Friday 22 May 2015

Learn Late Cornish Bit by Bit 77 (About Adverbs)

A Bit About Adverbs

So far we have seen a number of adverbs that describe place, e.g.:

obma                                                 here
Ma’n den o toas obma.[1]               The man is coming here.
Ma kei obma.                                   There is a dog here.

ena                                                     there
Ma cath ena.                                    There is a cat there.
Ma den o moas ena.[2]                    There is a man going there.

tre                                                       home, back
Thero’vy o moas tre.                        I’m going home.

Some of them begin with a- meaning of or from, e.g.:

alebma                                              hence, of here
Voyd alebma!                                  Get out of here!

alena                                                 thence, of there
Ma va o toas mes alena.                 He’s coming out of there.

We can add others beginning with a- to our list[3]. Here are just a few examples:

abres                                                 early, on time, timely
adhesempis[4]                                  suddenly
adreus[5]                                           across
ales                                                    away, abroad
arag                                                    forward

Adhesempis Alys a welas conin gwydn.
                                                            Suddenly Alice saw a white rabbit.
Boson eth ales[6] dhe scoll.             Boson went away to school.
Venja whei doas adreus?                 Would you like to come across/over?
An vowes a gerdhas arag.               The girl walked forward.

Rim rag Flehes

Ma o’ sedha war an vos[7] diw heckamol’,
                                                       Two little dicky birds are sitting on the wall,
An eyl henwys Peder, y gila henwys Pol
                                                        One named Peter, the other named Paul.
Kew’ ales Peder! Kew’ ales Pol!  Go away Peter! Go away Paul!
Dew’ tre Peder! Dew’ tre Pol!        Come back Peter! Come back Paul!

We also have adverbs that describe time, e.g.:

lebmyn                                           now
Pandra wra whei gwil lebmyn?   What will you do now?

nena                                                then
Nena Erod a veu engrys.              Then Herod was angry.

de                                                    yesterday
Me eth dhe’n wariva de.                I went to the theatre yesterday.

scon                                                soon
Me a wra doas scon.                      I’ll come soon.

solabres[8]                                      already
Ma va ena solabres.                       He’s already there.

avorow                                              tomorrow
haneth                                               tonight, this evening

old saying (c.f. “One good turn deserves another.”):

Mar medno’whei moas gena vy haneth,
                                                            If you will go with me tonight,
me a vedn moas gena whei avorow.
                                                            I will go with you tomorrow.

We have met adverbs of intensity, which come before an adjective[9], e.g.:

pur                                                    very
Pur lowen o anjei.                           They were very happy.
An gath o drog.                               The cat was bad.
Pur dhrog o an gath.                     The cat was very bad.

re                                                      too
Re leun ew an hanath na.             That mug is too full.
An cota ew costek.                        The coat is expensive.
Re gostek ew an cota .                  The coat is too expensive.

mar                                                  so
Mar gostek ew hebma.                  This is so expensive.

and one that comes after an adjective:

lowr                                                  quite, enough
Fatla genes? Da lowr.                    How are you? Quite well/ O.K.

We can add to these adverbs of frequency, e.g.:

neb pres                                         sometime, at any time
pub pres                                         always, all the time
rag nevra venitha                           for ever and ever
byscath[10]                                     never (in the past)
Hei alja doas neb pres.                 She could come at any time.
Thero’vy pub pres e’n gegin.      I am always in the kitchen.  
Me a’th car rag nevra venitha.     I love you for ever and ever.
Na wrüga vy byscath gweles lever Kernowek.
                                                        I never saw a Cornish book.





[1]  when motion is implied you can use bys obma instead of obma
[2] when motion is implied you can use bys dei or bystei instead of ena
[3] You may see these adverbs written with a hyphen, e.g. a-dhesempis, etc.
[4]  Nicholas Williams gives yn sodyn
[5] Can be followed by dhe  to form a preposition
[6]  Pronunciation stress on last syllable. 
[7]  Middle Cornish <fos> is pronounced the same as <vos> after definite article!
[8]  Current SWF spelling seulabres  does not correspond to our pronunciation.
[9] Remember that they cause a soft mutation of some consonants.
[10] sometimes reduced to <besca>. SWFM bythkweyth

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