Tuesday 22 November 2016

Taking a new look at Cornish grammar 18 (indirect objects 2)

In Descans 17 we saw that in the English sentence “He gave me a book” the indirect object “me” could also be “to me”. In another context, “He made me a cake”, the indirect object “me” could be replaced by “for me”. We can do the same thing in Cornish, by using a new set of prepositional pronouns or prepositional phrases.

Ev a wras tesen ragam. or
Ev a wras tesen raga vy.
He made me a cake. or
He made a cake for me.
Ma va o cül tesen ragam.
He is making me a cake.
Here is the set of prepositional pronouns and phrases (omitting a few variants):

ragam or raga vy
SWFM ragov
for me
rages or raga chy
SWFM ragos
for you, for thee (familiar)
ragto or rag e(v)
SWFM ragdho
for him
rygty or rag hei
SWFM rygdhi
for her
ragen or raga nei
SWFM ragon
for us
ragow(gh) or rago whei
SWFM ragowgh
for you (plural or formal)
ragtans or rag anjei
SWFM ragdha(ns)
for them
Here are some examples of their use (and some new transitive verbs). Notice that many of the verbs involve some form of creativity. And remember that you still need a direct object in order to have an indirect object.

Mons o terevel chei ragowgh.
SWFM Ymons i ow trehevel chi ragowgh.
They are building you a house.
Dha dhama a wra gwia frawk rages.
SWFM Dha dhama a wra gwia gwlanek (woolly) ragos.
Your mother will knit a sweater for you.
An limner a liwyas pyctur rag anjei.
SWFM An lymner a liwyas lymnans ragdhans.
The artist painted a picture for them.
Ma hei o scrifa notednow ragen.
SWFM Yma hi ow skrifa notennow ragon.

different meaning from

Ma hei o scrifa notednow dhen.
SWFM Yma hi ow skrifa notennow dhyn.
She is writing us notes. (notes for us)



She is writing us notes. (notes to us)

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