possess the radical of codadh. The Welsh, without possessing any word
for a hill at all like codadh, has the primary or radical word; that word
is codi, to rise or raise, almost identical in sound and sense with the
Sanscrit kuda. Till a house is raised there is no house, and there is no
hill till the Nara or Omnipotent says _Arise_.
The Welsh is one of the most copious languages of the world, as it
contains at least eighty thousand words. It has seven vowels; w in Welsh
being pronounced like oo, and y like u and i. Its most remarkable
feature is the mutation of initial consonants, to explain which properly
would require more space than I can afford. {27} The nouns are of two
numbers, the singular and plural, and a few have a dual number. The
genders are three, the Masculine, the Feminine and the Neuter. There are
twelve plural terminations of nouns, of which the most common is au.
Some substantives are what the grammarians call aggregate plurals, {28}
"which are not used in the plural without the addition of diminutive
terminations, for example adar, birds, aderyn, a bird; gwenyn, bees,
gwenynen, a single bee." There are different kinds of adjectives; some
have a plural, some have none; some have a feminine form, others have
not; the most common plural termination is ion. It is said by some that
the verb has properly no present tense, the future being used instead.
The verbs present many difficulties, and there are many defective and
irregular ones. In the irregularities of its verbs the Welsh language
very much resembles the Irish.
The numerals require some particular notice: forty, sixty and eighty are
expressed by deugain, trigain, and pedwarugain, literally, two twenties,
three twenties, and four twenties; whilst fifty, seventy, and ninety are
expressed by words corresponding with ten after two twenties, ten after
three twenties, and ten after four twenties. Whether the Welsh had ever
a less clumsy way of expressing the above numbers is unknown--something
similar is observable in French, and the same practice prevails in the
modern Gaelic; in the ancient Gaelic, however, there are such numerals as
ceathrachad, seasgad, and naochad, which correspond with quadraginta,
sexaginta, and nonaginta. The numerals dau, tri, and pedwar, or two,
three, and four, have feminine forms, becoming when preceding feminine
nouns, dwy, tair, and pedair. In Gaelic no numeral has a feminine form;
certain numerals, however
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