Learn Late Cornish Bit by Bit 75 (Prepositions with Pronouns)

A Bit About Prepositions with Pronouns

We have seen that prepositions can be used with separate pronouns, e.g.:

dhe vy                                             to me

Ma barv gwydn dhe vy.                 I have a white beard. 

gena vy                                           with me

Gwin gwydn ew da gena vy.        I like white wine.

This is a rather emphatic way of speaking. A more neutral way, with less stress on the person, is to combine the preposition and the pronoun. Using the combined version makes the other part of a sentence more important. Each preposition has its own set or paradigm, e.g.:

dhe vy > dhebm[1]                        to me

dhe che > dhis                               to you (singular familiar)

dhe ev > dhodho                           to him, to it(m)

dhe hei > dhedhy                          to her, to it(f)

dhe nei > dhen                              to us

dhe whei > dhewgh, dhew’          to you (formal or plural)

dhe anjei > dhodhans                   to them

Ma diw hôr dhebm.                     I have two sisters. (… 2 sisters to me)

Dedh da dhis.                                 Good day to you.

Mettin da dhew’.                             Good morning to you.

gena vy > genama > genam[2]     with me, by me

gena chy > genes                           with you, by you (singular familiar)

gans ev, ganj ev > ganjo[3]            with him, by him

gans hei > gensy > genjy[4]           with her, by her

gena nei > genen                            with us, by us

geno whei > genowgh, genow’   with you, by you (formal or plural)

gans anjei > ganjans[5]                   with them, by them

Fatla genes?                        How are you? (How is it with you?)

Duw genow’.                        Goodbye. (God with you.)

Fatla genjy?                         How is she? (How is it with her?)

Ma drog pedn[6] genjy.      She has a head ache.

                                             (There is a headache with her.)

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[1] Middle Cornish dhymm

[2] Middle Cornish genev

[3] Middle Cornish ganso

[4] Middle Cornish gensi

[5] Middle Cornish gansans or gansa

[6] <drog> here is the noun for pain or something bad, <pedn> says what it is of. With word order the other way round <pedn drog> it means something completely different – someone who is evil minded, cruel, etc.

Fatel ew an awel?

Fatel  ew an gewer hedhyw? Thera glaw e’n nos bes lebmyn niwlek ew. Na ellama gweles an mor hedhyw. Ma va ena, me a 'or. Me ell y glowes e’n pelder, bes cüdhys ew gans an niwl. Nag ew hei yeyn. Martesen an niwl a vedh leskys dhe ves. Me a ell clowes awhesidhes e'wedh bes nag eus edhen veth dhe voas gwelys.

Learn Late Cornish Bit by Bit 74 (A Bit About Gender)

A Bit About Gender

We know that nouns in Cornish can be either masculine or feminine, but how (apart from the obvious ones, such as den man and benyn woman) do we know which is which?  

Some masculine words have a feminine equivalent ending in -es (similar to adding –ess in English). So lew lion becomes lewes lioness.

Other examples include:

abas                                                  abbot

abases                                              abbess

arlòdh                                               lord

arlòdhes                                           lady, duchess

descador                                          teacher (m)

descadores                                      teacher (f)

gwarior                                             actor, player (m)

gwariores                                         actress, player (f)

car                                                     relation, relative (m)

cares                                                 female relative (f)

carer                                                 lover (m)                                            

carores                                             girlfriend, female lover (f)

maw                                                  boy

mowes[1], mos                                girl

mester                                               master

mestres                                             mistress

metêrn[2]                                           king

metêrnes                                           queen

ôst                                                      host

ôstes                                                  hostess

and, of course: 

Kernow                                               Cornishman

Kernowes                                           Cornishwoman

 moas dhe’n mor en servis an Vetêrnes[3]                                                                                                  to go to sea in service of the Queen

rag an Arlòdhes an wlas Kernow[4]                                                                                                                      for the Duchess of the land of Cornwall

Pandra ven’ta gwil gen ôst an chei?[5]

                        What do you want to do with the host of the house (i.e. landlord)?

Obma ma ’gan ôstes nei, ha yonk ew hei…  

                                                              Our hostess is here, and she is young…

Ha me o moas war an vorr[6]                          As I was going along the road

me mettias gen mos ha clav o hy thor.[7]                                                                                                          I met a girl with a sick belly (pregnant!)

…thera an Metêrn ha’n Vetêrnes a Golodnow esedhys e’n tron[8] …

… the King and Queen of Hearts were seated on their throne …

Ha’n Metêrn a garas Hester moy ‘vel oll an benenes erel[9] …

And the King loved Esther more than all the other women …

O’whei Kernowes?                         Are you a Cornishwoman?

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[1] This is the version based on Middle Cornish. Gendall has moaz for girl, maid, servant girl. Previous spellings include moes, moas, moaze, mauz, moze, môz, maôz –  similar in appearance and sound to the verb to go.

[2] Middle Cornish spelling myghtern. In Late/Modern Cornish the middle –gh- is not pronounced. Gendall has matearn or matern. Unusually the stress is on the final syllable. [me-TERN] (The circumflex is used to show this unusual stress.)

