Cornish language
Cornish | |
---|---|
Kernewek Kernowek | |
Pronunciation |
|
Native to | United Kingdom |
Region | Cornwall |
Ethnicity | Cornish |
Extinct | End of 18th century[1][2][3][4] |
Revival | 20th century (563 L2 users as of the 2021 Census:[5] 557 in 2011)[6] |
Standard forms | Standard Written Form |
Latin alphabet | |
Official status | |
Recognised minority language in | |
Regulated by | Cornish Language Partnership |
Language codes | |
ISO 639-1 | kw |
ISO 639-2 | cor |
ISO 639-3 | Variously:cor – Modern Cornishcnx – Middle Cornishoco – Old Cornish |
cnx Middle Cornish | |
oco Old Cornish | |
Glottolog | corn1251 |
ELP | Cornish |
Linguasphere | 50-ABB-a |
As of 2010, Cornish is classified as Critically Endangered by the UNESCO Atlas of the World's Languages in Danger[7] | |
Cornish (
Cornish became
Cornish is currently recognised under the
Classification
Cornish is a
Joseph Loth viewed Cornish and Breton as being two dialects of the same language, claiming that "Middle Cornish is without doubt closer to Breton as a whole than the modern Breton dialect of Quiberon [Kiberen] is to that of Saint-Pol-de-Léon [Kastell-Paol]."[30] Also, Kenneth Jackson argued that it is almost certain that Cornish and Breton would have been mutually intelligible as long as Cornish was a living language, and that Cornish and Breton are especially closely related to each other and less closely related to Welsh.[31]
History
Cornish evolved from the
Old Cornish
The area controlled by the southwestern Britons was progressively reduced by the expansion of Wessex over the next few centuries. During the Old Cornish (Kernewek Koth)[34] period (800–1200), the Cornish-speaking area was largely coterminous with modern-day Cornwall, after the Saxons had taken over Devon in their south-westward advance, which probably was facilitated by a second migration wave to Brittany that resulted in the partial depopulation of Devon.[35]
The earliest written record of the Cornish language comes from this period: a 9th-century
Middle Cornish
The Cornish language continued to flourish well through the Middle Cornish (Kernewek Kres)
Others are the Charter Fragment, the earliest known continuous text in the Cornish language, apparently part of a play about a medieval marriage,[52] and Pascon agan Arluth (The Passion of Our Lord), a poem probably intended for personal worship, were written during this period, probably in the second half of the 14th century.[53] Another important text, the Tregear Homilies, was realized to be Cornish in 1949, having previously been incorrectly classified as Welsh. It is the longest text in the traditional Cornish language, consisting of around 30,000 words of continuous prose. This text is a late 16th century translation of twelve of Bishop Bonner's thirteen homilies by a certain John Tregear, tentatively identified as a vicar of St Allen from Crowan,[54] and has an additional catena, Sacrament an Alter, added later by his fellow priest, Thomas Stephyn.[55] In the reign of Henry VIII, an account was given by Andrew Boorde in his 1542 Boke of the Introduction of Knowledge. He states, "In Cornwall is two speches, the one is naughty Englysshe, and the other is Cornysshe speche. And there be many men and women the which cannot speake one worde of Englysshe, but all Cornyshe."[56]
When Parliament passed the
The rebellion eventually proved a turning-point for the Cornish language, as the authorities came to associate it with
Late Cornish
By the middle of the 17th century, the language had retreated to Penwith and Kerrier, and transmission of the language to new generations had almost entirely ceased. In his Survey of Cornwall, published in 1602, Richard Carew writes:
[M]ost of the inhabitants can speak no word of Cornish, but very few are ignorant of the English; and yet some so affect their own, as to a stranger they will not speak it; for if meeting them by chance, you inquire the way, or any such matter, your answer shall be, "Meea navidna caw zasawzneck," "I [will] speak no Saxonage."[66]
The Late Cornish (Kernewek Diwedhes)[34] period from 1600 to about 1800 has a less substantial body of literature than the Middle Cornish period, but the sources are more varied in nature, including songs, poems about fishing and curing pilchards, and various translations of verses from the Bible, the Ten Commandments, the Lord's Prayer and the Creed.[67] Edward Lhuyd's Archaeologia Britannica, which was mainly recorded in the field from native speakers in the early 1700s, and his unpublished field notebook are seen as important sources of Cornish vocabulary, some of which are not found in any other source.[68] Archaeologia Britannica also features a complete version of a traditional folk tale, John of Chyanhor, a short story about a man from St Levan who goes far to the east seeking work, eventually returning home after three years to find that his wife has borne him a child during his absence.[69]
In 1776, William Bodinar, who describes himself as having learned Cornish from old fishermen when he was a boy, wrote a letter to Daines Barrington in Cornish, with an English translation, which was probably the last prose written in the traditional language. In his letter, he describes the sociolinguistics of the Cornish language at the time, stating that there are no more than four or five old people in his village who can still speak Cornish, concluding with the remark that Cornish is no longer known by young people.[70] However, the last recorded traditional Cornish literature may have been the Cranken Rhyme,[71][72] a corrupted version of a verse or song published in the late 19th century by John Hobson Matthews, recorded orally by John Davey (or Davy) of Boswednack, of uncertain date but probably originally composed during the last years of the traditional language. Davey had traditional knowledge of at least some Cornish.[73] John Kelynack (1796–1885), a fisherman of Newlyn, was sought by philologists for old Cornish words and technical phrases in the 19th century.[74]
Decline of Cornish speakers between 1300 and 1800
It is difficult to state with certainty when Cornish ceased to be spoken, due to the fact that its last speakers were of relatively low social class and that the definition of what constitutes "a living language" is not clear cut. Peter Pool argues that by 1800 nobody was using Cornish as a daily language and no evidence exists of anyone capable of conversing in the language at that date.
