LANGUAGE. igd 
terms of the very fame complexion appear. From this 
deduction we hope it will follow, that the Gothic tongue, 
in its original unmixed ftate as it was fpoken by the an¬ 
cient Getae, was a dialed of the primeval language ; that 
language which the fons of Tiras brought with them from 
the plains of Shinar, or from Armenia, or from any other 
region where the primitive mortals had fixed their reiidence. 
Almoft every word truly Gothic may with a little pains 
and judgment be traced to fome oriental root or cognate. 
We may juft obferve, that many Gothic nouns end in a, 
like the Chaldaic and Syriac ; that their l'ubftantive-verb 
very much refembles that of the Perfian, Greek, and La¬ 
tin ; and that their adive and auxiliary verb has furnilhed 
the common preterperfed tenfe of Greek verbs in the ac¬ 
tive voice; that verb is haban, but originally ha, as the 
common people pronounce it at this day, efpecially in the 
north of Scotland, and among the Swedes, Danes, Nor¬ 
wegians, and Icelanders. 
Sir William Jones gives it as his opinion, that the 
Greek, Latin, and Gothic, originated in one and the fame 
language ; namely, the ancient language of Perfia. Thefe 
three languages, therefore, originally rel'embled each 
other, not merely becaufe they borrowed fome words one 
from the other, but becaufe they had the fame words, 
phrafes, and even conftrudion, in confequence of having 
derived them from the common tongue. And here we 
cannot help mentioning one feature in which the ancient 
Gothic bore a very lingular refemblance to the Greek in 
the time of Homer, or that dialed of the Greek (namely, 
the Asolic) from which the Latin was principally derived : 
we mean the much-difputed AJolic digamma. In the ori¬ 
ental languages gutturals abounded : thefe, by degrees, 
l'oftened into a mere afpirate; and for this afpirate was, 
in very numerous inftances, fubftituted a labial letter, w 
oro, or f or cp. Thus khaan, a king, degenerated into hdn ; 
and, being introduced into Greek in the form of c«va|, or 
avaaaa, was pronounced <p«»af, <pa.va.acra. While the 
oral Greek was thus corrupted, the written retained the 
afpirate ; and, as the works of Homer became the fubjed 
of univerfal ftudy, the true orthography triumphed over 
the caprice of oral founds. But the Latins had no fucli 
monument of genius as the Iliad to ftudy ; the corrup¬ 
tions of pronunciation, therefore, prevailed, and the di¬ 
gamma was univerfally fubftituted for the afpirate. Thus 
sria, vejla, £<7W£g«, vefpera . The digamma was alfo pre¬ 
fixed to a broader open vowel, and always inferted between 
a diphthong: as oic, pronounced owis, ovis ; oivst, woinos, 
vinum ; onto;, zvoikos, vicus. Now, this fame digamma runs 
th rough the Gothic language; which fliows that a great 
part of it, through fome channel or other, was derived 
from the Greek about the early age in which the Latin 
feparated into a diftind dialed. We fhall give a few ex¬ 
amples of this fad. The Greek ava^, in Gothic, is writ¬ 
ten conformably to the corrupt pronunciation of (pava.%, 
fan ; ccnv, fpirare, is zuaian ; ati-c iy, (which is equivalent 
to city.au 0 is wahfgan , crcfcerc ; cgya&u, waurkgan ; hence 
the Englilh, to work. 
The Icelandic language is the moll ancient and vene¬ 
rable, and of courfe the pureft, dialed of the Gothic. It 
has engaged the attention of many profound fcholars, 
who have conlidered it as the parent of the Norwegian, 
Danilli, and Swedilh, and in a great degree of the Englifh$ 
though this laft may probably be more conneded with the 
Frific, and other dialeds of the north of Germany. In 
Iceland, extraordinary as it may feem, letters flourilhed 
in a very high degree from the nth to the 14-th century j 
and, independent of the fabulous fagas, which were very 
numerous, the folid and valuable works then produced in 
that illand might fill a conliderable catalogue. From Ice¬ 
land we derived the Edda, and our knowledge of the an- 
-cient Gothic mythology. From Iceland the Swedes, Nor¬ 
wegians, Danes, and Orcadians, drew their chief intelli¬ 
gence concerning their ancient hillory; Snorro in parti¬ 
cular being ftyled the Herodotus of the North ; and the 
JLandnatna , or Book of the Origins of Iceland, is an 
unique work, difplaying the names and property of all the 
original fettlers, and the circumftances attending the dif- 
tribution of a barbaric colony. 
