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THE NATURALISTS' CORNER

PROPERTY SALES !

SOME EARLY ACCOUNTS

LLANSAWEL

CWMAMMAN EISTEDDFOD

USE OF STIMULANTS

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REVIEW.—First Welsh Reader and Writer. By Professor Anwyl, M.A., and the Rev. M. H. Jones. London: Swan, Sonnenschein, and Co. Pp. ix.. 142. 2s. 6d. The volume before us, belonging to the excellent series of Parallel Grammars, forms a com- panion to Professor Anwyl's Welsh Grammar, which appeared some years ago, and has given a great impetus to the scientific teaching of Welsh in the schools and colleges of the Principality. As the title suggests, this volume is intended for students who desire to read and to write Welsh, and it con- tains a large number of valuable and carefully graduated exercises in Welsh based upon the gram- mar in the same series. The book is in three divi- sions, of which the first is introductory and designed mainly to meet the needs of persons who have no speaking knowledge of Welsh. Here initial diffi- culties are ably dealt with, e.g., the pronunciation and accentuation of words, and the initial mutation of words, which is rightly described as the English- man's chief difficulty which perhaps might have been treated in a slightly simpler fashion. A careful study of this introductory section will enable the student to read Welsh correctly, and it has the advantage of being well-supplied with useful vocabularies. In the second part of the book Accidence and Syntax are dealt with, not, however, from the point of view of grammar, but from that of one who desires to read and to write the language with freedom and interest. Many important rules and valuable hints are given with reference to the various parts of speech, and all the usual difficulties of the student are met in this important seortion, which in turn deals with the definite article, the noun, adjective, pronoun, preposition, verbal noun, and the verb. The treatment of the last two themes is exhaustive and admirable in the extreme, and the student will here find considerable help in his attempt to master the difficulties of the Wrelsh language. To this sec- tion is appended a list of revision tests in Welsh grammar; here the student, following the plan of the book, may test his theories by the valuable prac- tice which the answering of these questions un- doubtedly affords. The last section opens with a number of parsing charts; the parts of speech are again taken in order, and the formation and con- struction of. a Welsh sentence are made clear by a most careful and thorough analysis of its parts. Then follows a most valuable practical guide in the form of a list of the same or similar words used as different parts of speech. Nothing is commoner even among those who write Welsh than a confusion be- tween such words as "mae" and "mai," "ar" and "a'r,"1 "yw" and "i'w," etc., but to refer to this list when writing is to deliver oneself from per- plexity and to find a satisfactory explanation for tho right usage in each case. So important is this list that we think it would be improved if the examples were translated in full. Of great value also is the list of errors in Welsh spelling and sentence con- struction, where the orthography and the idiom of the language are discussed and an illuminating com- parison of English and Welsh idioms is given. The book. ends. with two vocabularies, Welsh-English and English-Welsh and a very incomplete notion of the book is formed unless it is stated that it contains ses and is" in fact, largely made up of exercises in translation from Welsh to English and 'vice versa.' The printing and the arrangement of the matter are at once clear and intelligent (we have dsicovercd only one misprint "cae" for "can" on p. 105). and follow the general plan of the series. The book, on account of its authorship, is of interest to readers of the JOURNAL, and it will no doubt find a warm welcome among students of the vernacular in this country. For classes, such as those which were held in Carmarthen last winter, the "Reader and Writer" must be invaluable, and it will lighten considerably the labours of the instructor and pupil alike. Wo are confident that any person desiring to master the Welsh language cannot provide for himself a better 'outfit' for the accomplishing of that task than by procuring this excellent handbook—"the First Welsh Reader and Writer"—and using it in conjunction with companion volume, the "Grammar of the Welsh Language" by Professor Anwvl, who, in collabora- tion with the Rev. M. H. Jones, is responsible for the "Reader and Writer."

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