Blair Collection > Archaeologia Britannica, giving some account additional to what has been hitherto publish'd, of the languages, histories and customs of the original inhabitants of Great Britain

22(5
Tit. VI. A Cornish Grammar.
Ho-uiei-er tho' I have mt been fouK Cornwal ; wkuh J gather fart !y
[fuccefsful as to meet with any older from the Elegancy of the Haiiri and
fManufcnft in the Britijh La?iguage,
than ihefore-jnentiond Black Book
jo/" Carmarthen, y^OTf very ancient
I Latin MSS. have yet occurr'd. writ-
ten by Britans ; and thefe have, here
and there, foine Latin words glofs d
partly from fame Terms as nioji
liau)', Ma?ty, much ; ciiiuc.,Abook
(probably fom the Latin C.od\ci; )
'^M2i]\\m, A play ; f^uajlt)! Afienc,
&c. not to ittjijl upon the Plural
Termiriation of Nouns in ou
at VAichhtXd, which I have already \of) in \>^a\cs
menti07id, p 4.. 7. This MS may j J take Niniin, from the Refem-
poflibly he eleven hundred years • blame of the Hand to the Scoulh
(landing It has { befdes fame la-\lor Irilh ] to have been a Cum-
ter Saxon; a few ancient Memo- bniw liritan ; b:a dare 7iot fiqpofe
rials of -Donations to the Church of this Fragment fo old as St Nm an
Landaf, enter d here and there m the Apojlle of the SJHthcrn Pidls cf
the Mar"m. which are partly LatinX whom IJede faith, Auftraic-s
a7id partly Britijh ; and are of a- Mdti qui inter cofdem monccs ha
bout pr.o years flanding. Thefe\hQ\\t ledes, il-:ulto ante_ tempor
have been lately mangled by the
Book-binder : but the Accurat, and
Ingenious Mr. Waiiky, has pre-
fervd -what remains of them, in his
late Catalogue c/'Saxon Matiufcripts.
The feco7id {to retain its own Ti-
tle) isi?ifcr!b'dOv\dii Nafonis Ar-
AmatoriiE Lib Primus, and is
■th Britijh Interpretatwtis, or elfe loinou , B:jl.ies ; puniou Fillets
feme Britijh words in the Margin
The firjl of theje is the Landaf
Gofpel, 710W called S^. ChadV Book
■which w.is conjlant amongSl the
Cori,)(li as well as the Armoric Bri-
tans and never ujid [that we know
\_fcil. ante Columbam ViElormn Sep-
tentrionahum Apojlolum'y reliiito er
rore Idolairix, lidem vcritatis ac
ceperant, pra-dicante eis verbiim,
Ntniano , i'.p.lcopo RevcrendilFi-
mo & Sanctillimo viro de Na-
tione Brit-inUiT), qui erat Romx
regulariter Fidem & Myfteria ve-
prob'ably]~tho' it be thefmall Britijlj \ ritatis cdodtus. Cnjus fedem E-
Charatler, as old as the \fl. fame , pifcopatus SanAi Martini nomine
words have their Britijh Interpre-
tations fuferfcrilid
olin loinou
viccae — )ioua — jpucicej-
^^^Funiou
flegi" amlai)- qiiche-
loculi]--dimi)-)-a-jiu5a. &c.
This old Fragment is bound with
various others a7id is prefervd «;
the Bodley Library, NE. D. z. 19.
AU the words Jiiperfcrib'd ( which
may be underjlood of the other An-
cient Latin Manufcripts written by
the Britans) are not Britidi, but
fomctimes other Latin words for
better Expla7iation.
A third is a TraEl o/"EuteX (for
jo the Tranfcriber's Preface direiis
7ne to call him ) the Grammarian's
De dilcernendis conjugationibus
glcfs'd with Britijl) after the fame
7tia7iner and in much the fame hand.
Ibid.
A fourth confifls of fome Notes,
by one Ninianus a Britan, be pon-
6ejiibu|- ec mcnjujiip Ibid.
A fifth is JuvencusV Poem: Ju-
venci Presbyteri Paraphrafis iu E-
vangelia, a7id is prej'ervd in the
pubfick Library in Cambridge.
The jixth, and as I prefume the
latejf (tho' being a Forreign MS.
I cannot fo well judge of its tit/ie )
contains fome I7ijlruffi07ts for jpeak-
i7ig Latin, and has its Britijh In-
terpretations more frequent than the
others (a)
Of thefe Ancie7it Manufcripts ;
The frji as is 7na7iif(fl came out' of
South Wales, The ji-cond and third
feem to have been the old Loegrian
Britifli, in fome 7neafure yet retai7id
(a) Bib. Bodl. NE. B. y. 9.
Qj.i; cum fit Britonum caput &
Metropolis, una
Bis i'enas fub i"e cathcdras Ixta-
tur habere.
