kaout

Infinitive from kavout (to find), all other forms from the verb bezañ (to be). Cognate with Cornish kavos and y'm beus.

kaout

1. (auxiliary, transitive) to have
2. (transitive) to get

• In the indicative and in the conditional, the first and second persons contain a particle, which can be a or e, so the first person can appear with the forms am or em and the second person with the forms ac'h and az or ec'h and ez. In the infinitive and in the imperative, these persons contain the long forms ’m' and ’z, which are am and az. Middle Breton had 'm beus as first person and had only 'h eus for the present indicative and 'z peus for all other tenses as second person.
• In the indicative present, the form az peus is a back-formation from the other tenses. As this verb is based on third person of bezañ, the forms with az and initial p- in the second person singular all come from an initial b- of the conjugation of bezañ. But in the indicative present of bezañ in the third person, there is no initial b-, thus the normal form for kaout based on bezañ in the indicative present shows this same lack of initial consonant, thus eus with a particle ac'h. Nowadays the ac'h eus is more literary though very common, and az peus is becoming more and more common.
• The infinitive endevout or en devout is used in the dialects of Vannes, where the form of the indicative present form is em bout, ez pout, en/he d(ev)out, hor bout, ho pout, o d(ev)out and the present habitual is em-es, 't-es, en/hé-des, on-es, ho-es/ho-pes, o-des.