Saturday 12 November 2016

Taking a new look at Cornish grammar 14 (forms of verbs)

Here are the verbs we have used so far, in the three tenses we have used. (Some gaps are filled in for the sake of completeness, though they are not all equally useful in real life).
You may be able to spot some patterns emerging, though some verbs are irregular. After the continuous verbal particle (which you may see as o, ow or owth) the initial letter of some verbal nouns (affected ones shown in brackets) hardens (“provection” in linguistic terms), e.g. b to p, d to t, and g to q (or k in SWFM). 
SWFM “main form” is only shown if it looks significantly different. 
In the present-future and in the preterite (simple past tense), following the relative verbal particle a, some of the same initial letters soften, e.g. d to dh1. In the present-future the verb is reduced to its stem and the preterite generally ends in as (apart, of course, from the irregular verbs).
In rapid Late Cornish speech the verbal particles are often dropped.
present continuous
(3rdperson)
present future
preterite
(simple past tense)
ma … o toas (doas)
SWFM yma … ow tos
…is/are coming
a dheu
come(s)
a dheuth
came
ma … o moas
SWFM yma  … ow mos
…is/are going
â
go(es)
eth
went
ma … o preujy (breujy)
SWFM yma … ow preusi
is/are judging
a vreus

judge(s)
a vreusas

judged
ma … o càna
SWFM yma  … ow kana
…is/are singing
a gân
sing(s)
a gànas
sang
ma … o clanhe
SWFM yma  … ow klanhe
…is/are cleaning
a glan
clean(s)
a lanhas
cleaned
ma ... o còsca
SWFM yma  … ow koska
...is/are sleeping
a gòsk
sleep(s)
a gòscas
SWFM a goskas

slept

ma … o tesky (desky)
SWFM yma  … ow tyski
…is/are teaching
a dhesk
SWFM a dhysk

teach(es)
a dheskas
SWFM a dhyskas

taught
ma … o tewis
(dewis)
SWFM yma  … ow tewis
is/are choosing
a dhewis

choose(s)
a dhewisas

chose
ma … o qwary
(gwary)
SWFM yma  … ow kwari
…is/are playing
a wary
SWFM a wari

play(s)
a warias
played
ma … o pònya
SWFM yma  … ow ponya
…is/are running
a bònya

run(s)
a bònyas
ran
ma … o redya
SWFM yma … ow redya
…is/are reading
a red
read(s)
a redyas
read
ma … o resek
SWFM yma … ow resek
…is/are running or racing
a res
run(s)or race(s)
a resas
ran or raced

[1] In all forms of Cornish, <dh> is pronounced like a voiced <th> in English, as in “this”, “that”, etc. 

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