Saturday 5 November 2016

Taking a new look at Cornish grammar 12 (adverbs from adjectives)

Apart from some loan words, adjectives usually come after their nouns (unless they are in compound nouns – which is a different topic). The same applies to adverbs and their verbs. 

In English we can produce an adverb from an adjective by adding the suffix “-ly”, e.g. bad → badly. There are several methods in Cornish.

As we have seen, one method is to precede the adjective by en (SWFM yn). Particularly in Late Cornish the en is often left out, simply using the adjective as an adverb, and some adverbs do not use en anyway. Soft mutation (examples shown coloured) may occur, whether or not en is evident. (In SWFM yn causes a “mixed mutation”.)

Here are some examples (not all of the English adverbs end in “-ly”). 
Notice that the adverbs I have chosen all apply to the way or manner in which something is done. (Some of them have more meanings than I have shown.)
We will look at other types of adverb in later posts.

adjective
related adverb
cler
SWFM kler
clear
en cler
SWFM yn kler
clearly
da
good
da
en ta 
etta
SWFM yn ta
well
mas
en vas 
vas
SWFM mas
devri
SWFM devri
certain,
definite
devri
en tevri
SWFM yn tevri
certainly, definitely
dien
complete
en tien
et tien
SWFM yn tien
completely
diògel
SWFM diogel
doubtless, secure
diògel
dhiògel
en dhiògel
SWFM yn dhiogel
SWFM yn tiogel
doubtlessly,
securely
glan
clean
glan
en lan
SWFM yn lan
cleanly, completely
glaneth
neat
en laneth
SWFM yn glanyth
(though, yn kempen preferred)
neatly
für
SWFM fur
wise
en für
SWFM yn fur
wisely
lent
slow
en lent
SWFM yn lent
slowly
lôwen
happy, glad
en lôwen
SWFM yn lowen

happily
gladly
spladn
SWFM splann
bright, clear
en spladn
SWFM yn splann
brightly
clearly
trist
trûedhek
sad
trist 
trûedhek
SWFM yn truedhek
sadly
trûan
SWFM truan
trûan
en trûan
SWFM truan
yn truan
üdnik
SWFM unnik
lone
en üdnik
SWFM yn unnik
(though, unsel preferred)

only
üskis
SWFM uskis
quick, fast
üskis
SWFM uskis
en üskis
SWFM yn uskis
quickly, fast

The other way to go from adjective to adverb is to use der vaner  or dre vaner … before the adjective “in a … manner/way”. (Forms der and dre are equally valid - the letter r has a habit of wandering around!)

arbednek
SWFM arbennek
special
distinct
der vaner arbednek
SWFM dre vaner arbennek
en arbednek
SWFM yn arbennek
especially
distinctly
deskys
SWFM dyskys
lettrys
academic
der vaner deskys
SWFM dre vaner dyskys
der vaner lettrys
academically
learnedly
drog
bad
wicked
der vaner drog
SWFM dre vaner drog
badly
gowek mingow 
untruthful
dishonest
treacherous
der vaner gowek
SWFM dre vaner gowek
dishonestly treacherously
own
fair
der vaner own
SWFM dre vaner own
fairly
speitys or spitüs
SWFM spitus
spiteful
der vaner speitys or spitüs
SWFM dre vaner spitus
spitefully



Sometimes there is no direct translation, so you have to take a different approach. Instead of saying “quietly” or “silently” you could say “without making a sound” e.g. heb gül son, heb gwil gîk.

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