are

The Editor of Lennep, "Everard Scheide," whose absurdities, says Dr. Bloomfield,* “ only matched by the senseless trifling of the ancient Etymologists," ascribes to ev, the signification of immixtio, insertio: if he had superadded conjunctio, he would have approached in terms more closely to my explanation of the A. S. An-an (to one).

Lennep (whose notions, the same learned prelate affirms, are often very fanciful), asserts, that the peculiar meaning of the' Gr. ay-av, is to be sought, in motu rei impulsæ, et ita mota ex uno loco in alium,-and that hence descend the significations, ducendi .... trahendi ... and more remotely, ducendi in longum; and thus he arrives at the meaning, which I have ascribed to the Goth. Auk-an (to eke).

The same Lennep asserts, that the peculiar meaning of the Gr. ad-ev is to be sought, in motu, qui fit res plures in unum coagerendo et coacervando: which is precisely the same as that of the A.S. Ad, aad, congeries.

I do not mean to deny, that there are many fanciful notions in Lennep, and much trifling in Scheide; but I do deny that there is any thing either fanciful or trifling in the instances above quoted; and I have no hesitation to declare that I am always rejoiced, when I can support any hypothesis or conclusion of my own by the authority of men so deservedly eminent for their ability and learning.

"Much light," the Bishop acknowledges, "was thrown upon the structure and origin of the (Greek) language by the sagacity and erudition of Hemsterhuys, who supposed that the primary verbs consisted of two or three letters, from which all the other forms and inflections were derived." Hemsterhuys himself never explained his theory in any distinct work. The fullest exposition of it is to be found in the Observationes of Valcknaer, and the Analogia of Lennep.

Valcknaer, a name not very familiar to the ear of an English reader, but held in proper reverence among the Illustrissimi in Grecian literature, supposes, that by following the footsteps of Hemsterhuys and Schuyltens,† he has found the road which leads to the discovery of Greek roots (ad origines Græcas detegendas), to restore some primitives that have almost escaped; and to determine the peculiar signification of words, as distinguished from their figurate and metaphorical.

The leading propositions of the elementary portion, or the rudiments of this theory, are

these :

1. That in Gr. there are five, and no more, biliteral primitives, aw, ew, iw, ow, vw.

* Pref. to the Trans. of Matthias' Greek Grammar.

+ Schuyltens applied t e theory of Hemsterhuys to the Hebrew,

2. That there are twelve, and no more, primitive verbs beginning with a; aßw, ayw, adw, akw, αλω, αμω, ανώ, απω, αρω, ασω, ατω, and ἄω, viz. One biliteral, the last mentioned, aw, and eleven triliterals, formed by the interposition of each consonant between a and w.

Valcknaer remarks, that there are other of these triliteral primitives beginning with other vowels, and he produces as specimens dw, dw, whence the Latin Edo and Sedeo; and also, beginning with consonants,

It is manifest: 1. that the biliterals of this system are not indivisible sounds; that the addition of a to each vowel constitutes so many compounds.

2. That the triliterals are formed of the announced sound of each of the eleven consonants, followed by w, itself a corruption of the gutteral sy or oy, commonly called the pronoun of the first person. So much for Valcknaer.

Lennep devotes the second chapter of his Analogia to the Letters of the Alphabet; he professes himself to be convinced, that unless the separate parts of words, or the elements of which they are composed, and their nature, be rightly understood, it will be impossible to judge of words themselves and their formation: he enters into a brief historical survey of the gradual completion of the Greek alphabet, the classification and power of the different letters; he is perfectly assured that, from the earliest times, men must have been sensible that the whole copiousness of language consisted of very few, and those elementary sounds, and that these sounds might be and were designated by certain peculiar characters, which afterwards obtained the name of letters. But he throws not out the slightest intimation that he apprehended those elementary sounds, of which letters were the signs, to have any meaning in themselves.

