§42 
ON THE STRUCTURE OF THE 
WetsH LANGUAGE: 
To the Editor .f the Monthly Magazine. 
SIR, 
FHI communications which have 
~ already appeared in the Moxibly 
Magazine, with refpeét to LANGUAGE, 
promife much valuabie information 3; and 
they indicate that men of f{cience begin 
-. to cultivate this branch of learning with 
that attention which i: deferves. , 
Circumftances having directed my 
purfuit to the inveftigation of the Welfb 
Tongue, it has been continued clofely for 
many year, chiefly trom the pleafure it 
afforded ; and it bids fair ultimately to 
unfold things, which appear to me ex- 
traordinary and furprifing, compared 
with what is known to the world upon 
the iubjeét in general *. 
Permit me, fir, to hring to notice a 
few remarkable difcoveries from the 
language juft mentioned : 
In. the rit place, there are in it thirty 
fix letters; being, I believe, the exaét 
amount of the. powers of articu'ation. 
The vowel founds, unconneéted with 
confonants, imply motion or aétion, in 
various. times.” Ail the potlible changes 
of fimple founds, or primary combination 
of vowels and confonants, fuch as a/, c?, 
da, eb, «nd.the like, are about three 
Jiuadred. nefe founds, having refpec- 
tively a xed aofiract meaning, conftitate 
the bafis, from wa ch every longer word 
ds .regularly formed in all its parts. 
Some of the fimple founds ftand always 
for principals, or nouns; and others 
remaia as qualities; and the latter, ge- 
nerally dropping their vowels, are pre- 
fixed to the other, in forming the fir 
fort of compounds; which are mono- 
fylables, like bad, cad, man, and pen. 
All words of this kind that have a com- 
mon bafis, do necefflarily p-eferve the 
fundamental idea originally annexed to 
fuch bafis, however qualified by different 
prefixes, for the fake of difcrimination, 
and multiplying of terms. ‘Finis may be 
iljuftrated, by putting the qualifying 
prefixes—oy, fy, gy, by ‘hy wy p's “vy, 



** What is hinted at here, is likely to be 
completed by Mr. W. Owen, in a Didtionary of 
the Language ; half of which is nearly publithed. 
It will contain ab-ut one hundred thoufand 
words, Gifcarding all compound epithets; this 
will cont ey fume idea of the labour requifite to 
its completion, when.it is uncerftoud that there 
is no other Welfh Dictionary, which contains 
a diath part of that number, 
Vel[p Language. 
' {Aug, 
Jy, to the noun EN, which form the 
following clafs of words: 
Cex, what is foremoft, or uppermot; 2 point, 
a head. 
Fen, what has aptnefs to proceed, or to flow; 
breath. 
Gen, intelleét, or foul; organ of utterance; 
2 mouth. 
Hen, that is fully advanced, or matured ; old. 
‘Len, what is overs orcovering; a veil. 
Wen, what {preads over; a vault, or canopy; 
Sie ehe iy: 
Pen, what is fuperior; a head, atop; chief. 
‘Xen, the fupreme; the mott high; God. 
Seny what is put forward, or confpicuous; 2 
ftigma. y hin 
All words of one fyllable, like thefe 
laf’ mentioned, become verbs, when 
they are farther compounded, by affix- 
ing a vowel. The terminations of verbs, 
which are generally confidered as. mere 
arbitrary figns of che different inflexions, 
are real words, with appropriate means 
ings, defcriptive of fuch modes, or times, 
for which they ftand, and are fo ufed 
feparately. : 
In the next place :—Thofe elementary 
founds, with fuch meanings as are an 
nexed to them in I¥e//#, exvlain ab- 
tractedly moft words-in different lan: 
guages, agreeable to the apprcpriate 
fignifications given to them. That the 
hint may receive fome illuftration, two 
or three examples thall be given; and 
firft, where the fundamental idea is pre- 
ferved through a whole clafs of words : 
Sy (exifti g as a quality, or agent) that 
fends, forces, raifes, or fhocts out frona 
a point, in any direétion. 
Bal {cy the agent, and. al the element) what 
is fent, impelled, raifed, or projeéted 
from a point, in any direétion. 
Now let the reader turnia his mind 
all the werds he can colleét, in different 
languages, beginning with S;, and with 
Ba/; he will then, perhaps, fancy that 
he perceives thofe two leading ideas pre- 
ferved throvghout. For the fake of 
brevity, one imitance fhall fuffice with 
refpect to particular words :—The ap- 
propriate import of the Englith word 
Ru is well known; the abftraét meaning 
of the fame found in Welfh, by confi- 
dering its component parts, would be 
etcels cf energy, or activity; but it is 
appropriated in Welth, to expre{s agita- 
tion or fuvering 3 and the word ‘Rid is 
ufed fynonimeuily to Ruz in Englith; 
which alfo implies erec/s of motion. The 
prefix ufed to both words is ‘Ry or tRe, 
over, much, to excefs; and perhaps this 
“fixes the meaning of the common prefix 
4 Re, 
IE’ 
