Wild Wales

第51章

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第51章

Wild Wales George Borrow

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Wild Wales
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  butkutaandcodadhareonlysecondarywords。TheSanscritpossessestheradicalofkuta,andthatiskuda,toheapup,buttheIrishdoesnotpossesstheradicalofcodadh。TheWelsh,withoutpossessinganywordforahillatalllikecodadh,hastheprimaryorradicalword;thatwordiscodi,toriseorraise,almostidenticalinsoundandsensewiththeSanscritkuda。Tillahouseisraisedthereisnohouse,andthereisnohilltilltheNaraorOmnipotentsaysARISE。

  TheWelshisoneofthemostcopiouslanguagesoftheworld,asitcontainsatleasteightythousandwords。Ithassevenvowels;winWelshbeingpronouncedlikeoo,andylikeuandi。Itsmostremarkablefeatureisthemutationofinitialconsonants,toexplainwhichproperlywouldrequiremorespacethanIcanafford。

  (27)Thenounsareoftwonumbers,thesingularandplural,andafewhaveadualnumber。Thegendersarethree,theMasculine,theFeminineandtheNeuter。Therearetwelvepluralterminationsofnouns,ofwhichthemostcommonisau。Somesubstantivesarewhatthegrammarianscallaggregateplurals,(28)\"whicharenotusedinthepluralwithouttheadditionofdiminutiveterminations,forexampleadar,birds,aderyn,abird;gwenyn,bees,gwenynen,asinglebee。\"Therearedifferentkindsofadjectives;somehaveaplural,somehavenone;somehaveafeminineform,othershavenot;

  themostcommonpluralterminationision。Itissaidbysomethattheverbhasproperlynopresenttense,thefuturebeingusedinstead。Theverbspresentmanydifficulties,andtherearemanydefectiveandirregularones。IntheirregularitiesofitsverbstheWelshlanguageverymuchresemblestheIrish。

  Thenumeralsrequiresomeparticularnotice:forty,sixtyandeightyareexpressedbydeugain,trigain,andpedwarugain,literally,twotwenties,threetwenties,andfourtwenties;whilstfifty,seventy,andninetyareexpressedbywordscorrespondingwithtenaftertwotwenties,tenafterthreetwenties,andtenafterfourtwenties。WhethertheWelshhadeveralessclumsywayofexpressingtheabovenumbersisunknown—somethingsimilarisobservableinFrench,andthesamepracticeprevailsinthemodernGaelic;intheancientGaelic,however,therearesuchnumeralsasceathrachad,seasgad,andnaochad,whichcorrespondwithquadraginta,sexaginta,andnonaginta。Thenumeralsdau,tri,andpedwar,ortwo,three,andfour,havefeminineforms,becomingwhenprecedingfemininenouns,dwy,tair,andpedair。InGaelicnonumeralhasafeminineform;certainnumerals,however,haveaninfluenceovernounswhichothershavenot,andbeforecead,ahundred,andmile,athousand,do,two,ischangedintoda,foritisnotcustomarytosaydochead,twohundred,anddomhile,twothousand,butdacheadanddamhile。(29)Withrespecttopedwar,theWelshforfour,IhavetoobservethatitbearsnosimilitudetothewordforthesamenumberinGaelic;thewordforfourinGaelicisceathair,andthedifferencebetweenceathairandpedwarisgreatindeed。CeathairiswhatmaybecalledaSanscriticnumeral;anditispleasanttotraceitinvariousshapes,throughvariouslanguages,uptothegrandspeechofIndia:Irish,ceathair;Latin,quatuor;Greek,tessares;Russian,cheturi;

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