Page:A handbook of the Cornish language; Chiefly in its latest stages with some account of its history and literature.djvu/108

Rh adding one of the ordinary plural terminations. Thus:—


 * asen, a rib; asow, ribs.
 * gwillen, a sea-gull; gwilles, gulls.

7. In en, with or without alteration of vowel and contraction. Thus:—


 * kŷ, dog; kîen.
 * hanow, name; henwen (formerly hynwyn).

There is no general definite rule for the formation of plurals; they must be learnt by experience. Some words are found with two plurals, but this generally means a tendency in modern Cornish to consider yow or ow to be the normal termination, and to discard other endings in favour of it, just as the plural in s in English has superseded all but a very few other forms. Thus:—


 * escop (or epscop), bishop; escobyon or escobow.
 * Dew, God; dewon or dewow.
 * flogh, child; flehes or flehesow (flejow).
 * dêlen, leaf; dêlyow or delkyow.
 * tîr, land; terros or terryow.
 * enes, island; eneses or enesow.

5. Parts of the body which are double (ears, eyes, hands, arms, shoulders, knees, etc.), when mentioned in reference to the two ears, eyes, etc. of the same person, are expressed by a compound with the numeral deu, two, prefixed to the singular. The Welsh and Breton grammarians call this a dual. When eyes, ears, etc. are mentioned as belonging to more than one person, the plural is formed in one of the usual ways. Thus:—


 * lâv, hand; dual deulâv.
 * lagas, eye; dual deulagas; pl. lagasow.