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For the Cornish-English dialect, see West Country dialects

The Cornish language (in Cornish: Kernowek, Kernewek, Curnoack) is one of the Brythonic group of Celtic languages (Brythonic also includes Welsh, Breton, the extinct Cumbric and perhaps the hypothetical Ivernic). The Celtic languages of Scottish Gaelic, Irish and Manx are part of the separate Goidelic group. Cornish shares about 80% basic vocabulary with Breton, 75% with Welsh, 35% with Irish, and 35% with Scottish Gaelic. By comparison, Welsh shares about 70% with Breton. Cornish continued to function as a community language until the late 18th century, and was again revived early in the 20th century. As of 2006, it has been estimated that currently around 3,500 speak Cornish to a basic conversational level, and around 500 fluently. . Perhaps a score or more children and young adults can be considered native speakers of Revived Cornish.

History

The proto-Cornish language came into being after the Southwest Britons of Somerset, Dorset, Devon and Cornwall became geographically separated from the West Britons of later Wales after the Battle of Deorham in about 577. The area controlled by the Southwest Britons was progressively reduced by the expansion of Wessex over the next few centuries. Around 930, Cornwall was finally defeated by the Saxon king Athelstan. However, the Cornish language continued to flourish well through the Middle Ages, reaching a peak of about 39,000 speakers (estimated by Ken George) in the 13th century. The linguist Edward Lhuyd, writing in 1702, theorises that the language of this time was heavily inflected, possessing not just the genitive, ablative and locative cases so common in Early Modern Cornish, but also dative and accusative cases, and even a vocative case, although historical references to this are rare. The earliest written record of the Cornish language is a gloss in a Latin manuscript of De Consolatione Philosophiae by Boethius, which used the words ud rocashaas. The phrase means "it (the mind) hated the gloomy places".

At the time of the Prayer Book rebellion of 1549, which was a reaction to Parliament passing the first Act of Uniformity, people in many areas of Cornwall did not speak or understand English. (The intention of the Act was to replace worship in Latin with worship in English, which was assumed, by the lawmakers, to be universally spoken throughout England. Instead of simply banning Latin, however, the Act was framed so as to enforce English). In 1549, this imposition of a new language was sometimes a matter of life and death: over 4,000 people who protested against the imposition of an English Prayer book were massacred by the King's army. Their leaders were executed and the people suffered numerous reprisals.

The rebels' document claimed they wanted a return to the old religious services and ended 'We the Cornishmen (whereof certain of us understand no English) utterly refuse this new English'. (Altered spelling.) Edward Seymour, Duke of Somerset, replied to the Cornishmen, inquiring as to why they should be offended by services in English when they had them in Latin, which they also did not understand. Through many factors, including loss of life and the spread of English the Prayer Book Rebellion proved a turning-point for the Cornish language. Indeed, some recent research has suggested that estimates of the Cornish speaking population prior to the rebellion may have been low, making the decline even more drastic.

Early Modern Cornish was the subject of a study published by the Welsh linguist Edward Lhuyd in 1702, and differs from the mediaeval language in having a considerably simpler structure and grammar. Such differences included the wide use of Cornish's original genitive, ablative and locative cases, and the use of certain modal affixes that, although out of use by Lhuyd's time, had a considerable effect on the word-order of mediaeval Cornish. The Mediaeval language also possessed two additional tenses for expressing past events and an extended set of possessive suffixes. By this time the language was already arguably in decline from its earlier heyday, and the situation worsened over the course of the next century. It is often claimed that the last native speaker of Cornish was the Mousehole resident Dolly Pentreath, who died in 1777. Notwithstanding her supposed last words, "Me ne vidn cewsel Sawznek!" ("I don't want to speak English!"), she spoke at least some English as well as Cornish. The last known monoglot Cornish speaker is believed to have been Chesten Marchant, who died in 1676 at Gwithian. It does, however, appear to be true that Dolly Pentreath spoke Cornish fluently and may have been one of the last to do so before the revival of the language in the 20th century. There is also, however, evidence that Cornish continued, albeit in limited usage by a handful of speakers, throughout the 19th century and into the early 20th century. In 1875 six speakers all in their sixties were discovered ; some claim that John Davey who died in 1890 should be considered the last traditional speaker . Others, however, dispute this, saying that Alison Treganning, who died in 1906 was the last traditional speaker . Fishermen were counting fish, and farmers counting sheep, in the Cornish language into the 1940s . It has been suggested by Cornish linguist Richard Gendall that some dialects of English spoken in Cornwall (especially the dialect of West Penwith, where traditional Cornish was last spoken) display strong lexical and prosodic influences from the Cornish language that almost certainly go back several centuries.

