Verbal particles 2
The locative form of boas is used with
secondary verbs (as in English “He is buying”.). An additional verbal particle
is used with this locative form of boas. In English we form the present
participle by adding “-ing” to the end
of the verb. In Late Cornish we put o[1] in
front of it. e.g.
perna buy
Ma va o perna. He is buying.
kelly lose
o kelly losing
Ma hei o kelly. She is
losing.
o moas going
Ma hei o moas. She is going.
Middle Cornish biased SWF uses owth
in front of vowels, to make pronunciation smoother[4],
e.g.
eva drink
owth eva drinking
Ma va owth eva. He is drinking.
The presence of the verbal particle causes
the initial letter of some following verbs to mutate. Instead of the softening
we have seen before, this time they harden, so different letters are involved.
A full list will be given later, but here are some examples:
doas come
o toas coming
Ma hei o toas. She is coming.
Ma hei o toas tre. She is coming home.
debry eat
o tebry eating
Ma va o tebry
tesen. He is eating a cake.
[1] RMC <ow>. In RLC, if used at all, this was spelt <a>.
Pronunciation is schwa - in other words just an unformed, neutral
vowel. Don’t make it rhyme with [cow].
In conversation it is frequently omitted anyway.
[2] However, the <o>
is not needed if you use the present participle as a verbal noun
(gerund in English), as in “I like buying shoes.”
[3] Single
syllable without pronouncing the <a> component separately. Middle
Cornish <mos>. Pronounced /mozz/
rather broadly. The same vowel combination is seen in only a few other words.
[4] RLC can get
round the problem by leaving it out, especially when speaking! e.g. Mava eva.
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