in their retrenchment, and from cader form’d caer, as the Spaniards now use it, by taking away the letter d according to their ordinary custome, when it is seated in the middle of words.  There are another sort of people yet more sturdy and blunt in their formes of speech, who would say Car or Ker by a contraction of the two Vowels into one, as is observable among the Peasants of France, and those of Picardy, who retain very much of Antiquity, which seems to be agreeable with the manner of speech among the Ancient French, who delighted to shorten and contract their words as much as possible, that they might make up a Language altogether as free as their humour, some of the most remote of these would instead of Ker pronounce Cher by a change of that firm and surly letter into one more easy and soft as we yet find it Customary in the remains of some of the Ancient Romans, and then after all by the turn of a Vowel into a Dipthong, from Cher is form’d Choir, which now begins to be out of date altho its Composit dechoir be still of plausible and commendable use.  Thus ’tis that Cadere, Cader, Caer, Car, Ker, Cher, Choir, and Dechoir make up but one intire chain and connexion, yet all to very little purpose if any one of the degrees by chance should have been wanting.

For this reason altho I consider every Language in its greatest perfection, yet for clearing its originall in rendring this sequel of words more open and palpable I have been oblidg’d to make numerous reflections upon the older forms of speech as well as Orthographie, by which a better discovery may be made of all the varieties that occure in pronunciation, as also of the severall medlies and Gibrish of the Provinces of Each Empire that speak the same Language, but most of them in a singular fashion.

So that it is most certain that that Language which is most quaint and polite is very often the lesse pure and most debaucht, if we make an aequall judgment from its originall which is the most unquestionable rule:  Upon which account the dialects of Province, Gascogne, Languedoc, and that which is known by the name of the Antient Gauls is infinitely lesse alter’d and distanc’t from its original, then the Languages of the Court and Nobility, who take a pleasure in receding from the Latin:  Those of Lombardy and Naples are for the most part lesse corrupt than these of Siena and Florence; Altho the Spaniards have a saying among them, that the Catalonian and that of Arragon is commonly more pure then the Castilian that is more Pompous.  And not to spare the French more then the Spaniard, if they have reason to boast their Language to be the most refin’d and Polite of the world, yet their Neighbours might justly returne upon them, that of all the Dialects of the Latin, there is none more degenerate than theirs, forasmuch as its quaintness ariseth from its sweetnesse, so that it is not attainable without a strange descent from its principle.  Thus le Capo of the Italians, le Cabo, of the Spaniards, le Cap, of the old French and le Kef of Picardy are all variously alterd from Caput of the Latins, but none so much as le Chef of the French, which notwithstanding claims the same Originall.