the duty therefore of the Etymologist to discover such Letters, which by thus regularly and familiarly passing into each other, to the exclusion of the rest, will afford those marks of record and distinction, by which the Affinity of Words is ascertained. If any Letters should be found, which pass into each other, without supplying any such records of Affinity; these should be rejected as useless and impeding to the purposes of the Etymologist, however important those Letters may be, in fulfilling other purposes. Such Letters, which by passing into each other create difference of forms, without supplying any distinctive records of the affinity of those forms, must impede and embarrass the Art of the Etymologist; whose duty it is to discover the Affinity of forms, amidst all the disguises of difference and variety.

In the examples above produced we have seen, that the Consonants of the same power, or the Cognate Consonants by remaining attached to the same idea, to the exclusion of other Consonants do preserve this distinctive affinity; and that the Vowels, by passing into each other promiscuously, afford no marks of affinity whatever, but on the contrary tend to obscure that affinity, by increasing the variety of forms. Thus, then, as I before observed, in the representation of the above terms, for the purposes of Etymology, I would entirely reject the Vowels; and I should say, that Father would be best represented by some mode like the following; FTR, PTR, VTR, VDR, &c. or F, P, V}D, T}R-Mother by MTR, MDR, &c. or M}D, T}R and Daughter by DGTR, TCTR, TTR, &c. or D, T, &c.} G, C, T, &c. } R. This representation will fully answer my purpose, till we have defined with precision the nature and number of these Cognate Consonants; and we at once see, how, by this simple mode of generalising the subject, the mist begins to vanish from our eyes, which had before darkened all our views, and clouded all our conceptions on the nature of Languages. It is not possible to express the progress, which we have made in the Art of Etymology by this simple artifice of wholly rejecting the Vowels. We might almost say, that every cause of difficulty, as it relates to the foundation of a System, is obviated, when this Axiom of totally disregarding the Vowels is brought into effect, by removing them altogether out of our sight. Having ad

vanced

vanced so far in certain instances, we shall be enabled to make a rapid progress in our ideas of generalization. These words, we see, are what Etymologists have called the Same words, as being words conveying the Same notion, and appearing under Consonants of the Same power. But it is the business of the Etymologist, we know, not only to discover the Same words in various Languages, that is, the Words directly Parallel conveying the Same sense, which have passed into each other, but those likewise, which in passing into each other have assumed different senses. Now it will be at once acknowledged, that these terms thus passing into each other, though conveying perhaps senses very different and apparently very remote from each other, must be attended by the same accidents, which are observed to take place under the familiar operations of Language in similar cases of words passing into each other. That is, the Cognate Consonants will continue to be attached to Words, related to each other, by the process of passing into each other, whether those Words contain the same sense, or different senses. In all cases therefore the existence of the Same Cognate Consonants must still be regarded as the record, by which the Affinity of Words is to be recognised; if it can be shewn, that amidst their diversities of meaning they do in fact contain the Same fundamental idea.

As it is from the observation of Facts alone that we can deduce these principles, and not from any abstract reasoning on the nature of the Consonants and the Vowels; we must not depend on the evidence of the few examples given above, but we must convince ourselves by a survey of other examples, that the same process of Language is universal; that is, that the Cognate Consonants remain attached to Words, as the record of their affinity, and that the Vowels afford no record whatever. The Writer feels an embarrassment in deciding on the mode, by which he should exhibit this truth, as founded on the evidence of Facts, to the mind and the eye of the Reader in an introductory Dissertation; when the whole Work is destined to illustrate the same truth by a series of similar Facts. All that can be done must consist only in producing a few Facts, or in pointing out the mode of observing such Facts, or in detailing some general information on the

subject,

subject, which may be sufficient to support the writer in laying the foundation of his System. I shall first arrange the Alphabet according to a mode, useful, as I conceive, to the Etymologist; and I shall then illustrate the nature of the Cognate Consonants, according to that arrangement. When this is performed, I must request the Reader to take into his hands any book of Etymology, as Skinner, Junius, &c. in which the acknowledged parallel terms are recorded; and he will find, after the most superficial view of a single half hour, employed in the enquiry, that the general current of examples, which pass before him, exhibit similar Facts to those, which the above examples have displayed, and authorise conclusions, which are supposed in my Hypo

thesis.

