from their Italian and Gallic teachers of religion; and these characters had been already transformed, and adapted to the running hand, then in ufe.

Of the Anglo-Saxon Alphabet.

As the Saxons had certain founds in their unpolished and harth language, with which the Romans, as well as the culti vated Gauls were unacquainted, and which therefore could not be expreffed by the common written characters of the latter, many of these were changed, and fome new ones adopted; fuch as that which reprefents the hiffing th, and which was borrowed from the Greek e, thêta. This alphabet, termed the Anglo-Saxon, maintained its ground till the invafion of the Normans, and for a confiderable time after that event.

Of its difufe.

However much the ancient Roman characters might have been disfigured by the corrupted taste of the middle ages, they ftill retained a certain affinity to their original form : but this affinity was deftroyed by the peculiar Anglo-Saxon letters. -In the Saxon and Saxo-Danish periods, the national taste, notwithstanding the progrefs it had made, was still much too rude, to exhibit this corruption, in a fenfible manner. But when the Normans fubjected England to their power, and began to fpread the higher degrees of improvement, that prevailed in France; when the Saxo-Danish language itself was refined by the Normannic and later French; this aukward ftate of things became evident, the old Anglo-Saxon characters were again abandoned, and the Roman alphabet in its pure form, fuch as prevailed at that time in France, was confequently adopted, in preference to the former. This change, however, was now attended with the inconvenience, that the fimple hiffing middle-found, which had formerly been expreffed by the letter e, borrowed from the Greek, behoved now to be denoted by the compound th, which could exprefs it only in a very imperfect manner. But if the improvements in a language be carried on with tafte, of two inconveniences, that one is always preferred, which is the leaft repugnant to the fense of beauty and propriety. The old Anglo-Saxon figure difagreed altogether with the fym

4

metry

metry of the Roman letters; and therefore proved more offenfive to found tafte, than the th, although it be a compound fign for a fimple found, becaufe it was ftill agreeable to the Roman fashion, at least with respect to its fhape.

Of angular Written Characters.

To trace all the changes, which these characters have, from time to time, undergone in their figure, would be tedious, and is not properly an object of this inquiry. I fhall remark only one circumftance. In the latter centuries of the middle age, when tafte and industry began to revive, there arofe a mode of writing, which is properly denominated the "Broken writ,” but which, in common life, is generally called the " Monkish writing," because the monks, in particular, ufed it in their manufcripts. It is alfo frequently termed the "Gothic character," not as if it had been invented and used by the Goths, but in fo far only, as we are accustomed to call all that tafte Gothic, which delights in angular, pointed, and curled ornaments. As this handwriting was certainly more beautiful than the long and "waving" current hand, formerly in ufe, it afterwards became general over all Europe, and maintained its place till the revival of the fciences and of good tafle, when people returned to the beautiful Roman letters, as they were formed; before the barbarous nations imprinted on them the marks of their corrupted and uncultivated taste.

Thefe characters were firft difcontinued in Italy, where the round Roman hand was foon revived, which is therefore termed Italian; and whence it was by degrees introduced into feveral countries of Europe. But as the prevalling degree of tafte was by no means uniform, either in all countries, or among all the claffes of one and the fame nation, this change happened in different ways, and with various modifications. England, fince the preceding century, has been gradually adopting the round Italian letter, in all writings defigned for the higher and middle claffes; while, on the contrary, in fuch writings as are immediately addreffed to the common people (for inftance, in acts of parliament, public deeds, &c.) the old angular character, generally called "engroffing," is still used; because they have been long accustomed to it, and have not yet acquired a fufficient degree of taste *, to perceive its inelegance. The

*The author certainly alludes here to the English lawyers only;

as

The English write differently from what they speak.

The English language confifts of a mixture of the old Saxon and Danish, of the Normannic and modern French, and of the Latin. The Italian and Spanish are often added to this number, but thefe two languages neither have had, nor could have had, fo great an influence on the English, as to form a conftituent part of it, although individual words may be derived from them, which holds alfo with respect to many other languages. And as the languages before mentioned are fo different from each other in their external and internal structure, it is eafy to fee, that this affociation or combination of words could not take place without great violence, and the destruction of a great part of the peculiarities of each of the languages thus combined in the English. Since, in all languages, a close adherence to etymology preferves their peculiar form, and has á tendency to prevent those remarkable changes, which the conftant progrefs of civilization, as well as the precipitate alterations of the people, would otherwife produce; it is not difficult to perceive, that, by this method of adopting and incorporating words, the proximate structure of them, with respect to the ear at leaft, muft in a great variety of inftances be destroyed; efpecially as this ftructure, in general, is but very imperfectly known in fuch words, as are derived from a foreign language, that forms a component part of the ancient language of the country. The pronunciation, accordingly, in all fuch mixed languages, is exceedingly variable; because the nearest derivation, of the greater number of words, is unknown to the people, who fpeak them; and confequently there is no fixed immoveable point, to which the ideas denoted by them, might be attached, and which could guide the tongue and the ear. This deficiency is obvious in all thofe modern languages, which have been formed by a mixture with the Latin, as the Italian, French, Spanish, and Portuguese, the pronunciation of which is expofed to far more confiderable changes than fuch languages, as have remained pure and unmixed, like the Ger

