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Table of Contents

The force of the Letters—List of Primitive Words—Character of the Language and of the Poetry.

It is supposed that there were anciently, in the Welsh or British Language, [0] no less than thirty-six letters, sixteen of which were radicals, that expressed the primary sounds; and the rest, modulations or dependents on them. For each of these, it is probable that there was formerly a simple appropriate character; but, since the invention of printing, and the introduction of Roman letters, it has been necessary, for want of a sufficient variety of cast for the purpose, to adopt two, and in one instance even three, of those letters, to express one sound or character, by which much of the simplicity and beauty of the proper alphabet has been lost.

The present printed books contain only twenty-seven characters: A, B, C, Ch, D, Dd, E, F, Ff, G, Ng, H, I, L, Ll, M, N, O, P, Ph, R, S, T, Th, U, W, and Y; having neither J, K, X, nor Z. C answers the purpose of K, when joined with W or Q; and when placed with S, of X. It is said that Z is used in the Armorican language, which is a dialect of this; but the Welsh disown it.

No letter has any variation of sound, except the accented vowels, â, ê, î, ô, û, ŵ, ŷ, which are lengthened, or otherwise, according to the power of the accent, and all are pronounced, as there are no mutes.

A has the same sound as the English open a in the word bard.

C is always hard as k.

Ch, which is accounted but as one consonant, is a guttural, as Chi in Greek, or ch, Cheth, in Hebrew.

Dd is an aspirated d, and has the sound of th in the words this, that. Dda, good, is pronounced Tha.

F has the sound of an English v.

I is sounded as in the Italian, or like our ee in been; thus cîl, a retreat, is pronounced keel.

Ll is an aspirated l, and has much the sound of thl. Llangollen is pronounced Thlangothlen.

R, as in the Greek language, is always aspirated at the beginning of a word.

U sounds like the i in limb, him, &c.

W is a vowel, and has the power of oo in soon.

Y is in some words pronounced like i in third; in others like o in honey: and again, in others as the u in mud, must, &c.

V is sometimes used instead of f. B and P, C and G, and U and Y, are used promiscuously, as were formerly V and M.

The following is a list of primitive words, which, as they very commonly occur in the names of places, &c. the tourist may find them of use.

Aber, a confluence; the fall of one river into another or into the sea, as Aberdovey, the conflux of the Dovey.

Avon, what flows; and from thence a stream or river.

Allt, a cliff; the steep of a hill.

Ar, upon; bordering or abutting upon.

Bach, and Bychan, little: these are of the masculine gender, and Vychan and Vechan are feminine.

Bôd, a dwelling, residence, or station.

Bryn, a hill.

Bwlch, a gap or pass between rocks.

Cader, a keep, fortress, or strong hold.

Caer, a fort, or fortified place, generally constructed with stones and mortar.

Castell, a castle.

Coed, a wood.

Carnedd, a heap of stones.

Cefen, a ridge; or high ground.

Clawdd, a ditch, dike, or trench; and sometimes a wall or fence.

Clogwyn, a precipice.

Craig, a rock: from this the English word Crag is derived.

Cwm, a great hollow or glen; sometimes a valley.

Dinas, a fort, or fortified place, constructed in general with a rampart of loose stones and earth without any cement.

Dôl, a meadow or dale in the bend of a river.

Drws, a door, pass, or opening.

Dû, black.

Dyffryn, a wide cultivated valley.

Ffynnon, a spring, well, or source.

Garth, a mountain that bends round, or that incloses.

Glan, a bank or shore.

Glyn, a deep vale, through which a river runs:—from hence was derived our word Glen.

Gwern, a watery meadow.

Gwydd, a wood; woody or wild.

Gwyn, white.

Goch, or Coch, red.

Llan, a smooth plot; a place of meeting; the church, place, or village; and figuratively the church.

Llech, a flat stone, or crag; a smooth cliff.

Llwyn, a grove or copse.

Llyn, a pool, pond, or mere.

Maen, a stone.

Maes, an open field.

Mawr, great:—Vach, little.

Moel, fair; bald; a smooth mountain.

Morfa, a marsh.

Mynydd, a mountain.

Pant, a narrow hollow, or ravine.

Pen, a head, top, or end.

Plâs, a hall, or mansion.

Pont, a bridge.

Porth, a port.

Rhiw, an ascent.

Rhôs, a moist plain, or meadow.

Rhyd, a ford.

Sarn, a causeway.

Tal, the front, head, or end.

Traeth, a sand on the sea-shore.

Tref, a township.

Ty, a house.

Ynys, an island.

The Welsh language is possessed of numerous beauties. Its copiousness is very great; and it has no rival in the variety of its synonymous forms of expression, principally arising from the rich combinations of its verbs; for every simple verb has about twenty modifications, by means of qualifying prefixes; and in every form it may be conjugated, either by inflexions, like the Latin, or by the auxiliaries, as in English. It rivals the Greek, in its aptitude to form the most beautiful derivatives, as well as in the elegance, facility, and expressiveness of an infinite variety of compounds. The author of letters from Snowdon has justly remarked, that it has the softness and harmony of the Italian, with the majesty and expression of the Greek. Of these I will give two singular and striking instances, one of which is an Englyn, or epigram on the silk-worm; composed entirely of vowels.

O’i wiw y ŵi weu ê â, a’i weuau

O’i ŵyau y weua;

E’ weua ei ŵe aia’,

A’i weuau yw ieuau iâ.

“I perish by my art; dig mine own grave:

I spin my thread of life; my death I weave.”

The other a distich on thunder, the grandeur of which is scarcely to be surpassed in any language.

Tân a dŵr yn ymwriaw,

Yw’r taranau dreigiau draw.

“The roaring thunder, dreadful in its ire,

Its water warring with aërial fire.”

The metre of the Welsh poetry is very artificial and alliterative, possessing such peculiar ingenuity in the selection and arrangement of words, as to produce a rhythmical concatenation of sounds in every verse. The old British language abounded with consonants, and was formed of monosyllables, which are incompatible with quantity; and the bards could reduce it to concord by no other means than by placing at such intervals its harsher consonants, so intermixing them with vowels, and so adapting, repeating, and dividing the several sounds, as to produce an agreeable effect from their structure. Hence the laws of poetical composition in this language are so strict and rigorous, that were it not for a particular aptitude that it has for that kind of alliterative melody, which is as essential as harmony in music, and which constitutes the great beauty of its poetry, the genius of the bard must have been greatly cramped. To the ears of the natives, the Welsh metre is extremely pleasing, and does not subject the bard to more restraint than the different sorts of feet occasioned to the Greek and Roman poets. From the reign of Llywelyn to that of Elizabeth, the laws of alliteration were prescribed, and observed with such scrupulous exactness, that a line not perfectly alliterative was condemned as much by the Welsh grammarians, as a false quantity was by the Greeks and Romans.