Friday, 8 May 2015

Learn Late Cornish Bit by Bit 72 (A Bit About Animals)

A Bit About Animals

There are several words used for animals in general[1]:

best (bestes)                     animal(s), beast(s)
mil (miles)                         animal(s), creature(s)
eneval (enevales)             animal(s)
goodh, gwels                    wild, “of the field”
bestes gwels                     wild animals
godhvil [2] (godhviles)      wild animal(s)
dov                                     tame
milgy                                  “animal dog” i.e. hunting dog, hound
chattel                                cattle
edhen (ydhyn, edhnow)   bird(s)

Here is a quotation[3] from the Bible:

Mes a’n dor etho an Arludh Düw a formyas pub best gwels ha pub edhen a’n ayr … An den a ros henwyn dhe oll chattel ha dhe’n edhnow an air ha dhe’n bestes gwels
So, out of the ground the Lord God formed every beast of the field and every bird of the air … The man gave names to all cattle and to the birds of the air and to the beasts of the field

By adding the –va ending we have a place where animals are kept:

milva (f)                                zoo

Ma de’gol dhebm. Me a vedn moas dhe’n vilva rag mires ort an bestes gwels. (or Me a vedn moas dhe’n vilva dhe vires ort an bestes gwels.)
I have a holiday. I will go to the zoo to look at the wild animals.

Other places where you might find animals include:

bargen tir                             farm
gwel, park, garth                 field, enclosure
kew                                       paddock, hollow
crow mogh                          pig sty
bowjy[4]                               cowshed
marghty, stabel                   stable 
keunva, keunjy                   kennel

Here are a few related place names:

Menagissey (Milgysy 1330)   hunting dog house
Tregye (Tregy 1327)              dog(-breeding) farm
Gew (Kew 1456)                     paddock. enclosure, hollow
Porthcew (Porthcue Cove 1813)   enclosure/paddock cove


[1]  note that they are old borrowings (similarities to Latin) and have plurals ending in –s rather than in the more Cornish –ow.
[2] notice that, although we normally put the adjective after the noun, when the adjective forms a compound with the noun it can come first – this also occurs in place names
[3]  Jenesys 2, 19 ha 20

[4]  Middle Cornish chi for house developed into Late Cornish chei when stressed and on its own, but as an unstressed ending appears as –ty/ti or –jy/ji  (or even –sy/si)

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