Page:A handbook of the Cornish language; Chiefly in its latest stages with some account of its history and literature.djvu/183

 164 GRAMMAR is common in Latin." Thus says Norris, speaking in a manner perhaps rather less clear than usual, of an idiom found in the Dramas. This idiom, analogous to the " accusative with the infinitive " of Latin, is found down to the latest period of Cornish literature, though not to the complete exclusion of a finite clause begin- ning with that. The instances given by Norris are : Ha cous ef dhe dhasserhy, and say that he is risen. Marth am hues ty dhe leverel folneth, I have wonder that thou shouldst speak folly. Nyns a y'm colon why dhe gewsel, it goes not into my heart (i.e. I do not believe) that you have spoken. Del won dhe bos, as I know thee to be. Here are some later instances : Ny a wel an tis younk dho e clappya leh ha leh? we see that the young people speak it less and less (Nebbaz Gerriau). Dre wrama crejy hedna dho bos gwir yu serif es enna? that I do believe that that is true that is written therein (Nebbaz Gerriau). Nevertheless, one finds in the same piece : Ev a lavarras drova gever 0/, 1 he said that it was Goats All. Bes mi a or hemma, dhort e hoer an Kernuak, drova talves bes nebbas? but I know this, by her sister the Cornish, that it is worth but little. And in Keigwin's translation of Genesis i. : Ha Dew a wellas trova da? and God saw that it was good. A somewhat similar construction is sometimes used after dreven, because, and treba, until : Dreven ti dho wil hemma, 1 because thou hast done this (Kerew's Genesis, iii. 14). 1 The spelling and mutations corrected.