§ 3 Dependent Sentences or Subordinate Clauses
These are of three kinds:—
1. Those introduced by conjunctions, such as if, that, as, etc., or by a relative pronoun.
2. Those analogous to the “accusative with the infinitive” of Latin.
3. The absolute clause.
1. The ordinary dependent clause introduced by a conjunction has its verb in the indicative, unless the so-called subjunctive is required to express uncertainty or contingency, without reference to any preceding conjunction. The verb is always in the simple inflected or inflected auxiliary form. The verb which follows the conjunction mar or mara, if, has its initial in the fourth state, and tre, tro, or dro, that, governs the second state.
A dependent sentence may sometimes precede its principal sentence, as in English. A very good instance of two sorts of dependent clauses may be seen in the following sentence from Boson’s Nebbaz Gerriau. The English is:—
“If that learned wise man [John Keigwin] should see this [i.e. this essay], he would find reason to correct it in orthography, etc.”
Boson’s Cornish, the spelling and division of words assimilated to that of the present grammar, is:—
Mar qwressa an dên deskes fîr-na gwelas hemma,
If should [do] that man learned wise see this,
ev a venja cavos fraga e ewna en scrîfa-composter.
he would find why it to amend in writing-correctness.
In this sentence qwressa is for gwressa (third person singular of the conditional or pluperfect of the auxiliary gwîl, to do), with the initial in its fourth state after mar. Boson writes it markressa, all in one word. Fraga e ewna is an example of a variant of the second form of dependent sentence. The principal verb ev a venja cavos is in the impersonal auxiliary form, and of the two dependent clause verbs, one, qwressa an dên deskes fîr-na gwelas, is in the inflected auxiliary form, and the other, ewna, is infinitive.
In a relative sentence, if the relative pronoun is the subject, the verb appears to be in the impersonal form. That is to say, it is always in the form of the third person singular, and does not show any agreement with its antecedent, whatever person or number that may be in. The other peculiarities of relative sentences are given in Chapter VII. §4.
2. “Instead of using the conjunction that with another verb in the indicative mood, as in most European languages, it is usual to put the second verb in the infinitive preceded by the personal pronoun, as is common in Latin.” Thus says Norris, speaking in a manner perhaps rather less clear than usual, of an idiom found in the Dramas. This idiom, analogous to the “accusative with the infinitive” of Latin, is found down to the latest period of Cornish literature, though not to the complete exclusion of a finite clause beginning with that. The instances given by Norris are:—
Ha cous ef dhe dhasserhy, and say that he is risen.
Marth a’m bues ty dhe leverel folneth, I have wonder that thou shouldst speak folly.
Nyns a y’m colon why dhe gewsel, it goes not into my heart (i.e. I do not believe) that you have spoken.
Del won dhe bos, as I know thee to be.
Here are some later instances:—
Ny a wel an tîs younk dho e clappya leh ha leh, 164 we see that the young people speak it less and less (Nebbaz Gerriau).
Dre wrama crejy hedna dho bos gwîr yu serîfes enna, that I do believe that that is true that is written therein (Nebbaz Gerriau).
Nevertheless, one finds in the same piece:—
Ev a lavarras drova gever ǒl, he said that it was Goats All.
Bes mî a or hemma, dhort e hoer an Kernuak, drova talves bes nebbas, but I know this, by her sister the Cornish, that it is worth but little.
And in Keigwin’s translation of Genesis i.:—
Ha Dew a wellas trova da, and God saw that it was good.
A somewhat similar construction is sometimes used after dreven, because, and treba, until:—
Dreven tî dhô wîl hemma, because thou hast done this (Kerew’s Genesis, iii. 14).
Dreven tî dhô wolsowas dhô dalla dha wrêg, 165 because thou didst listen to the voice of thy wife (Gen. iii. 17).
Treba tî dhô draylya dhô’n nôr, until thou turn again to the earth (Gen. iii. 19).
Yet even there one finds
Dreven o hy dama a ŏl bewa, because she was the mother of all living (Gen. iii. 20).
