Page:A handbook of the Cornish language; Chiefly in its latest stages with some account of its history and literature.djvu/184

 THE CONSTRUCTION OF SENTENCES 165 Dreven ti dho wolsowas dho dalla dha wreg, 1 because thou didst listen to the voice of thy wife (Gen. iii. 17). Treba ti dho draylya dhon nor, 1 until thou turn again to the earth (Gen. iii. 19). Yet even there one finds Dreven o hy dama a 81 bewa, 1 because she was the mother of all living (Gen. iii. 20). Lhuyd mentions a similar construction after rag own, for fear, lest : Rag own why dho godha po an rew dho derry ha why dho vos bidhes? lest you fall or the ice break and you be drowned (literally, for fear you to fall or the ice to break and you to be drowned). Wiihfraga, why, one finds a similar form : Ev a venja cavos fraga e ewna, he would find why to amend it. But vrhenfrqga introduces an interrogative sentence, an ordinary finite verb is used : Fraga (or rag fraga, " for why,") na grejeth dho' m lavarow ? Why dost thou not believe my words ? When "that" signifies "in order that," the ordinary finite verb is used after it. There is a peculiar construction, found chiefly in Jordan's Creation, but also in the Ordinalia (e.g. Pass. Chr. 1120), for expressing " that I am." It consists of the infinitive bos, to be, preceded by a possessive pro- noun and followed by a pronominal suffix : Me a vyn may fo gwellys ow bosaf Dew heb parow, I will that it may be seen, that I am God with- out equals. 1 The spelling and mutations corrected.