I have considered it to be no more than sheer justice to myself, to say thus much of the doctrines of Hemsterhuys and his disciples, because the terms in which the principal tenet of their doctrine is expressed by the Bishop of London, might induce a supposition that there subsisted some strong points of resemblance between the German theory and my own. To resume:The distinction which I have stated to have been originally observed in the respective usages of C, D, and N, may perhaps, upon the first presentment, wear the aspect of a spirit of discrimination too recondite and refined for rude and unlettered ignorance. But we must not direct our attention to the formal technicality of the phrases by which the fact is in each instance described, but to the plain and palpable simplicity of the fact itself. The increase of solidity

or solid dimension, by union of body with body; and that of superficial dimension by exten-
sion ;
and that of number by the apposition of units or collections of units,—are so obviously
dissimilar to sense, and of so common and necessary occurrence in reality, that they would be
among the easiest and earliest essential accidents which language would be required to dis-
tinguish. Why, however, these different organic sounds should each be so peculiarly appro-
priated, I am not prepared to hazard a conjecture. Of the letters or literal roots B and M,
and their primitive intrinsic meaning, a very succinct, I submit, and satisfactory interpretation,
and illustration also, have been given. But with regard to the other consonant letters or literal
roots, all that can be done, or rather all that I indulge the hope to do, as I have already inti-
mated, is this: to find for each "an indivisible intelligible sound," and that sound a word; to
examine carefully, and settle clearly, the radical meaning of that word, and to exhibit some
portion of its progress in the construction or formation of speech.

It is scarcely to be expected that any great advance will be effected before confusion will cross our path, and embarrass our procedure. The leading notion of encrease may, in a multitude of terms, still be kept in immediate view; but the specific difference will be found to have been more speedily disregarded; and as new combinations and new complexities arose, in which the notion of encrease would become equalized or subordinate in relation to other notions comprehended within the composite term, all attention to the primitive propriety would be entirely forgotten.

C. G.-The announced sound of the cognates C. and G (Kɛ and yɛ) is produced, when the breath, in its utterance, is intercepted towards the throat by the middle or root of the tongue, —as, âc, ág, éc, ég; and the enounced, when the utterance is continued after the tongue is withdrawn, as, cà, gà, kɛ, yɛ.

'C. and 'G. The Goth. Auk-an. A. S. Ec, eac, ic, or yc-an. Ger. Auch-en. Dutch, Oeck-en. Sw. Och-a. Dan. Og-er, are evidently the same word, (differently pronounced, written, and applied;) as the Gr. ay-ɛv,* ak-n, oğ-vç. Lat. Ag-ere, aug-ere, ac-uere; they have the same radical or intrinsic meaning, expressed by the common English verb, to ich, now written to cke, and have the same literal root.

In Lat. Aug-ere, the application is to number, as well as to quantity; and thus the usage is become more general, trespassing upon the province of ad-dere.

In. Lat. Ac-uere, Gr. og-ve, the application is consequential: by protracting lineally, by extending superficially, and thus drawing or producing to a point or edge (A. S. Ec-ge) a

* See ante, p. 13.

substance is sharpened: "Habet notionem acuendi, a significatione protrahendi, ducendi in longum, et sic attenuandi, acuendique." So says Lennep in V. Akɛoμat. Ακεομαι.

Pers. Ak-ul. Gr. Ak-n. Lat. Ac-us. A. S. Ec-ge. Ger. Eck. D. Eg-ge. Sw. Egg. Dan. Eg. Eng. Edge (to kit or cut.)

Gr. IK-Ev. A. S. Hig-an, to hie, to go.

Lat. Ic-ere, to throw out. (J-ac-ere, Ge-ac-an.)

Goth. Ik. A. S. Ic. Ger. Ich. Dutch, Ik. Sw. Jag. Dan. Jeg. Russ. Ya, Sans. Ah-am. Gr. Ey-w. Lat. Eg-o. Eng. I.* The Sans, Aik-a. Pers. Yic, is equivalent to the numeral one. Goth. Ak. A. S. Ac. Old English. Ac, is equivalent to eke, add, and; the Gr. kaι, ya, ye. Gr. preposition Ex, ɛ. Lat. Ex.

Of the Sanscrit pronoun. Ah-am, Bopp has observed,—

1. That it consists of two elements, ah, and am;

2. That it has no connection with its oblique cases; and,

3. That ah is the root, and am a mere termination.†

και,

With all my deference for so renowned an oriental scholar as Bopp, and for so sensible and reflecting an enquirer as Dr. Prichard, I can admit the first observation, and that alone, to be

correct.

