[Spellyans] "In the meantime"

nicholas williams njawilliams at gmail.com
Fri Dec 19 09:18:05 GMT 2008


Nance in his 1952 English-Cornish Dictionary s.v. "meantime,  
meanwhile" gives (inter alia) the Late Cornish form
yn kettermyn na. This is taken from Lhuyd's preface:

Ha en kettermen-na ma neb esperans dhebm try veddons an Lennerio  
Pednzhivil ha maz-brezek geffya e foto dho Estren pel-pou AB: 222.

Nance ought perhaps to have spelt the phrase y'n kettermyn-na.

Under Dum "while, whilst, as long as", however, Lhuyd gives en mén  
termen AB: 56a.
This is the only example I have been able to find in AB.
It is clearly a Late Cornish calque of the English "in the meantime"  
and would be spelt in KS i'n men-termyn.
The expression i'n men-termyn is not, as far as I am aware, in current  
use.
Since it is attested, should we not be using it?

Nicholas


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