ) 
fignifies “noble, illuftrious but becaufe, in the lower 
ages of the Roman empire, vaft multitudes of thefe peo¬ 
ple were fpread over all Europe in the quality of flaves, 
that word came to denote the fervile tribe by way of dif- 
tincfion in the fame manner as the words Geta, Davus, and 
Syrus, did among the Greeks at a more early period. 
The Sclavonian language is fpoken in Epirus, the 
weftern part of Macedonia, in Bofnia, Servia, Bulgaria, 
in part of Thrace, in Dalmatia, Croatia, in Poland, Bo¬ 
hemia, Ruffia, and Mingrelia in Alia, whence it is fre¬ 
quently ufed in the feraglio at Conftantinople. Many of 
the great men of .Turkey underftand it, and frequently 
nfe it ; and tnoft of the janiffiaries, having been ftationed 
in garrifons on the Turkiffi frontiers in Europe, ufe it as 
their vulgar tongue. The Hungarians, however, and the 
natives of Walachia, fpeak a different language; and this 
language bears evident fignatures of the Tartarian dialeCI, 
which was the tongue of the original Huns. Upon the 
whole, the Sclavonian is by much the mod exteniive lan¬ 
guage in Europe, and extends far into Alia. 
The Slavi dwelt originally on the banks of the Boryf- 
thenes, now the Dnieper, or Nieper. They were one of 
the tribes of the European Sarmatians, who in ancient 
times inhabited an immenfe trad of country, bounded on 
the weft by the Viftula, now the Weifel; on the fouth- 
ealt by the Euxine fea, the Bofphorus Cimmerius, the 
Palus Mceotis, and the Tanais or Don, which divides Eu¬ 
rope from Alia. In this vaft traCl of country, which at 
prefent comprehends Poland, Ruffia, and a great part of 
Tartary, there dwelt in ancient times many confiderable 
tribes. To enumerate thefe, we believe, would not much 
•edify our readers ; we fliall only inform them, that among 
thefe Sarmatian clans were the Roxolani, now the Ruf¬ 
fians, and likewife the Slavi, who dwelt near the Boryf- 
thenes, as was obferved above. The Slavi gradually ad¬ 
vanced towards the Danube; and in the reign of Juftinian, 
having paffed that river, they made themfelves mafters of 
that part of Illyricum which lies between the Drave and 
the Save, and is to this day from them called Sclavonia. 
Thefe-barbarians by degrees overran Dalmatia, Liburnia, 
the weftern parts of Macedonia, Epirus ; and on the eaft 
they extended their quarters all along to the weftern bank 
of the Danube, where that river falls into the Euxine. In 
all thefe countries, the Sclavonian was deeply impreg¬ 
nated with the Greek, which was a thing of courfe, fince 
the barbarian invaders fettled in thofe regions, and min¬ 
gled with the aborigines, who fpoke a corrupt dialed of 
that language. 
The Poles are the genuine defendants of the ancient 
Sarmatae, and confequently fpeak a dialed of their lan¬ 
guage, but much adulterated with Latin words, in confie- 
quence of the attachment the Polanders have long pro- 
feffed to the Roman tongue. 
The Silefians and Bohemians have corrupted their dia- 
3 eds in the very fame manner. In thofe countries, then, 
ive are not to fearch for the genuine remains of the an¬ 
cient Sarmatian. 
The modern Ruffians, formerly the Rhoxani or Roxo¬ 
lani, are the pofterity of the Sarmatas, and are a branch of 
the Slavi ; they inhabit a part of the country which that 
people poffeffed before they fell into the Roman provinces; 
they fpeak the fame language, and wear the very fame 
drefs ; for, on the hiftorical pillar at Conftantinople, the 
Sclavonians are dreffed like the Ruffian boors. If then 
the Slavi are Sarmatse, the Ruffians muft of courfe be the 
defcendants of the fame people. They were long a fe- 
queftered people, and confequently altogether unconned- 
ed with the other nations of Europe. They were ltrangers 
to commerce, inhofpitable to Grangers, tenacious of an- 
VjOL, XII. No. Saz. 
