196 LANG 
however have been lately publilhed by the learned and la¬ 
borious members of the Antiquarian Society of Dublin ; 
in which the coincidence of that tongue with fome of the 
oriental dialefts has been fupported by very ftrong argu¬ 
ments. In a differtation publifhed in the year 1772, they 
have exhibited acolledtion of Punico-Maltefe words com¬ 
pared with words of the fame import in Irifh, where it 
mull be allowed the refemblance is palpable. In the fame 
differtation they have compared the celebrated Punic fcene 
m Plautus with its transition into the Irifh; in which the 
words in the two languages are furprifingly fimilar. If thofe 
criticifins are well founded, they will prove that the Celtic 
is coeval and congenial with the mod ancient languages of 
theeaft; which wc think highly probable. Be that as it may, 
the Danes and Norwegians formed fettlements in Ireland; 
and the Englifh have long been fovereigns of that ifland. 
Thefe circumftances mull have affeded the vernacular- 
idiom of the natives ; not to mention the necefiity of 
adopting the language of the conquerors in law, in fci- 
ences, and in the offices af religion. 
The Welsh language, though certainly much cor¬ 
rupted by time and circumftances, yet preferves much of 
the fimplicity of the oriental tongues. There are two 
papers in the Monthly Magazine, (vol. ii. p. 609. and 
vol. iii. p. 10.) which exhibit fuch a firing of coincidences 
of the Hebrew and Greek languages with the Welfh, as 
mull appear very curious, and we think very fatisfadory 
on the lubjed. Thefe we fhall not copy, but refer the 
reader to that widely-circulating mifcellany. However, 
in the volume firft quoted, there is an account of the 
“Strudure of the Welfh Language,” from which we fhall 
take a few extracts. 
“In the firfl place, there are in it thirty-fix letters; be¬ 
ing, I believe, the exad amount of the powers of articu¬ 
lation. The vowel-founds, unconnected with confonants, 
imply motion or adion, in various times. All the poffi- 
ble changes of fimple founds, or primary combinations of 
vowels and confonants, fuch as ah, ci, da, eb, and the like, 
are about three hundred. Thefe founds, having refpec- 
tively a fixed abftrad meaning, conflitute the bafis, from 
which every longer word is regularly formed in all its,parts. 
Some of the fimple founds hand always for principals, or 
nouns; and others remain as qualities; and the latter ge¬ 
nerally dropping their vowels, are prefixed to the others, 
in forming the firft fort of compounds; which are mono- 
fyllables, like bod, cad, man, and pen. All words of this 
kind that have a common bafis, do neceffarily preferve the 
fundamental idea originally annexed to fuch bafis, howe¬ 
ver qualified by different prefixes, for the fake of difcri- 
mination, and multiplying of terms. This may be illuf- 
trated, by putting the qualifying prefixes— cy,fy, gy , hy, 
‘ly, ny, py, ‘ry,fy, to the noun en, which form the follow¬ 
ing clafs of words: Cen, what is foremoft, or uppermoft; 
a point, a head. Fen, what has aptnefs to proceed, or to 
flow ; breath. Gen, intellect, or foul ; organ of utterance; 
a mouth. Hen, that is fully advanced, or matured ; old. 
‘ Lett , what is over, or covering; a veil. Nen, what fpreads 
over; a vault, or canopy; the fky. Pen, what is fuperior; 
a head, a top; chief. ‘Ren, the fupreme; the mofl high; 
God. Sen, what is put forward, or conspicuous; a ftig- 
ma. All words of one fyllable, like thofe lafl mentioned, 
become verbs, when they are farther compounded, by af¬ 
fixing a vowel. The terminations of verbs, which are ge¬ 
nerally confidered as mere arbitrary figns of the different 
inflexions, are real words, with appropriate meanings, de¬ 
scriptive of fuch modes, or times, for which they Hand ; 
and are fo ufed feparately. 