The traditional view that Dolly Pentreath (1692–1777) was the last native speaker of Cornish has been challenged,[11] and in the 18th and 19th centuries there was academic interest in the language and in attempting to find the last speaker of Cornish. It has been suggested that, whereas Pentreath was probably the last monolingual speaker, the last native speaker may have been John Davey of Zennor, who died in 1891.[76] However, although it is clear Davey possessed some traditional knowledge in addition to having read books on Cornish, accounts differ of his competence in the language. Some contemporaries stated he was able to converse on certain topics in Cornish whereas others affirmed they had never heard him claim to be able to do so.[75] Robert Morton Nance, who reworked and translated Davey's Cranken Rhyme, remarked, "There can be no doubt, after the evidence of this rhyme, of what there was to lose by neglecting John Davey."[77]
The search for the last speaker is hampered by a lack of transcriptions or audio recordings, so that it is impossible to tell from this distance whether the language these people were reported to be speaking was Cornish, or English with a heavy Cornish substratum, nor what their level of fluency was. Nevertheless this academic interest, along with the beginning of the Celtic Revival in the late 19th century, provided the groundwork for a Cornish language revival movement.
Notwithstanding the uncertainty over who was the last speaker of Cornish, researchers have posited the following numbers for the prevalence of the language between 1050 and 1800.[49][48]
Year | Area where Cornish was spoken (in km2) |
Total population of Cornwall |
Number of Cornish speakers |
---|---|---|---|
1050 | 16,000 | 15,000 | |
1110 | 21,000 | 20,000 | |
1150 | 28,000 | 26,000 | |
1200 | 3,270 | 35,000 | 30,000 |
1250 | 43,000 | 34,000 | |
1300 | 2,780 | 52,000 | 38,000 |
1350 | 48,000 | 32,000 | |
1400 | 2,360 | 55,000 | 34,000 |
1450 | 2,360 | 62,000 | 33,000 |
1500 | 1,890 | 69,000 | 33,000 |
1550 | 76,000 | 30,000 | |
1600 | 1,400 | 84,000 | 22,000 |
1650 | 910 | 93,000 | 14,000 |
1700 | 530 | 106,000 | 5,000 |
1750 | 160 | 140,000 | "Very few" |
1800 | 0 | 192,000 | 0 |
Revived Cornish
In 1904, the Celtic language scholar and Cornish cultural activist Henry Jenner published A Handbook of the Cornish Language. The publication of this book is often considered to be the point at which the revival movement started. Jenner wrote about the Cornish language in 1905, "one may fairly say that most of what there was of it has been preserved, and that it has been continuously preserved, for there has never been a time when there were not some Cornishmen who knew some Cornish."[78]
The revival focused on reconstructing and standardising the language, including coining new words for modern concepts, and creating educational material in order to teach Cornish to others. In 1929
The revival entered a period of factionalism and public disputes, with each orthography attempting to push the others aside. By the time that Cornish was recognised by the UK government under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages in 2002, it had become recognised that the existence of multiple orthographies was unsustainable with regards to using the language in education and public life, as none had achieved a wide consensus. A process of unification was set about which resulted in the creation of the public-body Cornish Language Partnership in 2005 and agreement on a Standard Written Form in 2008.[87][88] In 2010 a new milestone was reached when UNESCO altered its classification of Cornish, stating that its previous label of "extinct" was no longer accurate.[13]
Geographic distribution and number of speakers
Speakers of Cornish reside primarily in Cornwall, which has a population of 563,600 (2017 estimate). There are also some speakers living outside Cornwall, particularly in the countries of the Cornish diaspora, as well as in other Celtic nations. Estimates of the number of Cornish speakers vary according to the definition of a speaker, and is difficult to determine accurately due to the individualised nature of language take-up. Nevertheless, there is recognition that the number of Cornish speakers is growing.[14] From before the 1980s to the end of the 20th century there was a sixfold increase in the number of speakers to around 300.[89] One figure for the number of people who know a few basic words, such as knowing that "Kernow" means "Cornwall", was 300,000; the same survey gave the number of people able to have simple conversations as 3,000.[90]
The Cornish Language Strategy project commissioned research to provide quantitative and qualitative evidence for the number of Cornish speakers: due to the success of the revival project it was estimated that 2,000 people were fluent (surveyed in spring 2008), an increase from the estimated 300 people who spoke Cornish fluently suggested in a study by
Jenefer Lowe of the Cornish Language Partnership said in an interview with the BBC in 2010 that there were around 300 fluent speakers.[94] Bert Biscoe, a councillor and bard, in a statement to the Western Morning News in 2014 said there were "several hundred fluent speakers".[95] Cornwall Council estimated in 2015 that there were 300–400 fluent speakers who used the language regularly, with 5,000 people having a basic conversational ability in the language.[96]
