Page:A handbook of the Cornish language; Chiefly in its latest stages with some account of its history and literature.djvu/120

Rh This form is very rare even in the older MSS. The possessive 'gas (for agas) is generally used instead.

4th form. '' ' ugh. genough, with you ; dheugh'', to you. 7. Third Person Plural. English, they, them. 1st form. ''ŷ,jŷ, anj'ŷ. ŷ a vedn, jŷ a vedn, or an'' jŷ a vedn, they will.

This last is the regular form in the latest Cornish. In the earlier MSS. y only is used for they; later an gy or an dzhei (as Lhuyd writes it) became usual. It is only found in the MSS. of the end of the seventeenth and beginning of the eighteenth century, and probably originated in a wrong division of words. The third person plural of most inflected tenses of verbs ends in ons, ans, ens. If the pronoun were added, this would take the form of ons ŷ, etc., as in carons ŷ (amant illi), they love, and the usual pronunciation of s would soon bring this combination to caronjy, which is easily divided into car onjy. The compound pre-position form in later Cornish often ended in ans, followed or not followed by the 1st or 2nd form of the pronoun. Thus in Jordan's Creation (1611) we find anodhans y (from them) for an older anodhe. This would give an additional reason for the confusion.

2nd form. ŷ. medhons ŷ (often written medh anjy), said they. 3rd form, 's. mt as agor, I will open them. 4th form, 'ns, e. dhodhans, to them ; gensans or genjans, with them.

The form in e is older (dhethe, ganse, etc.), but became obsolete by the middle of the seventeenth century. It will have been seen:-

1. That the first and second persons singular are