Taking a new look at Cornish grammar 28 (indefinite pronouns)

Now it is time to have another look at SUBJECT. We had an initial look at personal subject pronouns in earlier lessons. These are used when we know who (or what) the subject is. 

Here is a summary to remind you of ones you are likely to see.

person	before verb	after verb	attached (if used) to the end of the verb
I	me SWFM my	vy	-ma
you/thou (familiar)	te or che SWFM ty	che	-ta
he	ev	va or ev	-va
she	hei SWFM hi	hei
we	nei SWFM ni	nei
you (plural or formal)	whei SWFM hwi	whei
they	anjei SWFM i	anjei

We have also looked at demonstrative pronouns:

hedna	that (m)	hebma	this (m)
hodna	that (f)	hobma	this (f)
an re na	those	an re ma	these

To these we can add

aral	another
re erel	other ones
an re aral	the other one
an re erel (may be contracted to a’r’erol)1	the other ones

Sometimes, though, our knowledge is imprecise, so we need INDEFINITE pronouns. Look out for some little words: onan (or sometimes hüny) one (den man may also be used in this context) and tra or peth (SWFM pyth) thing. These are preceded by a few other indicators: e.g. neb some, pub each/every, keniver every, kettep every, lies many. There are a number of different, equally valid, combinations, e.g.

nebonan[2]	someone, somebody, anyone, anybody
neb tra	something
neb peth	something
neppeth, nepeth SWFM neppyth	something
pubonan	everyone, everybody
pub tra	everything
keniver onan	everyone, everybody
keniver tra	everything
kettep hüny	everyone
lies onan	many people
lies tra	many things
lies hüny	many people

Let us look at some positive examples with a location or action in the predicate:

Ma nebonan e’n chei. SWFM Yma nebonan y’n chi.	There is somebody in the house. or Someone is in the house.
Ma nebonan o toas. SWFM Yma nebonan ow tos.	There is someone coming. or Somebody is coming.
Ma neppeth e’n copart. SWFM Yma neppyth y’n kopart.	There is something in the cupboard.
Ma keniver onan obma. SWFM Yma keniver onan omma.	Everyone is here.
Keniver tra a godhas dhe’n dor.	Everything fell down.
Kettep hüny eth dhe’n shoppys.	Everyone went to the shops (went shopping).
Thera lies tra war an bord. SWFM Yth esa lies tra war an voos.	There were many things on the table.

We can also use them in questions:

Eus nebonan ena?	Is there anybody there? Is anyone there?
A wra pub onan doas dhe’n kescussülyans? SWFM A wra pub onan dos dhe’n keskussulyans?	Will everyone come to the conference?
A wrüg pub tra fyllel?	Did everything fail (go wrong)?

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[1]  Gendall has an rerol for "the others".
[2] Nebonan may be used in a positive statement or a question with a slightly different interpretation.