| 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.