106 



On the Nature and Use of Vowels. [Sept. 1 , 



unexplained ; ycf, by its being placed 

 there, it must have had a very obvious 

 signification: and how is it possible for 

 any tiling more appropriately to be said, 

 on a temple dedicated to the sun, than 

 this nearly the shortest of all words ; 

 this EI, thou wilt go, thou nilt contvme 

 going, thou wilt continue to revolve! 



It has been already mentioned, how 

 three of the primary vowels dei'.ote mo- 

 tion, or action: o, the past; a, the pre- 

 sent; and I, the future: it is likewise 

 necessary to notice that o and its 

 derivatives are what we term open 

 Towels, the a is intermediate, and i is a 

 close vowel. So, if there be an infiec- 

 tion of one vowel into another, either 

 more open or more close, the past or 

 future tense of a verb can be thus 

 formed. A similar characteristic runs 

 through other languages, though but 

 obscurely to be traced: thus, we find 

 English verbs governed by it; of which, 

 should, for shall ; sung and sing, for song; 

 a,m\ found, for find; may serve as in- 

 stances, among several others. 



The primitive word A, besides other 

 oflSces, wiiich may be passed over here, 

 performs three distinct functions, an- 

 swering to so many parts of speech, as 

 considered by grammarians ; and these 

 are the prouomi that, the prej)osition 

 with, and the conjunction aiid. In the 

 last sense, of and, the following lan- 

 guages agree with the Welsh, in using a, 

 or another vowel ; thus sufficiently 

 preserving the feature of a common 

 ©rigin : — 



Bohemian, a — Lusatian, a — Italian, e 

 — Portuguese, c — Spanish, y — Polish, y 

 — Russian, i — Finnish, i a — Lapponic, 

 ■ i a — Persian, n. 



In the use of i for the preposition, to, 

 into, these languages agree Mitli the 

 Welsh:— 



Italian — Swedish — Danish — Norwe- 

 gian— Islandic — Sclavonic dialects — Ca- 

 ■talonian dialect — Hebrew, in regimen.* 



And the French, Spanish, and Por- 

 tugiuse, use a for the i. 



The o, as the preposition, of, out of, 

 from, is common to the Welsh, and the 

 Irish, to which the Lr.tin A and e are 

 •quivalcnt. 



The primary vowels, in the character 

 «f prepositions, throw light on those 

 peculiar accidents called cases, in the 

 Greek, Latin, and some other languages ; 

 and v\liic!i appear to be no other than 

 such prcpoaitions affixed to the prece- 



• As — " Adonai, r!!3-rubii tzarai; ribira 

 cinsim hslai!" — PoaJm iii. 1. 



ding words, in the same manner as they 

 are joined to the following words, in the 

 Hehretu, and other oriental languages. 



Another function, wherein a vowel is 

 employed in Welsh, is that by which a 

 definite article is intended to be ex- 

 pressed, when the following word has a 

 consonant initial ; and the Y is the one 

 used for this purpose, and probably of a 

 common origin with the o and ti of the 

 Greek. Its office seems to be to point 

 out the object as having passed tho 

 operation of being recognised in the 

 mind, so as to h.-.ve become marked or 

 defined. With respect to objects, which 

 have not been thus rendered definite, 

 the English is peculiarly furnished with 

 such a distinguishing agent; and tho 

 vowel A is the one employed, which has 

 already been shown to signify present 

 motion, or action; and, therefore, the 

 propriety of its being so used is appa- 

 rent, with regard to objects not predi- 

 cated as having been recognised and 

 defined. 



And, though upon the subject ofvowel- 

 words, yet the other Welsh articles of 

 ydd, yr, ill, and ty, may bo f)laced hero 

 in view, to be collated with those in 

 other languages, in order to prove the 

 affinity between them : — 



Ydd — eth, iu Hebrew, Chaldee, and 

 Syriae. 



Ill — el, %l, le, la, in A7abie, Spanish, 

 Italian, and French. 



Ty — ta, die, de, the, in Lusatian, Ger- 

 man, Dutch, and English. 



Another point of importance towards 

 elucidating this subject, is to compare 

 those languages with the Welsh which 

 agree in using the vowels to express 

 plurals, in the termination of words, 

 being accidents of speech originally of 

 obvious signification, as will be exem- 

 plified in the i)rogress of this discussion. 

 The follpwing are the languages 

 .agreeing with the Welsh, in liaving the 

 vowel I for a plural termination : — 



Hebrew — Greek — Latin — Italian — 

 Finnish — Tartarian — Turkish — Russi' 

 an, and six other Sclavonic dialects — 

 Sanscrit, and its dialects. 



With the Welsh plural tennination 

 AU, are io be identified a, a, ai, oi, which 

 serve the same office in the following 

 languages: — 



Greek — Latin — Irish — Persian — Cop- 

 tic — Sansa-it, with its dialects. 



I am aware, Mr. Editor, of the ob- 

 jection, which, very probably, will be 

 ■ urged, that the foregoing inferences and 

 proofs, with respect to the sigJiificancy 

 of the vowel words, aie diawu out of a 

 language 



