довим Whishawi A COMPENDIOUS WELSH GRAMMAR, OR A SHORT AND EASY INTRODUCTION TO THE WELSH LANGUAGE; WITH A Copious Alphabetical Table of Particles, SHEWING THEIR PROPER EFFECTS ON THE INITIALS TO WHICH IS ADDED A SHORT ENGLISH AND WELSH VOCABULARY, AND FAMILIAR DIALOGUES. BY THE LATE REV. W. GAMBOLD, THE language methodized in this small manual is such as needs not that any should enlarge on the praise or antiquity of it; for whosoever considers it, will be forced to confess, that not any language this day in Europe is more copious and independent than it; and whosoever knows any thing of history, will acknowledge that it is as ancient, to say no more, as the Aborigines of Great Britain. Its misfortune is, that it is not at all known in foreign countries, unless in a small province of France; and very little known in this our own island, the principality of Wales only excepted. Yet herein the language as well as proprietors, did but share in the common fate of all conquered nations; for it is very obvious that the language of such must as well give way to the language of the conquerors, as the necks of the inhabitants must truckle under the yokes of their subduers. The inextensiveness therefore of any language cannot, in justice or reason, be improved to the prejudice of its intrinsic worth. So that taking it for granted, that all men, who know any thing of the British or Welsh Language, will readily give their suffrage for its antiquity, copiousness, and independence. I shall therefore only add a word or two, to remove the most popular as well as plausible prejudice this language doth labour under. There are some, and those not the least learned in the English nation, who, judging it a preposterous chasm in the course of their studies, to be ignorant in the primitive language of their own country; and charmed with the masculine force and sound of the Welsh Language, have bestowed some thoughts upon it; and as many as have applied themselves thereunto with a requisite resolution, have in a short time become great proficients in it; while others, who made fainter applications, have had their spirits damped, and dropping their studies with disdain, have laid the whole blame on the uncouthness and ungrammaticalness of the language. But that these gentlemen have been very much mistaken, it is hoped the following treatise will evince. It will teach them that both the parts and the construction of the Welsh Language are limitted to certain easy and unalterable rules; and those perhaps fewer in number than are incident to any other language. I must confess myself much beholden to those two great oracles of the British Language, both the Dr. Davies's; whose learned Grammars furnished me with some rules and many excellent hints; which, with some remarks I had myself made on the language before I consulted those books, have improved the treatise to the bulk wherein it offers itself now to thy view. If thou hast those Grammars by thee, compare them with this; and thou shalt find that I have omitted nothing contained therein, which I thought necessary to illustrate a grammatical work; but that I have added several things by them omitted; which, how pertinently, is humbly submitted to the opinion of my countrymen; who, it is presumed, are best able to judge of the performance. April 14, 1724. W. GAMBOLD. |
