. The cyclopaedia; or, Universal dictionary of arts, sciences, and literature. Encyclopedias and dictionaries. GRAMMA R. r>F multituJc, annexed to that preceding it, in order to mark jts extenfion from one to many. Thvis in Hebrew, ",vhofe higli antiquity unfolds to the philofophical enquirer the feve- ral (leps whicli mankind took in the formation of fpeech: iT^^n tV^DN' (""iP^ hemoi:, a man multitude, became contraftod, for the fake of brevity, into J^'Ji^T'S') ^"O- Jhsem, men. In the Chaldean and Syriac the final m was changed into n. Hence the Hebrew e^m in Chaldean
. The cyclopaedia; or, Universal dictionary of arts, sciences, and literature. Encyclopedias and dictionaries. GRAMMA R. r>F multituJc, annexed to that preceding it, in order to mark jts extenfion from one to many. Thvis in Hebrew, ",vhofe higli antiquity unfolds to the philofophical enquirer the feve- ral (leps whicli mankind took in the formation of fpeech: iT^^n tV^DN' (""iP^ hemoi:, a man multitude, became contraftod, for the fake of brevity, into J^'Ji^T'S') ^"O- Jhsem, men. In the Chaldean and Syriac the final m was changed into n. Hence the Hebrew e^m in Chaldean be- came een, in Arabic oon, in Perfian aan, to denote the names of animals, and aa inanimate things. And from this fource are derived the plural terminations in an or n in the Anglo- Saxon and German tongues. The letters « and s being of the fame organ, the Chaldean een became s,- in the formation of the Greek, or es in the third declenfion of Latin nouns. Hence, too, the plural termination s in Englidi and French; wtiile the Italian exclufively ioUows the analogy of the fecond Latin declenfion in /. Thus the plural termination in all lan- guages, ancient and modern, appears to have been derived from one fource : and that confilled of the annexation of a noUn of midtitude to the fingular form of a preceding noun. And it is remarkable that in the Bengalefe, which is but a branch of the Shanfcric, this mode of expreffuig plural nouns is preferved to this day ; as, projaa, a i^c\{-}sA,projaa-loh, pea- fant-pcople,^r5;.Woif, pealants ; hh fignifying people annex- ed to the fingular noun whatever it might be. We (hall only obferve, that the names of claffes only admit the plural form ; while proper names in all languages are, by their iignification, confined to the ilngular, unlefs many individuals by accident have the fame name. The names oi families and nations muft likewife be excepted, which, from a regard to their fignifica- tion, arc neceffarily/â /wrt?/. We come next to
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1800, bookdecade1810, booksubjectencyclo, bookyear1819
