Chapter C: De D

* * * * *

CONSONANTS IN WELSH.

(Vol. ix., p. 271.)

For the gratification of your correspondent J. M., I give you the result of an enumeration of the _letters_ and _sounds_ in three versions of the Hundredth Psalm in Welsh, and three corresponding versions of it in English.

1. From the authorised translations of the Bible, Welsh and English.

2. The metrical version of Tate and Brady, and that of Archdeacon Prys.

3. Dr. Watts's metrical version and a Welsh imitation of it.

_Letters in three Welsh Versions._

_Bible._ _Prys._ _Watts._
Consonants 185 205 241
Vowels 148 165 159
--- --- ---
Apparent excess of }
consonants in Welsh } 37 40 82

_Letters in three English Versions._

_Bible._ _Tate & Brady._ _Watts._
Consonants 220 271 275
Vowels 134 163 170
--- --- ---
Apparent excess of }
consonants in English } 86 108 105

_Sounds in three Welsh Versions._

_Bible._ _Prys._ _Watts._
Consonants 150 173 200
Vowels 148 165 159
--- --- ---
Real excess of consonants}
in Welsh } 2 8 41

_Sounds in three English Versions._

_Bible._ _Tate & Brady._ _Watts._
Consonants 195 241 240
Vowels 122 149 159
--- --- ---
Real excess of consonants}
in English } 73 92 81

From this analysis it appears that the excess of consonant _letters_ over vowels is, in English, 299; and in Welsh, 159, a little more than one-half. The excess of consonant _sounds_ is, in English, 246; in Welsh, 51, considerably less than one-fourth.

This result might readily have been anticipated by anybody familiar with the following facts:

1. On examining lists of the elementary sounds of both languages, it will be found that the Welsh has a greater number of vowels than the English, and the English a greater number of consonants than the Welsh.

2. Welsh diphthongs are much more numerous than English.

3. In English, _three_ vowels only constitute words in themselves (_a_, article; _I_, pronoun; _O_, interjection), and each is used only in one sense. In Welsh, _five_ of the vowels (_a_, _e_, _i_, _o_, _y_) are words; and they are used in at least a dozen different significations. _A_, besides being an affirmative and interrogative adverb, answers to the English _and_, _as_, _with_, _will go_.

4. Diphthongs forming distinct words are much more numerous in Welsh than in English. The following occur: _ai_, _a'i_ (=_a ei_), _a'u_, _ei_, _eu_, _ia_, _ie_, _i'w_, _o'i_, _o'u_, _ow_, _[^w]y_, _yw_.

5. In Welsh there are no such clusters of consonants as occur in the English words _arched_ {472} (pronounced _artsht_), _parched_, _scorched_, _marched_, _hinged_ (_hindzhd_), _singed_, _cringed_, _fringed_, _purged_ (_purdzhd_), _charged_ (_tshardzhd_), _scratched_, &c. &c. From the difficulty encountered in pronouncing some of these combinations, arise the vulgar errors heard in some parts of the country: _burstis_ for _bursts_, _castis_ for _casts_. Three consonants are very rarely thus crushed together in Welsh,--four, never.

6. The Welsh, to avoid an unpleasant hiatus, often introduce a consonant. Hence we have _y_ or _yr_, the; _a_ or _ac_, and; _a_ or _ag_, as; _na_ or _nac_, not; _na_ or _nag_, than; _sy_ or _sydd_, is; _o_, from, becomes _odd_; _i_, to, becomes _idd_. I cannot call to mind more than one similar example in English, _a_ or _an_; and its existence is attributable to the superfluity of consonants, _n_ being _dropped_ in _a_, not _added_ in _an_.

The mystery of the consonants in the swearing Welshman's mouth (humorously described by Messrs. Chambers) is difficult of explanation. The words usual in Welsh oaths afford no clue to its solution; for the name of the Deity has two consonants and one vowel in English, while it has two vowels and one consonant in Welsh. Another name invoked on these occasions has three consonants and two vowels in English, and one of the vowels is usually elided; in Welsh it has three vowels and three consonants, and colloquially the middle consonant is dropped. The Welsh borrow a few imprecatory words from the English, and in appropriating them they _append the vowel termination_ o _or_ io. Prejudice or imagination, therefore, seems to have had something to do in describing poor Taffy's profanities.

