The Portland daily press., 1895-01-18
THE LANGUAGE OF WALES.
One of the Oldest Living Languages in
Europe.

Miss Edith Bower in Atlantic Monthly
The Welsbman will tell you that his
beloved accents were spoken in Eden;
that Adam was Welshman; that Eve
never would have understood the devil
cad he not addressed her in Welsh; nay,
one has soberly written it in book thas
Jupiter and Saturn and Apollo wer-
Welshmen. Perhaps they were. Perhaps
Juno and Venus and Minerva were
Welshwomen. / myself am nearly Ger
tain that the god of love must have been
Welsh--tongued. IT SO. these gods ana
goddesses could not have desired a more
dignitied, richly expressive, high-sound-
ing language in which to converse
quarrel, sing, make love, orsfulminate,
than. the pure Cymric affords. 1t has
been well called the most extraordinary
monument of antiquity extant. both
in its structure and affinltles Its evil
dences a most rem ote origin, and IS I'M
doubtedly one of the Oldest living Ian
guages in Europe; while it's literature
carries us further backward than any
modern tongue except the Gaelic. It's
unique system of versitication-whlch
will be more fully spoken OF further on
is found in manuscripts 500 years olo
and had attained it's highest degree of
perfection when every European tongue
that we now know of was in the dark
womb fabratrity." A stately speech 1t
is, trifie stilted at times. The welsh
always having been a literary people,
ina ginative rather than practical, their
speech has naturally been more or less
controlled by literary standards, and
has retained its poetic form ana mayor.
1t presents some curlously opposite TRAITS
That it is essentially the most law-break-
ing of tongues must be named an lmpo-
lite fiction for which apology is owing.
No tongue 10 beautiful in the mouths of
all it's speakeTs; the sweet bastard
Latin" may be vulgarized into fright
full hiss, and in our Southwest L nave
heard Spanish which sounded like the
cracking OF thorns under pot. Cymrlc
well spoken is not unlike the Greek; in
fact, the first time l listened to an adj
dress in it was strongly reminded OF
the latter language, SO rhythmlcal was
it, SO velveGy smooth, then again SO full
of resonant, big mouth words. Yet 1t
has at least one poet1cal composition
that is known as =" the shibboieth of
sobriety,n because no man who is drunk
discord may be piled on discord, until
both ear and soul are rent asunder; and
it is the unlimited capacity of the Welsh
language for producing musical com BIZ
nations of sounds that also gives 1T its
extraordinary power OF cacophony. A
synthetic and highly-infected tongue.
rich in compounds which have the sud
den, direct and telling quality OIL the
Greek compounds, it is capable at the
same time of great conciseness and OF
an almost indefinite expansion and eiab-
orateness of phrase. In it's mum berless
infected forms it shows, OF course, a
lack of full development, but much OF
it's fuidity and beauty is owing TO these
inflecU1ons, which enable the writer Of
Welsh poetry to perform capers in versl-
tication quite beyond the reach of the
versifiers Of any other nationality.
Not the least remarkable thing about
this remarkable language is the love
Iavshed upon it by those to whom it
belongs. The sound OF his mother
tongue is truly dear TO everyone. es-
pecially when he is away from his coun-
try and hearing unknown accents. But
this sentiment is apt to be a mere in
stinctive one expressed in some super
fetal way, as How good to hear the
old home words again! 1t is something
entirely different from the appreciative
critical admiration which the Welshman
bestows upon his dear Cymraeg. Inc
language is a cult with him; he not only
loves, he reverences and adores it-not
lust because it is his own. but for itself
He thinks it the most beautiful thing
in the world; he rolls out its mellif1uous
and resounding words and asks, Did
YOU ever hear anything so glorlcus%
Perhaps it is not too much to say that
he woud die for it.