Cornish
161
Table 5.31: Demonstrative pronouns in Middle and Late Cornish
‘this’
m. f.
Middle Cornish hemma/helma homma/holma
‘that’
m. f.
henna honna
Late Cornish ebah hedda hodda
(After George, 1993: 440)
form no longer marked gender agreement (Table 5.31).
5.9.1.6
Numerals
In Middle Cornish, the numerals corresponding to ‘2’, ‘3’ and ‘4’ had distinct morphemes to mark gender agreement: dev/dew (m.) : dyv/dyw (f.) ‘two’; try (m.) : tyr (f.) ‘three’; peswar (m.) : peder (f.) ‘four’ (Jenner, 1904: 94; George, 1993: 444).
5.9.1.7
Personal pronouns
Middle Cornish had a number of pronominal series: independent, suffixed (enclitic), possessive (proclitic), and infixed; in Late Cornish, independent and enclitic pronouns eventually fell together (George, 1993: 440–2). Gender was distinguished in the third person singular. In the possessive series, masculine y lenited the following word, while feminine hy triggered spirant mutation (George, 1993: 437f.), as in the following examples. (95) Cornish (Jenner, 1904: 71) a. eSM
ben (cf. pen)
b. eSM
dhˆen (cf. dˆen)
POSS:3SG.M head
POSS:3SG.M man
‘his head’
‘his man’
(96) Cornish (Thomas, 1992a: 368) a. /iAM
Tir/ (cf. /tir/)
b. /iAM
xolon/ (cf. /kolon/)
POSS:3SG.F land
POSS:3SG.F heart
‘her land’
‘her heart’