Learn Late Cornish Bit by Bit 29 (Pronouns 5)

Pronouns 5

We can now complete our list of personal pronouns:

We already have singular individuals:

me, vy                    I

ev, e’, va                he

whei                       you (formal)

hei                          she

And  plurals:

nei                          we

whei                       you (plural)

Now we can add:

che[1]                    you (2^nd person singular familiar)

anjei                       they (3^rd person plural)

We can use both of these with the descriptive form of boas be, being.

With adjectives we can get sentences such as the following:

Putting the important thing first:

Wheg o che[2].       You are sweet.

Drog ens[3].            They are bad.

Starting with the verb to form a question:

O che yeyn?          Are you cold?

Ens tobm?             Are they hot?

Using the verbal particle th to prevent the sentence from being a question:

Tho che teg.          You are beautiful.

Thens leun.           They are full.

Replacing th with nag to produce a negative statement:

Nag o che vas.       You are not good.

Nag ens dhe les.    They are not interesting.

                                

As before, they can be used after a noun to indicate possession, the only mutation being that caused by the definite article:

an dhama che          your mother

an te che                  your tea

an lever che             your book

an kei anjei               their dog

an chei anjei             their house

an treven anjei         their houses

If the latter phrases are used as the subject of sentences they take ew, e.g.:

Da ew an dhama che.        Your mother is good.

Dhe les ew an lever che.   Your book is interesting.

Drog ew an kei anjei.         Their dog is bad.

Teg ew an treven anjei.    Their houses are beautiful.

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[1] which evolved from emphatic MC tejy

[2]  Instead of o che, we can use os ta,  an earlier, less emphatic form for you are.

[3]  For they are we can also use a more emphatic en’jei. In Middle Cornish you will see yns i.