In conclusion, I may add that the Hundredth Psalm was chosen for analysis without a previous knowledge that it would present a greater excess of consonants (letters or sounds) in English than in Welsh. I do not believe two chapters from the Bible can be produced, which will show an opposite result.

GWILYM GLAN TYWI.

There is no _k_ in the Welsh alphabet, a circumstance which reduces the consonants to twenty; while a farther reduction is made by the fact that _w_ and _y_ are _always_ vowels in Welsh, instead of being only occasionally so, as in English. J. M. will therefore find that the Welsh alphabet contains but eighteen consonants and seven vowels, twenty-five letters in all.

This, however, I imagine, is not the point on which he wishes for information. If a stranger glances at a page of Welsh without being aware that _y_ and _w_ are, strictly speaking, vowels, he will of course naturally conclude that he sees an over proportion of consonants. Hence, probably, has arisen the very general idea on the subject, which is perhaps strengthened by the frequent occurrence of the double consonants _Ll_ and _Dd_, the first of which is but a sign, standing for a peculiar softening of the letter; and the latter for _Th_ of the English language.

Such an idea might perhaps be conveyed by the following instances, taken at random: _Dywyll_, _Dydd_, _Gwyddna_, _Llwyn_, _Gwyrliw_, &c. But it will be dispelled by an orthography adapted to the pronunciation; thus _Dou-ill_[3], _Deeth_, _Goo-eeth-na_, _Lloo-een_, _Gueer-leeoo_.

J. M. will be interested to know that the Welsh language can furnish almost unexampled instances of an accumulation of vowels, such as that furnished by the word _ieuainc_, young men, &c.; but above all by the often-quoted _englyn_ or stanza on the spider or silkworm, which, in its four lines, _does not contain a single consonant_:

"O'i wi[^w] wy i weu e a,--a'i weau
O'i wyau e weua:
E weua ei [^w]e aia,
A'i weau yw ieuau ia."

SELEUCUS.

In reply to J. M. I beg to ask who ever before heard that consonants "cracked and cracked, and ground and exploded?" and how could the writer in Chambers's _Repository_ possibly know that the drunken Welshman cursed and swore in _consonants_? There is scarcely a more harshly-sounding word in the Welsh language--admitted by a clever and satirical author to have "the softness and harmony of the Italian, with the majesty and expression of the Greek"--than the term _crack_, adopted from the Dutch. There is no Welsh monosyllable that contains, like the Saxon _strength_, seven consonants with only one vowel. There is no Welsh proper name, like Rentzsch, the watchmaker of Regent Street, that contains six consonants in succession in one syllable; and yet the Welsh have never accused their _younger_ sister with the use of consonants which "cracked and cracked, and ground and exploded." But if the Welsh language, with "its variety, copiousness, and even harmony, to be equalled by few, perhaps excelled by none," has no instance of six consonants in succession, it has one of six vowels in succession, _Gwaewawr_, every one of which requires, according to the peculiarity of its pronunciation, a separate inflection of the voice.

J. M. may be assured that the remark of the writer in question is only one of those pitiful "cracks" which flippant authors utter in plain ignorance of Cymru, Cymraeg, and Cymry.

CYMRO.

Marlbro.

I think the following _englyn_ or epigram on a silkworm, which is composed entirely of vowels, will satisfy your correspondent. I have seen it in some book, the name of which I forget. It {473} must be borne in mind that _w_ is a vowel in Welsh, and is sounded like _oo_ in _boot_.

"O'i wiw [^w]y i weu e a a'i weau
O'i wyau e weua;
E' weua ei [^w]e aia'.
A'i weau yw ieuau ia."

"I perish by my art; dig my own grave;
I spin my thread of life; my death I weave."

THOMAS O'COFFEY.

