Blair Collection > Kelt or Gael

The Kelt or Gael. 39
absent as in the Irish, viz. j, k, q, v, x, and z, and
also w and y considered as consonants. W and
y appear, but as vowels ; and thus the Welsh
vowels agree, not as the Irish, with the Latin, but
with the Greek, as a, e, i, o, u, w, and y, the w
and y being the Greek omega and eeta.
The form of Welsh words consequently appears
more Greek, and the form of Irish words more
Latin, a circumstance which I have taken into con-
sideration in the following comparison. Besides
the fact that the above double and triple
consonants have only one sound each, the
English observer treats the vowels w and y
as consonants, and concludes the language is
unpronounceable ; while, as vowels, they render
it more euphonious; in fact, the Welsh is the
most euphonious of existing European dialects,
not forgetting even Italian.
It appears to me that by the Irish mode of
aspiration of the mutable consonants, and the
rule of eclipsis, the effect of a greater number of
letters than even the Welsh contains is obtained
in a simpler manner ; but this may arise from
the fact that I am more familiar with the one
practice than with the other.
It would serve no purpose to give the pronun-
ciation of the Welsh vowels and consonants here;
but I may at least state that there are no silent
letters in Welsh, as there are in Irish, and
English, and French. Welsh scholars are not yet
all agreed on the subject of Welsh orthography.