Chapter VIII · —THE VERB IN GENERAL

§ 1. The nucleus of a Cornish verb is its root. This is used without any variation or addition for the third person singular of the present tense, and for the second person singular of the imperative.

Other parts of the verb are formed on this root in three ways:—

1. By the inflected form, that is to say by the addition of certain syllables indicating person, tense, etc., with or without a modification of the root vowel. In older Cornish the word thus formed indicated person as well as tense without the addition of a pronoun, though if emphasis on the subject was intended the pronoun was used before or after it. In later Cornish the pronoun was almost always added after the verb, and as the latter word often ended with the same consonant as the former began with, the final consonant of the verb was often, but incorrectly, omitted in writing, as it was in sound. Thus:—

Root car, love; first pers. sing. pres., carav, I love, with pronoun, carav vî, pronounced and often written cara vî; plur., caron, we love, caron nŷ, often written caro nŷ.

The inflected form is common in early Cornish, but in the later stages of the language it is hardly ever used, except in negative, interrogative, and dependent sentences, and in certain tenses of the verb to be. Even when it is used, it is more frequently the inflected form of an auxiliary verb with the infinitive or participle of the main verb.

2. By the impersonal form, as the Breton grammarians call it. This has inflections of tense but not of person, the latter being indicated by the personal pronouns, placed before the verb, which, being immediately preceded by the particle a, has its initial in the second state. This verb is the third person singular of the required tense. Thus:—

Root car, third pers. sing. past, caras.

Impersonal form. Mî a garas, tî a garas, ev a garas, etc.

This form is frequently used in early and late Cornish for a direct affirmative sentence, beginning straight off with its nominative, or preceded only by and or but, etc.; but not so frequently in late Cornish, as the impersonal form of an auxiliary verb, with the infinitive of the main verb.

3. By the auxiliary form, either inflected or impersonal, with the infinitive or a participle of the main verb. The auxiliaries are:—

Gîl or gwîl (older forms gwrthil, gwithil, etc.), to do.

Menny, to wish, to will.

Gally, to be able.

Gŏthvos, to know.

Bos, to be.

(a). Gwîl is used to form several tenses, and is used (1) in its impersonal form in principal affirmative sentences, (2) in its inflected form in negative, interrogative, or dependent sentences, with the infinitive of the main verb, more frequently than any other form, for the present, preterite, conditional, and imperative. Its use is similar to that of do, in the Cornish manner of speaking English. Thus:—

Mî a wra cara, I love, lit. I do love.

Tî a wrîg cara, thou didst love.

In these two sentences, wra and wrîg are proclitics, unaccented syllables joined in sound to the word which follows.

Mar qwressa an dên cara, if the man would love.

Gwra cara, love thou (do thou love); gwreugh why cara, love ye.

Gwrens e bos, let him be.

(b). Menny is used as an auxiliary of the future and conditional. In principal affirmative sentences it is usually in its impersonal form, in negative, interrogative, or dependent sentences always in its inflected form. Thus:—

Mî a vedn môs, I will go.

Mî a venja môs, I would go.

A vednough why môs? will you go?

(c). Gally is used, chiefly in the present and preterite, for “can” and “could,” but also for “may” and “might.” Thus:—

Mî a el môs, I can (or may) go.

Mî a alja môs, I could (or might) go.

(d). Gŏdhvos in the present is sometimes used for “can.” Thus:—

Mî ôr mos, I can go (lit. I know [how] to go).

These follow the same rule as the others with regard to the use of their impersonal and inflected forms.

(e). Bos, to be, as an auxiliary, is used, much as in English, with the present or past participle, to form the continuous present, the continuous past, and the passive. It is generally used in the inflected form in its present and imperfect in any sort of sentence, but in principal affirmative sentences it is generally used in the impersonal form for other tenses. It can also be used with gwîl or menny and gally as an auxiliary to it, while it is itself an auxiliary to another verb, but this is only what is done in English with such expressions as “can be,” “will be,” “shall be,” etc.

The use of the various forms of the verb will be found more fully explained in the chapter on the construction of sentences.

When the auxiliaries gwîl and gally are used to form a passive, it is sometimes the auxiliary that takes the passive form. Thus:—

Mar ny wrer y wythe, if he be not guarded (Res. Dom., 341), mar keller y wythe, if he can be kept (Pass. Chr., 3058).

But in modern Cornish this would be more likely to be formed with a double auxiliary:—

Mar ni wrello bos gwithes.

Mar callo bos gwithes.

$ 2. The Tenses Of The Inflected Verb.

The inflected verb is reducible to five tenses, with an imperative, two participles, and a verbal noun or infinitive. These are all formed on the root by the addition of terminations, and sometimes by a modification of the root vowel (indicated below by m).

The tenses and their terminations are:—

I. Present or Future.

Singular. Plural.

1. —av or am —on [earlier —m—en].

2. —m eth or es. —ough.

3. root alone. —ons or ans.

II. Imperfect or Secondary Present.

Singular. Plural.

