138 In this mode of flexion the Greeks copied from the Orien tals 139 Formation cases. cases. In this manner we think the Greek nouns stood originally; the only change being made upon the article. At length, instead of prefixing that word, and expressing it by itself, they found it convenient to affix a fragment of it to the noun, and so to pronounce both with more expedition. Thus s-λoy, e. g. became λoy-is, ou λογ became λογ ου, and of course λογος and λόγου, &c. The spiritus asper, or rough breathing, was thrown away, in order to facilitate the coalition. Nouns of the neuter gender, as was necessary, were distinguished by using instead of s. In oriental words the Greeks often changes into and vice versa. In this case the Greeks seem to have copied from an eastern archetype. In Hebrew we find an arrangement exactly similar. To supply the place of the pronouns possessive, they affix fragments of the personals: Thus, they write ben-i, "my son," instead of ben-ani, aud debir-nu, "our words," instead of debir-anu, &c. The persons of their verbs are formed in the same manner. In this way, in our opinion, the variations of the first and second declensions were produced. After that a considerable number of their nouns were of the third arranged under these two classes, there remained an aldeclension most infinite number of others which could not conveniand of its ently be brought into these arrangements; because their terminations did not readily coalesce with the articles above mentioned. These, like nouns of the neuter gender, were in a manner secluded from the society of the two other classifications. It is probable that these for a long time continued indeclinable. At last, however, σ Greek minative plural ended in , which nearly resembles the 140 It is generally believed that the Greeks have no Greek abablative; to this opinion, however, we cannot assent, lative. It is true, that the dative, and what we would call the ablative, are always the same yet we think there is no more reason to believe that the latter is wanting in Greek, than that the ablative plural is wanting in Latin, because in that language both these cascs are always alike. 141 In the eastern languages there are only two genders, analogous to the established order of nature, where all animals are either male or female. But as the people of the east are, to this day, strongly addicted to personi. fication, they ranged all objects of which they had occasion to speak, whether animate or inanimate, under one or other of these two classes. Hence arose what is now called the masculine and feminine genders. The orienan effort was made to reduce them into a class as well tals knew nothing of a neuter gender, because, indeed, as the others. All these excluded nouns originally ter- all objects were comprehended under the foregoing clasminated with s, which appears from their genitives as ses. The Phoenician feminine was formed from the masthey stand at present. By observing this case, we are culine, by adding nx, ah. In this the Greeks in many readily conducted to the termination of the pristine vo- cases imitated them. The Greeks and Latins left a vast Genders. cable. The genitive always ends in os, which ending is number of substantives, like a kind of outcasts, without formed by inserting between the radical word and s. reducing them to any gender; this process gave rise to By throwing out we have the ancient nominative : the neuter gender, which imports, that such substantives Thus, Trav, genitive Traves; taking out we have T.- were of neither gender. This has the appearance of a the original inflexible termination. Antw, genitive defect, or rather a blemish, in both. Sometimes, too, Λητούς ; throw out o and you have Δητος. Παλλας, e- they make words neuter, which, according to the ananitive Παλλαδος ; take away. and there remains aλλads.logy of grammar, ought to be either masculine or femiOgus, genitive Oguides; by throwing out we have Ogrids. Avaz, genitive Avaxtos, Avaxтs. Keatos, genitive Kearios, Kearns; originally Kearos, because originally had the sound of, as was observed above. Miλ, genitive Miros, Mrs. Eidos, genitive Edios, Eids, the old noun. In short, the genitive is always formed by inserting immediately before, which is always the termination of the nominative; and by this rule, we easily discover the noun such as it was in its original τους, form. The dative of this declension was closed with ascriptum; the same with that of the second, namely, subscriptum. The accusative commonly terminates with a; but was originally ended with. The Romans imitated the Eolian dialect, and they commonly ended it with em or im. The