Cornish grammar is thegrammar of theCornish language (Kernewek orKernowek^[1]), aninsular Celtic language closely related toBreton andWelsh and, to a lesser extent, toIrish,Manx andScottish Gaelic. It was the main medium of communication of theCornish people for much of their history until the 17th century, when alanguage shift occurred in favour ofEnglish. Arevival, however, started in 1904, with the publication ofA Handbook of the Cornish Language, byHenry Jenner, and since then there has been a growing interest in the language.

Initialmutation is a feature shared by all the modernCeltic languages, in which the initial consonant of a word may change under some circumstances. In Cornish these changes take place when a word starts with one of the consonants shown in the table below; other initial consonants remain unchanged. The most common mutation occurs after the definite articlean, when followed by a feminine singular noun or masculine plural noun.

Cornishnouns, like those of other Celtic languages, possess twogrammatical genders, meaning that they belong to one of two groups: masculine or feminine. Sometimes the gender of a noun can be inferred from the class of words it belongs to, for example, nouns referring to males, such asgour “man, husband” ortarow “bull”, or verbal nouns, such askerdhes “walking” andbos “being”, are masculine whereas nouns referring to females, such ashwor “sister” andyar “hen”, are feminine. Nevertheless, it is often impossible to determine the gender of a noun from its form, although certain nominal suffixes have gender:

• Masculine suffixes:-adow,-der/-ter,-di/-ji/-ti,-ik,-la,-(n)eth (mostly),-our,-(y)ans,-yas,-ydh,-(y)er,-yn,-(y)or
• Feminine suffixes:-a,-ek,-el,-en,-es,-(on)ieth

There is a very small number of nouns which may be either gender, such asnev “heaven” andtonn “grassland”, and is similar to its sister languageBreton in that the nountra “thing” takes masculine numerals above one and masculine referring pronouns but has the mutations of a feminine noun afteran “the”,unn “one” and on accompanying adjectives.^[2]

Most nouns have a singular and plural form, the latter deriving from the former in a number of ways. Plural forms may add an ending to a singular, such astreth “beach” totrethow,pompyon “pumpkin” topompyons andlader “thief” toladron. Adding an ending may be accompanied by a vowel change, as in the case ofgwreg “wife” togwragedh andhwor “sister” tohwerydh, or may involve a vowel change alone, for examplekorn “horn” tokern andmen “stone” tomeyn.^[1][2]

A small number of nouns display relics of adual system. These are formed by prefixing masculinedew or femininediw, both “two”, to the respective noun. Dual nouns are often parts of the body and indicate the pair of them taken together, for instance,lagas “eye” todewlagas “(pair of) eyes” andbregh “arm” todiwvregh “(pair of) arm”. These carry a different meaning to the regular plural forms, such aslagasow orlagajow “eyes” andbreghow “arms”, which do not indicate a matching pair.^[1][2][3]

A distinctive and unusual feature ofBrythonic languages is that ofcollective and singulative number. The base form of some Cornish nouns denotes a class or group, often natural objects, such assab “pine trees”,kelyon “flies” andniwl “fog”. A singulative is formed by adding the feminine ending-en to denote a single individual of the group, hencesaben “a pine tree”,kelyonen “a fly” andniwlen “a patch of fog”. Singulatives can themselves have plural forms in-ow, denoting a number of individuals of the group, so for instance,kelyonen giveskelyonennow “(a number of) flies (individually)”.^[1][2]

Cornish lacks an indefinitearticle (althoughunn “one” is sometimes used to mean ”a certain...” e.g.unn ki “a certain dog”), but has a definite article,an, which precedes the noun, for examplean Kernow “the Cornishman” andan Kernowesow “the Cornishwomen”. The article causes a soft mutation on feminine singular nouns, such asKernowes “Cornishwoman” toan Gernowes “the Cornishwoman”, and on masculine plural nouns denoting persons, asKernowyon “Cornishmen” toan Gernowyon “the Cornishmen”, although exceptions to the latter includean tasow “the fathers” and clear English borrowings such asan doktours “the doctors”. Also the masculine plural nounsmeyn ”stones” andmergh ”horses” are exceptions, which are lenited toan veyn ”the stones” andan vergh ”the horses”, respectively.^[4][5]An is shortened to'n after certainfunction words that end in a vowel, meaninga “of”,dhe “to” andha “and” becomea'n “of the”,dhe'n “to the” andha'n “and the”, and in addition,yn “in” becomes identically pronouncedy'n “in the”.^[1][2]

The definite article and a noun followed by thecliticsma andna to produce thedemonstratives “this/these” and “that/those” respectively, for examplean lyver ma “this book” andan lyvrow na “those books”.^[2]

Thepossessive determiners are as follows. Notice their similarity to the more reduced forms of the personal pronouns.^[2]

Personal pronouns in Cornish can be arranged as follows.^[2]

Independent personal pronouns are used as the subject of a nominal sentence, for exampleMy a grys “I believe”, or can stand before the verb in a verbal sentence to draw attention to the subject implied by the verb, for exampleNi ny yllyn mos “We cannot go”. Certain other constructions employ independent pronouns, such as those based on verbal nouns, likeev dhe dhos omma “(that) he came here”, and those that follow conjunctions, such ashag i ow kortos “as they are/were waiting”.

