The first group of words in the following table come from Old Cornish /-ant/.
Although /t/ in stressed /-nt-/ became voiced medially (as in kerenza),
the spelling of words such as Nance in place-names and dibblance in CW
suggest that it remained unvoiced when final, and is therefore spelled -ns.
| Rhyming words with stressed -ans [-'ans] from Old Cornish /-ant/ (full list) |
||
|---|---|---|
| a-nans | AV | down |
| bans | MN | high place |
| dans | MN | tooth |
| diblans | AJ | distinct |
| dihwans | AV | forthwith |
| gans | CJ | with |
| hwans | MN | desire |
| kans | NC | hundred |
| nans | MN | valley |
| pans | MN | hollow |
| plans | MN | plant |
| pygans | MN | wherewithal |
| sans | MN | saint |
| skans | CN | fish-scales |
| war-nans | AV | downwards |
| yn-nans | AV | down | Rhyming word with stressed -ans /-'ɛns/ from Middle English (full list) |
| mans | AJ | crippled |
The very common noun suffix -ans came from Old Cornish -ant,
but became conflated with the Middle English ending -ans, -ance.
Here it is spelled -ans rather than -anz.
There are about 350 words with unstressed -ans, far too many to list.
Similar remarks apply to unstressed -yans, which appears in about 300 words.
| Rhyming word with unstressed -ans /-ans/ from Old Cornish /-ant/ (rhymed at least 10 times in the texts) |
||
|---|---|---|
| bewnans | MN | life |
| kryjyans | MN | belief |
| mernans | MN | death |
| skians | MN | knowledge | Rhyming word with unstressed -ans /-ans/ from Middle English (common cases) |
| substans | MN | substance |
| venjans | MN | vengeance |
There are about 150 of these.