11. Va daa vac ec dooinney dy row:

12. As doort y fer saa rish e ayr; Ayr! cur dooys yh ayrn dy chooid ta my chour. As rheynn eh e chooid orroo.

13. As laghyn ny lurg shen, hymsee yn mac saa ooilley cooidjagh as ghow eh jurnah gys cheer foddey, as ayns shen hug he jummal er e chooid liorish baghey rouanagh.

14. As tra va ooilley baarit eihey, dirree genney vooar ayns y cheer shen; as ren eh toshiaght dy ve ayns feme.

15. As hie eh as daill eh eh-hene rish cummaltagh jeh'n cheer shen; as hug eshyn eh magh gys ny magheryn echey dy ve son bochilley muickey.

16. As by-vian lesh e volg y lhieeney lesh ny bleaystyn va ny muckyn dy ee: as cha row dooinney erbee hug eooney da.

17. As tra v'eh er jeet huggey hene, dooyrt eh, Nagh nhimmey sharvaant failt t'ee my ayr ta nyn saie arran oe, as fooilliagh, as ta mish goll mow laecal beaghey!

18. Trog-ym orrym, as hem roym gys my ayr, as jir-ym rish, Ayr! ta mee er n'yannoo peecah noi niau, as kiongoyrt rhyt's.

19. As cha vel mee ny-sodjey feeu dy ve enmyssit dty vac: dell rhym myr rish fer jeh dty harvaantyr failt.

[§ 133]. Taken altogether the Celtic tongues form a very remarkable class. As compared with those of the Gothic stock they are marked by the following characteristics—

The scantiness of the declension of Celtic nouns.—In Irish there is a peculiar form for the dative plural, as cos=foot, cos-aibh=to feet (ped-ibus); and beyond this there is nothing else whatever in the way of case, as found in the German, Latin, Greek, and other tongues. Even the isolated form in question is not found in the Welsh and Breton. Hence

the Celtic tongues are preeminently uninflected in the way of declension.

[§ 134].—2. The agglutinate character of their verbal inflections.—In Welsh the pronouns for we, ye, and they, are ni, chwyi, and hwynt respectively. In Welsh also the root=love is car. As conjugated in the plural number this is—

car-wn = am-amus.
car-ych = am-atis.
car-ant = am-ant.

Now the -wn, -ych, and -ant, of the persons of the verbs are the personal pronouns, so that the inflection is really a verb and a pronoun in a state of agglutination; i. e., in a state where the original separate existence of the two sorts of words is still manifest. This is probably the case with languages in general. The Celtic, however, has the peculiarity of exhibiting it in an unmistakable manner; showing, as it were, an inflexion in the process of formation, and (as such) exhibiting an early stage of language.

[§ 135]. The system of initial mutations.—The Celtic, as has been seen, is deficient in the ordinary means of expressing case. How does it make up for this? Even thus. The noun changes its initial letter according to its relation to the other words of the sentence. Of course this is subject to rule. As, however, I am only writing for the sake of illustrating in a general way the peculiarities of the Celtic tongues, the following table, from Prichard's Eastern Origin of the Celtic Nations, is sufficient.

Câr, a kinsman.
1. form, Câr agos, a near kinsman.
2. Ei gâr, his kinsman.
3. Ei châr, her kinsman.
4. Vy nghâr, my kinsman.
Tâd, a father.
1. form, Tâd y plentyn, the child's father.
2. Ei dâd, his father.
3. Ei thâd, her father.
4. Vy nhâd, my father.
Pen, a head.
1. form, Pen gwr, the head of a man.
2. Ei ben, his head.
3. Ei phen, her head.
4. Vy mhen, my head.
Gwâs, a servant.
1. form, Gwâs fydhlon, a faithful servant.
2. Ei wâs, his servant.
3. Vy ngwas, my servant.
Duw, a god.
1. form, Duw trugarog, a merciful god.
2. Ei dhuw, his god.
3. Vy nuw, my god.
Bara, bread.
1. form, Bara cann, white bread.
2. Ei vara, his bread.
3. Vy mara, my bread.
Lhaw, a hand.
1. form, Lhaw wenn, a white hand.
2. Ei law, his hand.
Mam, a mother.
1. form, Mam dirion, a tender mother.
2. Ei vam, his mother.
Rhwyd, a net.
1. form, Rhwyd lawn, a full net.
2. Ei rwyd, his net.

From the Erse.

Súil, an eye.
1. form, Súil.
2. A húil, his eye.
Sláinte, health.
2. form, Do hláinte, your health.

[§ 136]. When we have seen that one of the great characteristics of the Celtic tongues is to express inflection by initial changes, we may ask how far the principle of such change is common to the two branches—British or Gaelic; this and a few other details being quite sufficient to show the affinity between them.