The words _the_ and _an_ may be articles in English, though obviously traceable to something else in Saxon; and a learned man may, in my opinion, be better employed, than in contending that _if, though_, and _although_, are not conjunctions, but verbs! 16.

Language is either oral or written; the question of its origin has consequently two parts.

Having suggested what seemed necessary respecting the origin of _speech_, I now proceed to that of _writing_.

Sheridan says, "We have in use _two kinds of language_, the spoken and the written: the one, the gift of God; the other, the invention of man."-- _Elocution_, p.
xiv.

If this ascription of the two things to their sources, were as just as it is clear and emphatical, both parts of our question would seem to be resolved.