<html><body style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space; "><div><font class="Apple-style-span" face="Baskerville" size="5"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 18px;">I missed nanssow in PA. Mea culpa. I am grateful to Jon for drawing my attention to it. </span></font></div><div><font class="Apple-style-span" face="Baskerville" size="5"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 18px;"><br></span></font></div><font class="Apple-style-span" face="Baskerville" size="5"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 18px;">In AB on page 4 Lhuyd lists nans as a word obsolete in Cornish. He puts an obelus before it to show that it is attested in OCV.</span></font><div><font class="Apple-style-span" face="Baskerville" size="5"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 18px;">Nans was therefore no longer in use in Lhuyd's time.</span></font></div><div><font class="Apple-style-span" face="Baskerville" size="5"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 18px;">In the phrase valy ebron in CW nans has been replaced by valy.</span></font></div><div><font class="Apple-style-span" face="Baskerville" size="5"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 18px;">CW dates from 1611 but the original with its references to limbo was probably composed</span></font></div><div><font class="Apple-style-span" face="Baskerville" size="5"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 18px;">before the reformation. It is likely therefore, though by no means certain, that valy had replaced </span></font></div><div><font class="Apple-style-span" face="Baskerville" size="5"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 18px;">nans by the first half of the sixteenth century.</span></font></div><div><font class="Apple-style-span" face="Baskerville" size="5"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 18px;"><br></span></font></div><div><font class="Apple-style-span" face="Baskerville" size="5"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 18px;">We do know that </span></font></div><div><font class="Apple-style-span" face="Baskerville" size="5"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 18px;">1. nans occurred in Old Cornish and in the earliest Middle Cornish and is preserved in place-names</span></font></div><div><font class="Apple-style-span" face="Baskerville" size="5"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 18px;">2. was obsolete when Lhuyd was collecting material at the end of the seventeenth century</span></font></div><div><font class="Apple-style-span" face="Baskerville" size="5"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 18px;">3. was probably obsolete when CW was composed.</span></font></div><div><font class="Apple-style-span" face="Baskerville" size="5"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 18px;"><br></span></font></div><div><font class="Apple-style-span" face="Baskerville" size="5"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 18px;">I shall continue to prefer valy for 'valley'. Note that in his gerlevran Neil describes nans as archaic</span></font></div><div><font class="Apple-style-span" face="Baskerville" size="5"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 18px;">and gives vali as a 'biblical or major' valley.</span></font></div><div><font class="Apple-style-span" face="Baskerville" size="5"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 18px;"><br></span></font></div><div><font class="Apple-style-span" face="Baskerville" size="5"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 18px;">Nicholas</span></font></div><div><br></div><div><br></div><div><br></div><div><br></div><div><br><div><div>On 28 Jul 2008, at 18:05, Eddie Climo wrote:</div><blockquote type="cite"><div style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space; "><div><font class="Apple-style-span" color="#000000"><br></font><br></div><div>Is there any evidence for this statistical assertion? If so, would you care to give a numerical approximation to the probability?</div><div><br></div><div>Eddie</div><div><font class="Apple-style-span" size="3"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 13px;"> </span></font></div><br></div>_______________________________________________<br>Spellyans mailing list<br><a href="mailto:Spellyans@kernowek.net">Spellyans@kernowek.net</a><br>http://kernowek.net/mailman/listinfo/spellyans_kernowek.net<br></blockquote></div><br></div></body></html>