Greeks, perhaps in this imitated their progenitors, for a was their favourite vowel. The no nine. And again, they range words under the mascu- 142 The use of the article in the Greek language is, we Farther obthink, rather indeterminate; it is often prefixed to pro-servations per names, where there is no need of demonstration nor on the argenerical distinction. On the contrary, it is often omit- ticle. ted in cases where both the one and the other seem to require its assistance. In short, in some cases it seems to be a mere expletive. Though both Lord Monboddo and Mr Harris have treated of this part of speech, neither the one nor the other has ascertained its proper use. (See Origin and Progress of Language, vol. ii. p. 53. Hermes, p. 214. et seq.)-We know not any objection to Greek to the early use of articles among the Greeks so plausible Language as the total neglect of them among the Romans. But it ought to be considered, that after the flexions were introduced, the use of the article was in a great measure neglected. Accordingly, Lord Monboddo observes that it is very seldom used as such by Homer, but commonly in place of the relative pronoun is, i, .—Thus it would appear, that at the time when the Roman language was reduced to the Grecian standard, the article was not commonly used by the Greeks; and of course the Latins never employed it. There can be no doubt but the pronoun who, in the northern languages, is the same with the Greek , and the Hebrew hua. This among the northern people is always a relative, which affords a presumption that the Greeks originally used the article in the same manner as we do at present. The fact is, that the articles having once got into vogue, were often positively used as mere expletives to fill up a gap; and that, on the other hand, when there was no occasion for pointing out an object, it being fully determined by the tenor of the discourse, it was often omitted. 143 Adjectives. 144 Greek numerals. In forming adjectives, they followed the same plan that they had done with substantives. Their great effort was to make their adjectives agree with their substantives in gender, number, and case. This arrangement improved the harmony of speech; and nothing could be more natural than to make the word expressing the quality correspond with the subject to which it belonged. As adjectives denote qualities, and thus are susceptible of degrees, nature taught them to invent marks for expressing the difference of these degrees. The qualities may exceed or fall below each other by almost numberless proportions; it was, however, found convenient to restrict these increases and decreases to two denominations. The positive is, properly speaking, no degree of comparison at all; therefore we need only point out the formation of the comparative and superlative. The former is generally thought to be fabricated, by first adding the Hebrew word, excellent, to the positive, and then affixing the Greek termination os; and the latter, by affixing the Syrian word tath and the syllable os, in the same manner. Every nation, even the most uncivilized, have early acquired the notion of number. Numerical characters and names are the same in many different languages. These terms were discovered, and in use, long before grammar came to any perfection; and therefore remain either inflexible or irregular. The first way of computing among the Greeks was by the letters of the alphabet; so that A signified one and twentyfour in this manner the rhapsodies of Homer are numbered; and so are the divisions of some of the Psalms, as is generally known. But a more artificial plan of computation was obviously necessary. They divided the letters of the alphabet into decades or tens, from A to 110. To express the number 6, they inserted baw=6; so that by this means the first decade amounted to 10. In the next decade every letter increased by tens, and so P denoted 100. In this decade they inserted 4 xora 90. In the third, every letter rose by 100; so that) coVT900. By inserting these three Phoenician characters they made 2 their alphabet amount to 900. To express chiliads Greek or thousands, they began with the letters of the al- Language. phabet as before; and to make the distinction, they placed a dot under each character, as the units, tens, hundreds, were distinguished by an acute accent over them. But in monumental inscriptions, and in public instruments, a larger and more lasting numerical character was fabricated. The began with I, and repeated that letter till they arrived at П=5. This is the first letter of rur, five. Then they proceeded, by repeating I till they came to 10 A, the first letter of dexa, 