1. A-ham certainly does consist of two elements, and they are G (y) and M:--both announced,-Ag, Am, the guttural G. being softened into the aspirate H.

2. The accusative case of this Sanscrit pronoun is Màm, which is composed of M. both enounced (mà), and also announced (ám). It consequently contains the second element M in all its power; though degraded by Bopp to a mere termination. Mà (i. e. m enounced) is also used alone, as the accusative.

3. M is found in all the cases (except two) in the three numbers singular, dual, and plural, which the Sanscrit Grammar usurps in common with the Greek, and it is the same literal root M; or element in the nomenclature of Dr. Prichard.

This Sanscrit Nominative Ag-am (pronounced Ah-am) has, in fact, the duplicate force of I and Me. The Sanscrit Accusative Ma-am (pronounced Mám) has the force of the reduplicated Me-Me. The first obviously subsists in the Lat. Ego-me-t (eyo uɛ det) and has its equivalent

See I in the Dictionary.

+ I quote from Dr. Prichard, p. 112, note. It is by inadvertence that the term element is applied by him indiscriminately to a root and a mere termination

↑ See Animadversiones ad Analogiam, by Scheide, p. 292

in the common English expression-And me too. The second subsists in the Lat. Me-me-t, (uɛ μe de), and in the common English repetition-me-me.*

There are a few words, so very different in their application, which have sprung immediately from this literal root (g or c), that I cannot resist the temptation to name them now.

Goth. and A. S. Ecke, ace. Gr. axos. Engl. ache.-Pers. Ach-ar, ak-ar. Goth. Ak-rs. A. S. Ec-r. Gr. ay-pos. Lat. Ag-er, and Danish, Ag-er. Eng. Ac-re; an extent of land. The Gr. is also, terra late patens (Lennep.) And

yai-a

An Oak, A. S. Ac, is, Arbor late patens.

A. S. Ece, Eng. Age, is a length of time.†

C'. and G'.—Gr. Ki-яv, ki-v-яv. Lat. Ce-dere, to go, to proceed. A.S. Co-m-an. D. Ko-men Ger. Ko-mmen. Sw. Ko-mma. Dan. Ko-mmer, Eng. To co-me.

Goth. Ga-g-gan (pronounced like the) A. S. Ga-n-gan, to go.

A. S. Ge-an, to gi-ve. Dan. Gi-or, to do.

A. S. Ce-nnan. Gr. yɛi-veolai. Lat. Gi-gnere. Eng. to ki-ndle, or bring forth ki-nd. And kind is in the Persian Khu-n. Sans. Khu-nan. G. yevos. Lat. Ge-nus. A.S. Cy-n. Ger. and Dutch, Ku-nne. Dan. Ki-on.

Gr.

γινώσκειν.

γενος.

Goth. Cu-nnan. A. S. Ce-nnan. Dutch and Ger. Ke-nnen. Sw. Ka-na Dan. Ki-ender. Eng. to Ke-n, to con, to know :-and the Persian Kù-nda, co-nning, cu-nning or knowing.

A. S. Ce-osan. D. and Ger. Kie-sen. Fr. Choi-sir, (to cheese, as anciently written,) to choose, to se-ize, to take.

Gr. ya-ev, xa-ev, ca-pere, to reach, to ya-wn.

The Sans. Yui (says Dr. Prichard), is a verbal root, whence are derived several verbs meaning to join, and other words. Sans. Yu-ah. Pers. Yoo, yu-gh. Gr. Zuy-os. Lat. Jug-um. Russ. Ig-o. Welsh. Iau. Eng. Yoke. This, I allow, is premature, because it is advancing into compounds.

D. T.-The announced sound of the cognates, D and T, is produced when the breath in its utterance or emission is interrupted by an appulse of the top of the tongue against the teeth or upper gums,-ád, éd, át, ét; and the enounced, when the utterance or emission is continued after the top of the tongue is withdrawn,-dà, dè, tà, tè.

'D. and 'T.-A. S. Ad, congeries. Gr. ad-ev. Lat. Ad-dere.‡

* The nursery is an excellent school for speech, unfettered by the art of Grammar.

+ See Ache, acre, oak, age, in the Dictionary.

↑ See ante, p. 13.