Page:A handbook of the Cornish language; Chiefly in its latest stages with some account of its history and literature.djvu/97

78 *pŭrkenyas, an enchanter, from the intensive prefix pur (lit. very) and cana, to sing.
 * helhyas, a pursuer, from helhya, to hunt.
 * scrivinyas, a writer, from scrîfa, to write.
 * offeryas, a priest, from offeren, mass.
 * hǒmbrǒnkyas, a leader, from hǒmbrǒnkya, to lead.

Many words in yas occur only in the Cottonian Vocabulary, and appear there as ending in iad or iat, but since all the Cottonian words in iad and iat which do appear in later MSS. are made in the latter to end in yas (or ias), and since it may be taken as an invariable rule that all words ending in t or d in Welsh or Breton, if they occur at all in Cornish, end in s, any Cottonian word in iat or iad may fairly be taken for purposes of modern Cornish to end in yas.

2.

Nouns are of two genders, masculine and feminine. There is no neuter.

There is no rule whereby to tell the gender of a word, except in the case of animate objects, where the gender simply follows the sex.

There are only three grammatical cases in which gender matters at all.

1. When a noun or an adjective preceding a noun is preceded by the article an, the. If the noun or adjective is masculine singular or the noun feminine, or the adjective of either, plural, its initial remains in the first state. If the noun or adjective is feminine singular or the noun is masculine plural, it is changed to the second state.

2. When a qualifying adjective follows a noun in the masculine or in the plural of either gender, the