Thursday 8 January 2015

Learn Late Cornish Bit by Bit 18 (Quantities of things)

Quantities of things

Some quantities imply that the original has been divided up, e.g.

tabm tesen                          a piece of cake
tabm bara                            a slice of bread

con (m)                                 sugar
loas[1] con                           a spoonful of sugar

Now the letter <a> makes another appearance. It also means of, widely used in English when dealing with quantities. The examples above, tabm and loas are a bit unusual[2], because you do not need to translate of. Most other quantities do require the use of <a> of, e.g.

gwedren                              a glass
leth                                      milk
gwedren a leth                   a glass of milk
sugen                                  juice
gwedren a sugen               a glass of juice

We can combine this with part of our previous lessons, e.g.

Ma gwedren a leth war an bord. There is a glass of milk on the table.

Some consonants after <a> show soft mutation, whether they are masculine or feminine, e.g.

boos (m)                               food
fardel a voos                        a packet of food

dowr (m)                               water
gwedren a dhowr[3]            a glass of water

gwin (m)                               wine
gwedren a win                     a glass of wine

mel (m)                                 honey
pot a vel                               a pot of honey

Without the <a> the following noun simple acts as an adjective, and only mutates after a feminine noun, e.g.

pot (m)                                   a pot
botel (m)[4]                            a bottle
fardel (m)                              a packet
gwedren (f)                           a glass
lo (f)                                       a spoon

mel                                        honey
pot mel                                 a honey pot

gwin                                      wine
botel gwin                             a wine bottle

boos                                      boos
fardel boos                           a food packet

gwin                                      wine
gwedren win                         a wine glass

con                                        sugar
lo gon                                   a sugar spoon

   You also need <a> if you want to say <full of> something, e.g.

leun[5]                                   full
leun a                                    full of
leun a leth                             full of milk
leun a sugen                        full of juice
leun a dhowr                        full of water
leun a win                             full of wine
leun a voos                          full of food



[1]  This is actually two syllables – pronounced like /lo-az/ with the stress on the first syllable.
[2] We also have <bolla de> for a cup of tea
[3] This should rhyme with English “mower” rather than with “flour”
[4] Loan word, so no agreement on gender. Gendall has <bottel> (f).
[5] Pronounced like English [lane]

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