Taking a new look at Cornish grammar 35 (Possessive Pronouns)

In English we have single word possessive pronouns, such as “mine”, “hers”, “theirs”, etc. which we can use in a variety of ways, e.g. “Are those theirs?”; “That’s not yours.”; “Hers is bigger than mine.” In Cornish we have to use a number of different approaches. (See later posts for more.)

First, we have already used neppeth (SWF/M neppyth) to mean something/anything. We can now use peth (SWF/M pyth) thing with a possessive adjective (and the appropriate mutations). The plural pethow is not often needed.

o feth SWF/M ow fyth	mine, my thing, my stuff, etc.
dha beth SWF/M dha byth	thine, thy thing, thy stuff, etc.
y beth SWF/M y byth	his, his thing, his stuff, etc.
hy feth SWF/M hy fyth	hers, her thing, her stuff, etc.
agan peth SWF/M agan pyth	ours, our thing, our stuff, etc.
agas peth SWF/M agas pyth	yours, your thing, your stuff, etc.
aga feth SWF/M aga fyth	theirs, their thing, their stuff, etc.

For extra emphasis you can add the appropriate personal pronoun on the end (known as the enclitic personal pronoun). This enclitic personal pronoun then attracts the emphasis and, as a result, in speech the possessive adjective is unstressed.

o feth vy SWF/M ow fyth vy	mine, my thing, my stuff, etc.
dha beth jy SWF/M dha byth jy	thine, thy thing, thy stuff, etc.
y beth e(v) SWF/M y byth ev	his, his thing, his stuff, etc.
hy feth hei SWF/M hy fyth hi	hers, her thing, her stuff, etc.
agan peth nei SWF/M agan pyth ni	ours, our thing, our stuff, etc.
agas peth whei SWF/M agas pyth hwi	yours, your thing, your stuff, etc.
aga feth anj(ei) SWF/M aga fyth i	theirs, their thing, their stuff, etc.

Late Cornish often took this a stage further and dropped the unstressed possessive adjective, replacing it with a similarly unstressed definite article (with a loss of mutations). Because they are unstressed both definite article and possessive adjectives are prone to being dropped altogether.

(an) peth vy	mine, my thing, etc.
(an) peth jy	thine, etc.
(an) peth ev	his, etc.
(an) peth hei	hers, etc.
(an) peth nei	ours, etc.
(an) peth whei	yours, etc.
(an) peth anjei	theirs, etc.

The phrase an peth (a/neb a) "that which" also reinforced the use of the definite article rather than the possessive pronoun,

i.e. an peth vy = "that which is mine"

Here are some sample sentences. (Some have no equivalents in SWF/M.) You can have lots of variations. Put what you want to stress early in the sentence:

Thew peth vy.	It is mine.
Ma’n peth jy obma.	Yours is here.
Hebma ew peth ev.	This is his.
Hedna ew an peth hei.	That is hers.
Oll a’ re-ma ew pethow nei.	All these are our things.
Re-na ew pethow whei.	Those are your things.
An pethow anjei ens.	They are their things.

N.B. The possessive adjectives agan, agas and aga may drop their initial a after another vowel.

O feth ew da. SWF/M Ow fyth yw da.	Mine is good.
Dha beth jy ew drog. SWF/M Dha byth jy yw drog.	Yours is bad.
Teg ew y beth e. SWF/M Teg yw y byth ev.	His is beautiful.
Bian ew hy feth. SWF/M Byhan yw hy fyth.	Hers is small.
Ottobma gan peth nei. SWF/M Ottomma agan pyth ni.	Here’s our stuff.
Ma gas peth ena. SWF/M Yma agas pyth ena.	Yours is there.
Pe le ma ga feth anjei? SWF/M Ple ma aga fyth i?	Where is theirs?

Taking a new look at Cornish grammar 34 (reflexive and intensive pronouns)

As the Cornish language evolved the –om prefix was used less and a second method of producing a reflexive verb increased. This was the use of the reflexive pronoun honan^* self along with an appropriate possessive adjective. The reflexive pronoun used must always refer to the subject of the sentence.

honan	self, oneself
o honan SWFM ow honan	myself
dha honan	thyself
y honan	himself, itself (m)
hy honan	herself, itself (f)
agan honan, gan honan	ourselves
agas honan, gas honan	yourself (formal) yourselves
aga honan, ga honan	themselves

* Nicholas Williams uses honen.

