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Author: langbot
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English[en]
So, we've descended into the bowels of the mine and ahead of us there is a long tunnel or kowfordh in the Old Tongue. Kowfordh is made up of two words kow meaning hollow and fordh meaning road or way - which I believe is quite a poetic way of putting it, the 'hollow way'. So, kow, which cognates to the Welsh cau (hollow) and the Breton kev (cave) comes from the Latin cavus, and the Proto-Indo-European *ḱówHwos (cavity). According to the good people over at Wiktionary the word fordh along with the Welsh ffordd are borrowings from the English word ford. This is yet another Proto-Germaic word which has found its way across to the Brythnoic languages, the source word being furduz meaing crossing or ford. A cognate of kowfordh does exist in Welsh, ceuffordd, but this is no longer used and the English borrowing twnnel is now more common. The only Breton word for tunnel I could find was riboul, about which I can say nothing - but if anyone who reads this knows the story behind this strange word, please leave a comment below.
Cornish[kw]
Lemmyn, yth eson y'n dorr an bal hag yn-rag ahanyn yma kowfordh hir. Gwrys yw kowfordh a dhiw elven kow ha fordh - ger tamm prydydhyek yw, a nyns ywa? Kow yw ogas dhe cau (kow) yn Kembrek ha dhe kev (fow) yn Bretonek. Oll an re ma a dheu a-dhyowrth an ger cavus yn Latinek ha'n ger *ḱówHwos yn Proto-Eyndo-Europek, an dhew a styr kowva. Herwydh Wiktionary, chevisyes veu an ger fordh (ha'n Kembrek ffordd) a'n Sowsnek ford (rys). Ger haval dhe gowfordh a eksist yn Kembrek, ceuffordd, mes nyns yw devnydhyes y'n jydh hedhyw ha'n ger twnnel yw devnydhyes yn y le, chevisyes a-dhyworth an ger tunnel yn Sowsnek. An Bretonek ger rag kowfordh yw riboul. Ny allav trovya etymologieth an ger ma, kevrin yw. Mes mar kwrewgh y wodhvos, gesewgh kampol a-woles.