CONSONANTS IN WELSH.
(Vol. ix., p. 271.)
For the gratification of your correspondent J. M., I give you the result of an enumeration of the letters and sounds in three versions of the Hundredth Psalm in Welsh, and three corresponding versions of it in English.
1. From the authorised translations of the Bible, Welsh and English.
2. The metrical version of Tate and Brady, and that of Archdeacon Prys.
3. Dr. Watts's metrical version and a Welsh imitation of it.
| Letters in three Welsh Versions. | ||||
| Bible. | Prys. | Watts. | ||
| Consonants | 185 | 205 | 241 | |
| Vowels | 148 | 165 | 159 | |
| —— | —— | —— | ||
| Apparent excess of consonants in Welsh |
| 37 | 40 | 82 |
| Letters in three English Versions. | ||||
| Bible. | Tate & Brady. | Watts. | ||
| Consonants | 220 | 271 | 275 | |
| Vowels | 134 | 163 | 170 | |
| —— | —— | —— | ||
| Apparent excess of consonants in English |
| 86 | 108 | 105 |
| Sounds in three Welsh Versions. | ||||
| Bible. | Prys. | Watts. | ||
| Consonants | 150 | 173 | 200 | |
| Vowels | 148 | 165 | 159 | |
| —— | —— | —— | ||
| Real excess of consonants in Welsh |
| 2 | 8 | 41 |
| Sounds in three English Versions. | ||||
| Bible. | Tate & Brady. | Watts. | ||
| Consonants | 195 | 241 | 240 | |
| Vowels | 122 | 149 | 159 | |
| —— | —— | —— | ||
| Real excess of consonants in English |
| 73 | 92 | 81 |
From this analysis it appears that the excess of consonant letters over vowels is, in English, 299; and in Welsh, 159, a little more than one-half. The excess of consonant sounds is, in English, 246; in Welsh, 51, considerably less than one-fourth.
This result might readily have been anticipated by anybody familiar with the following facts:
1. On examining lists of the elementary sounds of both languages, it will be found that the Welsh has a greater number of vowels than the English, and the English a greater number of consonants than the Welsh.
2. Welsh diphthongs are much more numerous than English.
3. In English, three vowels only constitute words in themselves (a, article; I, pronoun; O, interjection), and each is used only in one sense. In Welsh, five of the vowels (a, e, i, o, y) are words; and they are used in at least a dozen different significations. A, besides being an affirmative and interrogative adverb, answers to the English and, as, with, will go.
4. Diphthongs forming distinct words are much more numerous in Welsh than in English. The following occur: ai, a'i (=a ei), a'u, ei, eu, ia, ïe, i'w, o'i, o'u, ow, ŵy, yw.
5. In Welsh there are no such clusters of consonants as occur in the English words arched
(pronounced artsht), parched, scorched, marched, hinged (hindzhd), singed, cringed, fringed, purged (purdzhd), charged (tshardzhd), scratched, &c. &c. From the difficulty encountered in pronouncing some of these combinations, arise the vulgar errors heard in some parts of the country: burstis for bursts, castis for casts. Three consonants are very rarely thus crushed together in Welsh,—four, never.
6. The Welsh, to avoid an unpleasant hiatus, often introduce a consonant. Hence we have y or yr, the; a or ac, and; a or ag, as; na or nac, not; na or nag, than; sy or sydd, is; o, from, becomes odd; i, to, becomes idd. I cannot call to mind more than one similar example in English, a or an; and its existence is attributable to the superfluity of consonants, n being dropped in a, not added in an.
The mystery of the consonants in the swearing Welshman's mouth (humorously described by Messrs. Chambers) is difficult of explanation. The words usual in Welsh oaths afford no clue to its solution; for the name of the Deity has two consonants and one vowel in English, while it has two vowels and one consonant in Welsh. Another name invoked on these occasions has three consonants and two vowels in English, and one of the vowels is usually elided; in Welsh it has three vowels and three consonants, and colloquially the middle consonant is dropped. The Welsh borrow a few imprecatory words from the English, and in appropriating them they append the vowel termination o or io. Prejudice or imagination, therefore, seems to have had something to do in describing poor Taffy's profanities.
