Volume 1

A topographical and historical description of North Wales / [J. Evans].

  • Evans, J. (John), active 1812.
Date:
1819
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: A topographical and historical description of North Wales / [J. Evans]. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    140/518 (page 126)
    dalia, is peculiarly fitted for poetry and oratory. The accent, like its parent the Hebrew, being generally confined to the penultima or last syllable but one, produces often a mono- tony, yet at the same time a dignity of sound ; and the multipli- city of consonants which might be supposed to give it an unu- sual degree of harshness, tends to furnish it with numerous elegancies and varieties in sonorous beauty. The copiousness is unrivalled, principally arising from the multifarious combina- tion of the verbs, each of which has about twenty modifications, by means of qualifying prefixes ; and these possess the double capacity of being either conjugated by inflexions, like the Latin, or like the English, by the aid of auxiliary verbs. From the numerous gutturals it has been termed rugged, and by those unacquainted with its extensive capability might be supposed ill adapted to express soft and melodious sounds: yet that it is adequate’to represent a great degree of softness, the following jjnglyns or stanzas will demonstrate, M ae mi.! o leisian rneluson Mai mel o hyd yin mo]a f'non. Within the concave of the womb is found The magic scale of soul-enchanting sound. O’i wiw \vy i weu e a a’i weuau O’i wyau y weua ; E’vveua yw ei we uia’, A’i, weuau yw ieuau ia. I perish by my art; Dig my own grave, 1 spin my thread of life. My death I weave.* Of its great energy7 and capability of displaying one of the chief beauties in language, the sound corresponding with the- sense, a distich on thunder may serve as a specimen : Tan a dwr yn ymwriaw Yw r taranau dreigiau draw. The roaring thunder dreadful in its ire Is water warring with aerial fire. These \ * This epigram on the silk worm, consists of vowels only, and is perhaps not to be equalled in any language.