-Of the melody of language.-Some languages of Savage nations have melody. A S there can be no beauty in any art without variety, (for art is a fyftem, and there can be no fyftem without variety, as well as order and regularity), the first thing I require to make a language beautiful is, that it should have a variety of articulate founds *. Without variety to a certain degree, it would not answer the purpose of expreffing all our conceptions even in the narroweft fphere of life; but I require further, that a perfect language fhould have all the variety of founds that the human mouth can, with any degree of eafe and without grimace or distortion, utter; and, particularly, there fhould be a great variety in the termination of the words; that being the part of the word which in pronunciation affects the ear moft. And I think there could not well be a greater defect in the found of a language than what Herodotus obferves of * See what I have faid of the four things required to make a perfect language, Vol. ii. of this work, p. 6. the Perfian, that it terminated all its words. with the fame letter, S*. It would, I think, have been a great defect, if the letter S had been of the most pleasant sound: Whereas, the Halicarnaffian fays of it, that its found is more brutal than human ; for which reafon, the antients ufed it very fparingly. And he fays there were whole odes compofed without one in them†. And this, no doubt, is the reason that it is thrown out in many Greek words, when the analogy requires that it should be there. The want of this variety is feen in almost all the Barbarous languages, which are very defective, particularly in confonants; (for, as to the five vowels, it appears that all languages have them ). The Barbarous languages of North America have neither the V confonant nor the F. The Huron language wants all * Lib. i. Cap. 139. † Περι συνθέσεως. Seât. 14. Vol. i. of this work, p. 502. of the fecond edition, where I think I have given a good reason why the first languages spoken by men are so vocal. the labial confonants *; and it is for this reafon, that all thofe languages of North America are much more vocal than more perfect languages, and have words conconfifting wholly of vowels †. The languages of the South Sea are in the fame cafe. To fupply this defect of articulation, fuch languages are forced, in order to diftinguish their words from one another, to repeat the fame letters and fylla-bles, fometimes more than once in the fame words . The Second thing I require is, that the found of the language fhould be sweet and pleasant to the ear. But here again that great beauty of all the works of art, I mean variety, must not be forgot. For, as in the finest mufic there must be difcords, fo in the moft perfect languages there must be some harsh founds; but these may be fo mixed with sweet and foft founds, that the found of the language fhall be upon the whole fweet, but not of a iweetnefs that is lufcious or cloying, but with fuch a mixture of * Ibid. p. 560. Ibid. p. 506. and following. auftere and rough founds, as to make it manly and forcible, as well as pleasant. In this point also the Barbarous languages are defective, for they are much too vocal for the reason above mentioned, having a great many vowels in their words, and often, as I have obferved, repeating the fame vowels, and wanting almost altogether the afpirated confonants. 3t10, I require that the words fhould not be too short, but, for the greater part by far, words of feveral fyllables. For a language all of monofyllables, fuch as the Chinese, or with very many monofyllables, fuch as ours, can never have a fweet or pleasant flow, as there muft neceffarily be a ftop, more or lefs, betwixt every two words. Here the Barbarous languages go to another extreme, for the words of them are unmeasureably long, for a reason I have given elsewhere *; to which may be added, that I believe the want of an articulation fufficiently varied may have obliged them to lengthen their words, in order to diftinguish them one from another, * Vol. i. p. 590. fecond edition. 4to, In order to fwell and raise the found of the language, vowels, that will coalefce together in the fame found, ought to be joined and enunciated together, producing what we call diphthongs, which I think may not be improperly compared to what the antients called fymphony and we call harmony, that is, mufic in parts, in which, by the mixture of the grave and acute joined properly together, the note is fwelled, and made much more pleasant to the ear. Thefe double founds may be alfo fometimes feparated in the pronunciation, which will make an agreeable variety. And confonants may be alfo joined together, and feparated fometimes for the fame reafon. In this point, the Barbarous languages are as defective as they are exceffive in the other. 5to, Some vowels and fyllables fhould be uttered with the breath thickened or condenfed, while others are pronounced more fmoothly, and with lefs force. This makes the difference of what is called the two fpirits; the one being afpirated or thickened, as the Greeks call it, the other fof. VOL. IV. B |