Page:A handbook of the Cornish language; Chiefly in its latest stages with some account of its history and literature.djvu/88

Rh The labials are:—

Tenuis, P; Media, B; Aspirate, F or V.

The gutturals are:—

Tenuis, C or K; Media, G; Aspirate, H.

The dentalsare:—

Tenuis, T or Ch; Media, D or J; Aspirate, Th or Dh.

There is no difficulty in perceiving that the letters forming each of these classes are closely related to one another; in most languages they are interchangeable under certain conditions, and the changes in the Celtic languages called initial mutations are based upon these relations, though the method, rules, and arrangement of these changes differ in the six languages, as do also the names by which they are known.

In Cornish (as in Breton) the general principle is that (1) the tenuis changes under some circumstances into the media, and under others into a form of the aspirate', and that (2) the media changes to a form of the aspirate under some circumstances, and into the tenuis under others; but that (3) the conditions which change the tenuis into the media change the media into the aspirate: while those which change (4) the tenuis into the aspirate leave the media unchanged; and those which change (5) the media to the tenuis leave the tenuis unchanged.

In this book we shall call the original or radical condition of a word its FIRST STATE.

Thus Pen, a head, Car, a friend, Tâs, a father, Blew, hair, Gras, grace, Dên, a man, Mab, a son, are in their first state.

The change of the tenuis to the media, or a radical media to an aspirate, we call the SECOND STATE.

Thus, the same words in their second state are Ben, Gar, Dâs, Vlew, 'ras, Dhên, Vab.