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,