Chapter XIV The Construction of Sentences, Idioms, etc.
§ 1. In later Cornish there was a strong tendency to assimilate the order of words and the construction of sentences to those of English, but nevertheless certain idioms persisted throughout.
In English the normal order of words in a simple sentence is:—
Subject—Verb—Complement of Predicate (Object, etc.).
This order is used in Cornish also when the impersonal form of the main verb or of the auxiliary is used, and the object is not a personal pronoun. Thus:—
Dew a gar an bês, God loveth the world.
Dew a wra cara an bês, God doth love the world.
One of these two forms is the most usual in a direct affirmative principal sentence when the object is not a pronoun.
If the object is a pronoun, the order is:—
Subject—Particle—Object—Verb.
Thus:—
Dew a’th gar, God loveth thee.
Or:—
Subject—Particle—Auxiliary—Pronoun in the Possessive Form—Infinitive of Main Verb.
Thus:—
Dew a wra dha gara, God doth love thee.
If the auxiliary verb is bos, to be, it often happens that the inflected form of it is used in an affirmative sentence when the tense is the continuous present or imperfect. In these cases the order is:—
Auxiliary Verb—Subject—Participle of Main Verb—Complement.
Thus:—
Thov vî ow môs dhô Loundres, I am going to London.
Therough why ow tôs adre, you were coming home.
But with the preterite tense the simple impersonal form is more usual. Thus:—
Mî a vê gennes en Kernow, I was born in Cornwall.
The same applies to the present and imperfect of bos when it is not an auxiliary. Thus:—
Thov vî lowen dhô ’gas gwelas, I am glad to see you.
The inflected form of the verb is rare in simple direct affirmative sentences, except when it is used as a Celtic substitute for “yes.” It may be used in verse, but it is rather affected in prose. In negative, interrogative, and dependent sentences it is the only form to use, but even then it is the inflected auxiliaries, parts of gwîl, to do, menny, to will, gally, to be able, etc., with the infinitive of the main verb that are more commonly used, rather than the inflected form of the main verb itself. In the third person singular it is of course only distinguishable from the impersonal form by the position of the subject, which in the inflected form would follow the verb. The inflectional form of the third person plural is only used when the pronoun “they” is the subject. When the subject is a plural noun the verb is always in the singular. The inflected form, either of the auxiliary gwîl with the infinitive of the main verb, or of the main verb itself, is always used for the imperative. In late Cornish, except in the case of answers for “yes” and “no,” and of the peculiar forms of the first, second, and third persons singular in ma, ta, and va, the subject personal pronoun is almost always expressed, except, of course, when the subject is a noun.