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Cornish language - Grammar

Cornish language - Grammar: Encyclopedia II - Cornish language - Grammar

Cornish is a member of the Celtic branch of the Indo-European family of languages, and shares many of the characteristics of the other Celtic languages. These include: Initial consonant mutation. The first sound of a Cornish word may change according to grammatical context. There are four types of mutation in Cornish (compared to three in Welsh and two in Irish). These are known as soft (b -> v, etc.), hard (b -> p), aspirate (b unchanged, t -> th) and See also:
Cornish language, Cornish language - History, Cornish language - Revival, Cornish language - Current status, Cornish language - Culture, Cornish language - European recognition, Cornish language - Sounds, Cornish language - The consonants of Revived Cornish, Cornish language - The vowels of Revived Cornish, Cornish language - Grammar, Cornish language - Dialects, Cornish language - Examples

Cornish language, Cornish language - Culture, Cornish language - Current status, Cornish language - Dialects, Cornish language - European recognition, Cornish language - Examples, Cornish language - Grammar, Cornish language - History, Cornish language - Revival, Cornish language - Sounds, Cornish language - The consonants of Revived Cornish, Cornish language - The vowels of Revived Cornish, List of Brythonic languages, Languages in the United Kingdom, UK topics

Cornish language: Encyclopedia II - Cornish language - Grammar

Cornish language - Grammar

Cornish is a member of the Celtic branch of the Indo-European family of languages, and shares many of the characteristics of the other Celtic languages. These include:

Initial consonant mutation. The first sound of a Cornish word may change according to grammatical context. There are four types of mutation in Cornish (compared to three in Welsh and two in Irish). These are known as soft (b -> v, etc.), hard (b -> p), aspirate (b unchanged, t -> th) and mixed (b -> f).

¹Before unrounded vowels, l, and r (provided it is followed by an unrounded vowel).
²Before rounded vowels, and r (provided it is followed by a rounded vowel).

inflected (or conjugated) prepositions. A preposition combines with a personal pronoun to give a separate word form. For example, gans (with, by) + my (me) -> genef; gans + ef (him) -> ganso.
No indefinite article. Cath means "a cat" (there is, however a definite article: an gath means "the cat").
For other grammatical characteristics of Cornish, see the section on grammar in the Welsh language article, until this section is finished.