From thefe very Ancient Ma7iu-
fcripts and others of later Centuries,
I take the following Notes on our old
and late Bntjh Orthography.
A (excepting in Diphtko77gs) is
to be pronounced as in E'lgljh in
the word Man, &c. The Pronun-
ciatio7i it has iit the words Fall
Shall a7id the like, is riever ufed in
the Wcifll. The Cornilli do indeed
at prefent ufe it injom: - r- ■''. but
they expreji it with an o, w>it,„g
1 6l, To be; Moz, To go, SiC. as
we often fi:J it i,: the Englifli, as
Holly, Hi ps, Honift. Ikaveex-
prefs'd it in this Corn;fli Alphabet
by an a Rtvtried [b], kcaufeeach
Pro7iu7ic,atio7i ought to have dijlir.il
CharaHers ; a7id this method puts us
to 710 expe7ice of new Letters at the
Prefs.
A long was fometimes exprefs'd
in the Cornifli by doubling the Let-
ter: As paal, A jfade.
A jeems to have been fometimes
pronounced as E, for ( bejides fome
other injlances) on a broken Mo-
7iument cre&ed about the year 8 jOj
by Concenn [«/. Kyiien or ky-
nan] Prince of Pouys, to be jeen
yet near the Abbey' of Lhan Gol-
hea in Dcnbighlhire, I find the
Country (t/'Po w ys written R oC 510-
juem Pouoi)-.
Au in the final Syllable is to be
read as o: So ma&auc niapchauc,
jiinjjucbaul buticaul, mufi be read
madog var.>;og ihinuedhol , by-
dhygol.
Ai is fometimes pronounced as e.
Ex. gr. Pubej-, caicoiji. Ovid.
Art am.
Ai was ancie7itly written where
we now ufe ac. For in all the old
Copies of Ninnius we 7ievcr find
Caep la City] but Ctip, or Kaip.
B in old Manufiripts has two pro-
nunciations ; for befides the common,
it mufi be jometimcs read as an V
Conj'onant: As gllbm, a beak or
biU ; mopbpan, a cormorant; an-
bODlaun,«»7p;//w^,gcc. mufi be read
gilvm, morvran, and anvodlon or
(as formerly) auvodhlon, which in
S. W. is now pronounced innvoUon.
C excepting in fome few late Cor-
nifli words, as Chacyes, perjited;
Cyte, A City -, Cendel, Fine Lin-
nen, &c. had never the Pronuncia-
tion of s as always m the Englilh,
( and in our Englifi} Vronuntiation
of the Latin) before e aW i. So the
common Proniintiation of this Letter
is as K : but in old Manufiripts the
final a7id atfo very often a middle
c, mufi be read as g. For Truca-
rauc, Merciful; j;ujiej-)auc. Hot ;
LlCiauc angry, ac and, jiac for^,
Saej-nec Engtijh, <iW Guy&elec /-
rijb; mujl be read Trigarog, gu-
rcffog, Ihidiog, ag, rhag, Saefneg,
(b) Cr.d. Lan. in Vita Honorati [five Anarauc] p. %6. Ed. Wynians.
^ Guydheleg.
& Ecclefiam infignem , ubi ip(c
etiam corpore una cum pluribus
Sanftis rcquicfcit ; Jam nunc An-
glorum Gens obtinec, qui locus
ad Provindam Berniciorum perti-
nens, vulgo vocatur Ad candtdam
cafa7n.
The Cambridge Xuvcncus is alfo
undoubtedly either a Cumbrian or
a Pidtifli Manufiript. For the Hand
is perfeBly S>;otilh ; and I am well
ajfur d7io Britan but either a Cum-
brian or a i'ift would ever have
render d the word Canus, as we
there find it CemzhWizh i which is
at this day with a jinall variation
of Orthography [ viz. Cinhach 1
Ca'edonian (or Albanian J Britifli
and (from thence) IriOl A7iy 0-
ther Britan would have "written
Pcnlui" or fomevjhat like it. I am
fi'nfible from the Name [Price] in a
moder7i Hand before it, the Book
came but lately out of Wales to
Cambridge. But 'twas certainly
brought to Wales out of the North,
as were doubt lefs a great many other
Books ( tho' few if any elfe be now
extant ) when a Colony 0/ Northern
Britans ye/?/f^ there about the year
883 (t)-
The fixth is in all Appearance,
from the Hand and fome pajfages in
it, Armoric ." Which feems alfo con-
firm' d by the Author's propofing a
Journey to Tours, the Metropolis
a7icie7itly of the Armoric Britans,
whe7ice Wil. Brito L. 3. Philipp.
Inde iter accelerat Turonis fefti-
nus ad urbem,
Quam gcminum nitida flumen
circumfluit unda,
Hinc Liger hinc Carus.