Revival

The first successful attempt to revive Cornish was largely the work of Henry Jenner and Robert Morton Nance in the early part of the twentieth century. This system was called Unified Cornish (Kernewek Unyes) and was based mainly on Middle Cornish (the language of the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries — a high point for Cornish literature), with a standardised spelling and an extended vocabulary based largely on Breton and Welsh. For many years, this was the modern Cornish language, and many people still use it today.

Shortcomings in Unified Cornish had to do in part with the stiff and archaising literary style Nance had employed, and in part with a realisation that Nance's phonology lacked some distinctions which must have obtained in traditional Cornish. In the 1970s, Tim Saunders raised a number of issues of communicative efficiency, but his initiative had no influence and later developments are entirely independent.

In the early 1980s, Richard Gendall, who had worked with Nance, published a new system based on the works of native writers such as Nicholas Boson and John Boson, William Rowe, Thomas Tonkin and others. This system, called Modern Cornish (Curnoack Nowedga, Kernowek Noweja in UCR) by its proponents, differs from Unified Cornish in using the English-based orthographies of the 17th and 18th centuries, though there are also differences of vocabulary and grammar. It is usually called "Revised Late Cornish" now. Writers of Late Cornish often wrote Cornish using the English orthographic equivalent of the nearest equivalent English sound. For instance, the word for 'good' typically spelt dâ 'good' could also be written daa, and the word for 'month' could be spelt mîz or meez. The need for standard spelling when learning a language has led the Cornish Language Council to adopt the Revived Late Cornish spelling standardised by Gendall and Neil Kennedy. This makes sparing use of accents (as did writers of Modern Cornish at the time).

In 1986 Ken George developed a revised orthography (and phonology) for Revived Cornish, which became known as Kernewek Kemmyn (lit. Common Cornish). It was subsequently adopted by the Cornish Language Board as their preferred system. It retained a Middle Cornish base but made the spelling more systematic by applying phonemic orthographic theory, and for the first time set out clear rules relating spelling to pronunciation. The revised system is claimed to have been taken up enthusiastically by the majority of Cornish speakers and learners, and advocates of this orthography claim that it was especially welcomed by teachers. Nevertheless, many Cornish speakers chose to continue using Unified Cornish. Despite later criticism by Nicholas Williams (see below), Kernewek Kemmyn has retained the support of perhaps 80% of active Cornish speakers, according to the McKinnon Report, 2000, Table 3.2. The accuracy of this report is disputed by those who do not prefer Kernewek Kemmyn orthography.

In 1995 an alternative revision of Unified Cornish known as Unified Cornish Revised or UCR (Kernowek Unys Amendys) was proposed by Nicholas Williams. UCR builds on traditional Unified Cornish, making the spellings regular while keeping as close as possible to the orthographic practices of the medieval scribes. The rationale behind UCR is that only attested Cornish can serve as a guide to its phonology, and that other attempts at regularisation have on the one hand introduced alien elements and on the other hand not known how to interpret the variations in extant material, which it turns to explain on a scientific and reproducible basis. In common with Kernewek Kemmyn, UCR makes full use of Tudor and Late Cornish prose materials unavailable to Nance. Williams published his English-Cornish Dictionary in this orthography in 2000; the second edition was published in 2006. Like the other orthographies, UCR also has its adherents and its detractors. It has not however become the standard for all users of Cornish.

In practice these different written forms do not prevent Cornish-speakers from communicating with each other effectively. Cornish has been successfully revived as a viable language for communication. Nevertheless there is still much scope for improving the standard and accuracy of the spoken language. The language is spoken mainly with the older generations, but is currently being taught at some Cornish primary and secondary schools.

Current status

In the 20th century a conscious effort was made to revive Cornish as a language for everyday use in speech and writing (see below for further details about the dialects of modern Cornish).