A report on the 2011 Census published in 2013 by the Office for National Statistics placed the number of speakers at somewhere between 325 and 625.[97] In 2017 the ONS released data based on the 2011 Census that placed the number of speakers at 557 people in England and Wales who declared Cornish to be their main language, 464 of whom lived in Cornwall.[98] The 2021 census listed the number of Cornish speakers at 563.[99]
A study that appeared in 2018 established the number of people in Cornwall with at least minimal skills in Cornish, such as the use of some words and phrases, to be more than 3,000, including around 500 estimated to be fluent.[100]
The Institute of Cornish Studies at the University of Exeter is working with the Cornish Language Partnership to study the Cornish language revival of the 20th century, including the growth in number of speakers.[101]
Legal status and recognition
In 2002, Cornish was recognized by the UK government under Part II of the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages.[102] UNESCO's Atlas of World Languages classifies Cornish as "critically endangered". UNESCO has said that a previous classification of 'extinct' "does not reflect the current situation for Cornish" and is "no longer accurate".[13]
Within the UK
Cornwall Council's policy is to support the language, in line with the European Charter. A motion was passed in November 2009 in which the council promoted the inclusion of Cornish, as appropriate and where possible, in council publications and on signs.[103] This plan has drawn some criticism.[104] In October 2015, The council announced that staff would be encouraged to use "basic words and phrases" in Cornish when dealing with the public.[105] In 2021 Cornwall Council prohibited a marriage ceremony from being conducted in Cornish as the Marriage Act 1949 only allowed for marriage ceremonies in English or Welsh.[106]
In 2014, the Cornish people were recognised by the UK Government as a national minority under the Framework Convention for the Protection of National Minorities.[107] The FCNM provides certain rights and protections to a national minority with regard to their minority language.[108]
In 2016, British government funding for the Cornish language ceased, and responsibility transferred to Cornwall Council.[109]
Orthography
Old Cornish orthography
Until around the middle of the 11th century, Old Cornish scribes used a traditional spelling system shared with Old Breton and Old Welsh, based on the pronunciation of British Latin.[110][111] By the time of the Vocabularium Cornicum, usually dated to around 1100, Old English spelling conventions, such as the use of thorn (Þ, þ) and eth (Ð, ð) for dental fricatives, and wynn (Ƿ, ƿ) for /w/, had come into use, allowing documents written at this time to be distinguished from Old Welsh, which rarely uses these characters, and Old Breton, which does not use them at all.[112] Old Cornish features include using initial ⟨ch⟩, ⟨c⟩, or ⟨k⟩ for /k/, and, in internal and final position, ⟨p⟩, ⟨t⟩, ⟨c⟩, ⟨b⟩, ⟨d⟩, and ⟨g⟩ are generally used for the phonemes /b/, /d/, /ɡ/, /β/, /ð/, and /ɣ/ respectively, meaning that the results of Brittonic lenition are not usually apparent from the orthography at this time.[113][110]
Middle Cornish orthography
Middle Cornish orthography has a significant level of variation, and shows influence from Middle English spelling practices.[114] Yogh (Ȝ ȝ) is used in certain Middle Cornish texts, where it is used to represent a variety of sounds, including the dental fricatives /θ/ and /ð/, a usage which is unique to Middle Cornish and is never found in Middle English.[115][116] Middle Cornish scribes tend to use ⟨c⟩ for /k/ before back vowels, and ⟨k⟩ for /k/ before front vowels, though this is not always true, and this rule is less consistent in certain texts.[117] Middle Cornish scribes almost universally use ⟨wh⟩ to represent /ʍ/ (or /hw/), as in Middle English. Middle Cornish, especially towards the end of this period, tends to use orthographic ⟨g⟩ and ⟨b⟩ in word-final position in stressed monosyllables, and ⟨k⟩ and ⟨p⟩ in word-final position in unstressed final syllables, to represent the reflexes of late Brittonic /ɡ/ and /b/, respectively.[118]
Late Cornish orthography
Written sources from this period are often spelled following English spelling conventions since many of the writers of the time had not been exposed to Middle Cornish texts or the Cornish orthography within them. Around 1700, Edward Lhuyd visited Cornwall, introducing his own partly phonetic orthography that he used in his Archaeologia Britannica, which was adopted by some local writers, leading to the use of some Lhuydian features such as the use of circumflexes to denote long vowels, ⟨k⟩ before front vowels, word-final ⟨i⟩, and the use of ⟨dh⟩ to represent the voiced dental fricative /ð/.[119][116]
Revived Cornish orthography
After the publication of Jenner's Handbook of the Cornish Language, the earliest revivalists used Jenner's orthography, which was influenced by Lhuyd's system. This system was abandoned following the development by Nance of a "unified spelling", later known as Unified Cornish, a system based on a standardization of the orthography of the early Middle Cornish texts.[120] Nance's system was used by almost all Revived Cornish speakers and writers until the 1970s.[121] Criticism of Nance's system, particularly the relationship of spelling to sounds and the phonological basis of Unified Cornish, resulted in rival orthographies appearing by the early 1980s,[122] including Gendal's Modern Cornish, based on Late Cornish native writers and Lhuyd, and Ken George's Kernewek Kemmyn, a mainly morphophonemic orthography based on George's reconstruction of Middle Cornish c. 1500, which features a number of orthographic, and phonological, distinctions not found in Unified Cornish.