Chapter VIII The Verb in General
§ 1. The nucleus of a Cornish verb is its root. This is used without any variation or addition for the third person singular of the present tense, and for the second person singular of the imperative.
Other parts of the verb are formed on this root in three ways:—
1. By the inflected form, that is to say by the addition of certain syllables indicating person, tense, etc., with or without a modification of the root vowel. In older Cornish the word thus formed indicated person as well as tense without the addition of a pronoun, though if emphasis on the subject was intended the pronoun was used before or after it. In later Cornish the pronoun was almost always added after the verb, and as the latter word often ended with the same consonant as the former began with, the final consonant of the verb was often, but incorrectly, omitted in writing, as it was in sound. Thus:—
Root car, love; first pers. sing. pres., carav, I love, with pronoun, carav vî, pronounced and often written cara vî; plur., caron, we love, caron nŷ, often written caro nŷ.
The inflected form is common in early Cornish, but in the later stages of the language it is hardly ever used, except in negative, interrogative, and dependent sentences, and in certain tenses of the verb to be. Even when it is used, it is more frequently the inflected form of an auxiliary verb with the infinitive or participle of the main verb.
2. By the impersonal form, as the Breton grammarians call it. This has inflections of tense but not of person, the latter being indicated by the personal pronouns, placed before the verb, which, being immediately preceded by the particle a, has its initial in the second state. This verb is the third person singular of the required tense. Thus:—
Root car, third pers. sing. past, caras.
Impersonal form. Mî a garas, tî a garas, ev a garas, etc.
This form is frequently used in early and late Cornish for a direct affirmative sentence, beginning straight off with its nominative, or preceded only by and or but, etc.; but not so frequently in late Cornish, as the impersonal form of an auxiliary verb, with the infinitive of the main verb.
3. By the auxiliary form, either inflected or impersonal, with the infinitive or a participle of the main verb. The auxiliaries are:—
Gîl or gwîl (older forms gwrthil, gwithil, etc.), to do.
Menny, to wish, to will.
Gally, to be able.
Gŏthvos, to know.
Bos, to be.
(a). Gwîl is used to form several tenses, and is used (1) in its impersonal form in principal affirmative sentences, (2) in its inflected form in negative, interrogative, or dependent sentences, with the infinitive of the main verb, more frequently than any other form, for the present, preterite, conditional, and imperative. Its use is similar to that of do, in the Cornish manner of speaking English. Thus:—
Mî a wra cara, I love, lit. I do love.
Tî a wrîg cara, thou didst love.
In these two sentences, wra and wrîg are proclitics, unaccented syllables joined in sound to the word which follows.
Mar qwressa an dên cara, if the man would love.
Gwra cara, love thou (do thou love); gwreugh why cara, love ye.
Gwrens e bos, let him be.
(b). Menny is used as an auxiliary of the future and conditional. In principal affirmative sentences it is usually in its impersonal form, in negative, interrogative, or dependent sentences always in its inflected form. Thus:—
Mî a vedn môs, I will go.
Mî a venja môs, I would go.
A vednough why môs? will you go?
(c). Gally is used, chiefly in the present and preterite, for “can” and “could,” but also for “may” and “might.” Thus:—
Mî a el môs, I can (or may) go.
Mî a alja môs, I could (or might) go.
(d). Gŏdhvos in the present is sometimes used for “can.” Thus:—
Mî ôr mos, I can go (lit. I know [how] to go).
These follow the same rule as the others with regard to the use of their impersonal and inflected forms.
(e). Bos, to be, as an auxiliary, is used, much as in English, with the present or past participle, to form the continuous present, the continuous past, and the passive. It is generally used in the inflected form in its present and imperfect in any sort of sentence, but in principal affirmative sentences it is generally used in the impersonal form for other tenses. It can also be used with gwîl or menny and gally as an auxiliary to it, while it is itself an auxiliary to another verb, but this is only what is done in English with such expressions as “can be,” “will be,” “shall be,” etc.
The use of the various forms of the verb will be found more fully explained in the chapter on the construction of sentences.
When the auxiliaries gwîl and gally are used to form a passive, it is sometimes the auxiliary that takes the passive form. Thus:—
Mar ny wrer y wythe, if he be not guarded (Res. Dom., 341), mar keller y wythe, if he can be kept (Pass. Chr., 3058).
But in modern Cornish this would be more likely to be formed with a double auxiliary:—
Mar ni wrello bos gwithes.
Mar callo bos gwithes.