These can be used in a variety of ways. They can be used as direct object of a transitive verb, with the same meaning as using a verb beginning with –om. (The object is the same as the subject.) If they are used with the reflexive verb as well they provide extra emphasis.

Thero vy o praysya o honan. SWFM Yth esov vy ow praysya ow honan.	I am praising myself (blowing my own trumpet!).
Thero vy (owth) ombraysya o honan. SWFM Yth esov vy owth ombraysya ow honan.	I am showing off!
Ev a wrüg divarva y honan. SWFM Ev a wrug divarva y honan.	He shaved himself.
Ev a wrüg omdhivarva y honan. SWFM Ev a wrug omdhivarva y honan.	He shaved his own beard off.
An gath a grav hy honan en fenowgh. SWFM An gath a grav hy honan yn fenowgh.	The cat scratches herself/itself frequently/regularly.

They can also be used as part of an indirect object phrase, but not on their own. They need to follow the appropriate combination of preposition and pronoun (lesson 17).  Again the object (this time indirect) is the same as the subject.

“Coynt!” e’medh Alys dhedhy hy honan. SWFM “Koynt!” yn medh Alys dhedhi hy honan.	“Curious!” said Alice to herself.
Ero whei o pobas oll an tesednow na raga whei gas honan? SWFM Esowgh hwi ow pobas oll an tesennow-na ragowgh gas honan?	Are you baking all those cakes for yourselves?

Finally, the same words can be used as INTENSIVE PRONOUNS to draw attention to or emphasise the name, noun or pronoun that forms the subject of the sentence.  Positioning is a matter of style rather than grammar. The sentence still makes sense if they are left out.

Me a bernas an ro. SWFM: My a brenas an ro.	I bought the present.
Me o honan a bernas an ro. SWFM: My ow honan a brenas an ro. Me a bernas an ro o honan. SWFM: My a brenas an ro ow honan.	I myself bought the present. I bought the present myself.
An pronter a dheuth. SWFM: An pronter a dheuth.	The parson came.
An pronter y honan a dheuth. SWFM: An pronter y honan a dheuth. An pronter a dheuth y honan. SWFM: An pronter a dheuth y honan.	The parson himself came. The parson came himself.

Taking a new look at Cornish grammar 33 (reflexive verbs)

We have looked at transitive verbs (take a direct object) and intransitive verbs (do not have a direct object). Reflexive verbs are a special case where the object is the same as the subject. In Cornish there are two ways of dealing with them.

The first way is to put the reflexive prefix –om on the front of a transitive verb. (This sometimes causes a soft mutation.) There are many examples. Here are a few of them (SWFM given where different).

As you can see, some of them have multiple meanings, according to context, (and some of the root verbs can be intransitive as well as transitive):

assaya or saya	try, test, attempt	omassaya	test oneself, exercise, rehearse
chersya	cherish, comfort, pet	omjersya	be at ease, make oneself comfortable
clowes SWFM klewes	sense, perceive, hear	omglowes SWFM omglewes	feel
degy SWFM degi	carry, bear, wear	omdhegy SWFM omdhegi	behave, carry/bear oneself
golhy SWFM golhi	wash, bathe	omwolhy SWFM omwolhi	wash oneself, bathe oneself
gweles	see	omweles (war)	visit
gwitha	keep, (safe)guard, preserve, protect	omwitha	keep oneself, preserve oneself, protect oneself
hedhy SWFM hedhi	cancel, cease, halt, pause	omhedhy SWFM omhedhi	abstain
obery SWFM oberi	work	omobery SWFM omoberi	exercise (physically)
profya	offer, propose, suggest	ombrofya	apply (for a job)
rei SWFM ri	give, grant, present	omrei SWFM omri	surrender, apply
sevel	stand, raise, get up	omsevel	rise up, rebel, revolt
tedna SWFM tenna	draw, pull, tug	omdedna SWFM omdenna	withdraw, retire, shrink, log off/out
towla	throw	omdowla	wrestle, struggle

Here are some examples of their use:

Me a omdednas warlena. My a omdennas warlena.	I retired (withdrew myself) last year.
Ev a wra ombrofya rag whel. Ev a wra ombrofya rag hwel.	He will apply (offer himself) for work.
Mowns (owth) omdowla e’n sportva. Ymons i owth omdowla y’n sportva.	They are wrestling (throwing themselves) in the stadium.
Ma hei (owth) omglowes clàv. Yma hi owth omglewes klav.	She feels (senses herself) ill.