[Footnote 3: The _Dou_ to be pronounced as in _Douglass_.]

* * * * *

SONGS of DEGREES (ASCENTS).

(Vol. ix., pp. 121. 376.)

The analysis of the word [Hebrew: HAMA`ALWOT] (_the steps_), confining ourselves to sensible objects, shows, first, the preposition [Hebrew: `AL], _over_ (=_up_ + _on_); and, secondly, [Hebrew: MA`ALAH], the _chamber-over_. (Neh. ix. 4., xii. 37.; Jos. x. 10.; 1 Sam. ix. 11.; Am. ix. 6.; Ps. civ. 13.) The translators of the authorised version, in using the word "degrees," intended probably to convey the notion of _rank_; but the modern mixed-mathematical ideas lead us of this day rather to think of geographical, barometrical, &c. degrees. That _steps_ is the word most accordant with the ancient notions is evident from the concurrence of the Greek, Latin, Syriac, Arabic, and Ethiopic versions, as also from the Chaldee Targum, alluded to by J. R. G., which has the inscription [Chaldee: SHYR' D'T'MR `AL MASWQIYN DTCHWOMA'], "a song called 'over the _steps_ of the deep'" (Deut. viii. 7.; Ex. xv. 8.). The root of this moral is [Hebrew: `LCH], in the Hebrew and its cognates, and the primitive notion is _to ascend_; from which is formed in Arabic [(ARABIC)], _adscendit in tectum_; in Syriac [(SYRIAC)], _contignatio superior, coenaculum_ (Jud. iii. 23-25.; Luc. xxii. 12.); and the Chaldee [Chaldee: `ALIYT], _pars domus superior, cubiculum, sive coenaculum superius_, Graec. [Greek: huperoon] (Dan. vi. 11.). See Shaw's _Itinerary_, pp. 360-365.

The [Hebrew: M] prefixed is the _participial_ form of the verb, equivalent to the termination _ing_ in English; and converts the verb also into a verbal noun, conveying the generalised idea of a class of _actions_; and thereby the steps, [Hebrew: HM`LWT], _the steppings upward_, literally, which means "the ascents," or "the ascendings."

The ascent by fifteen steps of the rabbins is probably equally apocryphal with the quotations from St. Matthew and St. James (ix. p. 376.); for the same reason (Ex. xx. 26.) which forbad the ascending the altar by steps, would apply still more strongly to the supposed "fifteen steps leading from the Atrium Israelis to the court of the _women_."[4] Although the ground-plans of the temples are well known, their elevations are involved in doubt.

Your journal would not afford me sufficient space for an _excursus_ to establish the suggestion, _not_ assertion, that I have adventured as to the _domestic_ use of the Alphabetic and Degree Psalms, but there is negative evidence that these Psalms were _not_ used in the Jewish liturgy. I will only refer you to Lightfoot's ninth volume (Pitman's edition), where the Psalms used, and indeed the whole service of the Jews, is as clearly set forth as the Greek service is in the liturgies of Basil and Chrysostom.

T. J. BUCKTON.

Lichfield.

[Footnote 4: "Eadem ratio, ab honestate ducta, eandem pepererat apud Romanos legem. Gellius ex Fabio Pictore, _Noct. Attic._, lib. x. c. 15., de flamine Diali: Scalas, nisi quae Graecae adpellantur, eas adscendere ei plus tribus gradibus religiosum est. Servius ad _Aeneid_, iv. 646. Apud veteres, Flaminicam plus tribus gradibus, nisi Graecas scalas, scandere non licebat, ne ulla pars pedum ejus, crurumve subter conspiceretur; eoque nec pluribus gradibus, sed tribus ut adscensu duplices nisus non paterentur adtolli vestem, aut nudari crura; nam ideo et scalae Graecae dicuntur, quia ita fabricantur ut omni ex parte compagine tabularum clausae sint, ne adspectum ad corporis aliquam partem admittant."--Rosenmueller on Exod. x. 26. The ascent to the altar, fifteen feet high, was by a gangway, [Hebrew: KBSH].]

