15. The words which Lord Monboddo adduces in proof of his opinion are, won naweucktuckluit, notch, and mikkeuawk rook, little, from the Esquimaux ; and poellarrarorincourac, among some South American Indians. The above ex amples lead us to class the two tbrmer among the descriptive circumlocutions with which all languages are filled. With respect to the last, we may observe, that the names of numbers were probably ori ginally significant in all languages ; and that the length of those names would de pend upon the length of the original words, and the manner of combining them: thus, six is among the Kamschatkans ex pressed by innen-milchin, that is, five and one. Numbers are so familiar to us, and so distinctly arranged in groups, that per haps in no case are our ideas more clear :• but this clearness entirely depends upon the distinctness of tire signs, and of the manner of using them. We speak of ten and twenty, &c. and all seems very clear ; but it is evident, if we attempt to form a conception of ten or twenty things, we must pass over every one singly, and en deavour to combine them by processes which will be varied by the habits of the individual. If we give a fresh name to every group of objects, and then consider those groups as units, and so on, we arc capable of extending our ideas of number indefinitely, and of speaking and thinking of them with accuracy: but if the small extent of intellect, or the circumstances of situation, prevents this grouping, and ow' attention be confined to individuals, our arithmetic must be very confined. Those nations which reckon only by corn parison with their fingers, without group ing numbers, carry their ideas of number no farther than ten ; those who take in the toes, go as far as twenty. The Kamschat kans can count no farther; and when they have advanced to this limit, they say, " where shall we go now I" It is difficult to conceive what circumstances could bound the arithmetic of Lord Monboddo's Indians to three, or rather what should induce them to choose so troublesome a mode of procedure ; but it appears high. ly probable, that they joined together the names of three different men or other ani mals, and if they bad proceeded further (which however Condamine informs us they did not) they would have joined blur together, &c. Perhaps their tribe origi nally consisted of three only ; and then, in order to speak of three, they might use the three names combined together, which combination, losing its primary applica tion, would become a general denotement of three.
16. It' Lord Monboddo had looked into the vocabulary ofthe Mexicans, he would have thought that his theory derived great confirmation from their words. Cla vizego informs us, that they had words of fifteen or sixteen syllables : but he ex pressly says they are compounds. Ile gives one as a specimen of their combina tions, tizs. notlazomahuitzteopixcatalzin ; this signifies my very worthy father, or re vered priest, and is compounded of seven "words. The language of the Mexicans is very copious ; and one cause of the length of their words is probably the deficiency or consonants, which renders a combina tion of sounds necessary for distinctness. A tier all, we may admit that the languages of the American Indians favour the hypo thesis of long words without any injury, for among them alphabetical writing never existed ; and we should have enlarged less on this point, if it had not led us to notice some curious procedures of lan guage: but it seems reasonable to admit, as an inference, that the original or rather the secondary words in language might he long, though not to the degree that ltIonboddo supposes. When, however,
we advance further, and inquire of what kind the original words of man really were, we see sufficient reason to conclude them to be short. Language was first used in the east, and there too writing was invented. Besides the evidence to be derived from the ancient Egyptian (§13), we may cite the following. The Chinese, which as far as oral language is concern ed, appears to have undergone very little alteration, and to be nearly an original language, is composed entirely of what are at present monosyllables. The origi nal words of the Hebrew, Greek, &c. (that is, those which have not been varied by the addition of other words) are short, frequently only of one syllable, seldom of more than two. And to conclude, of the various vocabularies which we have had an opportunity of consulting, of the un civilized nations of the east, the words are generally monosyllabic or dissyllabic.
17. Our last object is to consider the position, that, in the early languages, con sonant sounds were at least generally ac companied by vowel sounds : hut though this is a material point in tracing the tran sition from hieroglyphics to alphabetical writing, it will not be necessary to en large much upon it. We think this posi tion proved by the following, in some measure unconnected, considerations. 1. Vowel sounds are by far the most easy ; and consequently they constitute the earliest vocal sounds of children, and a large proportion of the vocal sounds of uncivilized nations. Several words among the South Sea islanders are corn. posed entirely of vowel sounds ; and so great is the difficulty which these people find in pronouncing consonants together, that they called Sir Joseph Banks Opa no. From this consideration we may fairly infer, that vowel sounds would be frequent in the original words of the early languages, which were formed before ar ticulation was become easy, Yet, 2. as the shades of distinction between them, when employed alone or together, are too nice to furnish, at least to the un practised ear, many obviously different words; and as man was not at first in that low state of intellect in which he has sometimes appeared, a vocabulary form ed of such sounds would be very inade quate to his wants ; and therefore we must suppose that in the early languages there would be very few words without consonant sounds. 3. Some of the first articulations of man were, without doubt, employed in naming those of the inferior animals with which he was concerned. Now their names would almost certainly be given from their distinguishing cries ; and the cries of such animals consist of consonant sounds, each followed by a vowel sound. 4. As articulation would at first he nearly as difficult as we now perceive it to be in children, the first words would be composed of simple arti culations, that is, of consonant sounds following each by a vowel ; and new words would be formed by the comhina . .