Page:A handbook of the Cornish language; Chiefly in its latest stages with some account of its history and literature.djvu/177

 CHAPTER XIV THE CONSTRUCTION OF SENTENCES, IDIOMS, ETC. i. IN later Cornish there was a strong tendency to assimilate the order of words and the construction of sentences to those of English, but nevertheless certain idioms persisted throughout. In English the normal order of words in a simple sentence is : Subject Verb Complement of Predicate (Object, etc.). This order is used in Cornish also when the imper- sonal form of the main verb or of the auxiliary is used, and the object is not a personal pronoun. Thus : Dew a gar an bes, God loveth the world. Dew a wra cara an bes, God doth love the world. One of these two forms is the most usual in a direct affirmative principal sentence when the object is not a pronoun. If the object is a pronoun, the order is : Subject Particle Object Verb. Thus : Dew a'tk gar, God loveth thee. On- Subject Particle Auxiliary Pronoun in the Possessive Form Infinitive of Main Verb. Thus : Deiu a wra dha gara, God doth love thee.