John Wilkins

“ As to the second Quere, Whether any of the Ancient Languages be now quite lost, it may be answered, That if in some few hundreds of years a Language may be so changed as to be scarce intelligible; then, in a much longer tract of time it may be quite abolished, none of the most radical and substantial parts remaining: For every change is a gradual corruption. Before the flourishing of the Roman Empire, there were several native Languages used in Italy, France, Spain. In Italy we read of the Messapian, the Hetruscan, the Sabine, the Oscan, the Hetrurian or Tuscan Languages ”

“ There is scarce any subject that hath been more throughly scanned and debated amongst Learned men, than the Original of Languages and Letters. ’Tis evident enough that no one Language is natural to mankind, because the knowledge which is natural would generally remain amongst men, notwithstanding the superinduction of any other particular Tongue, wherein they might be by Art. ”

“ It is conceived that one of the ancient Tongues of Spain was the Cantabrian, which doth now there remain in the more barren mountainous, inaccessible parts, where Conquerors are less willing to pursue, or desirous to plant; as our British dith in Wales. But 'tis probable that there might be several other Language besides this in so great a Continent, as well as in Italy, which are now wholly lost and unknown. ”

“ Some think that the Italians, Spaniards and French, after they were totally subdued by the Romans, and planted with their Colonies, did, after, a certain space of time, receive the Latin Tongue as their most vulgar Speech, and retained it ”

“ As for so much of the pure Hebrew as is now in being, which is onely that in the old Testament, though it be sufficient to express what is there intended, yet it is so exceedingly defective in many other words requisite to humane discourse, that the Rabbins are fain to borrow words from many other Languages, Greek, Latin, Spanish, &c. ”

“ This one instance may sufficiently manifest by what degrees this Language did receive its several Changes, and how much altered it is now from what it hath been, and consequently what is to be expected in future times. Since Learning began to flourish in our Nation, there have been more then ordinary Changes introduced in our Language: partly by new artificial Compositions ”

“ Such Persons may know, that the discovery of the true nature and Cause of any the most minute thing, doth promote real Knowledge, and therefore cannot be unfit for any Mans endeavours, who is willing to contribute to the advancement of Learning. ”

“ The most received Conjecture is, that the Languages of the Confusion were according to the several Families from Noah, which were 70 or 72 though there be very strong probabilities to prove that they were not so many, and that the first Dispersion did not divide mankind into so many Colonies. ”

“ As for the Celta, who, inbabiting the inner part of the Country, were less subject to forein mixtures, ‘tis most probable that their Language might be the British or Welsh, which is yet spoken in some parts of France. Cæsar reports that the Gauls were wont often to pass over into Britain, to be instructed by the Druids, amongstwhom there was then no use of Books or Writing, and therefore they must communicate by Discourle. ”

“ Those learned Languages which have now ceased to be vulgar, and remain onely in Books, by which the purity of them is regulated, may, whilst those Books are extant and studied, continue the same without change. But all Languages that are vulgar, as those learned ones formerly were, are upon the fore-mentioned occasions, subject to so many alterations, that in tract of time they will appear to be quite another thing then what they were at first. ”

“ A great part of this Syriac tongue is for the substance of the words Chaldee, and Hebrew for thefashion, so degenerating much from both. After the Captivity the pure Hebrew ceased to be vulgar, remaining onely amongst learned men, as appears by that place in Nehem.8.7,8. where we find the Priests, upon reading of the Law to the people after their coming out of Babylon, were fain to expound it distinctly to them, and to make them understand the meaning оf it; the common people, by long disuse, being grown strangers to the Language wherein ’twas written. ”

“ I am very sensible that the most usefull inventions do at their first appearance, make but a very slow progress in the World, unless helped forward by some particular ad-- vantage. Logarithms were an Invention of excellent Arts and usefulness; And yet it was a considerable time, before the Leaned Men in other parts, did so farr take notice of them, as to bring them into use. ”

“ Next to the Gift of Miracles, and particularly that of Tongues, powred out upon the Apostles in the first planting of Christianity, There is nothing that can more effectually conduce to further accomplishment of those Promises, which concern the diffusion of it, through all Nations, then the design which is here proposed.
To which it will be proper for me to add, That this design will likewise contribute much to the clearing of some of our Modern differences in Religion, by unmasking many wild errors, that shelter themselves under the disguise of affected phrases ”

“ And several of those pretended, mysterious, profound notions, expressed in great swelling words, whereby some men set up for reputation, being this way examined, will appear to be, either nonsence, or very flat and jejune. ”

“ The first occasion of it was, from a desire I had, to give some assistance to another person, who was willing to ingage in this design of framing a real Character, from the Natural notion of things; for the helping of whom in so worthy an undertaking, I did offer to draw up for him, the Tables of Substance, or the species of Natural Bodies, reduced under their several Heads ”

“ Marriages in Regal Families, which doth usually bring some common words into a Court fashion; that affectation incident to some eminent men in all ages, of coining new words, and altering the common forms of speech, for greater elegance; the necessity of making other words, according as new things and inventions are discovered. ”

“ But the business of Defining, being amongst all others the most nice and difficult, must needs render it a very hard task for any one to attempt the doing of this, for all kinde of Things, Notions, and Words, which yet is necessary to the design here proposed. ”

“ Nor is it much to be wondred at, that the ancient Heathen, who knew nothing of Scripture-revelation, should be inclined to believe, that either Men and Languages were eternal or, that if there were any particular time when men did spring out of the Earth, and after inhabit alone and dispersedly in Woods and Caves, they had at first no Articulate voice, but only such rude sounds as Beasts have ”

“ If any shall suggest, that some of the Enquiries here insisted upon (as particularly) those about the Letters of the Alphabet) do seem too minute and trivial, for any prudent Man to bestow his serious thoughts and time about. ”

“ And the present Coptic or Ægyptian seems, both from the words and the character, to be a branch of this family, and was probably spred amongst that people in the days of Alexander the Great, upon his conquering of them: Though some conceive that there were at least 30000 families of Greeks planted in that Country long before his time.
2. The Latin, though this be much of it a derivation from the Greek, (of which the now French, Spanish, and Italian are several off-springs and derivations) had anciently four several Dialects, as De honesta disciplina, lib. 3. cap. ”

“ I. Concerning the various changes and corruptions to which all vulgar Languages are obnoxious.II. Particularly concerning the changes of the English tongue.III. Whether any Language, formerly in use, be now wholly lost.IV. Concerning the first rise and occasion of new Languages.
§. I.THere are three Queres which may deserve some farther disquisition.1. Whether the purest of those Mother-tongues, which yet remain, be not now much changed from what they were at the first Confusion.2. Whether and how any of the Mother-tongues have been quite lost since the Confusion.3. ”

“ Read Instituted by Art. p.15.l.9.r.3. By assigning, &c. p.16.l.11. (y) p.27.l.39. dele relief. p.32.l.43. dele poor. p.40.l.28.r. defer. p.41.l.21,22. add administer, disperse, distribute Token, Fairing, to the preceding line. ”