Page:A handbook of the Cornish language; Chiefly in its latest stages with some account of its history and literature.djvu/100

Rh *kŏtyorgh, roe buck; yorgh, roe doe.
 * keliok, cock; yar, hen; mabyer, chicken.
 * keliokwodh, gander; gôdh, goose.
 * keliokos, drake; hôs, duck.

§ 3.

All cases except the genitive and accusative are formed by prepositions, as in English. Of these prepositions some govern one state of the initial and some another, as will be seen in the chapter on prepositions, but when the article an, the, comes between the preposition and the noun, the initial is not changed by the preposition, but only, if at all (in the case of a feminine singular or masculine plural), by the article.

The genitive, by which must here be understood (in its old-fashioned sense) all those conditions under which a noun would in English be preceded by of, or followed by, is formed in four ways, each of which has a different meaning.

1. The genitive of possession is the appositional genitive. This is formed by placing the noun that is in the genitive immediately after the noun which it qualifies, or, if the former has the definite article, or is qualified by a possessive pronoun or prefixed adjective, with only these intervening. No change of initial is made, except the usual change of feminine singular or masculine plural nouns after an, or the changes caused by possessive pronouns, etc. The first of the two nouns must have no article. Thus:—


 * chŷ dên, the house of a man, or a man's house.
 * chŷ an dên, the house of the man, or the man's house.