Taking a new look at Cornish grammar 11 (more nouns)

 We need to increase our vocabulary in order to be able to construct even more sentences. The following lists contain masculine and feminine nouns which can be used as subjects: some you have already seen plus some new ones. The feminine singular nouns (and masculine plurals to do with people) also show the mutated form after the definite article an.

masculine nouns		feminine nouns
bagas pl. bagasow	group, band, bush	bejeth an vejeth pl. bejethow	face
blew sing. blewen	hair, fur	benyn an venyn pl. benenes	woman
bord pl. bordys the favoured word in SWFM is feminine moos (an voos) pl. mosow	table	bûgh  an vûgh pl. bûhes SWFM bugh (an vugh) pl. bughes	cow
broder pl. brederedh an vreder	brother	cath  SWFM kath an gath pl. cathes SWFM pl. kathes	cat
corf pl. corfow SWFM korf pl. korfow	body	dama  an dhama pl. damyow	mother
côta pl. côtys SWFM kota pl. kotys, kotow	coat	davas an dhavas pl. deves	sheep (ewe)
den pl. tüs an düs SWFM pl. tus an dus	man	edhen  pl. edhyn, edhnow SWFM pl. ydhyn	bird
descader or descajor pl. descadoryon an dhescadoryon SWFM dyskador pl. dyskadoryon an dhyskadoryon	teacher	gaver  an aver pl. gever	goat
dowr pl. dowrow	river, water	gwedhen  an wedhen coll. gwedh SWFM coll. gwydh	tree
flogh pl. flehes SWFM pl. fleghes	child	gwenenen  an wenenen coll. gwenen	bee
kei SWFM ki pl. keun	dog	mabm an vabm pl. mabmow SWFM mamm an vamm pl. mammow	mother, mum
mab, maw pl. mebyon an vebyon	son, boy	mergh an vergh pl. merhes SWFM myrgh an vyrgh pl. myrghes	daughter
sîra pl. sîrys SWFM sira pl. sirys tas pl.tasow an dasow	father	scavel  pl. scavellow SWFM skavel pl. skavellow	chair, stool
stüdhyer pl. stüdhyoryon SWFM studhyer pl. studhyoryon	student	hôr  pl.wherydh,  horydh SWFM hwor pl. hwerydh	sister

 

Taking a new look at Cornish grammar 10 (more adverbs for predicate)

We have used the locative version of the verb “to be” with “here” and “there”. These are adverbs of place that can be used with other verbs as well to form the predicate. However, when “there” involves movement, a definite change of location, it is better to use bys dei rather than ena. And when living things rather than rivers are running it is better to use pònya.  e.g.

Ma cath o pònya ena. SWFM Yma kath ow ponya ena. or Yma kath ow ponya bys dei.	A cat is running there.
Flehes a wary obma. SWFM Fleghes a wari omma.	Children play here.
Nei eth bys dei. SWFM Ni eth bys dei.	We went there.
Ma’n bagas a ganas obma. SWFM Yma’n bagas a ganas omma.	The group sang here.

There are plenty of ways to make our predicate more informative, using adverbs (or adverb phrases) of time, e.g.

Ma cath o pònya ena lebmyn. or Ma cath o pònya bys dei lebmyn. SWFM Yma kath ow ponya ena lemmyn. or SWFM Yma kath ow ponya bys dei lemmyn.	A cat is running there now.
Flehes a wary obma war an Sadorn. SWFM Fleghes a wari omma war an Sadorn.	Children play here on Saturdays.
Nei eth bys dei de. SWFM Ni eth bys dei de.	We went there yesterday.
Ma’n bagas a ganas obma newher. SWFM Yma’n bagas a ganas omma nyhewer.	The group sang here last night.

In English, if we want an adverb to describe how something is done, we can often add “-ly” to the end of an adjective, e.g. sweetly, strangely, quickly. In Cornish there are several different ways.

We can put en (SWFM yn) in front of an adjective (though for some adverbs we sometimes omit the en), e.g.

lel	faithful
en lel SWFM yn lel.	faithfully  (a useful sign off for a formal letter)
üskis	quick, fast
(en) üskis SWFM (yn) uskis.	quickly, fast

Or we can put der vaner or dre vaner before an adjective (a good method if you are not sure), e.g.

coynt SWFM koynt	strange
der vaner coynt SWFM dre vaner koynt	strangely (in a strange manner)
stout	brave
der vaner stout SWFM dre vaner stout	bravely (in a brave manner)
teg	beautiful
der vaner teg SWFM dre vaner teg	beautifully (in a beautiful manner)

Here are some sample sentences showing expanded predicates. English and Cornish versions often have different numbers of words:

Ma Mester Gov o tesky der vaner coynt. SWFM Yma Mester Gov ow tyski dre vaner koynt.	Mr. Smith is teaching very strangely.
An bagas a ganas der vaner teg. SWFM An bagas a ganas dre vaner teg.	The group sang beautifully.
Cathes a bònya (en) üskis. SWFM Kathes a bonya (yn) uskis.	Cats run fast.