[3] originally Thomas Tonkin

[4] originally Nicholas Boson

[5] from John of Ramshouse by Nicholas Boson

[6] SWFM fordh

[7] originally verse from Borlase manuscript

[8] from Alys en Pow Anethow, Chaptra 9

[9] Hester 2,17

Learn Late Cornish Bit by Bit 73 (A Bit About Spelling)

A Bit About Spelling

You will be aware of some of the arguments around orthography! For many words it doesn’t matter, because there is no way they can be confused with any other word. e.g. Today hedhyw  has/had a number of other spellings (and pronunciations) – hethow, hithou, hidhu.

However, there are many cases where you need to be more careful with your spelling, or you could convey the wrong meaning, e.g. We have been using hager (SWF spelling) to mean ugly, stormy, evil and other horrible descriptions., hagar (RLC spelling) means the same, so, in this example, varying the final unstressed vowel makes no difference – the pronunciation is schwa anyway. But if you change the first, stressed, vowel you get an opposite meaning:

hegar                                                 lovely, amiable, all things nice, etc.

Tho Cinderella hegar, bes thera diw hager whor dhedhy.

Cinderella was lovely/amiable, but she had two ugly/horrible sisters.

Here are some other words where minor changes alter meaning (and pronunciation). Words ending with one consonant are pronounced with a long vowel, while words ending with two consonants have a shorter vowel:

bal (m) (balyow)                               a mine, dig, excavation

an bal                                                the mine

ball (f)                                               a plague, nuisance

an vall na                                          that nuisance

an Vall                                               the Bubonic Plague

bell[1]                                                war, warfare, bell

pel (f)                                                 a ball

an bel                                                the ball

pal[2]                                                 a spade, shovel

palas                                                 to dig, to excavate

jynn palas                                         a (mechanical) digger

pales                                                  a fish/ice/salt cellar, “palace”

pil                                                       a pile

pyll/pill                                               a creek[3], deep pool

poll                                                     a pool, creek,  top end, pit, etc.

pols                                                    a short time, a moment

pollen düs                                          a swimming pool(for people)

Here are some more place names:

Baldhu                                                black/dark mine-workings

Poldew (Poldu 1446)                          dark pool

Polgooth (Polgoyth 1500)                  goose pool

Polstain (Polstene 1522)                    tin pit

Penpoll                                               head of a creek

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[1] preferred words for war are bresel and cas

[2] pal can also mean fence, fencing, palings, etc.

[3]  so Pill Creek near Falmouth is a bit repetitive! “Tautology”.

Learn Late Cornish Bit by Bit 72 (A Bit About Animals)

A Bit About Animals

There are several words used for animals in general[1]:

best (bestes)                     animal(s), beast(s)

mil (miles)                         animal(s), creature(s)

eneval (enevales)             animal(s)

goodh, gwels                    wild, “of the field”

bestes gwels                     wild animals

godhvil [2] (godhviles)      wild animal(s)

dov                                     tame

milgy                                  “animal dog” i.e. hunting dog, hound

chattel                                cattle

edhen (ydhyn, edhnow)   bird(s)

Here is a quotation[3] from the Bible:

Mes a’n dor etho an Arludh Düw a formyas pub best gwels ha pub edhen a’n ayr … An den a ros henwyn dhe oll chattel ha dhe’n edhnow an air ha dhe’n bestes gwels …

So, out of the ground the Lord God formed every beast of the field and every bird of the air … The man gave names to all cattle and to the birds of the air and to the beasts of the field …

By adding the –va ending we have a place where animals are kept:

milva (f)                                zoo

Ma de’gol dhebm. Me a vedn moas dhe’n vilva rag mires ort an bestes gwels. (or Me a vedn moas dhe’n vilva dhe vires ort an bestes gwels.)

I have a holiday. I will go to the zoo to look at the wild animals.

Other places where you might find animals include:

bargen tir                             farm

gwel, park, garth                 field, enclosure

kew                                       paddock, hollow

crow mogh                          pig sty

bowjy[4]                               cowshed

marghty, stabel                   stable 

keunva, keunjy                   kennel

Here are a few related place names:

Menagissey (Milgysy 1330)   hunting dog house

Tregye (Tregy 1327)              dog(-breeding) farm

Gew (Kew 1456)                     paddock. enclosure, hollow

Porthcew (Porthcue Cove 1813)   enclosure/paddock cove

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[1]  note that they are old borrowings (similarities to Latin) and have plurals ending in –s rather than in the more Cornish –ow.

[2] notice that, although we normally put the adjective after the noun, when the adjective forms a compound with the noun it can come first – this also occurs in place names

[3]  Jenesys 2, 19 ha 20

[4]  Middle Cornish chi for house developed into Late Cornish chei when stressed and on its own, but as an unstressed ending appears as –ty/ti or –jy/ji  (or even –sy/si)

E'n pow an dro

An meppik wheg a vedn omweles war an gentrevogyon dres an ke.