[Spellyans] "become" with nouns

[nicholas williams]

With all due respect, Jon, I was careful to point out that the  
preterite of bos meant 'become' with NOUN predicates. With adjectives  
one uses mos, as you say, or codha:
Ha an huêl a kydhaz skent JCH.

Fetel vyth dynny means 'how will it be for us?' The use of 'become' is  
the English idiom and hardly relevant.
bos cristyan means 'be a Christian' or 'be Christian'. I understand it  
adjectivally. Cf. bos marow 'be dead, die'.

Nicholas


On 31 Oct 2008, at 09:42, Jon Mills wrote:

> The preterite of BOS may be used to translate 'became' as Nicholas'  
> examples show. However if one wants to translate other tenses of  
> BECOME, then the other tenses of BOS are required.
> "guel yu dis bones cristyan" (BM 939)
> 'You had better become a Christian'
> "arluth fetel vyth dynny" (BM 4263)
> 'Lord, what will become of us'
>
> MOS is also used to translate BECOME.
> "yth oma gyllys leper" (BM 1359)
> 'I have become a leper'
> "yth egh guyn avel crystel" (BM 1521)
> 'you will become as bright as crystal'
> "mur a anneys gyllys on" (BM 2904)
> 'We have become greatly troubled'
> "kynth os gyllys feynt ha guan" (BM 3672)
> 'Although you have become weak and faint'
>
> When Nance wrote that BECOME is translated by "mos ha bos" what he  
> meant to write was that either MOS or BOS can be used to translate  
> BECOME. Thus MOS HA BOS is a ghost multi-word lexeme.
> Jon
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "nicholas williams"
> To: "Standard Cornish discussion list"
> Subject: [Spellyans] "become" with nouns
> Date: Thu, 30 Oct 2008 12:42:57 +0000
>
>
> 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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>
> _____________________________________
> Dr. Jon Mills,
> School of European Culture and Languages,
> University of Kent
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