We may divide the Consonants into three classes, after the following manner: 1. M, B, F, P, V. 2. C, D, G, J, K, Q, S, T, X, Z. 3. L, N, R. The Letters in the first Class have been called Labials; and we shall find, that they familiarly pass into each other, to the exclusion of the rest. The Letters in the second Class have been variously arranged, under different names; but however useful these divisions may be for some purposes, they are totally repugnant to the purposes of the Etymologist, as we shall find, that the Letters in the second Class pass familiarly into each other, to the exclusion of the rest. The Letters L, N, R, are placed in a Class, not as being similar to each other, but as being distinct from each other, and as having laws peculiar to themselves; as will be more particularly explained on a future occasion. It is not to be understood, that these Classes are not sometimes connected; as we shall find, that all the Consonants, under certain circumstances and by certain processes, have passed into each other, as the Etymologists have abundantly shewn. We shall find, however, that in the ordinary operations of Language the distinctions are faithfully preserved, and that no confusion arises from this partial connection of the classes. It is sufficient for the purposes of distinction, or of preserving and recording the distinctive Affinities of Words, that certain Consonants regularly and familiarly pass into each other, to the exclusion of the rest. The partial connection of these Classes with each other, like the exceptions of a Rule, serves

rather

rather to confirm and illustrate the general principle of distinction. It must be observed, moreover, that the mode, in which these Classes are connected, is conducted by laws of Uniformity, affording marks of distinction, not less defined than those, which belong to the more general analogies.

The Grammarians have told us, that those Consonants are Cognate, which are Changed into or are Commutable with each other, in the inflexions of Nouns and Verbs. These instances are well chosen, as the different Declensions and Conjugations of Nouns and Verbs represent to us the Laws, by which large and distinct classes of words are varied in the familiar operations of a Language. We must observe too, that the changes of the Consonants in the same word, in certain cases and tenses, will shew to us the mode, by which the mind is accustomed to proceed with Consonants, when it is desirous to represen't by their means the same idea, under some variation. It is easy to understand, that the mind must be swayed by the influence of a similar impression, so as to adopt a similar artifice, when it endeavours to propagate variety of meaning, under the same fundamental idea, in the production of the same Race of Words; that is, of a Race of Words directly passing into each, and connected with each other. The Grammarians have done well, I say, in delivering the Definition, which they give us of the Cognate Consonants; as connected with the examples, to which they have appealed, but they have strangely and most grossly erred in detailing those Cognate Consonants; as the facts exhibited in their examples are repugnant to their arrangement. The Vowels P, B, F, (II, B, 4,) as they tell us, are Cognate Consonants, and L, M, N, R, are Immutable, because they have no corresponding Letters, into which they may be changed in the inflexions of Nouns and Verbs, "Liquidæ vel Immutabiles aμeraßoλa, A, M, N, P.-"Quia non literas Antistoichas vel Cognatas, quibus ipsæ mutentur in "Verborum et Nominum inflexionibus habent.'

Our Grammarians might have learnt from their own examples, that M should be added as a Cognate Letter to P, B, F; and that these Consonants are changed into each in different tenses of the same verb, or in representing the same idea under different circumstances.

Thus

Thus the action of Beating is expressed in Greek by Tur, TuF, and TUM OF TUMM; or, as we know not precisely the sound of the Greek v, by TP, ΤF, TM, TMM, (Τυπτω, ετύπον, τετυφα, τετυμμαι.) This is not peculiar to the verb Tuрto; (Туπтw,) as the Grammarians have themselves informed us, that it is the appropriate nature and quality of a certain Race of verbs, which have P, B, F, Pt, in one tense to assume M in another, "Præteritum Perfectum," say our instructors, "formatur a Præterito Activo mutandó in conjugatione prima Φα purum in Μμαι, Μ geminato, ut Τετυφα, Τετυμμαι, Φα impurum in Mai, ut TeTeppa, Terepμai." I might here observe, Τετερφα, Τετερμαι. that in various other Languages, the TP, TM, &c. convey the same fundamental idea of Beating-Striking, &c. Thus TAP, TAPPEN, (Germ.) THUMP, THUMBO, THOMBO, (Ital.) &c. are acknowledged to have some relation to Turto, TETUMмai, (TUTTW); and it is even seen, that the Greek Douros, Aovπos,) and THAMBein, (Daμßeiv, Perterrefacere,) may have some affinity to these words. The Etymologists however have not seen, that THUMB, DAUM, (Germ.) &c. STUMP, STAMP, STEP, &c. &c. with a great Race of words to be found through the whole compass of Language, must be referred to the same idea. We shall at once see, how the abstract representation of the idea of Beating or TAPPing in various Languages by the Elelementary form D, S, T, }M, P, MP, &c. &c. tends to assist our imagination in bringing at once all these words, within the sphere of Affinity.

The Greeks are not the only people, whose minds or organs disposed them to fall into these Labial changes. Every Welshman will inform us, that in their language, at this very hour, the same mutations are familiar. Even in different positions of the same same word, P, B, Mh and Ph, are changed into each other. "Words primarily be"ginning with P" have four initials, says Richards; "P, B, Mh, Ph, as Pen gwr, a man's head; ei Ben, his head; fy Mhen, my head; "ei Phen, her head." In these instances, PEN, BEN, MHEN, Phen, are different forms for the name of the Head. The ordinary Etymologists are aware of these changes. M, as they have told us, was used by the Æolians for P, as MATO for PATO, to walk, (Maтw, ПaтW,