Chapter VII — The Pronouns
§ 1 The Personal Pronouns
There are four forms of the Personal pronouns. These forms are used under various circumstances, but they are mostly reducible to a single letter with or without its vowel for each person, the variations depending upon (a) the state of that letter, and (b) whether the vowel is placed before or after it. The vowel is elided in some cases, and coalesces with another vowel in others.
1. As the subject of a verb and preceding it.
2. As the subject or object of a verb and following it. This is for some pronouns the same as the first form, for others the first form with its initial in the second state.
3. As the object of a verb, but placed between a particle ending in a vowel and the verb. This form is used also for possessive pronouns of the first and second persons singular when they are preceded by the conjunction ha, and, or by a preposition ending in a vowel, or by en, in.
4. In composition with a preposition, and for forming the persons of an inflected tense of a verb.
In the first and second the consonant is followed by a vowel. In the third and fourth the consonant ends the word.
1. The First Person Singular. English, I or me. Letter M (V).
| 1st form. | mî. | mî a vedn, I will. |
| 2nd form. | vî. | gwith vî, keep me. |
| 3rd form. | ’m. | neb a’m gwrîg, he who made me. |
| 4th form. | ’m or ’v. | genev, with me; dhem, to me; carav, I love. |
The compounds of pronoun and preposition are written as one word, without an apostrophe, as the form of the preposition also is often affected by the composition. A list of these will be found later on, as they present some irregularities.
2. The Second Person Singular. English, thou or thee. Letter T (D).
| 1st form. | tî (pronounced nearly chee, and sometimes so written). | tî a vedn, thou wilt. |
| 2nd form. | dî (often written sy or gy in the older MSS., and pronounced jee, nearly). | menjes dî, thou wouldst. |
| 3rd form. | ’th (often ’d in the older MSS.). This is followed by the second state of the initial, or in the case of d by the fourth. | mî a’th bes, I pray thee, re’th tynerchys, hath greeted thee (Passion, 115, 2). |
| 4th form. | ’s. | genes, with thee. |
3. The Third Person Singular, masculine. English, he or him. Letter V or N, or a vowel.
| 1st form. | ev (with the v very lightly sounded, and often silent. The older form is ef). | ev a vedn, he will. |
| 2nd form. | ev or e. | menja ev, he would. |
| 3rd form. This form is commonly used in the earlier MSS. It represents an accusative en or hen which still exists in Breton. In more recent Cornish, with the frequent use of the auxiliary form of the verb, where the pronominal object precedes the infinitive in its possessive form, this construction became unusual. | ’n. | mî a’n pes, I pray him. |
| 4th form. In this form several words have an inserted dh between the preposition and the pronoun. Ragdho, for him, dhôdho, to him, not rago, dhôo. A similar euphonic dh occurs in the case of the third persons feminine and plural. | ’o. | enno, in him, ganso, with him. |
4. Third Person Singular, feminine. English, she, her. Letter H, S, or a vowel.
| 1st form. | hŷ. | hŷ a vedn, she will. |
| 2nd form. | hŷ. | a medh hŷ, said she. |
| 3rd form. This form is rarely found in the later MSS. Either the possessive î or the form hŷ (the latter often put after the verb) was used, in the rare cases of this construction. | ’s. | mî a’s henow, I name her. |
| 4th form. | ’î. | gensî, with her; dhedhî, to her. |
5. First Person Plural. English, we, us. Letter N.
| 1st form. | nŷ. | nŷ a vedn, we will. |
| 2nd form. | nŷ. | na, blamyough nŷ, do not blame us. |
| 3rd form. This form, perhaps owing to its being the same as the 3rd form of the third person singular, is rare even in the older MSS. The possessive ’gan (for agan) is generally used instead of it, ev a ’gan doro. | ’n. | ev a’n doro, he will bring us. |
| 4th form. | ’n, preceded by almost any vowel. | ragon, for us; genen, with us; dhen, to us; warnan, on us. |
6. Second Person Singular. English, you. Letter, Wh, Gh, or S.
| 1st form. | whŷ. | whŷ a vedn, you will. |
| 2nd form. | whŷ. | nî wreugh whŷ, you do not. |
| 3rd form. This form is very rare even in the older MSS. The possessive ’gas (for agas) is generally used instead. | ’s. | ev a’s doro, he will bring you. |
| 4th form: | ’ugh. | genough, with you; dheugh, to you. |
7. Third Person Plural. English, they, them.
| 1st form. This last is the regular form in the latest Cornish. In the earlier MSS. y only is used for they; later an gy or an dzhei (as Lhuyd writes it) became usual. It is only found in the MSS. of the end of the seventeenth and beginning of the eighteenth century, and probably originated in a wrong division of words. The third person plural of most inflected tenses of verbs ends in ons, ans, ens. If the pronoun were added, this would take the form of ons ŷ, etc., as in carons ŷ (amant illi), they love, and the usual pronunciation of s would soon bring this combination to caronjy, which is easily divided into car onjy. The compound preposition form in later Cornish often ended in ans, followed or not followed by the 1st or 2nd form of the pronoun. Thus in Jordan’s Creation (1611) we find anodhans y (from them) for an older anodhe. This would give an additional reason for the confusion. | ŷ, jŷ, an jŷ. | ŷ a vedn, jŷ a vedn, or an jŷ a vedn, they will. |
| 2nd form. | ŷ. | medhons ŷ (often written medh an jy), said they. |
| 3rd form. | ’s. | mî a’s agor, I will open them. |
| 4th form. | ’ns, e. | dhodhans, to them; gensans or genjans, with them. |
The form in e is older (dhethe, ganse, etc.), but became obsolete by the middle of the seventeenth century. It will have been seen:—
1. That the first and second persons singular are the only ones which possess the four separate forms complete.
2. That the second form of all but these two persons is usually the same as the first form.
3. That the third form is not much used in later Cornish except for the same two persons.
It may also be noted that though the full and emphatic pronunciation of hŷ, nŷ, whŷ, and jŷ is that of the English words high, nigh, why, and the first syllable of jibe, when, as is often the case, there is no emphasis of any sort on them, the same thing happens to them as commonly happens in rapid speech in English to the word my, and the y ceases to have the sound of î English, but has the sound of a short (not obscure) e English. Thus in the common Cornish “Thank you,” mêr ’ras dhô whŷ, which is sounded as one word, merásdhawhy, the y has the short sound which the same letter usually has at the end of a word. But it might happen otherwise. Thus the following sentences are within the experience of most of us at the end of some simple commercial transaction:—
Customer (carelessly, having received the article and paid the money), “Thánk you.”
Shopkeeper (in a half-reproving tone), “Thank you, sir.”
In Cornish the customer would say “Merásdkawhy,” in the ordinary tone, but the shopkeeper might answer “Merasdha whý, sira,” and would sound the pronoun like the English word why, unless, being a good Cornish speaker, he preferred to say “Mêr ’ras dhô ’gas honan” (Thanks to yourself).
The same principle applies to hŷ, nŷ, and an jŷ, but less with the last, which is generally treated as a dissyllable with the accent on the last syllable.