Page:A handbook of the Cornish language; Chiefly in its latest stages with some account of its history and literature.djvu/115

96 sound of the last syllable of pempes and whethes in the traditional fragments collected by the present writer in 1875, all point to e as the correct vowel.

Nouns which follow numerals are put in the singular number, unless they are preceded by the preposition a, of. Thus:-

wheh den, six men, not wheh denyon or wheh tis. try mab, three sons, not try mebyon. pajerpaw, not pajer pawyow, four feet (a name still used in the English of Cornwall for a newt). But sometimes, in a collective sense:-

mil a bensow, a thousand [of] pounds. wheh a vebyon ha wheh a verhes, six sons and six daughters.

The numerals, cardinal or ordinal, unlike certain of them in Welsh and Breton, do not change the initials of the nouns which follow them.

It may be well to add here certain applications of the numerals.

Once, twice, three times, etc. are represented by the cardinal numbers followed by gwetk, time (in the above sense), with its initial in the second state, idnweth, deuweth, tryweth, etc. Sometimes plek, fold, is used, as milblek, a thousand-fold.

Proportional parts are: qwartan, a quarter, hanter, half, and for the rest the ordinal numeral followed by radn, part, e.g. truja radn t the third part.

The divisions of time are : secund, a second; minnis,