532 Rev. Mr Williams on one Source of the 



Vin-Dinum in Umbria. 

 Ve-Dinum in Venetia ; now Udine. 

 And with the D hardened, as in the British Tin-tagel — 

 An-tinum among the Marsi. 

 A-tina of the Lucanians ; now Atena. 

 A-tina of the Volscians ; now Atino. 

 Al-tinum in Venetia ; still Altino. 

 Re-tina in Campania. 



Ma-tinum, which gave its name to the mountain. 

 Ses- thrum in Umbria ; now Ses-tino. 

 Gwal and Gwely. 



But here I must remark, that the Cumri prefix the letter G 

 to all the radical words which in Latin commence with V, on the 

 same principle which induces the French to write Walter 

 Gualtier. That this was the original pronunciation, in Italy 

 also, of Latin words commencing with V, is clear from the resus- 

 citation of the pronunciation in such words as the following : — 

 Guado, A ford, Vadum. 



Guagina, or 1 Tr . 



p . r A sheath, Vagina, Cum, Gwain. 



Guastare, To waste, Vastare. 



This was the true digamma, which has so much puzzled scho- 

 lars, merely classical. The more refined age of Greece abolished 

 almost all the hard guttural and labial breathings, and wrote : 

 oivog, Vinum, Gwin, Wine. 

 zzvgog, Socer, Chwegir. 



In the simple expression, " Woe's me," we have in the differ- 

 ent languages a complete scale of the original form and subse- 

 quent disappearance of this digamma. 



Cumrian, Gwai vi. 



Latin, Vae-mihi. 



Greek, o»-/*o». 



Hellenistic form, owi-poi. 

 Nor is it less instructive to see it reappear in its original 