[123][116] Kernewek Kemmyn is characterised by the use of universal ⟨k⟩ for /k/ (instead of ⟨c⟩ before back vowels as in Unified); ⟨hw⟩ for /hw/, instead of ⟨wh⟩ as in Unified; and ⟨y⟩, ⟨oe⟩, and ⟨eu⟩ to represent the phonemes /ɪ/, /o/, and /œ/ respectively, which are not found in Unified Cornish. Criticism of all of these systems, especially Kernewek Kemmyn, by Nicolas Williams,[124] resulted in the creation of Unified Cornish Revised, a modified version of Nance's orthography, featuring: an additional phoneme not distinguished by Nance, "ö in German schön", represented in the UCR orthography by ⟨ue⟩; replacement of ⟨y⟩ with ⟨e⟩ in many words; internal ⟨h⟩ rather than ⟨gh⟩; and use of final ⟨b⟩, ⟨g⟩, and ⟨dh⟩ in stressed monosyllables.[125] A Standard Written Form, intended as a compromise orthography for official and educational purposes, was introduced in 2008, although a number of previous orthographic systems remain in use and, in response to the publication of the SWF, another new orthography, Kernowek Standard, was created, mainly by Nicholas Williams and Michael Everson, which is proposed as an amended version of the Standard Written Form.[126]
Phonology
The phonological system of Old Cornish, inherited from Proto-Southwestern Brittonic and originally differing little from Old Breton and Old Welsh, underwent various changes during its Middle and Late phases, eventually resulting in several characteristics not found in the other Brittonic languages. The first sound change to distinguish Cornish from both Breton and Welsh, the assibilation of the dental stops /t/ and /d/ in medial and final position, had begun by the time of the Vocabularium Cornicum, c. 1100 or earlier.[127] This change, and the subsequent, or perhaps dialectical, palatalization (or occasional rhotacization in a few words) of these sounds, results in orthographic forms such as Middle Cornish tas 'father', Late Cornish tâz (Welsh tad), Middle Cornish cresy 'believe', Late Cornish cregy (Welsh credu), and Middle Cornish gasa 'leave', Late Cornish gara (Welsh gadael).[128] A further characteristic sound change, pre-occlusion, occurred during the 16th century, resulting in the nasals /nn/ and /mm/ being realised as [ᵈn] and [ᵇm] respectively in stressed syllables, and giving Late Cornish forms such as pedn 'head' (Welsh pen) and kabm 'crooked' (Welsh cam).[128]
As a revitalised language, the phonology of contemporary spoken Cornish is based on a number of sources,[129] including various reconstructions of the sound system of middle and early modern Cornish based on an analysis of internal evidence such as the orthography and rhyme used in the historical texts,[123][130][131] comparison with the other Brittonic languages Breton and Welsh,[132][133] and the work of the linguist Edward Lhuyd, who visited Cornwall in 1700 and recorded the language in a partly phonetic orthography.[134][135]
Vocabulary
Cornish is a Celtic language, and the majority of its vocabulary, when usage frequency is taken into account, at every documented stage of its history is inherited direct from Proto-Celtic,[136] either through the ancestral Proto-Indo-European language, or through vocabulary borrowed from unknown substrate language(s) at some point in the development of the Celtic proto-language from PIE.[137] Examples of the PIE > PCelt. development are various terms related to kinship and people, including mam 'mother', modereb 'aunt, mother's sister', huir 'sister', mab 'son', gur 'man', den 'person, human', and tus 'people', and words for parts of the body, including lof 'hand' and dans 'tooth'.[138] Inherited adjectives with an Indo-European etymology include newyth 'new', ledan 'broad, wide', rud 'red', hen 'old', iouenc 'young', and byw 'alive, living'.[139]
Several Celtic or Brittonic words cannot be reconstructed to Proto-Indo-European, and are suggested to have been borrowed from unknown substrate language(s) at an early stage, such as Proto-Celtic or Proto-Brittonic. Proposed examples in Cornish include coruf 'beer' and broch 'badger'.[140]
Other words in Cornish inherited direct from Proto-Celtic include a number of toponyms, for example bre 'hill', din 'fort', and bro 'land',[141] and a variety of animal names such as logoden 'mouse', mols 'wether', mogh 'pigs', and tarow 'bull'.[142]
During the Roman occupation of Britain a large number (around 800) of Latin loan words entered the vocabulary of Common Brittonic, which subsequently developed in a similar way to the inherited lexicon.[141] These include brech 'arm' (from British Latin bracc(h)ium), ruid 'net' (from retia), and cos 'cheese' (from caseus).[143]
A substantial number of loan words from English and to a lesser extent French entered the Cornish language throughout its history. Whereas only 5% of the vocabulary of the Old Cornish Vocabularium Cornicum is thought to be borrowed from English, and only 10% of the lexicon of the early modern Cornish writer William Rowe, around 42% of the vocabulary of the whole Cornish corpus is estimated to be English loan words, without taking frequency into account. (However when frequency is taken into account this figure for the entire corpus drops to 8%.)[136] The many English loanwords, some of which were sufficiently well assimilated to acquire native Cornish verbal or plural suffixes or be affected by the mutation system, include redya 'to read', onderstondya 'to understand', ford 'way', hos 'boot' and creft 'art'.[144][136]