man

as the continuation of this barbarous character is productive of confiderable fees, while the difufe of it would materially affect their intereft. Note of the Compoftor.

man and her northern fifters. Thofe mixed languages, too, would in a few centuries be deprived of their uniformity, had not the "latent perception" of neceffity furnished these nations with a method of preferving, for a long time, the proximate derivation of words, at leaft to the eye, though the ear may have loft it.

Explanation of this phenomenon.

The method of preserving the etymology of words, as adopted by the nations above alluded to, is no other than this, that people write differently from what they speak: a phenomenon, which indeed has been hitherto ieprefented, by grammarians and philofophic linguifts, as the most palpable abfurdity that can be conceived; although the agreement of all the western nations of Europe, in what they have thus termed abfurdity, fhould have convinced them, that there must be fome reafon for it, and which ought not to be overlooked. This reafon then is no other, than to preferve, as long as is neceffary, to the eye at least, the proximate derivation by means of writing, although the pronunciation has loft it; to promote thereby that univerfal intelligibility, which is the firft and principal object of language; and, at the fame time to prevent the fwerving and fluctuating pronunciation, as long as poffible, from further and ftill greater deviations.An example or two will ferve to make the matter more evident. The following words, being borrowed from the French and Latin languages, legality, legion, organ, orgies, are now pronounced legallity, ledzbun, argun, ardzhyz. - If they were written in this manner, an Englishman might, at length, learn to understand them tolerably well, but he would ftill find a difficulty, when thefe words occurred to him again in their original language, to recognize his own in them. The bond of connection between the English language and its conftituent parts would thus be diffolved, and the reciprocal intelligibility would thereby be rendered obfcure. Further, as the pronunciation in all fuch mixed languages, from the caufes above mentioned, is from time to time confiderably changed, many words would foon become altogether obfcure and unintelligible, did not the etymological way of writing them, ftill maintain their true form, as long as is practicable and ncceffary. Befides, the adherence to the nearest derivation, and the prefervation of the original form of words, by accurate writi

m

are likewife the means of preventing the extremely fluctuating pronunciation from ftill greater deviations. This is the true reaton, why all the western Europeans, and confequently the English too, write differently from what they speak: and as this phenomenon has been produced entirely by "the latent perception of purpose and means," which is involved in fo much obfcurity, that, fo far as I know, their grammarians 1. have not yet been able to account for it; hence we receive a leffon, not to cenfure the like regulations, if they are univerfally adopted by one or more nations, until the real foundation of them has been discovered. The difference of this mode of writing from that of speaking, is indeed in itself an imperfection; but in all those languages, that are so thoroughly mixed, it is a real perfection; because it preferves, at least to the eye, the immediate derivation, and confequently furnishes us with the eafieft poffible method of understanding words, while it ferves to prevent any further deviations in the pronuncia tion.

Of Orthography.

On the preceding doctrine of pronunciation, is alfo founded the greatest and most important part of the English orthogra phy, or rather, the orthography of the English language is the reversed doctrine of pronunciation; because it must shew, how every uttered found is to be written with its proper characters. The lefs important parts of it are, the rules for ufing initial capital letters, the divifion of fyllables, the spelling of compound words, the orthographical figns, and the like.

Of the ftructure of words..

Neither orthography, nor the doctrine of tone, nor any other part of grammar, can dispense with the elements of the Structure of words, or etymology in the strictest and most rigid fenfe; however much this has been neglected in all the Englifh grammars, with which I am acquainted. Hence I propofe here, to make an attempt towards tracing and marking the outlines of this doctrine, which is fo little understood in all languages.

Definition of words and fyllables.

Language is compofed of words. A word is the perceptible expreffion of an idea, which is pronounced without fufpending the voice. Words then are the names of particular