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Gramasek
Each
lesson includes a grammar section, where each new point to be learned
has an exercise to help you to understand and learn it.
Don't be frightened by the word ‘grammar’. There is a
glossary of all the grammatical terms used, with examples in English.
The grammar exercises should be sent to us for marking.
Mutations
In
Cornish, many words change their first letter, and this change depends
on the word coming before it. The changes are called ‘mutations’.
The basic unchanged form as shown in the dictionary is called ‘First
State’,and there are four possible sets of mutations which are
numbered 2nd, 3rd, 4th, and 5th state. They are described as follows:
1st state = basic dictionary form.
2nd state = soft mutation.
3rd state = aspirate (breathed) mutation.
4th state = hard mutation.
5th state = mixed mutation.
These states are usually referred to by their numbers.
A blank
space on the table indicates that no change takes place. A dash
shows that the letter drops out completely and the second letter
becomes the initial one.
Note, however, that K, P
and T do not soften to G,
B and D
respectively when they follow S or
TH at the end of the previous word.
They remain unchanged. Likewise K does
not change to the 3rd state (H) when
followed by L, N,
or R. (You will appreciate that Hl,
Hn and Hr
would be rather difficult to say!)
You
will see now why some words in the passage, vocabulary and questions
have a figure after them. The figure shows the mutation state of
the following word, so, a2 gews
shows that gews is in second state.
Look at the table to find the first state of this word. It is kews.
Now try exercises 1 and 2 from your printed sheet.
It
is impossible to use a dictionary unless you convert a mutated word
back to its unmutated, first state form before looking it up. The
mutated forms are not shown. Always check with the table until you
are perfectly familiar with all the mutations.
(Like
dhe2, dha2
meaning ‘your’ is also pronounced like the English word
‘the’, not ‘thee’. The spelling distinction
is maintained to ease visual recognition.)
Indefinite Article
In English, this is the word ‘a’ in front of a noun (naming
word) e.g. ‘a peninsula’, ‘a Cornishman’. You
will see from the passage that it is not used in Cornish so that the
Cornish for ‘a peninsula’ is just konna
tir and ‘a Cornishman’ is just Kernow.
(In the old Cornish texts, unn was sometimes
use to mean ‘a’, but this is not usual in Revived Cornish.)
Finally,
try exercise 3 from your printed sheet.
 1
2 3 4
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Open
the mutation table in a new window and print for easy reference