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

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[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]