Personal Activities 1 (What are you doing?)

We have seen how to talk about things we like doing, things we know how to do and things we do on a regular basis. Now let’s look at how we talk about actions we are doing in the here and now:

Da ew genam gwary golf. Me a or gwary golf. Thera vy o longya dhe gwary golf.

I like playing golf. I can (I know how to) play golf. I usually play golf.

The last sentence uses the “locative” form of the verb <boas> to be, which gives us the continuous present tense for actions.

<Thera vy > I am (Middle Cornish <Yth esov vy>) is used with a verbal particle and the verbal noun of a secondary verb.

The “continuous particle” used is the equivalent of adding <ing> to the end of an English verb to make the present participle.

In SWFM and older RMC the continuous particle is <ow> (<owth> before a vowel). In older RLC it was <a>, pronounced like English indefinite article. In Late Cornish we are now using <o> (with same pronunciation). In rapid speech it may be dropped completely. Its significance is that it causes the initial letter of some following verbs to harden in pronunciation (hard mutation or provection). In the following examples you can see how Late Cornish lends itself to more fluent speech.

Someone asks you “What are you doing?”

Pandr’ero whei o cül? (formal)

Pandr’esta o cül? (familiar)

You might answer:

Thera vy o qwary golf.	I am playing golf.
Thera vy eva cor. (RMC Yth esov vy owth eva corev.)	I am drinking beer.
Thera vy o tebry tesen.  (RMC Yth esov vy ow tybry tesen.)	I am eating cake.
Thera vy eva ola. (RMC Yth esov vy owth ola.)	I am crying.
Thera vy o prijyon oyow.	I am boiling eggs.
Thera vy o cortos.	I am waiting.

In SWF main form the mutations to remember are:

<b> to <p>, <d> to <t>, <g> to <k>.

Using traditional graphs we have:

<b> to <p>, <d> to <t>, <g> (followed by e, i or y) to <k>,<g> (followed by o, u or a consonant other than w) to <c>, <gw> to <qw>.