[Spellyans] "become" with nouns

[nicholas williams]

A gothmans da,

In revived Cornish we have long been used to the Nancean device of  
"mos ha bos". I am not sure where this comes from. I can at present  
find no example in the texts.
I suggested recently that the preterite of bos might be a better way  
of rendering "become" with noun predicates.

This does indeed seem to be the case:

The herodes y thesa pur wyr worth pylat sor bras y welas ef ny gara na  
boys yn y gowezas zozo Ihesus zy thampnye pylat bys pan danvonas
yn vrna keskeweza Y A VE ha specyall bras 'Herod was very angry indeed  
with Pilate; he neither wished to see him or be in his company, until  
Pilate sent him Jesus to condemn him—then they became intimates, and  
very greatly so' PA 110.

an second person in dryngys du o ymmortall, EFF A VE den mortall 'the  
second person in the Trinity of God was immortal, he became a mortal  
man' TH 15.

At present I am searching the texts to find further examples.

In the revived language we could say:

Den yonk pòr hegar o va hag ev a veu agan cothman 'He was a very  
likeable young man and became our friend'.

ev a veu is simpler and probably more Cornish than ev êth ha bos.

Nicholas




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