Page:A handbook of the Cornish language; Chiefly in its latest stages with some account of its history and literature.djvu/83

64 it, and there are cases where even an initial's must have meant sh or zh. Thus we find cowsesow, speeches, written cowgegyow, carensa, love, carenga (for carenja), and in place-names, though we find Nanskeval, Nanspean, Nanswidn when the epithet begins with a consonant, when it begins with a vowel we find Nanjizel ( = Nans isal, the lower valley). Sometimes in late Cornish the definite j sound so completely superseded the s or z, that it or its equivalent, g soft or dzh, was always written for it, and in such casesit is written j in the present system of spelling, but in other cases the best rules will be to pronounce s

1. As an initial; before c, k, f, l, m, n, p, q, r, t, w; or when doubled, as s in so.

2. As a final, except when the next word, grammatically connected, begins with a vowel; or before b, d, g, j, v, as z or s in rose.

3. Between two vowels in the same word; after another consonant and followed by a vowel; or as a final followed by a grammatically connected word, such as an epithet, beginning with a vowel, as j.

For the last rule compare Mrs. Gamp's pronunciation of English (in Martin Chuzzlewit). There seems to have been an inherent tendency to the j, sh, or zh sounds in every Cornish s, but especially in those which represent a d or t of Welsh and Breton. The writer is aware that this is a very inadequate discussion of the quettion, but he does not wish to be unduly intricate, or to enter into a deep phonetic explanation. Those who would study the question more minutely are referred to an article by Prof. J. Loth in vol. xviii. of the Revue Celtique.

16. t before a, o, u is hard, as in English, but