Adding Bits to Words
Some
nouns and adjectives which are one syllable are turned into verbs by adding a
short ending, such as -a,
-ya, -as, e.g.:
glas green
glassa to become green
grassa to thank, to give thanks
Notice
that the monosyllable, ending in a single consonant, has a long vowel. Doubling
the consonant before adding the ending makes the vowel short. Even without
doubling the consonant, the vowel in the penultimate syllable is shorter.
hasa to scatter seed, to sow
glybya to dampen, to get wet
park a park
parkya to park (or to enclose a field)
leun full
lenel to fill
Where the monosyllable ends in two consonants
the vowel is already short, so there is no need to further double it.
gwask a press, pressure
gwasca to press
Some other nouns and adjectives which are
one syllable are turned into verbs by adding
–he
on the end, e.g.:
glan clean
glanhe to clean
gocky silly
gockihe to be silly
gwadn weak
gwadnhe to weaken
crev strong
crefhe to
strengthen
lowen happy
lowenhe to
make happy
nes closer,
nearer
neshe to
draw nearer, to approach
pell far,
distant
pellhe to
send away, to distance
tewal dark
tewlhe to
darken (something)
Somewhere between 1660 and 1700 Nicholas
Boson wrote “Nebbaz Gerriau dro tho Carnoack”. This starts “Gun Tavas Carnoack
eu mar pell gwadn hez, uz na ellen skant quatiez tho ewellaz crefhe arta…”,
which he translated as “Our Cornish tongue hath been so long in the
Wane, that We can hardly hope to see it increase (rally) again, …”
In
SWFL this would be:
’Gan tavas Kernowek ew mar bell gwadnhes es na ellen scant qwaytyas dh’y weles crefhe arta, …
Here are examples using some of the words
above:
E’n
Gwenton, Yar Rous Vian a gavas has.
In the Spring, Little Red Hen
found some seed.
Nena,
hei a hasas an gwaneth.
Then,
she sowed the wheat.
Ma
loor leun haneth. There
is a full moon this evening.
February fills
the dams for March.
E’n
mettin avarr tho whath tewal.
In
the early morning it was still dark.
And
here are some related Bible bits:
and darkness
was upon the face of the deep
…
ha Düw a dhiberthas an golow dorth an tewlder.
and God divided the light from
the darkness
…
ha’n tewlder ev a greias Nos and
the darkness he called Night
…
losow o ton has the herb yielding seed
[1] this can also
be spelt <grâss> with double ss to show it is unvoiced and a
circumflex to show that it is a long
vowel
[2] pronounced
[haze] – but not with the standard English diphthong!
[3] pronounced
[kreeb]
[4] Gendall has crîb and
crîban
[5] Surfers off
Fistral Beach at Newquay wait eagerly for the arrival of the large wave called
the “Cribba”
caused when the right conditions occur at a reef
off the coast (O.S. maps have wrong spelling).
[6] Gendall also
has crîba
[7] pronounced
approximately as [glabe], RMC spelling (different pronunciation) glyb
[8] pronounced
[CRANEyow]
No comments:
Post a Comment