Although we cannot attain to any complete discovery of the actual origin and progress of the different languages spoken in various parts of the world, yet some interesting facts, in regard to the transmission, migration, and filiation of languages, are within our reach. A few t emarks ou that subject may therefore with propriety be here intro duced.
From the most ancient and most authentic of all histori cal records, the Sacred Scriptures, know the fact. that all mankind were originally descended from a single pair, and that our great progenitor did undoubtedly possess and make use of articulate language. What the particular language was which was then employed we have no means of ascer taining. Weare,however, sufficiently warranted to con clude, that this primeval language must have consisted at first of very lew and simple sounds, and that it was gra dually extended, as the new situations of men in society re quired new modes of expression. The primitive language, in all probability, continued radically the same, though en larged by accessions closely related to the parent stock, during the whole antediluvian ages ; and there is little rea son to doubt, when we take into view the longevity of the patriarchs, affording opportunities to men of different gene rations to mingle together, that from Adam down to Noah the language first made use of suffered no essential change. When the tremendous event of the deluge reduced the whole population of the earth to a single family, the primi tive language, as received and used by the patriarch Noah, would still be preserved in his family, and form the only language then used among men. In this state, we find that language continued till the confusion of tongues at Babel, before which period, we are assured by the sacred historian, Lc the whole earth was of one language and of one speech." Whether this primitive language was the same with any of the languages of which we have still any re mains, has been a subject of much dispute. That the pri mitive language continued at least till the dispersion of mankind consequent upon the building of Babel, there seems little reason to doubt. When, by an immediate in terposition of divine power, the language of men was con founded, we are not informed to what extent this confu sion of tongues prevailed. It is unnecessary to suppose, that the former language was completely obliterated, and entire new modes of speech at once introduced. It was quite sufficient, if such changes only were effected, as to render the speech of different companies or different trihes unintelligible to one another, that their mutual co-operation in the mad attempt in which they had all engaged might be no longer practicable. The radical stem of the first language might therefore remain in all, though new dialects were formed, bearing among themselves a similar relation with what we find in the languages of modern Europe, de rived from the same parent stein, whether Gothic, Latin, or Sclavonian. In the midst of these changes, it is reason
ed to suppose that the primitive language itself, unalter ed, would still be preserved in some one at least of the tribes or families of the human race. Now in none of these was the transmission so likely to have taken place, as among that branch of the descendants of Shem, from which the patriarch Abraham proceeded. Upon these grounds, there fore, we may conclude, that the language spoken by Abra ham, and by him transmitted to his posterity, was in fact the primitive language, modified indeed and extended in the course of time, but still retaining its essential parts far more completely than any other of the languages of men. If these conclusions are well founded, they warrant the in ference, that, in the ancient Hebrew, there are still to be found the traces of the original speech. Whether this ancient Hebrew more nearly resembled the Chaldean, the Syrian, or what is now termed the Hebrew, it is unnecessary here to inquire ; these languages, it has never been denied, were originally and radically the same, though, from subsequent modifications, they appear to have assumed somewhat dif ferent aspects.
The dispersion of mankind was a necessary effect of the multiplication and increase of the families of the human race ; and in this dispersion we shall find the treat sources of new and essential changes of language. 'A change of situation most generally infers a change of climate operat ing on the organs of speech, and still more extensively affecting the productions of the earth, the nature and num ber of human wants, and the means of supplying them. Most frequently, too, does the change of situation give rise to new occupations and pursuits, and these to the widest and most essential differences in the state of society and the modes of life, of manners, and of thought. In all these changes, it is almost impossible that language shauld fail to undergo many alterations ; ncw objects and pursuits re quire new expressions and new modes of spec( I. ; and if the dispersed and migrating colonies be so completely se parated by barriers difficult to pass, that little or no com munication with them can be had, it is easy to see, that where the languages originally brought with these colonies were scanty and incomplete, the change of language might be so great and so rapid, that the languages would soon appear to be totally different, and much attention would be required to trace out the original affinity. As these colonies diverged still farther, new differences would arise, till the original stern became often nearly imperceptible.