Wherever, then, we have been able fully to develops the primitive toots, we find them ultimately resolvable into verbs. In verbs we find, farther, that the imperative con tains always the radix of the tub, with the least possible addition, and sometimes without any addition at all. It is from verbs that the primitive nouns and att•ibutives arc immediately formed, all of them still retaining enough of i the root to mark distinctly their origin. Thus in Hebrew, where the roots of the language form an important branch of its grammar, these roots are all either verbs, or plainly resolvable into verbs. In Greek, and its corresponding language Latin, the radical parts of the language have all been traced by the most skilful etymologists to the verb. In other original languages, the same remark \VIII apply ; and it is observable, that those very philologists, who assert most strongly that nouns were the parents of language, yet in the analysis of individual words, generally resolve them at last to a verb, as their ultimate source. Farther, in analyzing the parts of the verb, we find that in Ilebrew, for instance, the second person of the imperative, and the third person of the preterite, are the same ; and it is this part of the verb which all their grammarians and lexico ,vaphcrs unite in fixing upon as the root. In the Greek and Latin verb, the imperative of the present is that part which always approaches nearest to the root. In the Cel tic and the Gothic, and the modern languages which have taken their origin from them, the imperative verb uniform ly is that which expresses often, without additional termi nations or particles, the full action and intention of the word ; and where some short termination is added, there is every reason to think that this was not the very earliest form, but a subsequent addition. We seem warranted then in concluding, that the imperative of the verb is real ly the radical part, to which all the others at first were ad juncts. Afterwards, it is true, new verbs and nouns, as well as other classes of words, would be formed from the primitives ; but these are plainly derivatives, having their rise in an advanced state of the language.
The proof of these principles might be extended by ex amples from many different languages; but such a copious induction, however useful and curious, would run this arti cle into an inconvenient length. Those who wish to go farther will find, upon examination, that in the principle now laid down, of using the radix of the verb as the im perative part of it, there is an agreement in languages nearly universal.
It might be a curious object of inquiry, were it practica ble to arrive at any certainty in regard to it, what was the nature of the original radical sounds or words, and from what principles (lid the application of the different articu late sounds, to contain particular feelings, actions, or objects, at first arise ? llere, however, we have so lew data to pro ceed upon, that very little can be discovere3; still some thing may be stated. The conjecture then, we may ob serve. is not improbable, that the primitive sounds by which men's feelings were announced would be very short, per haps most of thorn monosyllabic. It seems evident also, that as the vowel sounds are often uncertain and variable in their enunciation, they would frequently be interchanged in common speech, and no variation in them would affect the expression of the particular idea meant to be• • com ey ed ; it would be to the consonant sounds alone, in which the diversity is fixed and obvious, that recourse must have been had, as the radical and urciformt!). ns by which the di
versity of ideas or feelings was to be marked. Each con sonant sound might therefore have a particular signification annexed to it, which it would always retain, with whichever of the vowel sounds it happened to be united. Farther, there is surely nothing absurd or improbable in supposing, that when men began to give names to what excited their feelings, the same or similar feelings would be expressed by the same, or neat ly similar, sounds ; that the expressive part of these sounds being what formed the consonants, whenever the desire or necessity of indicating a feeling or idea once signified recurred anew, this would be done by a repetition of the same consonant sound which had first been employed to make it known. Hence each different consonant, when enunciated, would soon come to denote a particular range of ideas, agreeing among themselves in sonic common quality, and distinct from what were ex pressed by any of the others. What particular range of ideas each consonant sound was to be applied to express must have been wholly arbitrary, none ol them possessing any specific aptitude to render it more applicable to one idea than another. If ever, then, any general principles are to be traced upon which any language has been originally constructed, in regard to the application of particular sounds to particular classes of ideas, this must be done solely by the observation of facts, as actually found to occur in the existing primitive languages. As yet, however, we want the materials for such an inductive investigation. Perhaps farther researches, conducted upon philosophical views, into the real component parts of those languages that merit the appellation ol original tongues, as forming their roots within themselves, may in time elucidate some parts of this curious subject. In any such investigation, however, it would be absolutely necessary to examine each language separately, and trace its roots, unmixed with those of any other tongue. When the roots of different languages have thus been investigated, a subsequent comparison of these with one another might enable us to determine whether any, and what degree of affinity exists among the lan guages to which they belong. A theory founded on such an inductive process would be by no means chimerical. Within the bounds of a particular language, etymology is a prcU•safe guide. It is only when rashly applied to va rious and discordant language that it is ready to bewilder and mislead. Could the various original languages of the globe be brought into such a point of comparison, the much agitated question, whether all arc derived from one, might perhaps be satisfactorily resolved. At present, the opinion of their common origin may be allowed to carry with it much probability, strengthened by many curious proofs of actual coincidence ; but still satisfactory evidence a posteriori is wanting—an evidence such as a radical ana lysts in the manner now pointed out would alone be capa ble of furnishing.