Suffixed pronouns are attached to nouns in possessive constructions, to inflected verbs and to pronouns and are used to reinforce a pronoun previously expressed by a verbal or personal ending, for examplePle eth hi? “Where did she go?”.

Reduced pronouns are used between a verbal particle and a verb, such as inmar ny’th welav “if I don't see you”.

Demonstrative pronouns display two degrees of proximity as well as gender and number.

These pronouns lose their finala beforeyw “is” ando “was”, for exampleHomm yw ow keniterow “This is my (female) cousin”.

Cornishadjectives usually come after the noun they modify although a few may come before or after, such asdrog “bad” andleun “full”, and a small number always precede the noun, such aslies “many” andhen “old, long-standing”. There are simple and derived adjectives. The former comprise adjectives that are not derived of any other word, whereas the latter are formed by adding suffixes such as-ek to the end of a noun (including verbal nouns).^[1][2] Adjectives are lenited when they are preceded by a feminine singular noun, or a masculine plural noun referring to persons, e.g.benen goth 'an old woman',mebyon vyghan 'small sons'.^[6]

Adjectives are inflected with-a to give a comparative/superlative form. This suffix causesprovection of the adjective stem, for exampleglyb “wet” toglyppa andkrev “stong” tokreffa. A number of adjectives are irregular and have separate comparative and superlative forms.^[2]

Adverbials in Cornish may be a single word or a more complex phrases, for exampleena “then” andy’n eur ma “now”, literally “in this hour”. Many are formed from the combination of a preposition and a noun or pronoun, such aswar-woles “downwards” fromwar “on” andgoles “bottom” anda-ji (ora-jei) “within” froma “from, at” andchi (orchei) “house”. Adverbs can be formed from adjectives by means of theparticleyn “in”, such as in the case ofkrev “strong” toyn krev “strongly” andda “good” toyn ta “well”.^[2]

Cornishverbs are highly regular and are conjugated to show distinctions ofperson,number,mood,tense andaspect in various combinations.

Certain points should be observed about the above:^[2][7]

It should also be noted thatvowel affection occurs in the stem of some verbs before certain endings, especially those withclosefront vowels, though not exclusively.

Note:^[2]

^1 The alternative indicative imperfect endings-yn,-ys and-i cause vowel affection.

^2 Amongst the endingless forms, the present/future third person singular and the second person singular imperative, the former may include vowel affection while the latter does not, for example,seni “sound” tosen “he/she/it sounds” andson “sound!” andgelwel “call” togelow “he/she/it calls” andgalw “call!”.

^3 The alternative third person singular and impersonal preterite ending-is causes vowel affection.

^4 These endings also cause affection with some verbs.

^5 Certain verbal noun endings cause vowel affection, again especially those with close front vowels.

A handful of irregular verbs exist, the most common of which are detailed here.

The most irregular verb of all isbos “be”, which is often used as anauxiliary and can be conjugated to show a number of additional distinctions not present in other verbs.

Some peculiarities ofbos to be noted as follows:^[2]

^1 The present tense has separate short and long forms. The short forms are used when asubject complement is a noun or adjective whereas the long forms are used with adverbial and participle complements.^[3] In addition, the imperfect has ahabitual form.

^2Yma andymons are used inaffirmitivedeclarativeindependent clauses whereasusi,eus andesons are used elsewhere, such as negative,interrogative anddependent clauses.Usi is used with definite subjects whereaseus is used with indefinite subjects.

^3 The form*bedhys is not found independently but rather in its mutated formvedhys as part of compound words, such asgodhvedhys “known” andpiwvedhys “owned”.

Y'm beus is a combination of a reduced pronoun with dative meaning and the third person singular forms ofbos, meaning literally “there is to [me]”, or more idiomatically “[I] have”.^[2] A similar construction is present inBreton. The presence of the pronoun means there are separate masculine and feminine third person singular forms but no impersonal forms, verbal noun or participles.

The irregular verbgodhvos (orgoffos^[1]) “know, can (know how to)” is based uponbos although does not utilise a habitual imperfect.^[2][3][7]

Another extremely common irregular verb also used as an auxiliary isgul “do, make”.^[7]

The verbmos “go, become” is irregular and has separate forms for the present perfect.^[7]

Similarly,dos “come, arrive” is irregular and has present perfect forms.^[7]

The irregular verbsri “give” anddri “bring” (alternatively,rei anddrei^[1]) have similar conjugations. This table give the forms ofri from which thedri forms can be composed by adding an initiald, for examplerov “I give” todrov “I bring”. The only exceptions to this are that the second person singular imperatives ofdri aredro,doro anddoroy and that, as usual, theow of the present participle causeprovection of thed tot to giveow tri.^[2][7]

Certainconjunctions have an additional form used when followed by a vowel, such asha “and” becominghag andna “than” becomingnag.^[2]

As in other Celtic languages, Cornishprepositions aresimple or complex and mayinflect to show person, number and gender. Historically, inflected prepositions derive from thecontraction between a preposition and a personal pronoun.

