I have been rereading Norris' "Sketch of Cornish Grammar" and have found that he put forward a rule that pretty much explains some of the vowel changes in the Cornish Language. These notes are taken from _The Ancient Cornish Drama_ (reissued 1968) from volume 2 pages 220-221. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- - A Simple rule for the Cornish Vowel Shift Norris states: "Whenever a word with _a_ or _e_ for its final vowel ... receives by grammatical change the addition of a syllable whose vowel is _i_, _y_, or _eu_, the _a_ becomes _e_ or _-y_, and the _e_ becomes _y_" (Norris,1968:221) Now, I don't know how all-encompassing this rule is but looking back on my earlier notes, it does seem to be a pretty good guideline. Here are some examples: car: to love kyrys: loved kyrreugh: you (sing) love taw: to be silent teweugh: be silent! tywyn: we are silent gwel: to see gwylsyn: we saw guas: a lad guesyon: lads Norris goes on to note that _o_ and _u_ don't often change but they do rarely go to _e_ (_y_): danfon: to send danfeneugh: send arluth: lord arlythy: lords ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- - This guideline has cleared up a lot of questions for me and I hope that it helps all those that are reading these little notes of mine. Anthony Velasquez Oregon State Univeristy (E-mail) velasqua@ucs.orst.edu =========================================================================