10. Then they repeated ▲ over and over, so that four A= 40. To express 50, they used this method; they inclosed A in the belly of A=50, H=500, |M=50,000, &c. Often, however, x signifies 1000, and then we have δις Χιλιοι, 2000; τρις Χίλιοι, 300c ; and so of the rest. 145 The word pronoun signifies a word placed instead of Pronouns. a noun or name; and indeed the personal pronouns are really such this needs no explication. The pronoun of the first person is one of those words which have continued invariable in all languages; and the other personals are of the same character. The relatives, possessives, demonstratives, and gentiles, are generally derived from these, as may be discerned by a very moderate adept in the language. Our readers will therefore, we hope, easily dispense with our dwelling upon this part of speech. 146 verbs, how formed. Verb. In most ancient languages, verbs, according Greek to the order of nature, have only three tenses or times, namely, the past, present, and future. The intermediate tenses were the invention of more refined ages. The Greek, in the most early periods, had no other tenses but those above mentioned. The manner of forming these we shall endeavour to point out, without touching upon the nature of the rest, since an idea of them may be acquired from any common gram mar. We have observed above, that the flexion of nouns of the first and second declensions are formed by annexing fragments of the articles to the radical words; and that the variation of the tenses was produced by joining the substantive verb, according to the same analogy. Every Greek verb was originally an inflexible biliteral, triliteral, quadriliteral or dissyllabic radix. The variations were formed a long while after in the manner above intimated. The Greeks had their substantive or auxiliary verb, from the Phoenician or Chaldean verb rn, fuit. This verb, taking away the gentle aspirate from both beginning and end, actually becomes u. This vocable the Greeks brought along with them from the East, and manufactured after their own manner, which appears to have been thus: um Exemplum Tonicarum Priscanım Literarum ex columna,quæ in via Appia reperta, postea ad hortos Farnesianos traducta est. ODE.VIOE MITON. METAKINES.AI.EK.TO.TPIOFIO. HO ESTIN. ErI. TO.TRITO.EN.TEI. HODOI. TEI. APPIAI. EN TOI HERODO. 1MROIO MAR.LOION.TOI.KIVESANTI..MARTVS DALMON. ENHODIA. KAI. HOI. KIOVES. DEMETROS KAI KORES. AVAQE MA. KAĻŠOVION. QEOV. KAI. क का कि की कु कू कृ कॄ क्लृ क्लृ के कै को कौ कं कः Consonants. क ख ग घ ङ च छ ज झ ञ ट ठ ड ढ ण त थ द ke khe gu ghun ernye chi chha ja jha nya tà ' tha de dhe nd to the de Greek literal, triliteral, or quadriliteral, radical words.-The Language, following may serve for examples: T, λsy, Mag, tun, φαν, ταν, ραπ, Δαμ, Δηλ, Δεικ. cond fu ture. These radicals are taken at random; and we believe our Grecian student, by adding the terminations, will readily find them all significant verbs. With these radicals, then, and the substantive verb, we suppose the present and future tenses were formed. 147 Original But it is now generally admitted that the modern present that present was not the original one of the verb. The sewhich is cond, or Attic future, appears plainly to have been the now the se- most ancient present. When the language was improved, or rather in the course of being improved, a new present was invented, derived indeed from the former, but differing widely from it in its appearance and complexion. Upon this occasion, the old present was degraded, and instead of intimating what was doing at present, was made to import what was immediately to be done hereafter. By this means, year, contracted into yea, I am writing, came to intimate, I am just going to write. This change was probably made for the sake of enriching the language, for variety, for energy. Thus, τυπέω contracted τυπῶ became τύπτω, τικῶ, τικτω, &c. According to this theory, we find, that such verbs as now have no second future retain their original form, only the circumflex has been removed in order to accommodate them to the general standard. Grammarians have now chosen the three characteristic letters of active verbs from the present, first future, and perfect. The true characteristic of the original verb was that of the present second future. Many verbs are now desti tute of that tense, because since the invention of the new present, those have fallen into disuse. 