Simple prepositions that inflect belong to one of three groups characterised by their use of the vowela,o ori. Third person prepositional stems are sometimes slightly different from those of the first and second persons andaffection sometimes occurs in the third person singular feminine.Dhe “to” andgans “with” are irregular.^[2]

Complex prepositions inflect by means ofinterfixes, whereby the nominal second element is preceded by a pronominal form. This is similar to howinstead can becomein my stead in archaic English. Mutations may be triggered following the various pronominal forms as seen in the following table.^[2]

Similar to otherCeltic languages, Cornish has an underlyingvigesimal counting system. “Two”, “three” and “four” and derivative numbers have separate masculine(m.) and feminine(f.) forms.^[2]

The numbers 21 to 39 employ the connectivewarn “on the” to join the smaller number to the larger, for exampleonan warn ugens “21”,naw warn ugens “29” andunnek warn ugens “31”. From 41 onwards, the connecting word isha “and”, as inonan ha dew-ugens “41”,pymthek ha dew-ugens “55” andnownsek ha peswar-ugens “99”.

Cardinal numbers used to form larger numbers include:

Beyond 100, it is still possible to use multiples ofugens, such ashwegh-ugens “120”.Kans “100”,mil “1,000” andmilvil “1,000,000” are all masculine numbers, for exampletri mil “3,000”.

Ordinal numbers and their abbreviations are shown below. The majority of numbers employ the ordinal suffix-ves.^[2]

Larger numbers also employ the suffix-ves.

In multi-word numbers, the initial smaller number joined with the connector takes the ordinal form, for examplekynsa warn ugens “21st” andnownsegves ha peswar-ugens “99th” (not*onan warn ugensves or*nownsek ha peswar-ugensves). In multiword numbers that are not joined by connecting words, the final number takes the ordinal form, for exampledew-ugensves “40th”,hwegh-ugenves “120th”,tri milves “3,000th”.

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The default Cornish word order isverb–subject–object, although like most Celtic languages this is somewhat fluid. Cornish has a system of fronting constituents, in which parts of a sentence can be moved to the front for focus, rather than stressing themin situ as English does. This system has influenced theAnglo-Cornish dialect, heard in the distinctive questioning of dialect speakers such as “Goin’ in’ town are’ee?” and “’S bleddy ’tis”.

In description sentences of the verbbos ‘to be’, the complement is typically fronted:

Other existence sentences ofbos front the verb:

Since Cornish prefers to use a ‘there is’ existence form ofbos with indefinite objects (when not fronted for emphasis, that is), an object being definite or indefinite can result in different parts being fronted:

With other verbs, subject-fronted is the default unmarked word order. This still follows the defaultverb–subject–object order, since sentences of this kind were in origin relative clauses emphasising the subject:

When the sentence's object is a pronoun, it appears before the verb and after the particlea, although it can also appear after the verb for emphasis:My a’s gwel ‘I see her’, orMy a’s gwel hi “I seeher”.When auxiliary verbs are used, a possessive pronoun is used with the verbal noun:My a wra hy gweles ‘I see her’ (literally “I do her seeing”), or when stressed,My a wra hy gweles hi “I seeher”. In both instances, colloquial spoken Cornish may drop all but the suffixed pronouns, to giveMy a wel hi andMy a wra gweles hi, although this is rarely written.

In questions and negative sentences, an interrogative particle and negative particle are used, respectively. These are generally fronted in neutral situations:

Subject pronouns can be placed before a negative particle for emphasis:My ny vynnav kewsel Sowsnek ’I will not speak English’ or ’As for me, I will not speak English’ (said to beDolly Pentreath's last words).

Besides the “neutral” structures given above, elements of Cornish sentences can be fronted to give emphasis, or when responding to a question with requested information. Fronting involves moving the element to the beginning of the sentence. English typically achieves this by modifying tone or intonation.

There are two particles involved in fronting. The particlea is actually a relative particle used when the subject or direct object of a sentence is fronted. If anything else is fronted, usually adverbials or information headed by prepositions, the particle used isy (yth before a vowel).

Determiners precede the noun they modify, whileadjectives generally follow it. A modifier that precedes its head noun often causes amutation, and adjectives following afeminine noun arelenited. Thus:

• benyn (”a woman”)
• an venyn (”the woman”;benyn is lenited because it is feminine)
• tebel venyn (”a wicked woman”;benyn is lenited becausetebel “wicked” precedes it)
• benyn gonnyk (”a smart woman”;konnyk is lenited because it follows a feminine noun)

Genitive relationships are expressed byapposition. The genitive in Cornish is formed by putting twonoun phrases next to each other, the possessor coming second. So English “The cat's mother”, or “mother of the cat”, corresponds to Cornishmamm an gath – literally, “mother the cat”; “the project manager's telephone number” isniver pellgowser menystrer an towl – literally, “number telephone manager the project”. Only the last noun in a genitive sequence can take thedefinite article.

• Williams, N.Desky Kernowek (Evertype, 2012)

• Cornish language
• Celtic grammars

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