• Learning Cornish
• Cornish notes for beginners
• Sections 8 and 9

Cornish notes for beginners by Neil Kennedy

8.1 This thing, that thing, these things, those things

This

To say things like: this house, this child, this road etc., just put an (the) before the thing you are talking about and ma after it.

That

To talk about that, just substitute na for ma.

These & Those

To say these & those, just use ma/na with a plural noun:

Note: the apostrophe is optional. It helps avoid confusion with the verb ma and negatives starting with na.

When you want to use an adjective, remember that it comes before the 'ma / 'na.

9.1 Pandra venja why cowas? What would you like to have?

Question: Pandra venja why cowas?

Answer: Me venja cowas... I'd like to have...

Another way to indicate preference is: Gwell ew genam...

A few drinks:

(For these last three it is common to just say whisky, brandy and rum!)

You can also put badna: a drop of or bolla: a cup of before the name of your prefered drink:

9.2 Asking for things

One of the simplest ways to ask for something is to say:

Note 1: pedgy means pray or please and does all of the donkey work in the above examples, enabling us to use a following verb in its unchanged/infinitive form.

Note 2: dhem means to me all in one word. Alternatively you can say dha ve or da ve which places more emphasis on the me.

Alternatively you can use the command form of the verb ry: to give. This is ro.

9.3 Dha, da: to

In the above section you will have seen dhem and dha ve / da ve. Now look at this lot:

Note: You will also see variations of the above forms starting with d, e.g. dem, dez, dodha, dewh, dodhans.

9.4 Pandra ez dha why? What have you got?

Start with ma: there is, name the thing which you have got, and end with dhem / dha ve (see section 9.3).

Similarly you can ask:

You answer in the same way too:

9.5 Illness

You can ask:

You can talk about illnesses in the same way as you talk about physical possessions, i.e. by using the same kind of ma + dha constructions used in section 9.4, e.g. ma annes dha ve, literally there is a cold to me.

Fatla gana why? … Ma pedn droag dhem.

9.6 Having things at your disposal - gen (with)

Gen means with.

If you don't really want to say that you own something but just want to say you've got it with you or that it's at your disposal, use genam or gena ve (with me) instead of dhem (to me):

Gen (with) has got personal forms, just like dha:

Genam and gena ve both mean with me. You can use either but gena ve places more emphasis on me. Similarly, in the table above, the forms in the first column put more stress on the subject (he, she, you etc.)

Questions:

You can use these forms to talk about certain abstact ideas, such as surprise, shame, enthusiasm and sorrow:

9.7 Possession: my, his, her, our, your, their

The simplest way to indicate possession is to put one of the following after the possession in question:

You can start with an (the):

Alternatively you can put one of the following in front of the possesssion in question:

Note: Be aware that a (my), e (his), e (her) and go (their) cause changes to some following letters. Be aware but don't worry about the details at this stage!

You can, for emphasis, use both of the above ways of indicating possession at the same time:

9.8 Dha bew ew hemma? or Pew a beaw hemma? Who owns this?

There is more than one way to answer:

1. Peath ve ew: Something like It's my thing. Similarly, you can say:

   peath why ewit's yours

   peath ny ewit's ours

   Etc. Peath translates thing, matter/subject, affair, concern, stuff and lots of other English words.

2. A more forceful way to say it is:

   thew peath veit's mine

   thew peath hy / evit's hers / his

   thew peath ny / why / angyit's ours / yours / theirs

   In Late Cornish this is a common way of putting things.

3. A similarly forceful way of putting things is Me a beaw...: I own... Similarly, you can say che/ev/hy/ny/why/angy a beaw: I/He/She/We/You/They own(s). This is a bit over the top for talking about routine possession. Save it for when you want to make a point of saying who owns something.

4. The commonest way of talking about possession is to use the the verb boaz with dha or the variation da.

   Dha ve ew

   It's to me

   We've already seen constructions like: Ma hedna dha ve: That's to me.

   Remember:

   dhem / dem / dha veto me

   dhez / dez / dha cheto thee

   dhodha / dha evto him

   dhodhy / dodha / dha hyto her

   dhen(e) / dha nyto us

   dhewh / dewh / dha whyto you

   dhodhans / dodhans / dha angy / dhongyto them

   Remember that we use gen instead of dha when we simply have something with us but it isn't necessarily ours.

   Ma quillan genam.

   There's a pen with me.

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