guage of the old Germans) it is aflet, and that alfo is compounded of letan, to let go, to dif mifs, and af which in Compofition answers to our off, or away. And your Collection of Lord's Prayers will fhew us, that the later Dialects which spring from the fame Japhetic Stock compound their Verbs after the fame Manner, which none of those Languages, that I have mentioned as having Affinity with the Hebrew, ever do.

Another obfervable in which these several Sets of Tongues, as I may call them, differ from each other, though they all agree with their common Roots, is in the Ufe of their poffeffive Pronous, when affixed to their Nouns. As thus, Ab in Hebrew is Father. Abi, my Father. Abinu, our Father. In Chaldee from the fame Root, Abouna, is our Father. In Syriac it is Abun. In Arabic and Ethiopic the fame. In this Manner when any Pronoun is poffeffively joined to a Noun, as my, thy, his, yours, theirs, they conftitute in a regular and ordinary Manner one Word with the Word with which they are joined, by being added to the End of the Noun. These Pronouns are put to the End of the Nouns, as moft Prepofitions and fome Conjunctions are prefix'd to those Nouns and Verbs that want them. Whereas in the Greek both ancient and barbarous, in the Latin and the Dialects which arife from it, and in all the Branches of what I call the old Teutonic, these poffeffive Pronouns make a diftinct

7

diftinct Word from the Noun with which they are joined. As Пarng μv, Pater nofter, Atta unfar, Fader vor, Vater unfer, Our Father. Nor have thefe Languages any Thing which exactly answers to the Prepofitions and Conjunctions which are prefixed to Verbs and Nouns in those Eastern Languages.

Another remarkable Particular, in which thefe Western Tongues all agree, is, the marking the Degrees of Comparison of their Adjectives by proper Terminations, as wife, wifer, wifeft; fapiens, fapientior, fapientiffimus; σοφές, σοφώτερον, σοφώτατα. None of the Eaftern Tongues already mentioned have any Thing like this. In my Opinion this is no mean Proof that the Race of Japhet, from whom all these Nations fpring, had diftin& Languages agreeing in fome common Marks, as well as diftinct Lands affigned them about this Time. And here I would take Leave to obferve, what I fhall fpeak to more at large hereafter, that as we fee these fundamental Characteristics in these two great Branches, fo they do not leffen or dwindle away as these Dialects increase. The Words indeed vary by which they are exprefs'd; but the Things themfelves, those constituent Parts of their fubftantial Forms, (which however ill they may found in Phyfics, will pafs well enough in Grammar) ftill remain among them all. Be it Kal and Niphal in Hebrew, Peal and Ithpeel in Chaldee, Phabala and Phaballa in Arabic, it E

is

is all one; the different Ways of conjugating their Verbs, which I have already defcribed, run thro' them all. Whereas none of thefe WeStern Tongues regard any Thing more in their Verbs, than Active, or Paffive, or Neuter, which is in Truth fomething between them both, and is always formed either like an A&tive or like a Paffive; and fo confequently differs rather in the Senfe than in the Formation. This will go a good Way towards anfwering the Propofition, which Stiernbielmius lays down as the Foundation of his whole Difcourfe, that all the Languages of the Defcendents of Noah, were originally but one, to which one they may be all at last reduced. If I fhould enter now into a longer Enumeration of Particulars upon this Head, I should tire other Readers, and fhould be very impertinent towards you, Sir, whose great and diffufive Skill in fo many and fo various Languages makes you a better Judge of this Queftion, than almoft any Man I ever knew.

You will agree therefore, Sir, with me in this, that it is upon the Account of these common Marks, that Grammarians have been able to make Grammars that have been intelligible and methodical, of feveral of thefe Languages together, in which thefe Variations have been clearly reprefented. Of this Sort is that excellent Grammar which Ludovicus de Dieu has compofed for Hebrew, Chaldee and Syriac. Whereas if one fhould try to make what I

would

would call a Concordantial Grammar of Greek and Arabic, he would foon fee that he did ἀσύγκλωσα κλώθειν, put Things together which are wholly incompatible, and he would then perceive that there are indeed in both Languages Words, and great Variety of them, to exprefs our Meaning by; but that these Words are (generally speaking) as differently framed in Order to form thofe Expreffions, as it is poffible for the Mind of Man to conceive they fhould.

If now, Sir, I have made my felf underftood I am fatisfied. You fee what I drive at; I have had no Affiftance from the Writings of any of those that have gone before me that I have seen. If any Man will recur to the Objection which I first started, and bid me compare the Dialects of the Latin, the Greek, or the German, and fend me up to Time, as if that were fufficient to produce these or greater Changes; I fhall refer my felf to what Stiernbielmius himfelf is forced to own in his Difcourse concerning the Original and Progress of Tongues, prefixed to the Edition of Junius's Gofpels, commonly called the Gothic, compared with the Iflandish, the Swedish, and the Latin, which was printed at Stockholm in 1671. by the College of Antiquities, which the late King of Sweden erected fome Years before. For there, after he has laboured to prove that the Languages of Europe, Afia and Africa, were originally one, and to that one may be still redu

ced, and confequently differ from one another, no otherwise than as the common and natural Changes which Time has neceffarily introduced in three or four Thousand Years, he is forced to add, that he would be understood only of thofe Languages which are derived from that which was fpoken by Adam, and Noab, that are in Ufe in Afia, Europe and Afric: For as for the Languages of America, and the Iflands in the Indies, he gives them up, and allows that there are no Footsteps of any Coherence or Agreement between these Languages, and those spoken upon our Continent. Which (fays he) has made fome rafhly to imagine, that the Men that speak thofe Tongues are a Species by themselves, and not Defcendents of Adam, the common Parent of us all b.

This ftrange Conceffion from a Man whom I fee no Reafon to fufpect of Irreligion, goes a great Way to prove my Pofition, especially

h Unum folummodo, Lectorem non iniquum admonitum volo, me hîc non alias Linguas intelligere, quam quae ex Adamaea feu Noachica originem ducunt, & in Orbe cognito, h. e. Afia, Africa, & Europa in ufu funt, aut fuerunt. Quo Americanas, & in Indiis Infulanas, ut hodie funt, omnino excludo: quippe in quibus nec rationis, nec cohaerentiae, aut cognationis ullum vestigium, deprehendo. Unde nonnulli, licet temere, fufpicantur, hominum illorum fpeciem, in propria potius Terra factam aut exortam, quam ex Adami traduce natam. Stiernhielmii Praefat. in Evangg. Ulfilae. pag. 4.

feeing