Page:A handbook of the Cornish language; Chiefly in its latest stages with some account of its history and literature.djvu/214

Rh 1. Epithet following noun.

a. Masculine. Porthmear (in Zennor), the great porth or creek. (Murray's Handbook says that it means the "sea-port," but Murray's interpretations are intricately and ingeniously wrong-headed).

b. Feminine. Trevean, the little town. Tre signifies town in the modern Cornish and old English sense, a farmhouse with its out-buildings. It is the commonest of these generic prefixes. In Brittany, though it is occasionally found, its place is usually taken by Ker (Cornish Car, Welsh Cær), probably the Latin castrum, a fortified town or camp, a difference which has its historical significance.

2. Epithet preceding noun.

Hendrea, the old town (in Sancreed). Note that this is Hendrea, not Hendrea. Note also the change of initial in tre.

3. Intervening particles.

a. The definite article. Crows-an-wra, the witch's cross. (Murray says that it means "the wayside cross," but gwragh, gwrah, gwra, Breton gwrach, certainly means a hag or witch, and the change of initial after the article shows that the noun is feminine.) Chy-an-dowr, the house of the water.

b. Preposition. Tywardreath, the house on the sands; Tywarnhaile (=Ty war an hayle), the house on the tidal river. Note that the syllable war in these words is unaccented. In Trewartha, the upper house, the accent is on war, so that even if we were not accustomed to the epithet wartha we should know that war is here not a preposition.

4. Appositional genitive without article.

Chytan, the house of fire; Chypons, the bridge house;

Pentreath, the head of the sands; Portreath ( = Porth-treath),the creek of the sands.

Nancemelling ( = Nans-mellan), the valley of the mill.