Page:A handbook of the Cornish language; Chiefly in its latest stages with some account of its history and literature.djvu/123

104 GRAMMAR 3. Third Person Singular, masculine. English, his. e (older form y), governing the second state. This, altered to^, coalesces with a preposition ending in a vowel, forming a diphthong, which is written with an apostrophe between the two vowels. It still governs the second state : e das, his father ; dhoy (pron. dhoy] das, to his father ; ha'y das, and his father. 4. Third Person Singular, feminine ; English, her. i, governing the third state, or when there is no third state, the first. It coalesces with prepositions ending in a vowel and with ha in the same way as the masculine : i thds, her father ; i gwlas, her country ; hdi thds, and her father. In the earlier MSS. both these possessive pronouns were written y, the only distinction being in the initial mutation which followed. In the later MSS. i is often written e. 5. First Person Plural. English, our. agan, governing the first state : agan tds, our father. 6. Second Person Plural. English, your. agas, governing the first state : agas tds, your father. 7. Third Person Plural. English, their. aga, governing the third, or failing that, the first state : aga thds, their father ; aga gwlas, their country. When preceded by a preposition ending in a vowel or by ha, the three plural possessive pronouns lose their initial a : dho 'gas, ha 'gan, etc.