of fignification of words. The grammatical researches however of the eminent

Greek

ficationes; nec alias effe nifi corporeas five eas, quibus res fenfibus exterius expofitæ, defignantur. E contrario autem, translatarum fignificationum copiam immensam, quæ ex propriâ notione, tanquam ex trunco arboris rami, quaquaverfum pateant. Lennep. Anal. P. 41.

As Mr. Tooke has not yet fatisfied the curiofity of the public by illuftrating the manner of fignification. of the pronouns, and those who have followed him as far as he has hitherto gone, must be extremely defirous to understand the conftruction of this part of language, I will subjoin an instance which perhaps may give the reader an idea how the pronouns arife, and what is their primary fenfible fignification.

Tor in Coptic fignifies hand. See Woide Lexicon Egypt. who goes on to say, ufurpatur inftar nominis poffeffivi, and then quotes feveral Coptic phrafes, in which he translates Tot by the poffeffive pronoun. Then by a prefix of the letter N, of which the primary fenfe is not known, it fignifies to have, to poffefs: as,

Greek scholars, who have flourished in Holland, are, if we except those of Schultens,

but

"NTOT, habere, x.-as Matt. xxi. 26. Iwarung γας ΝΤΟΤου ως ο προφήτης, habent enim Johannem ficuti prophetam."

In his Grammat. Egypt. p. 38, he says TOT, manus, NTOT, manus mea, i. e. ego, Pfalm cxxx. 8. eтот, mihi, Syrac. xxiv. 8. Daтотep, inter nos." With other fuffixes it is used to exprefs the other perfons. Two or three other words, of which I do not find the primary sense, are used alfo for the first pronoun poffeffive. Thefe other Coptic words might fignify hand among fome of the tribes, of which the Egyptian nation, like every other, was probably formed: or other actions, besides taking a thing into the hand, might denote poffeffion, and hence a derivation of pronouns from words of other fignification.

How the familiar` action of feizing any thing for food or other use might suggest an emblematic action, as in the ceremony of marriage; how this act might also suggest an hieroglyphic for poffeffion; and how eafily the word hand might fupply spoken and written.

language

but beginning to be known abroad; and they appear to have adulterated the truth by the admixture of feveral highly improbable hypotheses *.

The

language with poffeffive pronouns, every person will at once perceive. Suppofing the Coptic likely to fupply primary fignifications, I fearched for this purpose what Dr. Woide has published of this language: he must be responsible himself for the accuracy of his interpretation.-OUон fignifies as well and, as addi, augeri. The coincidence of the primary sense of this conjunction in English and Egyptian is fatisfactory, but by no means surprising.

* Readers, attached to these speculations, will find abundant entertainment in Valkenarii Obfervationes, &c. Lennepii Prælectiones Acad. and particularly in his Etymcologicum, all published by Prof. Scheid, in 1790. A German critic, in whose strictures one can hardly fail to recognize Mr. Heyne, has pointed out two or three of these extraordinary hypotheses. See Gotting. Anzeig. 1791, p. 578, &c. He obferves that it is just as probable that the great bulk of the Greek language was

derived

The pretenfions of the abstract sciences have, it must be confeffed, fomething wonderfully alluring. In thinking they seem to promife, to fpeculative minds, a fort

of

derived from monads as from the duads, which thefe writers and Lord Monboddo affign as the primitives, viz. aw, ew, iw, ow, and w; for, continues he, from

we may have duw, dew, dow; and we have still in the language fw, Aw, vw, and other fuch monofyllables. This regularity, too, he obferves in the formation of the language muft, according to the Dutch doctrine, neceffarily have exifted among the Savages of Greece, a fuppofition, contrary to every argument, fupplied either by phyfiology or pfychology. He might have added, that the doctrine not only implies this supposition, but that the authors exprefs. it: as Valckenaer, P. 34, primigenia fignificationes LINGUÆ CONDITORIBUS verbis impressa- -labentibus annis, deleri cœperunt, &c. fo that Horace, if he had but known this, when he faid, "that many bold warriors lived before Agamemnon," might have added, " and wife philofophers too, who held councils to pro

a SAPIENTIBUS ISTIS

vide

of independance upon external things, fimilar to what fome moralifts have fought to acquire in acting. And who is there, fo immersed in matter as to feel no defire of fpiritualizing the grofs body of his experi

vide ways and means for the regular conftruction of language!" A fact, doubtlefs, far more extraordinary.

It is alfo, as Mr. H. further remarks, very little probable that nouns were at first derived from verbs, as, for instance, that hey should have preceded prož, or wlepuoow, wlepuέ; absent objects must have a name (hence nouns would be firft formed), whereas actions could be imitated by gefture. It is not however to be denied, that other nouns were afterwards formed from verbs, Mr. H. feems to be mistaken, in fupposing that monofyllables and diffyllables precede polyfyllables; for, 1. In the fpecimens of barbarous languages, of which we have lately received so many, you will hardly find a monofyllable and few short words; and, 2. Many imitative words must be long, because the founds themselves are long; they would be gradually shortened by use.

mental