The Swedish language is very nearly related to the 
Icelandic ; that it is a daughter of the Gothic is fully 
fliown in the Gloffarium Suio-Gothicum, mentioned be¬ 
fore. In the fouth of Sweden, which contains the chief 
mafs of population, fome German and French words have 
been adopted ; while the Dalecarlian on the north-weft is 
efteemed a peculiar dialed, perhaps only becaufe it con¬ 
tains more of the ancient terms and idioni. The Fin nidi 
gradually yields to the Swedilh ; but the rude Laplander 
retains his old fpeech, or rather a dialed of the Finnifli 
adopted by his anceftors. The Swedilh language is futft- 
ciently fonorous, if the pronunciation were more empha¬ 
tic. The affectation of terminating names in us, as if 
they were Latin, begins gradually to expire after a reign 
of two centuries. 
The Danish language is that dialect of the Gothic 
which is called the Scandinavian. It differs very little 
from the Swedilh ; its chief difference feems to arife from 
the drawling tone with which it is pronounced by the 
Danes. The pronunciation of the Norwegians comes 
nearer that of the Swedes. There is befides a greater ad¬ 
mixture of German words in the Danilli language than in 
the Swedilh, the German language being univerfally 
fpoken beyond Flenlburg in Slefwic, till very near the 
Little Belt, and generally underftood in the capital. It 
is but lately that the Danes have taken any pride in their 
own language. All the laws and public infcriptions are 
now in Danilli. 
The German language may be almoft regarded as 3 
primitive one, as it is the mother-tongue of the Dutch, 
Flemilh, Danilh, Swedilh, and Englilh. Its dominion ex¬ 
tends from the boundaries of Lapland and Finland to 
thofe of France and Italy. In the middle ages, the fimi- 
larity between the idioms derived from the German was 
fo great, that the German and Englilh mifiionaries, who 
went to Sweden, Denmark, and Norway, had no difficulty 
in making themfelves underftood in thofe countries. The 
dialed known by the name of Low German, or Low 
Dutch, is now dilufed in writing, and wholly confined to 
the vulgar in the kingdom of Wellphalia, in the duchies 
of Mecklenburgh and Holftein, and in Pomerania ; it 
comes very near the Dutch. The High German, or High 
Dutch, has been conliderably improved lince Luther’s 
time; it is remarkable for ftrength, richnefs, bold invef- 
fions, and compound words, which render it admirably 
fit for the higher ftrains of epic poetry. The learned dic¬ 
tionaries of Adelung, Eberhard, and Campe, have ferved 
to elucidate the meaning of every one of its terms, fo 
that it may now be conlidered as fixed. It is fpoken in 
its greateft purity in Upper Saxony, part of Lower Saxony, 
and on the banks of the Necker and the Mayne. There 
are ftill fome traces of the Sclavonian language lefrion the 
Ihores of the Baltic, in fome diftrids of Pomerania, in Si- 
lefia, Bohemia, and Moravia; but it is difappearing very 
fall. Bulbequius informs us, that the clowns of Crim Tar¬ 
tary, remains of the ancient Goths, fpeak a language al¬ 
moft German. Thefe clowns were no doubt defcendants 
of the ancient Goths, who remained in their native coun¬ 
try after the others had emigrated. It is therefore ap¬ 
parent, from the whole of this investigation, that the Go¬ 
thic was introduced into Europe from the ealt, and is 
probably a dialed: of the language originally fpoken by 
men. 
The Germans have written much and well on the phi- 
lofophy of language. Three of the Berlin prize-differta- 
tions are juftly celebrated : Fulda on the Low and High 
Dutch dialeds, Herder on the Origin of Speech, and je- 
nifch on the relative Value of the European Languages. 
Klopftock, by his early Fragments on Language, and by 
his lubfequent Dialogues and Treatifes, laid the founda¬ 
tion for fyllematic reform, for rational innovation in Ger¬ 
man ftyle, and for change by the concert of authors in 
5 confequence 
