• Learning Cornish
• Cornish notes for beginners
• Section 3

Cornish notes for beginners by Neil Kennedy

3.1 I am; it is. Description.

You will probably have realised that o ve means I am and that ew means is or it is. We encountered o ve in section 2.1 (social language) with expressions like: tubm o ve: I'm hot, clav o ve: I'm ill. With a few basic nouns and adjectives it is possible to say quite a lot using o ve and ew. See how many phrases you can make. Here are some adjectives to use:

[ Users of Unified and Kemmyn should be aware that Late Cornish makes greater use of emphatic forms like o ve. ]

3.2 What's this? What's that?

The word for this is hemma, occasionally written hebma. The word for that is hedna.

There are also feminine forms of this and that: homma and hodna, which you use when you know something is feminine.

The word for what is pandra. It contains the word for thing – tra / dra.

(Pandra ew may be shortened to pandr'ew or even drew.)

To answer, simply name the thing and follow with ew (is):

Alternatively, you can start with thew:

Thew is the same word as ew. The th simply stops it from producing a question when placed at the start of the sentence.

Peath dha redia

Something to read. Floh is child and an daama is the mother.

Floh: Mabm, Mabm Pandr'ew hedna?

An daama: Pandra?

Floh: Hedna Mabm... war an vrea. Pandr'ew hedna?

An daama: Ah, belin-gwins ew hedna. Onen broaz ew.

Floh: Ew hedna per weer belin-gwins Mabm? Nag ew pecara'n velin-gwins en lever ve.

An daama: Ah, thew hedna onen coath... thew hemma onen noweth.

Build your vocabulary by asking Cornish speakers: Pandr'ew hemma? Pandr'ew hedna?

[ ew may occasionally be written yw ]

3.3 Fatel ew...? How is...? (What is... like?)

Fatel: how is the same word found in Fatla gana why? & Fatel era why keel?

You can practice your adjectives by asking questions about objects:

3.4 Obma

Obma means either here or here is.

Obma ky. Ky bian ew. Nag ew broaz. Here is a dog. It's a little dog. It isn't big.

Obma chy. Chy coath ew. Nag ew chy noweth. Here is a house. It's an old house. It isn't new.

You can use obma when presenting something:

To say here I am / behold me, use otta ve (also written yta ve).

To say that you have got something use ottava for a masculine thing or otta hy for a feminine thing, followed by genam (with me).

3.5 Plurals

There are severals kinds of plural:

• (The commonest)-ow ending. Pronunciation normally a bit like ‘a’ or ‘aw’. Some words have an i in the plural giving -iow
• -as. Mainly used for animals and plants but also some words referring to people
• -s. Mainly for words that have come into Cornish from English or French and which end in an unstressed syllable
• -es. A variation of -s for borrowed words which end in a stressed syllable
• -ian or -ion). Mainly applied to words referring to people
• -y. Mainly applied to words ending in ias/yas which refer to people
• -ath. Applies to a few words referring to family relationships
• Internal vowel changes. e.g. davas: sheep pl. deves, edhan: bird pl. edhen. Many of these apply to animals

3.6 These and Those

3.7 More about ew

In the questions above ew (is) is used to mean are. In Cornish it is correct to say "what is these?", "what is those?". Similarly we say things like: the dogs is running, the books is open etc. In effect ew may translate either is or are. However, you will need to use ens or en'gy when the meaning 'they are' is intended.

Let's look at ew a bit more:

We have already established that we can either start statements with thew or put ew later in the phrase. Look at these examples and try to get a feel for it:

Thew would not normally be used in answer to a question. In answer to pandra ew hemma / hedna? use ew:

3.8 Questions

To ask a question, start with ew:

3.9 Negatives

To say is not/are not use nag ew:

[ Unified & Kemmyn speakers, be aware that nag is used here where you would use nyns/nynj ]

Useful words from above examples: aweadh: as well; po: or.

3.10 The descriptive tense of boaz (to be)

So far we have encountered EW (is/are), O VE (am I / I am), ENS / THENS (they are). These are parts of the descriptive form of the verb BOAZ: to be (& this is sounding seriously like grammar). Here is a summary of boaz:

1. The TH form. Used when the verb comes first:

   tho veI am

   tho chethou art

   thew ehe is

   thew hyshe is

   tho nywe are

   tho whyyou are

   then'gy / thensthey are

   Be aware of the less emphatic forms which may be used where you wish to give less stress to the verb and subject:

   thomI'm

   thoozthou art

   thewhe's/she's/it's

   thonwe're

   thensthey're

2. Without TH. Used when the compliment comes before the verb & for questions:

   o veI am

   o che/ostathou art

   ew ehe is

   ew hyshe is

   o nywe are

   o whyyou are

   ens/en'gythey are

   Again there are less emphatic forms for use when you don't need to stress the subject:

   omI'm

   ooz/osthou art

   ewhe's/she's

   onwe're

   oyou're

   ensthey're

3. With nag. Used for negatives:

   nag o ve nag o che

   nag ew e nag ew hy

   nag o ny nag o why

   nag ens

Note: The forms above are together the descriptive present tense of the verb BOAZ: to be. Use them for describing. In Cornish there are completely different forms of this verb for use when talking about actions and locations.

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