It is estimated that there are now approximately 3,500 speakers of Cornish (about 0.7% of the Cornish population) and 300-400 fluent speakers (about 0.07%). It is estimated that in excess of 5,000 more have some knowledge of basic phrases or could understand basic sentences. A few people under the age of 30 have been brought up speaking Cornish. They are all bilingual in English, and in daily life use English with non-Cornish-speaking people (see Code-switching).

Cornish exists in place names, and a knowledge of the language helps the understanding of old place names. Many Cornish names are adopted for children, pets, houses and boats. There is now an increasing amount of Cornish literature, in which poetry is the most important genre, particularly in oral form or as song or as traditional Cornish chants historically performed in marketplaces during religious holidays, public festivals and gatherings, and executions.

Cornwall County Council has, as policy, a commitment to support the language, and recently passed a motion supporting it being specified within the European charter for regional or minority languages.

There are regular periodicals solely in the language such as the monthly An Gannas, An Gowsva, and An Garrick. BBC Radio Cornwall and Pirate FM have regular news broadcasts in Cornish, and sometimes have other programmes and features for learners and enthusiasts. Local newspapers such as the The Western Morning News regularly have articles in Cornish, and newspapers such as The Packet, The West Briton and The Cornishman also support the movement.

The language has financial sponsorship from many sources, including the Millennium Commission. Increasingly, churches have notices in Cornish and English. The take-up of the language is now becoming so widespread that language organisations are finding it difficult to keep up with demand. These organisations include (in alphabetical order) Agan Tavas (Our Language), the Cornish sub-group of the European Bureau for Lesser-Used Languages, Gorseth Kernow, Kesva an Taves Kernewek (the Cornish Language Board), Kowethas an Yeth Kernewek (the Cornish Language Fellowship), and Teere ha Tavas (Land and Language). One organisation, Dalleth, promoted the language to pre-school children. There are many popular ceremonies, some ancient, some modern, which use the language or are entirely in the language. The language has been officially recognised as one of the five languages of the British Isles. This recognition should lead to greater access to funds from a variety of sources. Some of the supermarkets, municipal buildings (including public lavatories and council chambers) and even nightclubs in Cornwall now have a limited use of Cornish signage, an initiative made possible by a generous EU language and cultural heritage grant.

Culture

See: Cornish literature

Cornwall has many other cultural events associated with the language, including the international Celtic film festival, hosted in St Ives in 1997, with the programme in Cornish, English and French. There have been many films, some televised, made entirely, or significantly, in the language. Some shops, such as Gwynn ha Du, in the town of Liskeard, sell books written in Cornish. Many companies use Cornish names. The overnight physician's service in Cornwall is now called Kernowdoc. Cornish is taught in some schools; it was previously taught at degree level in the University of Wales, though the only existing courses in the language at University level are as part of a course in Cornish Studies at the University of Exeter, or as part of the distance-learning Welsh degree from the University of Wales, Lampeter.

The Cornish language has been recognised as a minority language by the UK government under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. This follows years of pressure by interest groups such as Mebyon Kernow and Kesva an Taves Kernewek.

A first complete edition of the New Testament in Cornish, Nicholas Williams' translation of the Testament Noweth agan Arluth ha Savyour Jesu Cryst, was published at Easter 2002 by Spyrys a Gernow (ISBN 0-9535975-4-7); it uses Unified Cornish Revised orthography. The translation was made from the Greek text, and incorporated John Tregear's existing translations with slight revisions.

In August 2004, Kesva an Taves Kernewek published the official Cornish edition of the New Testament (ISBN 1-902917-33-2), translated by six Bards of Gorseth Kernow under the leadership of Keith Syed; it uses Kernewek Kemmyn orthography. It was launched in a ceremony in Truro Cathedral attended by the Archbishop of Canterbury.

The Celtic Congress and Celtic League are groups that advocate cooperation amongst the Celtic Nations in order to protect and promote Celtic languages and cultures, thus working in the interests of the Cornish language.

The English composer Peter Warlock, an enthusiast for the Celtic languages, wrote a Christmas carol in Cornish.

