Page:A handbook of the Cornish language; Chiefly in its latest stages with some account of its history and literature.djvu/124

THE PRONOUNS 105 The a of the last syllable of agan, agas, aga is obscure, and is often found represented by e. o, or u in the MSS. Even when not preceded by a vowel these words are often found as gan, gas, ga (gun, gen, gon, gus, guz, ges> go}. When a pronoun is the object of a verb in^the infinitive or of a verb formed with the auxiliary verbs gwil, to do, menny, to will, etc. and an infinitive, the pronoun-object is represented by the possessive pro- noun preceding and governing (as to initial mutation) this infinitive : ev a wrtg ow tholla, he did deceive me. mi a vedn e grejy, I will believe it. mi a wrtg agas danvon, I did send you. The reason of this is that in Cornish, as in the other Celtic languages, the infinitive is counted as a verbal noun, signifying the act of doing. This conception of the infinitive explains many Celtic constructions. The literal force of the above examples would be "he did (or made) the deceiving of me," " I will the believing of it," " I did the sending of you." Similarly, when the object is a noun, it really follows the infinitive as an appositional genitive. Frequently the second form of the corresponding personal pronoun follows a noun preceded by a pos- sessive pronoun. This ought to be for emphasis, and, when it is so, the sound of the personal pronoun would be its full sound ; but it is frequently merely redundant, and then it is enclitic, forming as it were an unaccented additional syllable tacked on to the noun : agan Tds ny, Our Father (nearly 'gun Tazny). dh6 'm brodar vi, to my brother. agas levar why, your book. herlya yu 'gan gwary ny, hurling is our sport.