A Bit About Place
We have
already met some questions asking about place.
Pe le ero whei? Where are you?
Pe
le ero whei o moas? Where are you
going?
Pele
ma an desen? Where is the cake?
All
of which might receive the answer:
Obma! Here!
Whether you
write pe le as two words or pele
as one word it means the same. Pe means what or which and le means
place. It can be used with static
location and with verbs involving location, e.g.:
Pele ero whei o triga? Where do you
live?
Pele veu che mar bel? Where have you been so long?
Pele ma e ew genys Mytern an Edhewon?
Where is he who is born King of the Jews?
Pele can also be used for indirect questions, e.g.:
Do you know where
she is?
Me a wor pele
ma hei. I know where she is.
Na worama pele ma
va. I don’t know where
he is/where it is.
By
putting the little word a meaning of or from at the
beginning (followed by the usual soft mutation) it becomes
abele whence, from where, e.g.:
Abele es’ta devedhys? } {Where did
you come from?
Abele ero whei devedhys?} {Where did you originate?
The
little word le is found in a number of other set phrases for “places”,
e.g.:
et y le in its place,
instead
an le na that place (which then contracts to)
ena there, that place
Eus gwin ena? Is there any wine there?
Nag eus.
Ma dowr et y le.
There isn’t. There’s water instead.
Ma’n gath
dhû ena. The black cat is there.
Hei a
gerdhas ena. She walked there.
By
putting a meaning of or from before le and na
it becomes alena, e.g.:
alena from
that place, thence
Voyd alena! Get out of there! Get out from there!
Similarly
a of/from plus le place and ma this or obma here can be contracted to alebma:
alebma from
this place, hence
Voyd alebma! Get out of here! Get out from here!
In a
statement, lebma can be used on its own, to mean where, e.g.:
Na wrewgh whei ostya en chei lebma vo den coth demedhys dhe venyn yonk.
Don’t stay in a house where be an old man married to a young woman.
Another
little bit of a word (not used on its own) is va. Joined on to the end
of a noun or a verb it indicates where things are found or where something
happens. Here are just a few examples:
dilasva a
wardrobe (i.e. place for clothes)
ger a word
gerva vocabulary
(i.e. place for words)
gweyth work
gweythva factory
(i.e. place for work)
prei clay
priweythva a
pottery
keunva kennel
lever a
book
leverva library
medhek a
doctor
medhegva doctor’s
surgery
gwary to
play
gwariva theatre,
stage (i.e. playing place)
gwia to
weave
gwiasva website
gwisca to
dress
gwiscva changing
room
The usual,
everyday word for place is teller:
En termyn eus passyes thera trigys en St Levan den
ha benyn en teller creiys Chei a Hor’.
In a time that is past (Once upon
a time) there (was) lived in St Levan a man and a woman in a place called Ramshouse.
This is the
start of Nicholas Boson’s C17 tale. Gendall has telhar. The use of lh
is a feature of Late Cornish.