Many Cornish words, such as mining and fishing terms, are specific to the culture of Cornwall. Examples include atal 'mine waste' and beetia 'to mend fishing nets'. Foogan and hogan are different types of pastries. Troyl is a 'traditional Cornish dance get-together' and Furry is a specific kind of ceremonial dance that takes place in Cornwall.[145] Certain Cornish words may have several translation equivalents in English, so for instance lyver may be translated into English as either 'book' or 'volume' and dorn can mean either 'hand' or 'fist'. As in other Celtic languages, Cornish lacks a number of verbs commonly found in other languages, including modals and psych-verbs;[44] examples are 'have', 'like', 'hate', 'prefer', 'must/have to' and 'make/compel to'. These functions are instead fulfilled by periphrastic constructions involving a verb and various prepositional phrases.
Grammar
The grammar of Cornish shares with other Celtic languages a number of features which, while not unique, are unusual in an Indo-European context. The grammatical features most unfamiliar to English speakers of the language are the initial
Morphology
Mutations
Cornish has initial consonant mutation: The first sound of a Cornish word may change according to grammatical context. As in Breton, there are four types of mutation in Cornish (compared with three in Welsh, two in Irish and Manx and one in Scottish Gaelic). These changes apply to only certain letters (sounds) in particular grammatical contexts, some of which are given below:[146]
- Lenition or "soft" mutation:
- Feminine singular nouns are lenited after an 'the':
- kath 'cat' > an gath 'the cat'
- Feminine singular nouns are lenited after an 'the':
- Spirantizationor "aspirate" mutation:
- Nouns are spirantized after ow 'my':
- tas 'father' > ow thas 'my father'
- Nouns are spirantized after ow 'my':
- Provection or "hard" mutation:
- Verbs are provected after the verbal particle ow (approximately English "-ing"):
- gweles 'see' > ow kweles 'seeing'
- Verbs are provected after the verbal particle ow (approximately English "-ing"):
- Lenition followed by provection (usually), or "mixed" mutation:
- Type 1 mixed mutation:
- Occurs after the affirmative particle y:
- gwelav > y hwelav 'I see'
- Occurs after the affirmative particle y:
- Type 2 mixed mutation:
- Occurs after 2nd person singular infixed pronoun 'th:
- dorn 'hand' > y'th torn 'in thy hand'
- Occurs after 2nd person singular infixed pronoun 'th:
- Type 1 mixed mutation:
Articles
Cornish has no indefinite article. Porth can either mean 'harbour'[147] or 'a harbour'. In certain contexts, unn can be used, with the meaning 'a certain, a particular', e.g. unn porth 'a certain harbour'. There is, however, a definite article an 'the', which is used for all nouns regardless of their gender or number, e.g. an porth 'the harbour'.[148]
Nouns
Cornish nouns belong to one of two grammatical genders, masculine and feminine, but are not inflected for case. Nouns may be singular or plural. Plurals can be formed in various ways, depending on the noun:[149]
- Vowel change:
- toll 'hole' > tell 'holes'
- Addition of a specific plural suffix:
- el 'angel' > eledh 'angels'
- tas 'father' > tasow 'fathers'
- gwikor 'peddler' > gwikoryon 'peddlers'
- Suppletion:
- den 'man' > tus 'men, people'
Some nouns are collective or mass nouns. Singulatives can be formed from collective nouns by the addition of the suffix ⫽-enn⫽ (SWF -en):
- gwels 'grass' > gwelsen 'a blade of grass'
- helyk 'willow-trees' > helygen 'a willow tree'
Verbs
Verbs are conjugated for person, number, tense and mood. For example, the verbal noun gweles 'see' has derived forms such as 1st person singular present indicative gwelav 'I see', 3rd person plural imperfect indicative gwelens 'they saw', and 2nd person singular imperative gwel 'see!'[150] Grammatical categories can be indicated either by inflection of the main verb, or by the use of auxiliary verbs such as bos 'be' or gul 'do'.[151]
Prepositions
Cornish uses
Syntax
Word order in Cornish is somewhat fluid and varies depending on several factors such as the intended element to be emphasised and whether a statement is negative or affirmative. In a study on Cornish word order in the play Bewnans Meriasek (c. 1500), Ken George has argued that the most common word order in main clauses in Middle Cornish was, in affirmative statements,
When affirmative statements are in the less common VSO order, they usually begin with an adverb or other element, followed by an affirmative particle, with the verb inflected for person and tense:
Ev
3SG.M
a
PTCL
grys
believe-PRES.3SG
y
PTCL
hwelav
see-PRES.1SG
an
DEF
gath
cat
'He believes that I see the cat.'[154]
In negative statements, the order was usually
A similar structure is used for questions:
Elements can be fronted for emphasis:
Sentences can also be constructed periphrastically using auxiliary verbs such as bos 'be, exist':
As Cornish lacks verbs such as 'to have', possession can also be indicated in this way:
Enquiring about possession is similar, using a different interrogative form of bos:
Nouns usually precede the adjective, unlike in English:[160]
Some adjectives usually precede the noun, however:
Culture
The
There have been films such as Hwerow Hweg, some televised, made entirely, or significantly, in the language. Some businesses use Cornish names.[163][164]
Cornish has significantly and durably affected Cornwall's place-names as well as Cornish surnames and knowledge of the language helps the understanding of these ancient meanings. Cornish names are adopted for children, pets, houses and boats.[165]
There is Cornish literature, including spoken poetry and song, as well as traditional Cornish chants historically performed in marketplaces during religious holidays and public festivals and gatherings.
