A DESCRIPTION OF THE MANNERS, CUSTOMS, AND GAMES
OF THE NATIVES.
EIGHTH EDITION.
THE WHOLE CORRECTED, AND CONSIDERABLY ENLARGED.
LONDON:
PRINTED FOR WHITTAKER & CO.
AVE MARIA LANE.
1834.
ACCOUNT OF THE WELSH LANGUAGE.
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.