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Cornish lessons

Cornish 1 - definite article  There is no indefinite article in Cornish, because this is implicit in the noun. The definite article, written before the noun, is an: aval - an apple an aval - the apple Some nouns are masculine and some are feminine, if a feminine singular noun begins with a certain consonant, it mutates after an: gwedhen - a tree an wedhen - the tree You may occasionally come across definite article written as a (only before a consonant) or abbreviated to ’n, using an apostrophe, after a vowel: e'n wedhen - in the tree Ma aval e’n wedhen - There is an apple in the tree.  comment >    2012 AUG-28 23:58 (by Janice)

Cornish 2 - alternative to the definite article  Another short word, that gives rather more emphasis than using an as the definite article, is: udn being the version of number one used before a noun This also causes soft mutation of some feminine nouns: benen - a woman an venen - the woman udn venen - one woman, (a particular woman) Ma udn venen e’n wedhen - There is one woman in the tree.  comment >    2012 AUG-29 00:21 (by Janice)

Cornish 3.1 - preposition en - in  Without a definite article: en tan - in a fire en padel - in a pan en tesen - in a cake en gweli - in a bed Before the definite article or a few other words beginning with a vowel the final n is hardened to t (you would never say en an!) : et an aval - in the apple et an wedhen - in the tree but: en udn wedhen - in a certain tree  comment >    2012 AUG-29 00:31 (by Janice)

Cornish 3.2 - preposition war - on  This causes a soft mutation of some immediate following nouns, whether male or female, singular or plural gladn (f) - a bank war ladn - on a bank daras (m) - a door war dharas - on a door but: war an daras - on the door In numbers, the definite article is abbreviated after war warn - on the dew warn ugens - twenty two ( two on the twenty) deg warn ugens - thirty ( ten on the twenty)  comment >    2012 AUG-29 00:39 (by Janice)

Cornish 3.3 preposition reb - by, beside  Does not itself cause mutation: reb gwedhen - by a tree reb an wedhen - by the tree (mutation is caused by an, not by reb) reb daras - by a door reb an daras - by the door reb tan - beside a fire reb an mor - beside the sea  comment >    2012 AUG-29 00:43 (by Janice)

Cornish 3.4 preposition dhe - to, at, for  This is another preposition that causes soft mutation: dhe dharas - to a door dhe veister - to a window dhe dus - to people In some contexts dhe is also used in front of verbs, (but not necessarily where we would use to in English), and these similarly soften: bos - be dhe vos - to be debri - eat dhe dhebri - to eat don - carry dhe dhon - to carry  comment >    2012 AUG-29 00:47 (by Janice)