Lhuyd mentions a similar construction after rag own, for fear, lest:—
Rag own whŷ dho gôdha po an rew dho derry ha whŷ dho vos bidhes, lest you fall or the ice break and you be drowned (literally, for fear you to fall or the ice to break and you to be drowned).
With fraga, why, one finds a similar form:—
Ev a venja cavos fraga e ewna, he would find why to amend it.
But when fraga introduces an interrogative sentence, an ordinary finite verb is used:—
Fraga (or rag fraga, “for why,”) na grejeth dhô’ m lavarow? Why dost thou not believe my words?
When “that” signifies “in order that,” the ordinary finite verb is used after it.
There is a peculiar construction, found chiefly in Jordan’s Creation, but also in the Ordinalia (e.g. Pass. Chr. 1120), for expressing “that I am.” It consists of the infinitive bos, to be, preceded by a possessive pronoun and followed by a pronominal suffix:—
Me a vyn mav fo gwellys ow bosaf Dew heb parow, I will that it may be seen, that I am God without equals.
And a still more confused one of the second person with the verbal particle y before bos, the pronominal suffix ta and the pronoun ge=dî:—
Me ny allaf convethas, y bosta ge ow hendas, I cannot understand that thou art my ancestor.
The first is analogous to the Welsh “infinitive construction,” as Rowland calls it, e.g. gwyr fy mod i yn dyfod, he knows that I am coming (lit. he knows my being in coming), only the Cornish form uses the pronominal suffix instead of the redundant personal pronoun.
3. The Absolute Clause. This construction, which answers more or less to the ablative absolute of Latin, and the genitive absolute of Greek, is common to all the Celtic languages. It is translated into English by a sentence introduced by when, while, whilst, or though, with a verb generally in the continuous form of the present or past tense, or by a participle. In the Celtic languages the absolute clause has two forms.
a. The affirmative, generally consisting of the conjunction and, a subject, noun or pronoun, and generally a participle. Rowland calls the conjunction, a, ac, of the Welsh form “the absolute particle,” and Professor Anwyl identifies it with a, ag, with, in an archaic form. But in Cornish ha or hag is used, and in Gaelic agus, and, in exactly the same way. The following are examples in Cornish, Welsh, and Gaelic:—
Cornish. An jy a ve gwarnes gan Dew, ha ’n jy ow cusca, 166 they were warned by God, and they sleeping, or, while they slept (Kerew’s translation of St. Matth. ii. 12, Gwav. MS.).
El a’n leverys dethy haneth, ha hy yn gwely pur thyfun, an angel said it to her this night, and she in her bed quite awake (Pass. Chr. 2202-4).
Welsh. Pa ham, a mi yn disgwyl iddi dwyn grawn-win, y dug hi rawn gwylltlon? Wherefore, and I looking to it to bring forth grapes [Auth. Vers., when I looked that it should bring forth grapes], brought it forth wild grapes? (Isaiah v. 4).
Gaelic. Do chonnaic Seaghán an duine, agus é ag teacht a-bhaile, John saw the man, and he coming home, i.e. when he was coming home.
b. The negative, in which not is expressed in Welsh and Cornish by heb, and in Gaelic by gan, both meaning without, followed by an infinitive:—
An delna ema stel ow tegy warnodha, heb wara dhodha teller vîth, 167 so it is still closing in upon it without leaving it any place (Boson’s Nebbaz Gerriau).
In many such cases this negative clause can be translated literally into English, and it is the usual form of negation with an infinitive or present participle.
A somewhat similar absolute clause of a descriptive character occurs occasionally:—
An golom, glas hy lagas, yn mes gura hy delyfre, the dove, blue her eyes, do set her free (Origo Mundi, 1105-6).
Un flogh yonk, gwyn y dhyllas, a young child, white his raiment (Passion, 254, 3).
In a similar construction in Welsh the adjective here agrees with the first noun, and the translation would be rather “The dove blue [as to] her eyes,” but in Cornish this is not so, for in this sentence golom (second state of colom) is feminine, so that the adjective would be las, not glas, if it agreed with it.