U A G E. 193 
cient ufages, averfe to improvements of every kind, won¬ 
derfully proud of their imaginary importance ; and, in a 
word, a race of people juft one degree above abfolute fa- 
vagifm. A people of this charader are, for the moil 
part, enemies to innovations; and, if we may believe the 
Ruffian hiftorians, no nation was ever more averfe to in¬ 
novations than the one in queftion. From the ninth cen¬ 
tury, at which era they embraced Chriftianity, it does 
not appear that they moved one ftep forward towards ci¬ 
vilization, till Peter the Great, not a Century ago, in con- 
fequence of his defpotic authority, compelled them to 
adopt the manners and cuftoras of their more poliihed 
neighbours. 
We may then conclude, that the Ruffians made as lit¬ 
tle change in their language during that period, as they 
did in their drefs, habits, and manner of living. What¬ 
ever language they fpoke in the ninth century, the fame 
they employed at the beginning of the eighteenth. They 
were, indeed, according to Appian, once conquered by 
Diophantus, one of Mithridates’s generals, but that con- 
queft was for a moment only ; they were likewife invaded, 
and their country overrun, by the great Timur, or Ta¬ 
merlane ; but this invafion was like a torrent from the 
mountains, which fpreads devaftation far and wide while 
it rages, but makes little alteration on the face of the coun¬ 
try. We find likewife, that upon fome occafions they 
made incurfions upon the frontiers of the Roman empire; 
but we hear of no permanent fettlements formed by them 
in thefe quarters. Upon the whole, we take the Ruffians 
to have been, with refpeCt to their language, in the very 
fame predicament with the highlanders and iflanders of 
Scotland, who, according to the general opinion, have 
preferved the Celtic dialeCt pure and entire, in confequence 
of their having never mingled with foreigners. 
From this deduction we may infer two things : firft, 
that the Russian language is the genuine Sclavonian ; 
and, fecondly, that the latter is the fame, or nearly the 
fame, with the ancient Sarmatian. 
In the Ruffian, there are found a great number of words 
refembling the old fimple roots of the Greek, both in 
found and fignification ; its grammatical genius is nearly 
the fame; and we are informed by the very belt autho¬ 
rity, that there is in this language a tranflation of Epic¬ 
tetus, in which there are whole pages, in both original and 
tranflation, without one Angle tranfpofition. Monf. Le- 
veque, who has publifhed a tranflation of a liiftory of Ruf¬ 
fia, is fo entirely convinced of the ltrift analogy between 
the ancient Greek and the modern Ruffe, that he is pofi- 
tive that the former is derived from the latter. Monf. 
Freret, a very learned French academician, is clearly of 
the fame opinion. Yet perhaps thefe coincidences arife 
from the relics of the primitive language of mankind ; 
veftiges of which, we believe, are to be found almoft in 
every tongue now exifting. 
As the Ruffians were a generation of favages, there is 
no probability that they were acquainted with the ufe of 
letters and alphabetical writing till they acquired that art 
by intercourfe with their neighbours. It is certain, be¬ 
yond all contradiction, that few nations had made lefs 
proficiency in the fine arts than that under confideration ; 
and we think there is little appearance of their having 
learned this art prior to their converfion to Chriftianity. 
Certain it is, that the Slavi, who fettled in Dalmatia, Illy¬ 
ria, and Liburnia, had no alphabetical characters till they 
were fjirnifhed with them by St. Jerome. The Servian 
character, which very nearly refembles the Greek, was in¬ 
vented by St. Cyril; on which account the language writ¬ 
ten in that character is denominated Chiurilizza. Thefe 
Sclavonic tribes knew nothing of alphabetic writing prior 
to the era of their converfion. The Moefian Goths were 
in the fame condition till their bifliop Ulphilas fabricated 
them a fet of letters. If the Slavi and Goths, who refided 
in the neighbourhood of the Greeks and Romans, had not 
learned alphabetical writing prior to the era of their con¬ 
verfion to Chriftianity, it muft hold, a fortiori , that the 
3 D Ruffians, 