“In the next place, thofe elementary founds, with fuch 
meanings as are annexed to them in Welfh, explain ab- 
Itradedly mofl words in different languages, agreeable to 
the appropriate fignifications given to them. That the 
hint may receive fome illuftration, two or three examples 
fhall be given ; and firfl, where the fundamental idea is 
preferved through a whole clafs of words: Sy (exifling as 
a quality, or agent), that fends, forces, raifes, or fhoots 
U A G E. 
out from a point, in any diredion. Bal (by the agent, and 
al the element), what is fent, impelled, railed, orprojeded, 
from a point, in any diredion. Now, let the reader turn 
in his mind all the words he can collect, in different lan¬ 
guages, beginning with Sy and with Bal ; he will then 
perhaps, fancy that he perceives thofe two leading ideas 
preferved throughout. For the fake of brevity, one iu- 
ftance fhall fuffice with refped to particular words : The 
appropriate import of the Englifh word Run is well known ; 
the abftrad meaning of the fame found in Welfh, by con- 
fidering its component parts, would be exccfs of energy, or 
attivity ; but it is appropriated, in Welfh, to exprefs agita¬ 
tion, or Jhivering ; and the word ‘Red is ufed fynonimoufiy 
to Run in Englifh; which alfo implies excefs of motion. The 
prefix ufed to both words is ‘Ry or Re, over, much, to cx- 
cefs ; and perhaps this fixes the meaning of the common 
prefix Re to mean over or pafl a given point, as in Reverfe , 
and the like. 
“ A very great number of compound words, refolvable 
to their primitives in the Weljh, run through many lan¬ 
guages. It would be difficult to adduce a lingle article, 
or form of conftrudion in the Hebrew Grammar, but the 
fame is to be found in Weljli ; and there are many whole 
fentences in both languages exadly the fame in the very 
words. The Irijh and Weljh are fundamentally the fame, 
but differing much in dialed! and pronunciation. The 
Sclavonic, Breton, and Wejh, are one language, with but lit¬ 
tle variation of dialed; which I conceive to be an impor¬ 
tant difcovery. The Sclavons and Weljh. being feparate 
people from a very remote period, militates greatly againlt 
the common notion of the inflability of language. 
“There is not the leafl difference between the language 
of the Laws of Howel in the tenth, or Geoffrey of Mon¬ 
mouth’s Hiflory in the twelfth, century, and that now 
fpoken in Wales.” It has been objected that Geoffrey of 
Monmouth wrote his Hiflory in Latin; which the writer 
admits, but obferves, in reply, that “ Geoffrey made no 
lefs than two tranflations of Tyfilio’s original hiftory intt 
Weljh, as he fays liimfelf at the conclufion of fome of the 
copies; and one he made from his own augmented Latin ver- 
fion in his old age. We have now extant three different 
hiflories in Welfh ; one I judge to be the original of Ty- 
filio, and the other two are accounted for by Geoffrey. 
There is a valuable manufcript containing the laws, chro¬ 
nicle of the Saxons, and Geoffrey’s lafl verfion, all in 
Welfh, in the Britifh Mufeum. There is in the Welfh. 
School, in London, alfo, a copy in Welfh of the fame hiflory, 
collated with five manufcripts, judged to be as old as the 
age of Geoffrey. There are in the Welfh School about 
fixty manufcripts of Welfh poetry, doling with the fixteenth 
century ; yet this is but an inferior colledion to feveral 
others in Wales. There has not yet been a hundredth 
part of the ancient poetry tranflated, in any form ; confe- 
quently, a ftranger to the language cannot in the leafl be 
a judge of its merits.” Monthly Mag. ii. 542, 688. 
As to the Cornish language, we believe it mult be now- 
regarded as abl'olutely extind. Dr. Pryce, of Redruth, 
made an attempt to revive or preferve it in the year 1790, 
by the publication of an elaborate work, entitled Ar- 
chxologia Cornu Britannica; from which we fhall make 
fome extracts, accompanied by a few remarks. In his 
preface he obferves that, “ As the difcovery of an origi¬ 
nal language is the firft and leading Hep to the progreffional 
examination of all other antiquities of a country, it fol¬ 
lows of courfe, that the oldeft tongue ought to be ftudied 
and underftood previoufly to our entering on the remains 
and records of lefs remote ages. On this confideration, I 
am inclined to believe that a work of this tendency will 
be very acceptable both to the antiquarian and the philo- 
logift; efpecially as I can very fafely affert that the old 
Cornifh-Britifh, which is here diftinguifhed very precifely 
from the modern Cornifh dialed, is the mofl pure, and 
neareft the original, of any fpeecl) now ufed in Armorica, 
or the northern provinces of France, Great Britain, and 
Ireland.” We agree, with the author, that to the lludi* 
OH'S 
