Taking a new look at Cornish grammar 17 (indirect objects)

In our predicate, only transitive action verbs can have a direct object. This can be a noun, a pronoun, a phrase or a clause. (We will revisit them later.) Transitive verbs (but not intransitive verbs) can also have an INDIRECT OBJECT. You must have a direct object before you can have an indirect object.

   In English an indirect object may or may not involve a preposition, but in Cornish we have to use a prepositional phrase or prepositional pronoun. e.g. In English we can say “He gave me a book” or “He gave a book to me”. (Notice the different position of the indirect object.) Our Cornish version must contain “to” before or combined with “me”.

There are two ways you can say “to me”.

prepositional pronoun: dhebm or 

prepositional phrase: dhe vy (this is more emphatic)

Let’s build our sentence. How do you choose a word order? Generally, the more you want to stress a word the earlier you put it in the sentence. So, which is most important; the fact that he was the giver or that it was a book that was given or that it was given to me? We’ll just start with the subject because it is easier.

Ev a ros SWFM Ev a ros	He gave
Ev a ros lever SWFM Ev a ros lyver	He gave a book
Ev a ros dhebm lever. SWFM Ev a ros dhymm lyver.	He gave (to) me a book.
Ev a ros lever dhebm. Ev a ros lever dhe vy. SWFM Ev a ros lyver dhymm.	He gave a book to me.
Ma va o rei dhebm lever. SWFM Yma ev ow ri dhymm lyver.	He is giving me a book.

Here are the rest of the prepositional pronouns for dhe (omitting some alternative forms):

dhebm SWFM dhymm dhe vy	to me
dhis SWFM dhis dhe jy	to you (familiar)
dhodho SWFM dhodho dhe ev	to him
dhedhy SWFM dhedhi dhe hei	to her
dhen SWFM dhyn dhe nei SWFM dhynni	to us
dhewgh SWFM dhywgh dhe whei	to you (formal or plural)
dhodhans SWFM dhedha(ns) dhe anjei	to them

Let’s add INDIRECT OBJECTS to some of our previous sentences:

Ma hei o càna cân dhe nei. SWFM Yma hi ow kana kan dhynni.	She is singing a song to us.
Ma hei o tesky dhodhans descans hir. SWFM Yma hi ow tyski dhedha dyskans hir.	She is teaching (to) them a long lesson.
Ma hei o redya lever dhodho. SWFM Yma hi ow redya lyver dhodho.	She is reading a book to him.
Ma va o tanon dhis lether. SWFM Yma ev ow tanvon dhis lyther.	He is sending (to) you a letter.
Ma va o scrifa carten dhedhy. SWFM Yma ev ow skrifa karten dhedhi.	He is writing a card to her.