Page:The Compleat Linguist 1719-08 Issue One - A Grammar of Spanish.djvu/7

Rh of Words, that do properly belong to a Lexicon, or a Dictionary to explain.

The present Juncture of Publick Affairs has invited me to open my Undertaking with the Spanish Tongue; concerning which it may not be improper to premise a few Remarks.

The Spanish Tongue is founded upon the Latin, with a large Mixture of the Morisco, or Arabick. This has made it something more rugged than it is in its own Nature. For the Arabick, as all the Oriental Tongues, abounds in Gutturals, which have a harsh Pronunciation, and are thought a Mark of the Antiquity of a Language; and are best pronounc'd by the Welsh, the Irish, and some Eastern Nations.

The Sound of this Tongue is grave and lesurely, and, like the People that use it, carries a kind of State and De-