Page:A handbook of the Cornish language; Chiefly in its latest stages with some account of its history and literature.djvu/179

160 GRAMMAR 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 t the subject personal pronoun is almost always expressed, except, of course, when the subject is a noun. 2. NEGATIVE AND INTERROGATIVE SENTENCES. For a negative sentence it is never correct to use the impersonal, but always the inflected form of the verb or of the auxiliary, preceded by the negative particle ni (older, ny) or nyns. The order is : 1. Negative Particle Verb Subject Complement of Predicate. Or:- 2. Negative Particle Auxiliary (inflected) Subject Infinitive of Main Verb Complement If the object is a pronoun, in the first case it follows the negative particle in its third form, in the second case it precedes the infinitive in the possessive form. Thus : 1. Ni welav vi an den, I do not see the man. Ni wor den vith an er, no man knoweth the hour. 2. Ni wrigav vi gwelas an den, I did not see the man. 1. Nt'th welav vi, I do not see thee. 2. Ni wrigav vi dka welas, I did not see thee. In the case of the present and imperfect of bos, to be, the particle nyns is often used, and it is sometimes found with other words beginning with vowels, but its use is rare in late Cornish, and ni, or less correctly na (or nag before a vowel) is more usual. It is allowable to use the inflected form with the subject-pronoun preceding the negative particle, but it should only be used for emphasis on the subject, and is better avoided.