148 Formation Let us now take the verb yw, dico, in order to of the mo- make a trial; and let us write the radix and the dern pre- auxiliary, first separately, and then in conjunction: sent. 149 First fu Thus, λεγίω, λεγ 555, λεγες, λεγ-εομεν, λεγ-εετε, λεγ-εοσσι. Then we will have contracted λy, Asyeïs, deyeî, Ayoμ, Ayet, you. Here, we believe, every thing is selfλεγεῖτε, λεγεσι. evident. The English would run thus: Saying I am, saying thou art, saying he is, &c. At first the radix and the auxiliary were pronounced separately, as we do our helping verbs in English, and would have been written in the same manner had words been then distinguished in writing. The present first future occupied the same place that ture, and it now does, and concurred in its turn to complete the future in conjunction with the radix. That the substantive verb was inflected in the manner above laid down, is obvious from its future middle sroμut, and from the future of the Latin verb sum, which was of old eso, esis, &c. Verbs in λw, μw, vw, gw, often take in the first future. See Food. Cret, ap. Marm. Oxon. lib. 87. Verbs in λ and go assume by analogy, as κελλω, κελσω, Εurip. Hecub. v. 1057. κελσαι, Hom. Od. *. V. 511. τέλλω, τελσω, unde τελσον, Π. x. v. 707. ορώ. Pind. Nem. Od. 9. Duodec. 2. THEN, TERTH, Theoc. Idyll. 22. v. 63. In fine, the Eolic dialect after the liquids often inserts. ορσομεν, It must be observed, that the Greeks, in order to accelerate the pronunciation, always throw out the and •, except in verbs ending in aw, sw, on; where they generally change them into and w. n When the last letter VOL. XVI. Part I. t . of the radix can coalesce with after is thrown out, Greek they transform it, so as to answer that purpose; if not, Language. they sometimes throw it out. We shall once more take λεγω for an example: λεγ-εσω, λεγ-έσεις, λεγεσει, &c. Throwing out, it would stand Asy-ow, λey-ouis, &c. by changing into it becomes λsw. A and cannot coalesce with, therefore they throw them out: thus, Ada, future first aro; new, future first λnow; Aww, Avusw, &c. These are the general rules with respect to the formation of the present and future of active verbs in the earliest stages of the Greek language. The limits prescribed will not allow us to pursue these conjectures; but the reader may, if he thinks proper, carry them a great way. 150 tense. 151 The preterite tense falls next under consideration, preterite If we may trust analogy, this, as well as the other two, must have owed its conformation to the radix of the verb, and some other word fitted to eke out its terminations. It has been thought by some critics, that this addition was taken from the Hebrew word n♫; and we should be of the same opinion did not another auxiliary present itself nearer home, which appears to us much more congruous to such a purpose. Perhaps, indeed, Origin of the people from whom we suppose it borrowed, derived the auxiliary verb. it from the eastern quarters. We have already observed, that the Thracians were masters of a great part of Greece in the very earliest ages. At that time they were a polite and learned people. From them a considerable part of the Greek language was derived. If, therefore, we should find a word in their language employed for the same purpose, and accommodated to coalesce with the radical verb, we feel ourselves much very inclined to prefer such a word. The word ha pervades many different languages as an auxiliary verb. From it we have the Italian ho, the Spanish he, the French ai; and in one shape or other it appears in all the German and Scandinavian dialects. It is the Gothic auxiliary; and, we believe, it forms the termination of the perfect active of the first conjugation in the Latin tongue: For there am is the radix of amo; in the preterite am-avi, amavi: and the preterperfect am hav-eram, i. e. amaveram, compounded of am, hav, and eram, the imperfect of the indicative of the substantive verb. This process, in the formation of the preterite of Latin verbs, will scarce be questioned, and forms certainly a presumptive proof that the Greeks pursued the same line. From this verb is likewise derived the Latin habeo, by changing v and b, which are indeed the same letter. Our readers, after this detail, will not be surprised if we should now hazard a conjecture, and declare it as our opinion, that this same Gothic auxiliary ha is actually the additional part of the preterite of Greek verbs, and that part upon which the conjugation depends. In forming this combination between the radix and the auxiliary, the Greeks were obliged to fabricate several devices. As often as the last letter of the radix could not unite with the aspirate in ha, they metamorphosed it into one of the double letters, which are capable of coalescing with it. In the verb Aɛyw, y was changed into y; thus, λεγ ha became λεγα, τυπτω preterite TV ha, was combined into rup. In verbs U u which |