ANTIQUITIES. 



889 



Roman letters, have necessarily been 

 reduced in number. Two, and even 

 three letters, are now, in some in- 

 Ktances, adopted to express what 

 had before a single appropriate cha- 

 racter. — The uncompounded letters 

 are, A, B, C, D, E. F, G, H, I, L, 

 M, N, O, P, R, S, r, U, W, and Y: 

 the compounds arc, Ch, Dd, Ff, 

 Ng, LI, Ph, and Th. The vowels 

 are sometimes lengthened by an ac- 

 cent, marked thus, a, e, t, 6, u, aV.* 



The following is an account of 

 those letters that, in their powers, 

 differ from similar ones in the En- 

 glish language : 



A has only the sound of our open 

 a in the word bard : as cas- 

 tell, a castle. 



C, invariably, is hard, as the En- 

 glish k : thus, cader, a fort, is pro- 

 nounced kader. C, joined with w, 

 and having a vowel succeeding, sup- 

 plies the place of our qu. 



Ch, marked 9 in Mr. Owen's 

 WelsU Dictionary, is a guttural of 

 the same power as the Greek x. 



Dd, or as it is sometimes written, 

 dh, is an aspirated d. It has nearly 

 the sound of ih in the word this : 

 dda, good, is pronounced tha. 



F has the sound of our v : thus, 

 fckn, yellow, is pronounced, velen. 



Ff supplies the place of our sin- 

 gle f. 



G is invariably hard, as the g in 

 gain. 



1 has the same sound as it has in 

 the Italian language, of eo, as in our 

 word seen : thus cil, a retreat, is 

 pronounced keel. 



LI is an aspirated I, having much 

 the sound of till : thus Han, a church 

 or village, is pronounced much like 

 thian. 



R, when it begins a word, is al- 

 ways aspirated. 



U has the sound of i, in the word 



sin : thus pump, five, is pronounced 

 pimp. 



W is a vowel, and has the power 

 of our 00 in soon ; thus, rhiw, an 

 ascent, is pronounced rhioo. 



Y, in some words, has the sound 

 of the English i in sin : thus, ffyuon, 

 a well, is pronounced finnon. It 

 has also sometimes the sound of o 

 in the word honey ; and sometimes 

 of u, in mud. 



Primitive Words that frequently oc- 

 cur in the Names of Places, ^~c. 



Aber, a confluence ; the fall of a 

 lesser water into a greater, as of a 

 brook into a river, or a river into 

 the sea: thus, Aberdovey signifies the 

 place where the Dovey joins the sea. 



Avon, what flows ; and thence a 

 stream or river. The river Mawd- 

 dach, near Barmouth, is usually 

 called Avon vawr, the great river. 



Allt, a cliff, the steep of a hill. 

 Penallt the head of the steep, near 

 Machynlleth. 



Ar, upon, border, or joining 

 upon. Harlech, on the cliff in Me- 

 rionethshire, 



Bach, and bychan, little : the fe- 

 minine genders arc vach and vychan, 

 or vechan. Glyderbach, the little 

 Glyder, a mountain near Llanberis. 



Bod, a dwelling or station. B6- 

 deiniol, the dwelling of Daniel. 



Bron, the breast, feminine, from 

 Cader Fronwen, the mountain of 

 Fronwen, or, the white breast,, is 

 one of the Berwyii mountains. 



IJryn, a hill. Biyu y Crocs, the 

 Mill of the Cross. 



Bvvlch, a gap, or pass, betwixt 

 rocks or moiiijtaiM.s. 



Cader, a fortress, or Btrong hold ; 

 sometimes a seat, or place ol obser- 

 vation. 



Caer, a fortified place, usually 

 constructed with stones and mortal ; 



thus 



* V is sometimes used instead of F, B» and P; C and G, U .ind Y, are also oc- 

 casionally used lor each other j as w crc also formerly V and JI, 



