I'd like to continue my contributions of notes on the Cornish Language with discussion on the formation of the plural number from "Sketch of Cornish Grammar" from _The Ancient Cornish Drama_ edited and translated by Edwin Norris. The dramas are of course the _Ordinalia_, a set of three Cornish 'miracle' plays from sometime in the late 14th or early 15th century. The book was published in 1859 and reissued in 1968 by Benjamin Blom, Inc. Bronx, New York 10452. Today's notes come from pp. 229-232 of the second volume. THE CORNISH PLURAL NUMBER The most common way to form the plural in Cornish is to add an -ow to the word: tas > tassow father > fathers dorn > dornow hand > hands ro > roow gift > gifts fos > fosow wall > walls scoforn > scovornow ear > ears kenter > kentrow nail > nails deu > dewow god > gods levyr > lyfryow book > books enef > enevow soul > souls tre > trevow town > towns tyr > tyryow land > lands Plurals may be formed by the ending -ion (-yon) which generally occurs with plurals of personal words, adjectives used substantively, and some common nouns: map > mebyon son > sons marrek > marregyon knight > knights cuf > kefyon, cufyon wise > wise persons guyr > gueryon true > true persons prevyon reptiles govegyon sorrows empynyon brains marthogyon wonders Many plurals take -y in the plural, these words often take other changes as well such as consonant or vowel changes: mowes > mowysy maiden > maidens anfus > anfugy sin > sins profus > profugy prophet > prophets arluth > arlythy lord > lords mester > mestrygy master > masters Norris observed in the Ordinalia that some nouns have stems which are plural and take the ending -en to particularize them: delen > deyl leaf > leaves gryghonen > guryghon spark > sparks guelen > gueel rod > rods luhesen > luhes lightning flash > lightning(s) Norris did observe that a form _dylyow_ did occur for the plural of leaf Nouns denoting names of animals and the condition of people usually take their noun in either -s or -th: el > eleth angel > angels myrgh > myrhes daughter > daughters benen > benenes woman > women flogh > flehes child > children broder > bruderes brother > brothers pysk > puskes fish > fishes best > bestes beast > beasts As can be seen in many of the above examples, there is also sometimes an accompanying vowel change and/or consonant change to these words. If I do some sort of vocabulary later, I will list known plural forms along with the word. There are nouns which take their plurals with these internal changes alone. Norris noted a tendancy for _a_ to change to either _e_ or _y_, _e_ to change to _y_ and o and u to often stay unaltered but if change does occur to go to _e_. Thomas in his Cornish chapter in _Language in the British Isles_ (Thrudgill [ed],1984:285) noted these changes also, especially noting the change of _a_ to _e_ and the stable _o_. Thomas also noted, as I should have said earlier, that plurals can be formed by combinations of suffixes and vowel alteration. Here are some examples: trous > trys foot > feet men > meyn stone > stones broder > breder (another form) brother > brothers daves > deves sheep > sheep (pl.) margh > mergh horse > horses tol > tel hole > holes ascorn > escarn, yscarn bone > bones Norris notes that a few nouns end in _n_ and it appears that this occurs when the noun already ends a way that duplicates a plural ending: ky > kuen dog > dogs hanow > hynwyn name > names Nouns taking -s are often words borrowed from English: persons persons onours honors scryptours scriptures doctours doctors syres sirs skorgys, whyppys scourges, whips chaynys chains -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- While these generalizations can help, I think it is still necessary to have the known plural forms listed with the word in word lists. This is what I intend to do if I ever post any. I'll sign off now as this selection is becoming quite long! Anthony Velasquez Oregon State Univeristy (E-mail) velasqua@ucs.orst.edu ========================================================================= Neb may fe moghya geffys, a gar moghye. =========================================================================