In conclusion, I may add that the Hundredth Psalm was chosen for analysis without a previous knowledge that it would present a greater excess of consonants (letters or sounds) in English than in Welsh. I do not believe two chapters from the Bible can be produced, which will show an opposite result.
Gwilym Glan Tywi.
There is no k in the Welsh alphabet, a circumstance which reduces the consonants to twenty; while a farther reduction is made by the fact that w and y are always vowels in Welsh, instead of being only occasionally so, as in English. J. M. will therefore find that the Welsh alphabet contains but eighteen consonants and seven vowels, twenty-five letters in all.
This, however, I imagine, is not the point on which he wishes for information. If a stranger glances at a page of Welsh without being aware that y and w are, strictly speaking, vowels, he will of course naturally conclude that he sees an over proportion of consonants. Hence, probably, has arisen the very general idea on the subject, which is perhaps strengthened by the frequent occurrence of the double consonants Ll and Dd, the first of which is but a sign, standing for a peculiar softening of the letter; and the latter for Th of the English language.
Such an idea might perhaps be conveyed by the following instances, taken at random: Dywyll, Dydd, Gwyddna, Llwyn, Gwyrliw, &c. But it will be dispelled by an orthography adapted to the pronunciation; thus Dou-ill[[3]], Deeth, Goo-eeth-na, Lloo-een, Gueer-leeoo.
J. M. will be interested to know that the Welsh language can furnish almost unexampled instances of an accumulation of vowels, such as that furnished by the word ieuainc, young men, &c.; but above all by the often-quoted englyn or stanza on the spider or silkworm, which, in its four lines, does not contain a single consonant:
"O'i wiŵ wy i weu ê â,—a'i weau
O'i wyau e weua:
E weua ei ŵe aia,
A'i weau yw ieuau iâ."
Seleucus.
In reply to J. M. I beg to ask who ever before heard that consonants "cracked and cracked, and ground and exploded?" and how could the writer in Chambers's Repository possibly know that the drunken Welshman cursed and swore in consonants? There is scarcely a more harshly-sounding word in the Welsh language—admitted by a clever and satirical author to have "the softness and harmony of the Italian, with the majesty and expression of the Greek"—than the term crack, adopted from the Dutch. There is no Welsh monosyllable that contains, like the Saxon strength, seven consonants with only one vowel. There is no Welsh proper name, like Rentzsch, the watchmaker of Regent Street, that contains six consonants in succession in one syllable; and yet the Welsh have never accused their younger sister with the use of consonants which "cracked and cracked, and ground and exploded." But if the Welsh language, with "its variety, copiousness, and even harmony, to be equalled by few, perhaps excelled by none," has no instance of six consonants in succession, it has one of six vowels in succession, Gwaewawr, every one of which requires, according to the peculiarity of its pronunciation, a separate inflection of the voice.
J. M. may be assured that the remark of the writer in question is only one of those pitiful "cracks" which flippant authors utter in plain ignorance of Cymru, Cymraeg, and Cymry.
Cymro.
Marlbro.
I think the following englyn or epigram on a silkworm, which is composed entirely of vowels, will satisfy your correspondent. I have seen it in some book, the name of which I forget. It
must be borne in mind that w is a vowel in Welsh, and is sounded like oo in boot.
"O'i wiw ŵy i weu ê â a'i weau
O'i wyau e weua;
E' weua ei ŵe aia'.
A'i weau yw ieuau iâ."
"I perish by my art; dig my own grave;
I spin my thread of life; my death I weave."
Thomas O'Coffey.
Footnote 3:[(return)]
The Dou to be pronounced as in Douglass.