Saturday 21 January 2017

Taking a new look at Cornish grammar 27 (reporting verbs)

In English we have many alternative verbs to report speech. We do in Cornish as well, because we spend a lot of time talking about what other people say (or write)! Here are a few of them:
comondya
to command
creia
to cry
garma
to shout
gofen
to ask
gwarnya
to warn
hockya
to stutter
leverel
to say
ola
to weep
scrifa
to write
scrija
to screech
üja
to scream
whetha
to whisper

Here are some examples of how they might be used. (Some of them need the imperative, which we will look at in a later post.)

“Sav!” ev a gomondyas.
“Stand!” he commanded.
Mons o creia, “Ladorn! Ladorn!”
They cry, “Robbers! Robbers!”
“Thero vy obma,” ev a garmas.
“I am here,” he shouted.
An venyn a wrüg gofen, “Piw o whei?”
The woman asked, “Who are you?”
Hei a wrüg gwarnya, “Kebmer with!”
She warned, “Take care!”
Ma’n flogh o hockya, “M-m-m-m-mabmik.”
The child stutters, “M-m-m-m-mummy.”
Me a wra leverel, “Lowen o vy.”
I will say, “I am happy.”
“Nag o vy lowen,” hei a olas.
“I am not happy,” she wept.
Ma va o scrifa, “Hedna ew gwir.”
He is writing (writes), “That is true.”
“Ke dhe ves!” hei a scrijas.
“Go away!” she screeched.
Mons owth üja, “Harow!”
They scream, “Help!”
“Tush!” ev a whethas.
“Hush!” he whispered.

2 comments:

  1. Dedh da! Meur ras, thank you for your blog, very interesting, unfortunately i don't know English, it is hard for me to understand explanations. Tell me please how to say in RLC "who are you": is "piw o whei" and "piw os ta?" indetical. I dont understand: "os ta" RMC = "o whei" RLC? Sorry for my English.

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  2. I learned that hwei is you (plural), how correct to say: piw os ta? in RLC: is "piw o chy?"

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