There are periodicals solely in the language, such as the monthly An Gannas, An Gowsva and An Garrick. BBC Radio Cornwall has a news broadcast in Cornish and sometimes has other programmes and features for learners and enthusiasts. Local newspapers such as the Western Morning News have articles in Cornish, and newspapers such as The Packet, The West Briton, and The Cornishman have also been known to have Cornish features. There is an online radio and TV service in Cornish called Radyo an Gernewegva, publishing a one-hour podcast each week, based on a magazine format. It includes music in Cornish as well as interviews and features.[166]
The language has financial sponsorship from sources including the Millennium Commission. A number of language organisations exist in Cornwall: Agan Tavas (Our Language), the Cornish sub-group of the European Bureau for Lesser-Used Languages, Gorsedh Kernow, Kesva an Taves Kernewek (the Cornish Language Board) and Kowethas an Yeth Kernewek (the Cornish Language Fellowship).[167][168]
There are ceremonies, some ancient, some modern, that use the language or are entirely in the language.
Cultural events
Cornwall has had cultural events associated with the language, including the international
Since 1969, there have been three full performances of the Ordinalia, originally written in the Cornish language, the most recent of which took place at the plen-an-gwary in St Just in September 2021. While significantly adapted from the original, as well as using mostly English-speaking actors, the plays used sizable amounts of Cornish, including a character who spoke only in Cornish and another who spoke both English and Cornish. The event drew thousands over two weeks, also serving as a celebration of Celtic culture. The next production, scheduled for 2024, could, in theory, be entirely in Cornish, without English, if assisted by a professional linguist.[171][172][173][174]
Outside of Cornwall, efforts to revive the Cornish language and culture through community events are occurring in Australia. A biennial festival, Kernewek Lowender, takes place in South Australia, where both cultural displays and language lessons are offered.[175]
Study and teaching
Cornish is taught in some schools; it was previously taught at degree level at the University of Wales, though the only existing course in the language at university level is as part of a course in Cornish studies at the University of Exeter.[176] In March 2008 a course in the language was started as part of the Celtic Studies curriculum at the University of Vienna, Austria. The University of Cambridge offers courses in Cornish through its John Trim Resources Centre, which is part of the university's Language Centre.[177] In addition, the Department of Anglo-Saxon, Norse and Celtic (which is part of the Faculty of English) also carries out research into the Cornish language.[178]
In 2015 a university-level course aiming at encouraging and supporting practitioners working with young children to introduce the Cornish language into their settings was launched. The Cornish Language Practice Project (Early Years) is a
Cornwall's first Cornish-language
A number of dictionaries are available in the various orthographies, including A Learners' Cornish Dictionary in the Standard Written Form by Steve Harris (ed.), An Gerlyver Meur by Ken George,[180] Gerlyver Sawsnek–Kernowek by Nicholas Williams and A Practical Dictionary of Modern Cornish by Richard Gendall. Course books include the three-part Skeul an Yeth series, Clappya Kernowek, Tavas a Ragadazow and Skeul an Tavas, as well as the more recent Bora Brav and Desky Kernowek. Several online dictionaries are now available, including one organised by An Akademi Kernewek in SWF.[181][182]
Classes and conversation groups for adults are available at several locations in Cornwall as well as in London, Cardiff and Bristol.[183] Since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic a number of conversation groups entitled Yeth an Werin Warlinen have been held online, advertised through Facebook and other media. A surge in interest, not just from people in Cornwall but from all over the world, has meant that extra classes have been organised.[184][185][186]
Cornish studies
William Scawen produced a manuscript on the declining Cornish language that continually evolved until he died in 1689, aged 89. He was one of the first to realise the language was dying out and wrote detailed manuscripts which he started working on when he was 78. The only version that was ever published was a short first draft but the final version, which he worked on until his death, is a few hundred pages long.[187] At the same time a group of scholars led by John Keigwin (nephew of William Scawen) of Mousehole tried to preserve and further the Cornish language and chose to write in Cornish. One of their number, Nicholas Boson, tells how he had been discouraged from using Cornish to servants by his mother.[188] This group left behind a large number of translations of parts of the Bible, proverbs and songs. They were contacted by the Welsh linguist Edward Lhuyd, who came to Cornwall to study the language.[189]
Early Modern Cornish was the subject of a study published by Lhuyd in 1707,[190] and differs from the medieval language in having a considerably simpler structure and grammar. Such differences included sound changes and more frequent use of auxiliary verbs.[191] The medieval language also possessed two additional tenses for expressing past events and an extended set of possessive suffixes.
