Friday 22 May 2015

Learn Late Cornish Bit by Bit 80 ( More about Numbers)

A Bit More About Numbers

We have met cardinal numbers used in counting and saying how many. Now we need to look at ordinal numbers, used for putting things in order, in dates, etc.

1          onan[1], üdn[2]                      one
1a        kensa                                     first     
Üdn den, Adam, o an kensa den.    One man, Adam, was the first man.                      
2          dew (m), diw (f)                     two
2a        second, nessa[3]                  second
Thew Exodus an nessa lever an Beybel.        
                                                            Exodus is the second book of the Bible.

3          trei (m), teyr (f)                      three
3a        tryja, tressa                           third

4          pajar(m), peder (f)                 four
4a        pajwora[4]                              fourth

5          pemp                                     five
5ves   pempes                                  fifth

6          whegh                                   six
6ves   wheffes                                  sixth

Ha gorthüher ha mettin o an wheffes dedh.[5]
                                                          And the evening and the morning were the sixth day.

After six the ending –ves (with an occasional irregularity) is used to produce ordinal numbers, the equivalent of English –th.

7          seyth                                     seven
7ves   seythves                                seventh

8          eth                                         eight
8ves   ethves                                    eighth

9          naw                                        nine
9ves   nawhes                                   ninth

To turn a unit into a “teen” you add -dhek a modified version of deg ten. To make it into an ordinal number you soften the –k back to -g before adding -ves[6], the equivalent of adding –th to a number in English:

10                    deg                           ten
10ves             degves                      tenth

11                    üdnek                       eleven
11ves             üdnegves                 eleventh

12                    dowdhek                   twelve
12ves             dewdhegves              twelfth

13                    terdhek                      thirteen
13ves             terdhegves                thirteenth

14                    peswardhek               fourteen
14ves             peswardhegves          fourteenth

15                    pemdhek                     fifteen
15ves             pemdhegves                fifteenth

E’n pemdhegves bledhen a rain Tyber Cesar …[7]
                                    In the fifteenth year of the reign of Tiberius Caesar …

16                    whetek                          sixteen
16ves             whetegves                     sixteenth

17                    seytek                           seventeen
17ves             seytegves                      seventeenth

18                    etek                               eighteen
18ves             etegves                          eighteenth

19                    nownjek                         nineteen
19ves             nownjegves                    nineteenth

20                    ügens                             twenty
20ves             ügensves                        twentieth

After twenty, numbers become complex. When used with a noun, the noun comes after the first component of the number.

21        onan warn ügens                       twenty-one
21a     kensa warn ügens                       twenty-first

Hebma ew an kensa cansvledhen warn ügens.
                                                                This is the twenty-first century.
Hedhyw ew an nawhes dedh warn ügens a vis Me.
                                Today is the twenty-ninth day of the month of May.




[1] pronoun
[2] used before a noun
[3] You can use <nessa> after a noun to mean “the following”, e.g. an seythen nessa “the following week”
[4]  Middle Cornish peswara
[5] Jenesys 1, 31
[6]  - vas in pre-SWF Late Cornish
[7] Luk 3:1 

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