22613A

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Eastern District of Pennsylvania, to wit:

BE IT REMEMBERED, that on the twenty-second day of July, in the SEAL. forty-ninth year of the Independence of the United States of America, A. D. 1824, Samuel Barnard, of the said District, hath deposited in this office the title of a Book, the right whereof he claims as author, in the words fol

lowing, to wit: "A Polyglot Grammar of the Hebrew, Chaldee, Syriac, Greek, Latin, English, French, Italian, Spanish, and German Languages, reduced to one common Rule of Syntax, and an uniform Mode of Declension and Conjugation, as far as practicable. With Notes, explanatory of the Idioms of each Language; a succinct Plan of their Prosody; and an extensive Index. The whole intended to simplify the Study of the Languages. By Samuel Barnard. Omne tulit punctum, qui miscuit utile dulci.— Horace."

In conformity to the Act of the Congress of the United States, intituled, “An Act for the encouragement of Learning, by securing the copies of Maps, Charts, and Books, to the authors and proprietors of such copies, during the times therein mentioned"-And also to the Act, entitled, " An Act supplementary to an Act, entitled, 'An Act for the encouragement of Learning, by securing the copies of Maps, Charts, and Books, to the authors and proprietors of such copies during the times thereinmentioned,' and extending the benefits thereof to the Arts of designing, engraving, and etching historical and other prints."

D. CALDWELL, Clerk of the Eastern District of Pennsylvania.

TO JOHN Q. ADAMS, Esq.

PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA.

SIR,

STANDING, in your official capacity, as the President of a great and powerful nation, and being yourself versed in the various departments of Science, you cannot look with indifference on the progress of Arts and Sciences in general; nor on the discussion of languages in particular, the general understanding of which tends to promote social intercourse, to remove national prejudices, and to bind in one common bond, the different members of the human family.

The People of the United States are greatly indebted to the progress of human intellect, for that freedom, which is their unalienable birthright. The general discussion of subjects, connected with knowledge, will obviate the introduction of those artificial distinctions of rank and station in society, which sprung up under the powerful sanction of usurped authority, which are not yet destroyed in the best governments of Europe, and which under the absolute ones, reign with undisputed power; but which have demoralised society, and driven thousands to take refuge on this side of the Atlantic.

A people of general information cannot long be enslaved.

The knowledge of languages, puts us in possession of the methods, by which countries have been subdued; and by which, (through the diffusion of knowledge obtained whilst they wore their chains,) they have asserted their independence, and determined to be free.

Modern Greece furnishes an example on this subject. Learning is again unfolding her stores, and under her influence Liberty is gaining the ascendancy over the Ottoman Dynasty.

America is not an indifferent spectator, nor the United States uninterested in the event of the struggle.

But without multiplying remarks, I hereby dedicate to yourself the following Polyglot Grammar. Accept it as a proof of my best wishes for the welfare of yourself, and the States over which you preside, and believe me, Sir,

Philadelphia, April 30, 1825.

Yours, very respectfully,

SAML. BARNARD.

PREFACE.

1. Ir may seem presumptuous in one, who should be a learner yet, and not a teacher of others, to set up for a compiler of a Polyglot Grammar; more especially, as in relation to our own language, we have an abundance of Grammars. In other languages also, taken separately, much of what is needful has been done, to instruct both natives and foreigners in each tongue.

2. But my present object, though, collateral in some respects, is in several circumstances different. My aim is, not merely to produce a Grammar of my own tongue, but a general grammatical table or synopsis of the similarities of the different languages on which I design to treat, referring any peculiar modes of declension, conjugation, and idiomatical construction, to the notes at the end.

3. Upon the principles of analogy, as far as I have been able to observe them, I have long been convinced, that there exists a very great similarity in the construction of languages—a similarity, which is the most observable, when the greatest number of languages can at once be brought into view. On such a subject, the mind expands in proportion to the objects presented for research.

4. The Bible, the source of the most authentic and ancient records, gives us to understand, that a period existed, when there was but one lip, and one speech, or one mode of articulation, and one set of words, common to all the inhabitants of the earth. See Genesis, chap. xi. ver. 1: and that the confusion at the tower of Babel, arose from this, that JEHOVAH confounded their lip, so that each one could not understand the lip of his neighbour.

5. This relates to the articulation of those words which had been adopted as signs of ideas. The speech, the words, the signs of the ideas remained radically the same, and the one speech yet comprehends within itself the stamina, the root of all languages.

6. Here, further investigation unfolds more and more, the similarity; and proves, that in very early ages, those rules which now compose a part of Grammar, and for perfecting which, we diligently labour, were virtually and intrinsically contained, and made use of in a spoken language.

7. Grammar, therefore, is but the exemplar and the history of that, which Nations in a state of simplicity, used by common consent as the mode of communicating their ideas. In this view of the subject, lan

guage can hardly be said to be improved by the systems, which have been adopted. Nature does not work by system, but by uniformity. Like cases produce like circumstances. Simplicity and uniformity are the characteristics of Nature; complexity and difference of system, arise from Art.

8. Under this impression, I have taken the Hebrew as the grand prototype of Nature; as the lip and the speech, whence all others are derived; and allowing for all technical terms, or terms of art, which have been invented by after-ages, in their gradual departure from the language of nature, and confining ourselves to the latter in its simplicity and uniformity; we shall find that its consonants contain the stamina of all languages; and that this one speech, is yet common to mankind in general, notwithstanding they do not now possess one lip, or common mode of articulation.

9. This difference in the use of the powers of articulation, and in the skill of etymologically reducing words, expressive of ideas, to their great proto-type, is the grand primary preventive to our understanding all our fellow-creatures. It may be long, ere mankind can be brought by common consent, to adopt this one lip and one speech; but the universal spread of the Gospel, the calling in the fulness of the Gentiles, the conversion of God's ancient people the Jews, may, when they fully take place, all concur to this important end. And it seems that in the present day, the shaking of the nations, which is not far from commencing, the attention which is excited concerning the ancient Israelites, and an inquiry after the knowledge of the Hebrew tongue, are going on together.

10. At present, the path in which it seems best for us to walk, is, that of analytical and synoptical comparison of various languages; and having taken both these methods together, I am brought to the conclusion, that the fundamental principles of Grammar, are contained in the Hebrew tongue, that they have been transfused with very little variation into languages in general, that a general Grammar may be formed, sufficient to decline, conjugate, and parse them all, that the parts of speech are the same, the concord and government nearly the same, the prosody nearly the same, and that the apparent differences arise, more from the different way in which Grammarians of each language make their artificial distinctions, than from any natural dissimilarity existing between them.

11. In undertaking my task, therefore, I have less apology to make to Grammarians, than might be conceived, on first viewing the subject. In other languages than my own, I have altered little, because their modes of deflexion form the chief part of my synoptical arrangement. The grammatical part is conducted in my own language. It is taken for granted that the rest agree in principle with it, and when they disagree, it is noted. Lindley Murray's English Grammar has been chiefly before me.