* * * * *

THE SCREW PROPELLER.

(Vol. ix., p. 394.)

ANON. is clearly mistaken in thinking that, when Darwin says that "the _undulating_ motion of the tail of fishes might be applied behind a boat with greater effect than common oars," he had any idea of a screw propeller. He meant not a _rotatory_, but, as he says, an "undulating" motion, like that of the fish's tail: such as we see every day employed by the boys in all our rivers and harbours, called _sculling_--that is, driving a boat forward by the rapid lateral right and left impulsion of a single oar, worked from the stern of the boat. It was the application of steam to some such machinery as this that Darwin seems to have meant; and not to the special action of a _revolving cut-water screw_.

I avail myself of this occasion to record, that about the date of Darwin's publication, or very soon after, the very ingenious Earl Stanhope not only thought of, but actually employed, the identical screw propeller now in use in a vessel which he had fitted up for the purpose; and in which, by his invitation, I, and several other gentlemen, accompanied him in various trips backwards and forwards between Blackfriars and Westminster bridges. The instrument was a long iron axle, {474} working on the stern port of the vessel, having at the end in the water a wheel of inclined planes, exactly like the flyer of a smoke-jack; while, inboard, the axle was turned by a crank worked by the men. The velocity attained was, I think, said to be four miles an hour. I am sorry that I am not able to specify the exact date of this experiment, but it must have been between 1802 and 1805. What Lord Stanhope said about employing steam to work his machine, I do not clearly recollect. He entered into a great many details about it, but I remember nothing distinctly but the machine itself.

C.

* * * * *

AMONTILLADO SHERRY.

(Vol. ix., pp. 222. 336.)

The wines of Xeres consist of two kinds, viz. sweet and dry, each of which is again subdivided into two other varieties. Amontillado sherry, or simply Amontillado, belongs to the latter class, the other description produced from the dry wine being sherry, properly so called, that which passes in this country generally by that name. These two wines, although differing from each other in the peculiarities of colour, smell, and flavour, are produced from the same grape, and in precisely a similar manner; indeed, it frequently happens that of two or more _botas_, or large casks, filled with the same _mout_ (wort or sweet wine), and subjected to the same manipulation, the one becomes Amontillado, and the other natural sherry. This mysterious transformation takes place ordinarily during the first, but sometimes even during the second year, and in a manner that has hitherto baffled the attempts of the most attentive observer to discover. Natural sherry has a peculiar aromatic flavour, somewhat richer than that of its brother, the Amontillado, and partakes of three different colours, viz. pale or straw, golden, and deep golden, the latter being the description denominated by us brown sherry. The Amontillado is of a straw colour only, more or less shaded according to the age it possesses. Its flavour is drier and more delicate than that of natural sherry, recalling in a slight degree the taste of nuts and almonds. This wine, beings produced by a phenomenon which takes place it is imagined during the fermentation, is naturally less abundant than the other description of sherry, and there are years in which it is produced in very small quantities, and sometimes even not at all; for the same reason it is age for age dearer also. The word "Amontillado" signifies like or similar to Montilla, _i. e._ the wine manufactured at that place. Montilla is situated in Upper Andalusia, in the neighbourhood of Cordouc, and produces an excellent description of wine, but which, from the want of roads and communication with the principal commercial towns of Spain, is almost entirely unknown.

The two sweet wines of Xeres are the "Paxarite," or "Pedro Ximenes," and the "Muscatel." The first-named is made from a species of grape called "Pedro Ximenes," sweeter in quality than that which produces the dry sherry, and which, moreover, is exposed much longer to the action of the sun previous to the process of manufacture; its condition when subjected to the action of the pressers resembling very nearly that of a raisin. Fermentation is in this case much more rapid on account of the saccharine nature of the _mout_ or wort. In flavour it is similar to the fruit called "Pedro Ximenes," the colour being the same as that of natural sherry. Muscate wine is made from the grape of that name, and in a manner precisely similar to the Paxarite. The wine produced from this grape is still sweeter than the Pedro Ximenes, its taste being absolutely that of the Muscat grape. In colour also it is deeper; but the colour of both, like that of the two dry wines, increases in proportion to their age, a circumstance exactly the reverse of that which takes place in French wines. German sherry wines are capable of preservation both in bottles and casks for an indefinite period. In one of the _bodegas_ or cellars belonging to the firm of M. P. Domecq, at Xeres, are to be seen five or six casks of immense size and antiquity (some of them, it is said, exceeding a century). Each of them bears the name of some distinguished hero of the age in which it was produced, Wellington and Napoleon figuring conspicuously amongst others: the former is preserved exclusively for the taste of Englishmen.

