2025 Day 52

2025 Dedh Dewdhek ha Dewgens

 

De Gwener, kensa warn ügens mis Whevrel

Friday, 21st February

Continuing our look at bos locative. 

Yma and Ma are third person affirmative, either singular or plural, used with nouns, names, pronouns, etc., as subjects. 

Yma ki yn lowarth. Or Ma kei en lowarth  

"There is a dog in a garden" is a positive statement. 

For the plural “There are dogs in a garden” we have 

Yma keun yn lowarth. Or Ma keun en lowarth. 

We do not use Yma or Ma for simple non-specific questions such as  

“Is there a dog in a garden?” 

Instead we need Eus? 

Eus ki yn lowarth? Or Eus kei en lowarth? 

Are there (any) dogs in a garden? 

Eus keun yn/en lowarth? 

There may be differences in pronunciation,  

but listen to one on YouTube in Gwenno’s entertaining song “Eus Keus?” (Is there any cheese?)  

A negative answer needs a negative particle,  

in MC this is Nag or Nyns 

In the later period these fell together,

so LC Nag 

Eus kei? Is there a dog? 

Nag eus! No! - in response to a question 

Nyns eus ki yn lowarth. Or

Nag eus kei en lowarth. 

There isn’t a dog in a garden.}

There’s no dog in a garden.} 

 

Nyns eus ki; yma hogh.

Nag eus kei; ma hogh. 

There isn’t a dog; there is a pig. 

A negative question uses the interrogative particle A. 

A nag eus kei? Isn’t there a dog? 

You cannot use eus or nag eus in sentences with the ..ow particle and a secondary verb.

Instead, the interrogative equivalent

of yma is usi   

and of ma is üjy 

These illustrate another east-west evolution, the change of pronunciation s > j 

Remember Polly Joke or Porth Joke? That started off as Porth Losowek or Plant-rich Cove. Pronunciation evolved to Porth Lojowek, then to Po(rth)lo jowek as people forgot where one word ended and the next began.

Yma hogh yn lowarth.

Ma hogh en lowarth.  

There’s a pig in a garden. 

Usi an hogh ow palas?

Üjy an hogh ow palas?  

Is the pig digging? 

Nyns usi an hogh ow palas.  

Nag üjy an hogh ow palas. 

The pig is not digging. 

Yma an hogh ow koska.

Ma’n hogh ow còsca. 

The pig is sleeping. 

The difference between koska and còsca illustrates one difference between “Main Form” and traditional graphs. The sound is the same. 

Below, I continue my explanation of differences between varieties of Cornish:

The Cornish language retreated westward, evolving as it went. It continued as a spoken language long after it ceased to be a consistently written language. Up until Tudor time there had been a “scribal tradition” maintained at Glasney College. Cornish was used to teach the Bible stories to the masses (although Latin was used for ecclesiastical purposes). The various plays of the Ordinalia provide us with a good idea of what Middle Cornish looked like. We have to guess at pronunciation. Of course, spoken language may have been drifting. Perhaps pre-occlusion had been creeping in, even if it wasn’t written. The Dissolution of the Monasteries by Henry VIII in 1548 saw the end of the scribal tradition and after that spelling had to take care of itself. Later writers tried to write as it sounded to them, using whatever spelling system was available. Without a printed Bible or Book of Common Prayer they didn’t have an “official” version.  

Around 1700 Edward Lhuyd and assistants spent several months recording the spoken language in a phonetic spelling system he devised (the fore-runner of the International Phonetic Alphabet). This and surviving place names give us a good idea of Late Cornish pronunciation. 

  This all leads us to the need for a Standard Written Form in the 21st Century. The language has been resurrected several times, using texts from different eras as the foundation, with or without Lhuyd’s influence. We were never going to agree on a Single Written Form, so the current SWF is a compromise. The “Main Form” which is for “official” use and most teaching purposes, is the earlier Middle Cornish, heavily influenced by Lhuyd. There are other forms of Middle Cornish that favour traditional graphs. Late Cornish has settled on the later variants of SWF with traditional graphs. So I try to illustrate the two extremes, acknowledging that there are intermediate versions. 

But Cornish is still one language. Let nobody tell you that one version is wrong. We don’t all speak the same “King’s English”!