Page:A handbook of the Cornish language; Chiefly in its latest stages with some account of its history and literature.djvu/89

70 The change of the tenuis to the aspirate we call the THIRD STATE.

Thus, for the first three words the third state is Fen, Har, Thâs.

The other four, beginning with mediæ or m, have no third state.

The change from the media to the tenuis we call the FOURTH STATE. It is commonly called provection.

Thus, the fourth state of Blew, Gras, and Dên (the words beginning with tenues or m having no fourth state) is Plew, Cras, Tên.

[It is to be noted, however, that none of these three words, being nouns, would be likely to be subjected to this last change in any real construction, for the fourth state is used almost exclusively with ow, the particle of the present participle of verbs, with the conjunctions a and mar, if, and maga, as, sometimes with the verbal particle y or e, and sometimes with the adverbial particle en, so that it is generally applied to verbs and adjectives.]

The following is a table of changes:—

P has two changes, to B (second state), and F (third state).

C (or K) has two changes, to G ( second state) and H (third state).

T (or Ch) has two changes, to D (or J) (second state) and Th (third state).

B has two changes, to V (second state) and P (fourth state).

G has two changes, omitted or changed to W (second state) and C or K or Q (fourth state).

D has two changes, Dh ( second state) and T (fourth state).

M has one change, to V (second state).