1. —en. —en.

2. —es. —eugh.

3. —a. —ens.

III. Preterite.

Singular. Plural.

1. —m—ys. —son [earlier—m—sen].

2. —m—ses. —sough.

3. —as. —sons or sans.

Re prefixed to this tense turned it into a preterperfect in middle Cornish, but in the later form re is only used for the optative. [119]

IV. The Pluperfect or Secondary Perfect, largely used in late Cornish as a Conditional.

Singular. Plural.

1. —sen (or jen). —sen (or jen).

2. —ses (or jes) —seugh (or jeugh).

3. —sa (or ja). —sens (or jens).

V. The Subjunctive Present.

Singular. Plural.

1. —m—ev. —m—en.

2. m—y. —m—eugh.

3. —o. —ens or ons.

Extra tense to some verbs: Second Future. Found in the early MSS. in the impersonal form as a simple future.

Singular. Plural.

1. —fym, vym, vyv. —fan, von.

2. —fyth, vyth. —fough, vough.

3. —iv fyth, vyth, vo. —fyns, vyns, vons.

The Imperative.

Singular. Plural.

1. wanting. en.

2. root alone. eugh.

3. —ens or es. ens.

The Present Participle is formed by prefixing ow to the infinitive, the initial of which, if mutable in that manner, is changed to its fourth state. If a present participle governs a pronoun object, the latter in its possessive form immediately precedes (and governs as to initial) the infinitive, and is itself preceded by the preposition worth. In late Cornish ow was often written a or o.

Another participial form, common in Breton and occasionally found in Cornish, has been already mentioned in Chap. III. § 2. This is made by placing the preposition yn, en, in, and the indefinite article idn, un, before the infinitive or verbal noun. Its use is chiefly adverbial. Thus, in the Poem of the Passion we find, yn un scolchye, skulking; yn un garme, crying out; yn un fystyne, hurrying.

The Infinitive or Verbal Noun is formed by adding a, ya, y, as or es, al or el, to the root. In some verbs the root itself, without any addition, is the verbal noun.

The Past or Passive Participle is formed by adding es to the root, with or without modification of the root vowel.

The Passive termination is er for the present and es for the preterite, but in Modern Cornish the Passive is almost always formed after the English model by the auxiliary verb bos, to be, with the past participle.

The terminations ma and ta are often added to the first and second persons singular of various tenses in interrogative and subjunctive sentences, and in the case of the first person even in ordinary narration. Norris maintains that these are not forms of mî and tî, but only an a suffixed to the verb termination, which in the first person reverts to a primary m for v, and in the second person reassumes a dropped t. This theory is rather supported by our finding a occasionally added to the third persons of tenses of the verb to be, but va is also found. Whether this is the explanation or not, we find such forms as:—

Pandra venta? what wilt thou?

A wresta? dost thou? Mar menta, if thou wilt.

Pandra wrama? what shall I do?

There are some few differences between the inflected verb of the earlier MSS. and that of modern Cornish, and among other changes the lighter termination en or yn of the first person plural, and ens or yns of the third person plural, in some cases had changed by Lhuyd’s time to on or an, and ons or ans, but probably really the vowel is obscure. There was also considerable uncertainty about the modification of the vowel. Even in the early MSS. the change of vowel is rather vague, but the general rule seems to have been that when the termination has a thin vowel (e, i, or y), a broad root vowel (a, o, u) is changed to a thin vowel, usually in late Cornish to e (cf. the Gaelic rule of leathan le leathan agus caol le caol, broad with broad and thin with thin). But this is by no means universal, and in some tenses, as in the imperfect and pluperfect, is not found at all.

There is some confusion in modern Cornish about the subjunctive or fifth tense. Norris considers that Lhuyd’s subjunctive is really, except for the third person singular, the imperfect or second tense of the older MSS. But it seems to be more like a form of the present indicative, except in the third person singular, which is the old subjunctive. Lhuyd’s change of the first person singular to am instead of av is not uncommon in certain verbs of late Cornish, when this tense is used in a subjunctive clause.

The inflected verb at the beginning of a sentence is often preceded in Middle Cornish by the verbal particle y (or before a vowel yth), which does not mean anything in particular. y causes the third state in verbs whose radical is p, c, t, and the fourth state in those whose radical is d, and changes gw to wh. In late Cornish it is rarely used except with the present of môs, to go, and (in its apocopated form th or as ăth) with the present and imperfect of bos, to be.

A reflexive verb may be formed from any transitive verb by prefixing ŏm (older forms ym, as in Welsh, and em, as in Breton), changing the initial to the second state.

cregy, to hang; ŏmgregy, to hang oneself.

brêsy, to judge; ŏmvrêsy, to judge oneself.

disqwedhas, to show; ŏmdhisqwedhas, to show oneself.

gweras, to help; ŏmweras, to help oneself.

Sometimes the prefix gives a mutual rather than a reflexive sense.

ŏmsewa, to follow one another.

ŏmladha, to fight, contend (cf. French se battre).