Page:A handbook of the Cornish language; Chiefly in its latest stages with some account of its history and literature.djvu/186

 THE CONSTRUCTION OF SENTENCES 167 Welsh. Pa ham, a mi yn disgwyl iddi dwyn grawn- win, y dug hi rawn gwylltlon ? Wherefore, and I looking to it to bring forth grapes [Auth. Vers., when I looked that it should bring forth grapes], brought it forth wild grapes ? (Isaiah v. 4 ). Gaelic. Do chonnaic Seaghdn an duine, agus^ e ag teacht a-bhaile, John saw the man, and he com- ing home, i.e. when he was coming home. b. The negative, in which not is expressed in Welsh and Cornish by heb, and in Gaelic by gan, both meaning without, followed by an infinitive : An delna ema stel ow tegy warnodha, heb wara dhodha teller vith? so it is still closing in upon it without leaving it any place (Boson's Nebbaz Gerriau). In many such cases this negative clause can be trans- lated literally into English, and it is the usual form of negation with an infinitive or present participle. A somewhat similar absolute clause of a descriptive character occurs occasionally : An golom, glas hy lagas, yn mes gura hy delyfre, the dove, blue her eyes, do set her free (Origo Mundi, 1105-6). Un flogh yonk, gwyn y dhyllas, a young child, white his raiment (Passion, 254, 3). In a similar construction in Welsh the adjective here agrees with the first noun, and the translation would be rather " The dove blue [as to] her eyes," but in Cornish this is not so, for in this sentence golom (second state of coloni) is feminine, so that the adjective would be las, not glas, if it agreed with it. 1 The spelling and mutations corrected.