204 
LANGUAGE, 
ence, as a moft excellent fclieme; and, to engage the world 
to the (tudy thereof, publiilies fome fine inventions of his 
own therein. 
M. Lodwic, in the Philofophical Tranfaflions, gives us 
a plan of an univerfal alphabet, or character, of another 
kind. This was to contain an enumeration of all fuch 
tingle founds, or letters, as are ufed in any language ; by 
means whereof people thould be enabled to pronounce 
truly and readily any language; to defcribe the pronun¬ 
ciation of any language that (hall be pronounced in their 
hearing, fo as others accuftomed to this language, though 
they had never heard the language pronounced, thail at 
firlt be able truly to pronounce it; and, laitly, this charac¬ 
ter to ferve as a Itandard to perpetuate the founds of any 
language. 
In the courfe of our reading to obtain materials for the 
prefent article, we have met with many other efl'ays to¬ 
wards an univerfal language; but we have found them in 
general fo unfatisfaClory, that it is more with a view to 
gratify the curiofity of our readers, than from an idea of 
the practicability of the thing, that we prefent them with 
the following. 
The Journal Litteraire for the year 1720 contains an 
ingenious project for an univerfal character. The author, 
after obviating the objections that might be made againtt 
the feafiblenefs of fuch lchemes in the general, propofes 
his own ; his characters are to be the common Arabic or 
numeral figures. The combinations ofthefe nine arefuf- 
ficient to exprefs dillinCtly an incredible quantity of num¬ 
bers, much more than we (hall need terms to fignify our 
aCtions, goods, evils, duties, paflions, See. Thus is all 
the trouble of framing and learning any new character at 
once faved ; the Arabic figures having already all the uni- 
verfality required. 
The advantages are immenfe. For, 1 ft. We have here 
a (table faithful interpreter; never to be corrupted or 
changed, as the popular languages continually are. adly, 
Whereas the difficulty of pronouncing a foreign language 
is fuch as ufually gives the learner the greateit trouble, 
and there are even fome founds which foreigners never at¬ 
tain to ; in the character here propofed, this difliculty 
has no place; every nation is to pronounce them accord¬ 
ing to the particular pronunciation that already obtains 
among them. All the difficulty is, the accultoming the 
pen and the eye to affix certain notions to characters that 
do not, at (ir(t fight, exhibit them. But this trouble is 
no more than we find in the (tudy of any language what¬ 
ever. 
The inflexions of words are here to be exprefled by the 
common letters. For inftance, the fame character (hall 
exprefs a filly or a colt, a horfe or a mare, an old horje or an 
old mare, as, accompanied with this or that diltinCtive let¬ 
ter, w'hich (hall (how the fex, youth, maturity, or old age. 
A letter alfo to exprefs the bignefs or fize of things ; thus, 
a man with this or that letter, to fignify a great man, or a 
little man, See. The ufe of thefe letters belongs to the 
grammar-, which, once well underltood, would abridge 
the vocabulary exceedingly. An advantage of this gram¬ 
mar is, that it would only have one declenfion and one 
conjugation. The numerous anomalies of grammarians 
are exceedingly troublefome; and arife hence, that the 
common languages are governed by the populace, who ne¬ 
ver reafon on what is be(t; but, in the character here pro¬ 
pofed, men of fenfe, having the introduction of it, would 
have a new ground whereon to build regularly. 
The lalt attempt we (hall notice is that by Mr. Thomas 
Northmore, of Queen-ftreet, May-fair, London. It bears- 
fome relemblance to that which we have given above from 
the Journal Litt.eraire, but it is not the (ante; and of the 
two, Mr. Northmore’s is perhaps the moft ingenious. The 
ground-work of the fuperftructure differs not indeed from 
that of the journalift, being this in both; “That, if the 
fame numerical figure be made to reprefent the feme word 
in .the various languages upon earth, an univerfal charac¬ 
ter is immediately obtained.” The only objection which 
our author or his friends faw to fuch a plan, originates in 
the diverfity of idioms ; but, as he truly obferves, every 
fchool-boy has this difficulty to encounter as often as he 
conftrues Terence. 
Such then was Mr. Northmore’s original plan ; but he 
foon perceived that it was capable of confiderable im¬ 
provement ; for, inftead of ufing a figure for every word, 
it will be neceflary to apply one only to every ufeful 
word; and we all know how few words are abfolutely ne¬ 
ceflary to the comm<unication of our thoughts. Even 
thefe may be much abbreviated by the adoption of cer¬ 
tain uniform fixed figns (not amounting to above twen¬ 
ty), for the various cafes, numbers, genders, degrees of 
comparifon, of nouns, tenfes, and moods, of verbs. See. 
All words of negation, too, may be exprefled by a pre¬ 
fixed fign. A few inftances will bed explain the author’s 
meaning. 
Suppofethe number 5 to reprefent the word fee. 
6 
a man , 
7 
- happy. 
8 
never , 
9 
- /. 
“ I would then (fays he) exprefs the tenfes, genders. 
cafes, &c. in 
as following: 
all languages, in 
lome fuch uniform manner 
(0 5 = 
prefent tenfe, 
fee. 
(2) -5 = 
perfeEl tenfe. 
- - faw. 
( 3 ) : 5 — 
perfect participle. 
- - feen. 
( 4 ) 5 : — 
prefent participle. 
feeing. 
( 5 ) 5 - = 
future. 
- - will fee. 
( 6 ) J> = 
fubjlantive, 
fight. 
( 7 ) _5 = 
perfonal fubfantive, - - fpeClator, 
(8) 6 = 
nominative cafe, 
- - a man. 
(9) 6 — 
genitive. 
- - of a man. 
(10) 6 = 
dative, 
- - to a man. 
(11) 6 — 
feminine. 
- - a woman. 
(ia)+6 — 
plural, 
- - men. 
/'-v 
CO 
V-/ 
*v3 
II 
poflive. 
happy. 
(14) 7 = 
comparative, 
happier. 
A\ 
(15) 7 = 
fuperlative. 
- happieft. 
_ 7 _ = 
as above, N° 6. 
- - happinefs. 
(16)—7 = 
negation. 
- unhappy. 
“From the above fpecimen, 
I fliould find no difficulty 
in comprehending the following fentence, though it were 
written in the language of the Hottentots : 
A 
9, 8, .5, —7, 6. I never faw a more unhappy woman. 
“ Thofe languages which do not ufe the pronoun pre¬ 
fixed to the verb, as the Greek and Roman, See. may ap¬ 
ply it, in a (mail character, limply to denominate the per- 
lon ; thus, inftead of 9, 8, .5, 1 never faw ; they may write, 
o-5> w'hich will fignify that the verb is in the firlt per- 
fon, and will ftill have the fame meaning.” 
Our author feems confident that, according to this 
fclieme of an univerfal character, about twenty figns, and 
lels than 10,000 chofen words (fynonymes being let afide), 
would anfwer all the ends propofed ; and that foreigners, 
by referring to their numerical dictionary, would eafily 
comprehend each other. He proceeds next to (how how. 
appropriate founds may be given to his figns, and an uni¬ 
verfal living language formed from the univerfal charac¬ 
ters, To attain this end, he propofes to diltinguifli the 
tety 
