Blair Collection > Kelt or Gael

CHAPTER VL
Welsh and ancient British Alphabet. Early Alphabet-
Present Alphabet. Early Parts of Speech. Present
Parts of Speech with their Declensions, Conjuga-
tions, AND Concords,
Early Welsh
alphabet.
Present
alphabet.
It appears from the Analysis or grammar of
Ederyn that the Welsh alphabet originally
consisted of sixteen radical letters, including four
vowels and twelve consonants, which is the same
as the Phoenician, and practically the same as the
Irish alphabet. Derived from these, however^
there were twenty-seven secondary letters, of
which eight were treated as vowels, and twelve as.
consonants, making in all forty-three letters.
The ancient Welsh characters as given by Pugh
are very rough, and resemble the characters of
the Senchus M6r, or the Saxon Chronicle ; but, as
I have stated, the oldest Welsh manuscripts are in
the Irish or British character.
At present, and after the adoption of the
Roman characters, the Welsh alphabet consists of
thirty-one letters — a, b, c, ch, d, dd, e, f, ff, g, ng,
ngh, h, i, 1, 11, m, mh, n, nh, o, p, ph, r, rh, s, t,
th, u, w, and y.
It will be seen that the same letters are still