John Whitaker, the Manchester-born rector of Ruan Lanihorne, studied the decline of the Cornish language. In his 1804 work the Ancient Cathedral of Cornwall he concluded that: "[T]he English Liturgy, was not desired by the Cornish, but forced upon them by the tyranny of England, at a time when the English language was yet unknown in Cornwall. This act of tyranny was at once gross barbarity to the Cornish people, and a death blow to the Cornish language."[192]
Robert Williams published the first comprehensive Cornish dictionary in 1865, the Lexicon Cornu-Britannicum. As a result of the discovery of additional ancient Cornish manuscripts, 2000 new words were added to the vocabulary by
In 2002, the Cornish language gained new recognition because of the European Charter for Regional and Minority Languages. Conversely, along with government provision was the governmental basis of "New Public Management", measuring quantifiable results as means of determining effectiveness. This put enormous pressure on finding a single orthography that could be used in unison. The revival of Cornish required extensive rebuilding. The Cornish orthographies that were reconstructed may be considered versions of Cornish because they are not traditional sociolinguistic variations. In the middle-to-late twentieth century, the debate over Cornish orthographies angered more people because several language groups received public funding. This caused other groups to sense favouritism as playing a role in the debate.[193]
A governmental policymaking structure called New Public Management (NPM) has helped the Cornish language by managing public life of the Cornish language and people. In 2007, the Cornish Language Partnership MAGA represents separate divisions of government and their purpose is to further enhance the Cornish Language Developmental Plan. MAGA established an Ad-Hoc Group, which resulted in three orthographies being presented. The relations for the Ad-Hoc Group were to obtain consensus among the three orthographies and then develop a "single written form". The result was creating a new form of Cornish, which had to be natural for both new learners and skilled speakers.[194]
Literature
Recent Modern Cornish literature
In 1981, the Breton library Preder edited Passyon agan arluth (Passion of our lord), a 15th-century Cornish poem.[195] The first complete translation of the Bible into Cornish, translated from English, was published in 2011. Another Bible translation project translating from original languages is underway. The New Testament and Psalms were posted on-line on YouVersion (Bible.com) and Bibles.org in July 2014 by the Bible Society.
A few small publishers produce books in Cornish which are stocked in some local bookshops, as well as in Cornish branches of Waterstones and WH Smith, although publications are becoming increasingly available on the Internet.
An Gannas is a monthly magazine published entirely in the Cornish language. Members contribute articles on various subjects. The magazine is produced by Graham Sandercock who has been its editor since 1976.[213]
Media
In 1983
Cornish television shows have included a 1982 series by Westward Television with each episode containing a three-minute lesson in Cornish.[216] An Canker-Seth, an eight-episode series produced by Television South West and broadcast between June and July 1984, later on S4C from May to July 1985, and as a schools programme in 1986.[217] Also by Television South West were two bilingual programmes on Cornish Culture called Nosweyth Lowen.[216] In 2016 Kelly's Ice Cream of Bodmin introduced a light hearted television commercial in the Cornish language and this was repeated in 2017.[218]
The first episode from the third season of the US television program Deadwood features a conversation between miners, purportedly in the Cornish language, but really in Irish.[219] One of the miners is then shot by thugs working for businessman George Hearst who justify the murder by saying, "He come at me with his foreign gibberish."
A number of Cornish language films have been made, including Hwerow Hweg, a 2002 drama film written and directed by Hungarian film-maker Antal Kovacs and Trengellick Rising, a short film written and directed by Guy Potter.