The history of sherry dates, in a commercial point of view, from about the year 1720 only. Before this period it is uncertain whether it possessed any existence at all; at all events it appears to have been unknown beyond the immediate neighbourhood in which it was produced. It would be difficult, perhaps, to say by whom it was first imported: all that can be affirmed with any degree of certainty is, that a Frenchman, by name Pierre Domecq, the founder of the house before mentioned, was among the earliest to recognise its capabilities, and to bring it to the high state of perfection which it has since attained. In appreciation of the good service thus rendered to his country, Ferdinand VII. conferred upon this house the right exclusively to bear upon their casks the royal arms of Spain. This wine, from being at first cultivated only in small quantities, has long since grown into one of the staple productions of the country. In the neighbourhood of Xeres there are at present under cultivation from 10,000 to 12,000 _arpents_ of vines; these produce annually from 30,000 to 35,000 _botas_, equal to 70,000 or 75,000 hogsheads. In gathering the {475} fruit, the ripest is invariably selected for wines of the best quality. The wines of Xeres, like all those of the peninsula, require the necessary body or strength to enable them to sustain the fatigue of exportation. Previous, therefore, to shipment (none being sold under four to five years of age), a little _eau de vie_ (between the fiftieth and sixtieth part) is added, a quantity in itself so small, that few would imagine it to be the cause of the slight alcoholic taste which nearly all sherries possess.

In consequence of the high price of the delicious wines, numerous imitations, or inferior sherries, are manufactured, and sold in immense quantities. Of these the best are to be met with at the following places: San Lucar, Porto, Santa Maria, and even Malaga itself. The spurious sherry of the first-named place is consumed in larger quantities, especially in France, than the genuine wine itself. One reason for this may be, that few vessels go to take cargoes at Cadiz; whilst many are in the habit of doing so to Malaga for dry fruits, and to Seville for the fine wool of Estremadura. San Lucar is situated at the mouth of the Guadalquiver.

W. C.

* * * * *

RECENT CURIOSITIES OF LITERATURE.

(Vol. ix., p. 136.)

Mr. Thackeray's work, _The Newcomes_, would, if consulted by your correspondent, furnish him with farther examples. For instance, Colonel Newcome's Christian name is stated (pp. 27. 57.) to be Thomas: at p. 49. he is designated Col. J. Newcome. The letter addressed to him (p. 27.) is superscribed "Major Newcome," although at p. 25. he is styled "Colonel." At p. 71. mention is made of "Mr. Shaloo, the great Irish patriot," who at p. 74. becomes "Mr. Shaloony," and at p. 180. relapses into the dissyllabic "Shaloo." Clive Newcome is represented (p. 184.) as admiring his youthful mustachios, and Mr. Doyle has depicted him without whiskers: at p. 188. Ethel, "after Mr. Clive's famous mustachios made their appearance, rallied him," and "asked him if he was (were?) going into the army? She could not understand how any but military men could wear mustachios." On this the author remarks, three lines farther on: "If Clive had been in love with her, no doubt he would have sacrificed even those beloved _whiskers_ for the charmer."

At p. 111. the Rev. C. Honeyman is designated "A.M.," although previously described a Master of Arts of Oxford, where the Masters are styled "M.A." in contradistinction to the Masters of Arts in every other university. Cambridge Masters frequently affix M.A. to their names, but I never heard of an instance of an Oxonian signing the initials of his degree as A.M.

