[Spellyans] "understand" in Cornish

Michael Everson everson at evertype.com
Mon Feb 23 17:08:52 GMT 2009


It is <ùnderstondya> in KS and so should be <understondya> with  
ambiguous vowel. If you write <cammùnderstondya> you imply  
<cabmùnderstondya>; is this your intent?

On 23 Feb 2009, at 14:38, Daniel Prohaska wrote:

> Thanks for this,
> I have included both onderstondya and cammonderstondya in my  
> dictionary. We’ll have to leave it to the community of Cornish  
> speakers to decide on whether they wish to use this word or not.
> Dan
>
> From: nicholas williams
> Sent: Monday, February 23, 2009 10:12 AM
>
> Not everybody is happy with the use of the word ùnderstondya 'to  
> understand' in Cornish.
> Ùnderstondya is very well attested:
>
> vnderstandia  x 3 (SA)
> vnderstondia x 24 (TH)
> vndyrstondia x 2 (TH)
> vndirstondia x 1
> wonderstondia x 1 (TH)
> wondyrstondia x 1 (TH)
> vnderstondya x 3 (TH)
> vnderstondya x 1 (TH)
> camvnderstondia x 1 (TH)
>
> The related word vnderstonding is attested x 22 (TH), vndyrstonding  
> x 1 (TH) and vnderstandyng x 1 (SA).
>
> This means that the root understand/understond- is attested 60 times  
> in tradtional Cornish.
> Moreover the compound camvnderstondia at TH 18 seems to indicate  
> that the word
> had been so fully integrated into Cornish, that it could be used to  
> produce a derivative.
>
> The only other word for 'to understand' is *convedhes. The verbal  
> noun convethas occurs
> twice in CW and the verbal adjective convethys twice in the same text.
> The verbal noun verbal adjective <gonvethes> (with permanent  
> lenition) is also attested
> in a short passage in Pryce:
>
> Der taklow minniz ew brez teez gonvethes, avel an tacklow broaz;  
> dreffen en tacklow broaz, ma
> angy mennow hetha go honnen; bus en tacklow minnis, ema angye suyah  
> hâz go honnen — By
> small things are the minds of men discovered, as well as by great  
> matters: because in great things, they will [often]
> stretch themselves; but in small matters, they follow their own  
> nature.
>
> Pryce translates gonvethes as 'discovered', not 'understood'.
>
> We thus have the verb understondya 'to understand', attested in two  
> sixteenth-century texts no fewer than 37 times
> and convethes, gonvethes 'to understand, to discover' attested five  
> times from one seventeenth-century text and one
> from the eighteenth century.
>
> We may find understondya, understandya too English to be really  
> acceptable. It would be difficult
> to claim that it was not the ordinary word for 'to understand' in  
> some forms of Middle Cornish.
>
> Other borrowings in -ondya are not uncommon in Middle Cornish:
>
> londia 'to land'  BM
> comondia, commondia, commandia  'to command'  OM, BM, TH, SA, CW
> demandea 'to demand' SA
> recommaundia 'to recommend' Bodewryd glossary.
>
> If we don't like understondya 'to understand' or convedhes 'to  
> discover', we can, in some contexts, use percevya.
>
> Nicholas
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
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Michael Everson * http://www.evertype.com





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