Page:A handbook of the Cornish language; Chiefly in its latest stages with some account of its history and literature.djvu/127

 io8 GRAMMAR gensans, dhortans, ortans, ragdhans, dhodhans, war- nodhans. and ennov or idnov or ettov. ennos or idnos or ettos. enno or idno or etto. enni or idni or etti. ennon or z'dW or etton. ennough or idnough or ettough. ennans or idnans or ettans. There are many various spellings of these words in the manuscripts, and especially there is great uncertainty as to the vowel which precedes the pronominal suffix. As the accent is always on the preposition, the vowel of the pronoun is usually obscure, and there is not so very much difference of sound in the last syllables of dredhov, genev, and warnav, but still there is a slight difference, and there must have been even more in early days. The older form of the third person plural ended in e or a,,anedha, dredha, ganse, orte, ragdha, dhedhe, warnedhe, ynna ; but this form became obsolete by the middle of the seventeenth century, and these pronominal preposi- tions were assimilated to the third person plural of verbs. In this the Cornish began by resembling Breton and ended by approaching more nearly to Welsh. The pronominal preposition form of dho has variants for the first and second persons singular and first person plural, dkemmo, to me, dheso, dheso di, to thee, and dhenny, to us. These are formed by the addition of the personal pronoun in a fuller form. In the cases of the other prepositions it is not uncommon to add the personal pronouns at the end of the pronominal compound, forming thereby a single word with the accent on the last syllable. Thus: