5. Proper names as appositional genitives:—
Trejago, the house of Jago (or James).
Chykembra, the Welshman's house. Gun-an-Guidal (or Anguidal Downs), the down of the Irishman.
In West Cornwall, especially in Penwith, where the spoken language lingered latest, there is a greater tendency to the use of the article, an than in the more eastern part of the Duchy. Sometimes the article is prefixed to the noun itself. Thus, Andrewartha ( = an dre wartha), the upper town, in Gwithian, now called Upton, but inhabited by a family of the older name; Angarrack, the rock, between Hayle and Gwinear Road; Angove, the smith, and Angwin, the white, family names; Angrouse, the cross, in Mullion; Angear, the castle; Annear or Ennor, the earth; Angilley or Anguilly, the grove.[1] Generally when the article comes between the
generic noun and some other word the latter is a noun also, an appositional genitive, but occasionally it is an adjective, as in Ponsanooth (in Perran Arworthal and Gluvias), which is probably Pons-an-nowedh, the new bridge. The generic prefix Pleu or Plou, parish, so common in Brittany, is altogether unknown in Cornish place-names of to-day, unless, as some hold, Bleu Bridge in Madron means "the parish bridge," and is a partial translation of Pons-an-bleu, but the word is common enough in Cornish, and the names of parishes called after saints frequently began in Cornish writings with Pleu (plu, plui) Pleu East, St. Just; Pleu Paul, St. Paul; Pleu Vudhick, St. Budock. Though the word occurs in the expression tîz pleu, people of [his] parish, in the tale of John of Chy-an-Hur, the three parishes mentioned there, St. Levan, St. Hillary, and Buryan, are called by
- ↑ Cf. the Arabic article al prefixed to place-names in Southern Spain, and to nouns of Arabic derivation in Spanish.
