May 20. 1854.] 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



471 



time of Edward III. Allusion is made to it by 

 Chaucer, 



4 Ne were worthy to unbocle his galoche.' 



Squires Talc, 10,869." 



Among many other quotations Mr. Way gives the 

 following : 



" To geten hytn gilte spores, 

 Or galoches y-couped." 



Piers Ploughman, 12,099. 



And in the Wardrobe Book of Prince Henry, 

 A.». 1607, are mentioned — 



"1 pair of golossians, 6s. ; 16 gold buckles with 

 pendants and toungs to buckle a pair of golosses." — 

 Archceol. xi. 93. 



Nares says : 



" Gal age. A clown's coarse shoe, from galloche, a 

 shoe with a wooden sole, old French, which itself is 

 supposed to be from, gallica, a kind of shoe mentioned 

 by Cicero, Philip, ii. SO., and A. Gellius, xiii. 21. If 

 so, the word has returned to the country whence it was 

 first taken, but I doubt much of that derivation ; by 

 the passages referred to in the above authors, it seems 

 more likely that the gallica was a luxurious covering, 

 than one so very coarse as the galloche. Perhaps the 

 caliga, or military strong boot of the Romans, from 

 ■which Caligula was named, may be a better origin for 

 it. The word galloche is now naturalised among us 

 for a kind of clog, worn over the shoes." 



See also Richardson's Dictionary, 3. v. " Galoche." 



Zeus. 



Seletjcus need not have gone quite so far as to 

 " the tribe of North American Indians, the Go- 

 loshes," or to America at all, for his derivation. 

 If he will look in his French dictionary he will 

 find, — 



" Galoche (espece de mule que Ton porte par dessus 

 les souliers), galoshoe." 



I quote from Bover's Dictionnaire Royal, edit. 

 1753. 



Cole, in his English dictionary, 1724, has — 



" Galeges, galages, galloches, galloshoes, Fr., wooden 

 shoes all of a piece. With us outward shoes or cases 

 for dirty weather, &c." 



C. DE D. 



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 correspond- 

 ing 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 - 

 Vowels - 



Apparent excess of "I 

 consonants in Welsh J 



185 

 148 



37 



205 

 165 



40 



241 

 159 



82 



Letters in three English Versions. 



Bible. Tate % Brady. Watts. 



Consonants - 220 271 275 



Vowels - - - 134 163 170 



86 



108 



Apparent excess of "1 

 consonants in English J 



Sounds in three Welsh Versions. 

 Bible. Prys. 



Consonants - - - 150 173 



Vowels - - - 148 165 



105 



:} 



Real excess of conso 

 nants in Welsh 



Sounds in three English Versions. 

 Bible. Tate §> Brady. 

 Consonants - - - 195 241 



Vowels - - - 122 149 



Real excess of conso- 

 nants in English 



73 



92 



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 ; 7, pronoun ; O, interjec- 

 tion), 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) d'u, ei, eu, ia, Jie, 

 I'm, oV, o'u, ow, wy, yw. 



5. In Welsh there are no such clusters of con- 

 sonants as occur in the English words arched 



