Chapter III · —THE ARTICLE
Reading edition
§ 1. The definite article the is an, for all numbers and genders. When the noun that follows is feminine and singular, or masculine and plural, its initial, if mutable, is in the second state. If it is masculine and singular, or feminine and plural, the initial is in the first state. [73]
When the article an is preceded by a preposition or conjunction, and sometimes by other words, ending in a vowel, the article loses its vowel and is written ’n. Thus:—
Dên, man, masc. sing.; an dên, the man. dhô’n dên, to the man.
Benen, woman, fem. sing.; an venen, the woman. dhô’n venen, to the woman.
Tassow, fathers, masc. plur.; an dassow, the fathers. dhô’n dassow, to the fathers.
Benenes, women, fem. plur.; an benenes, the women. dhô’n benenes, to the women.
The apostrophe is not written for the elided a of an in the MSS., but the preposition and article appear as one word, dhôn, dren, han, etc., for to the, by the, and the, etc. But it is better to write it, to avoid confusion, especially between a’n, from the, and the simple article, an. There are certain cases of contraction which have been accepted as single words, and in these the apostrophe is not used. Thus pandra (=pa an dra, “what (is) the thing?” i.e. “what is it?”) is used for the interrogative “what?” but is never written pa’n dra. There are occasional further compounds of pandra, e.g. pandrus (or pendrus)=pa an dra es, or pandryu=pa an dra yu, both meaning “what thing is?” pandrama=pa an dra a wrama, “what shall I do?” pandrellen=pa an dra a wrellen, “what should I do?”
As in the other Celtic languages, when a noun is followed by another noun in the possessive appositional genitive, the first noun has no definite article. Thus chŷ an dên, the house of the man, not an chŷ an dên. The same rule applies to a similar appositional genitive in Hebrew—a curious coincidence between two quite unconnected languages.
§ 2. The Indefinite Article.
As a rule a singular noun without any article expressed, except in the case of a noun followed by the appositional genitive, is considered to be in the indefinite state, and would be translated into English by a noun preceded by the indefinite article a or an. But partly as a corrupt following of English or French, and partly for emphasis, denoting a single one (like yr un in Welsh), the word a or an is sometimes represented by idn (earlier un), one. This is rare, especially in late Cornish. A similar indefinite article is common in Breton. Occasionally idn or un was used, as in Breton, with a verbal noun (or infinitive), to form what in English would be a present participle. Yn un scolchye, skulking, lit. in a skulking (Passion, 74, 2), yn un garme, shouting, crying out, lit. in a shouting (Passion, 168, 1), yn un fystyne, hastening, lit. in a hastening (Passion, 178, 1; 241, 4), but this construction is not found in late Cornish.