Apropos of Oxford, I recently met the following sentence at p. 3. of _Verdant Green_:

"Although pronounced by Mrs. Toosypegs, his nurse, to be 'a perfect
progidye,' yet we are not aware that his _debut_ on the stage of life,
although thus applauded by such a _clacqueur_ as the indiscriminating
Toosypegs, was announced to the world at large by any other means than
the notices in the county papers."

If the author ever watched the hired applauders in a Parisian theatre, he would have discerned among them _clacqueuses_ as well as _clacqueurs_.

JUVERNA, M.A.

* * * * *

ROLAND THE BRAVE.

(Vol. ix., p. 372.)

In justification of Dr. Forbes' identifying Roland the Brave with the hero of Schiller's ballad, Ritter Toggenburg, I beg to refer your correspondent X. Y. Z. to _Deutsches Sagenbuch, von L. Bechstein_, Leipzig, 1853, where (p. 95.) the same tale is related which forms the subject of Mrs. Hemans' beautiful ballad, only with this difference, that there the account of Roland's death entirely agrees with Schiller's version of the story, whereas the English poet has adopted the general tradition of Roland's fall at Roncesvalles.

Most of the epic poems of the middle ages in which Roland's death is recorded, especially the different old French _Chansons de Roland ou de Roncevaux_, an Icelandic poem on the subject, and Stricker's middle-high German lay of Roland, all of them written between A.D. 1100 and 1230--agree in this, that after Roland's fall at Roncesvalles, and the complete rout of the heathen by Charlemagne, the latter returns home and is met--some say at Aix-la-Chapelle, others at Blavie, others at Paris--by Alda or Alite, Olivier's sister, who inquires of him where Roland, her betrothed, is. On learning his fate she dies on the spot of grief. According to monk Conrad (about A.D. 1175), Alda was Roland's wife. See _Ruolandes Liet, von W. Grimm_, Goettingen, 1838, pp. 295--297.

The legend of Rolandseck, as told by Bechstein from Rhenish folk lore, begins thus:

"Es sasz auf hoher Burg am Rhein hoch ueber dem Stromthal ein junger
Rittersmann, Roland geheiszen, (manche sagen Roland von Angers, Neffe
Karls des Groszen), der liebte ein Burgfraeulein, Hildegunde, die
Tochter des Burggrafen Heribert, der auf dem nahen Schlosz Drachenfels
sasz," &c.

Here the question is left open whether the hero of the story was Roland the Brave, or some other knight of that name. The latter seems the more probable, as Roland's fall at Roncesvalles is one of the chief subjects of mediaeval poetry, whereas the death of knight Roland in sight of {476} Nonnenwerth on the Rhine, forms the very pith of the German local legend. From certain coincidences, however, it was easy to blend the two stories together into one, as was done by Mrs. Hemans. As to Schiller, we may suppose that he either followed altogether a different legend, or, perhaps to avoid misconception, substituted another name for that of knight Roland, similar to what he has done in other instances.

R. R.

Canterbury.

I think your correspondent X. Y. Z. is mistaken in attributing to Mrs. Hemans the lines on the "Brave Roland." In Mr. Campbell's _Poems_ he will find some stanzas which bear a striking resemblance to those he has quoted. I subjoin those stanzas to which X. Y. Z. has referred:

"The brave Roland! the brave Roland!
False tidings reach'd the Rhenish strand
That he had fall'n in fight;
And thy faithful bosom swoon'd with pain,
O loveliest maiden of Allemayne!
For the loss of thine own true knight.

"But why so rash has she ta'en the veil,
In yon Nonnenwerder's cloisters pale,
For her vow had scarce been sworn,
And the fatal mantle o'er her flung,
When the Drachenfels to a trumpet rung,
'Twas her own dear warrior's horn!

. . . . . .

"She died! he sought the battle plain;
Her image fill'd his dying brain,
When he fell and wish'd to fall:
And her name was in his latest sigh,
When Roland, the flower of chivalry,
Expired at Roncevall."