Screen Cornwall works with Cornwall Council to commission a short film in the Cornish language each year, with their FilmK competition. Their website states "FylmK is an annual contemporary Cornish language short film competition, producing an imaginative and engaging film, in any genre, from distinctive and exciting filmmakers".[220]
A monthly half-hour online TV show began in 2017 called An Mis (The Month). It contained news items about cultural events and more mainstream news stories all through Cornish. It also ran a cookery segment called "Kegin Esther" ('Esther's Kitchen'). The program has been out of production since March 2023.
Music
English composer Peter Warlock wrote a Christmas carol in Cornish (setting words by Henry Jenner).[221] The Cornish electronic musician Aphex Twin has used Cornish names for track titles, most notably on his Drukqs album.
Several traditional Cornish folk songs have been collected and can be sung to various tunes. These include "An Awhesyth", "Bro Goth agan Tasow", and "Delkiow Sivy".
In 2018, the singer Gwenno Saunders released an album in Cornish, entitled Le Kov, saying: "I speak Cornish with my son: if you're comfortable expressing yourself in a language, you want to share it."[222]
Place-names and surnames
The Cornish language features in the
The following tables present some examples of Cornish place names and surnames and their anglicised versions:
|
|
Samples
From the Universal Declaration of Human Rights:
Cornish | Translation |
---|---|
y gila yn spyrys a vrederedh. | in a spirit of brotherhood. |
From Bro Goth agan Tasow, the Cornish anthem:
Cornish | Translation |
---|---|
'Th on onan hag oll rag Kernow! | We are one and all for Cornwall! |
From the wrestler's oath:
Cornish | Translation |
---|---|
“Gwari hweg yw gwari teg”. | "Fair play is sweet play". |
See also
- Anglo-Cornish, the Cornish dialect of the English language
- Bible translations into Cornish
- Cornish literature
- List of Celtic-language media
- Languages in the United Kingdom
- List of topics related to Cornwall
- Language revival
- The Cornish Language Council(Cussel an Tavas Kernuak)
- Manx, another Celtic language subject to revival efforts
- European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages
- Irish language revival
- Breton language
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Bibliography
- Bruch, Benjamin; Bock, Albert (2008) An Outline of the Standard Written Form of Cornish. Cornish Language Partnership
- Hodge, Pol (2001) Cornish Names. Truro: Dyllansow Fentenwynn ISBN 1902917235
- Jago, F. W. P., A Cornish Dictionary (1887) English Cornish dictionary
- Jenner, Henry, A Handbook of the Cornish language: Chiefly in its latest stages with some account of its history and literature (1904) [1] [2]
- Ellis, Peter B. (1971) The Story of the Cornish Language. 32 p. Truro: Tor Mark Press
- Ellis, Peter B. (1974) The Cornish Language and its Literature. ix, 230 p. London: Routledge & Kegan Paul
- Everson, Michael (2007) A Proposed Standard Written Form of Cornish. Cornish Language Partnership Process
- Ferdinand, Siarl (2013). Brief History of the Cornish language, its Revival and its Current Situation. E-Keltoi, Vol. 2, 2 Dec pp. 199–227 [3]
- Jackson, Kenneth (1953) Language and History in Early Britain: A chronological survey of the Brittonic languages, first to twelfth century a.D. Edinburgh Uuniverty Ppress; 2nd ed. Dublin: Four Courts Press (1994) has a new introduction by William Gillies
- Norris, Edwin, Sketch of Cornish grammar (1859) [4] [5] [6]
- Sandercock, Graham (1996) A Very Brief History of the Cornish Language. Hayle: Kesva an Tavas Kernewek ISBN 0907064612
- Stokes, Whitley, Gwreans an bys = The Creation of the World: A Cornish Mystery (1863)
- Weatherhill, Craig (1995) Cornish Place Names & Language. Wilmslow: Sigma Press (reissued in 1998, 2000 ISBN 978-1-85058-837-5)
- Weatherhill, Craig (2009) Concise Dictionary of Cornish Place-names; edited by ISBN 9781904808220
- Williams, G. P, The preverbal particle Re in Cornish (1908)
External links
- A Handbook of the Cornish Language, by Henry Jenner A Project Gutenberg eBook
- Cornish Language Partnership website
- Endangered Languages Project: Cornish
- A Cornish Internet radio station in nascent state featuring weekly podcasts in Cornish
- Spellyans – Standard Written Form Cornish discussion list
- UdnFormScrefys' site for the proposed compromise orthography, Kernowek Standard
- List of localised software in Cornish
- Blas Kernewek – A Taste of Cornish – basic Cornish lessons hosted by BBC Cornwall
- Cornish Language Fellowship
- Lyver Pysadow Kemyn (1980) Portions of the Book of Common Prayer in Cornish
- Cornish today by Kenneth MacKinnon – from the BBC
- Bibel Kernewek Cornish Bible Translation Project
- An Index to the Historical Place Names of Cornwall
- A review of the Cornish revival
- Cornish language Sayings and Phrases