Personal Descriptions 15 (birth month)

In PD 3 we started to talk about age. In PD 5 we learnt how to say how old we are. Now we learn to say when or where we were born. It was a one off event in the past, so we use the past passive (the non-specific preterite <a veu> of boas to be/being with adjective/ past participle <genys> born). The same form is used for all persons.

Me a veu genys en mis Whevrel.	I was born in February.
Wella Gwavas a veu genys en Pensans.	William Gwavas was born in Penzance.

Here are the months of the year:

mis Genver	January
mis Whevrel	February
mis Meurth	March
mis Ebrel	April
mis Me	May
mis Efen	June
mis Goreffen	July
mis Est	August
mis Gwedngala	September
mis Hedra	October
mis Dû	November
mis Kevardhû	December

You may be asked about your birthday or anniversary 

<pedn bloodh (m)>:

Pana dhedh ew dha bedn bloodh?	What date is your birthday? (familiar)
Pana dhedh ew agas pedn bloodh?	What date is your birthday? (formal)
Pana vis ew dha bedn bloodh?	What date is your birthday? (familiar)
Pana vis ew agas pedn bloodh?	What month is your birthday? (formal)

       

You would answer:

O fedn bloodh ew (en)…	My birthday is (in) …
An pedn bloodh vy ew (en)	My birthday is (in)…

You need to use ordinal rather than cardinal numbers with dates, to follow <an> the:

1st  1a	kensa	21st 21ens	kensa warn ügens
2nd  2a	second/nessa	22nd 22ens	nessa warn ügens
3rd  3a	tryja	23rd 23ens	tryja warn ügens
4th  4a	pajwara	24th 24ens	pajwara warn ügens
5th  5es	pempes	25th 25ens	pempes warn ügens
6th  6es	wheffes	26th 26ens	wheffes warn ügens
7th  7es	seythves	27th 27ens	seythves warn ügens
8th  8es	ethves	28th 28ens	ethves warn ügens
9th  9es	nawhes	29th 29ens	nawhes warn ügens
10th 10ves	degves	30th 30ens	degves warn ügens
11th 11ves	üdnegves	31st 31ens	üdnegves warn ügens
12th 12ves	dewdhegves
13th 13ves	terdhegves
14th 14ves	peswardhegves
15th 15ves	pemdhegves
16th 16ves	whetegves
17th 17ves	seytegves
18th 18ves	etekves
19th 19ves	nownjegves
20th 20ves	ügensves

O fedn bloodh ew an wheffes warn ügens mis Whevrel.	My birthday is 26th February.
Pedn bloodh o noyth ew an tryja warn ügens mis Genver.	My niece’s birthday is 23rd January.
Dedh Nadelik[1] ew an pempes warn ügens mis Kevardhû.	Christmas Day is 25th December.
Gool Peran ew an pempes mis Meurth.	St Piran’s Day is 5th March.
Cala’ Me ew an kensa mis Me.	May Day is 1st May.

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[1] Gendall uses Nadelak for Christmas and nadelik or natolaidh for birthday.