Page:A handbook of the Cornish language; Chiefly in its latest stages with some account of its history and literature.djvu/93

74 it?") is used for the interrogative "what?" but is never written pa'n dra. There are occasional further compounds of pandra, e.g. pandrus (or pendrus) = pa an dra es, or pandryu = pa an dra yu, both meaning "what thing is?" pandrama = pa an dra a wrama, "what shall I do?" pandrellen = pa an dra a wrellen, "what should I do?"

As in the other Celtic languages, when a noun is followed by another noun in the possessive appositional genitive, the first noun has no definite article. Thus chŷ an den, the house of the man, not an chŷ an den. The same rule applies to a similar appositional genitive in Hebrew a—curious coincidence between two quite unconnected languages.

§ 2.

As a rule a singular noun without any article expressed, except in the case of a noun followed by the appositional genitive, is considered to be in the indefinite state, and would be translated into English by a noun preceded by the indefinite article a or an. But partly as a corrupt following of English or French, and partly for emphasis, denoting a single one (like yr un in Welsh), the word a or an is sometimes represented by idn (earlier un), one. This is rare, especially in late Cornish. A similar indefinite article is common in Breton. Occasionally idn or un was used, as in Breton, with a verbal noun (or infinitive), to form what in English would be a present participle. Yn un scolchye, skulking, lit. in a skulking (Passion, 74, 2), yn un garme, shouting, crying out, lit. in a shouting (Passion, 168, 1), yn un fystyne, hastening, lit. in a hastening (Passion, 178, 1; 241, 4), but this construction is not found in late Cornish.