European recognition

On November 5, 2002 in answer to a Parliamentary Question, Local Government and Regions Minister Nick Raynsford said:

"After careful consideration and with the help of the results of an independent academic study on the language commissioned by the government, we have decided to recognise Cornish as falling under Part II of the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. The government will be registering this decision with the Council of Europe.

"The purpose of the Charter is to protect and promote the historical regional or minority languages of Europe. It recognises that some of these languages are in danger of extinction and that protection and encouragement of them contributes to Europe's cultural diversity and historical traditions.

"This is a positive step in acknowledging the symbolic importance the language has for Cornish identity and heritage.

"Cornish will join Welsh, Scottish Gaelic, Irish, Scots and Ulster Scots as protected and promoted languages under the Charter, which commits the government to recognise and respect those languages."

Officials will be starting discussions with Cornwall County Council and Cornish language organisations to ensure the views of Cornish speakers and people wanting to learn Cornish are taken into account in implementing the Charter.

Sounds

The pronunciation of traditional Cornish is a matter of conjecture, but varieties of Revived Cornish are more or less agreed about the phonology they use.

The consonants of Revived Cornish

This is a table of the phonology of Revived Cornish as recommended for the pronunciation of Unified Cornish Revised (UCR) orthography, using symbols from the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA).

The vowels of Revived Cornish

These are tables of the phonology of Revived Cornish as recommended for the pronunciation of Unified Cornish Revised (UCR) orthography, using symbols from the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA).

Grammar

Cornish is a member of the Celtic branch of the Indo-European family of languages, and shares many of the characteristics of the other Insular Celtic languages. These include:

• Initial consonant mutation. The first sound of a Cornish word may change according to grammatical context. There are four types of mutation in Cornish (compared to three in Welsh and two in Irish). These are known as soft (b -> v, etc.), hard (b -> p), aspirate (b unchanged, t -> th) and mixed (b -> f).

• inflected (or conjugated) prepositions. A preposition combines with a personal pronoun to give a separate word form. For example, gans (with, by) + my (me) -> genef; gans + ef (him) -> ganso.
• No indefinite article. Cath means "a cat" (there is, however a definite article: an gath means "the cat").
• For other grammatical characteristics of Cornish, see the section on grammar in the Welsh language article, until this section is finished.

Dialects

There are, essentially, four 'dialects' of Cornish. They are not dialects in the normal sense (though regional variations exist to some degree), but rather differences in the manner of revival.

See: Revival

It is also possible that a variety of Cornish was spoken in Devon as late as the 14th century: Then President of the Devonshire Association, Sir Henry Duke, said in 1922 that "various writers have made (assertions) of the continuance of British occupancy and of the British tongue in South and West Devon to a time well within the reigns of the Plantagenets. Risdon, for example, says that the Celtic tongue was spoken throughout the South Hams in Edward the First's time". Evidence also exists in Torquay in the form of an engraving in the wall of a butcher's shop dating from the 15th century that appears to be in a Celtic tongue.

A recent upsurge in Celtic self-identification in Devon has also caused interest in reclaiming some of Devons pre Anglo-Saxon heritage, including celtic language. Just as the Cornish Language was recreated predominantly utilising the languages of Breton and Welsh, so 'Dewnansek' is being recreated using Cornish as a base.

Examples

This table compares some Cornish words (written using UCR and Kernewek Kemmyn orthographies) with equivalents from its sister Brythonic languages of Welsh and Breton.

Common phrases

The spelling and pronunciation below follow the recommendations of Kernewek Kemmyn:

See also

• The Misplaced Pages Cornwall Portal
• Languages in the United Kingdom
• List of topics related to Cornwall
• UK topics
• language revival
• The Cornish Language Council (Cussel an Tavas Kernuak)

External links

• Kernewek dre Lyther - Cornish by Post - online Cornish correspondence course
• Kensa Kernewek - An Introduction to the Cornish Language
• Agan Tavas—The Society for the Promotion of the Cornish language
• Blas Kernewek - A Taste of Cornish - basic Cornish lessons hosted by BBC Cornwall
• Cornish Language Study - Cornwall County Council survey of Cornish teaching
• An Burow Cornish Language News Website
• Cornish Language Fellowship
• The Cornish Language in education in the United Kingdom
• Cornish today by Kenneth MacKinnon - from the BBC^
• Biblical material
  • Bibel Kernewek Cornish Bible Translation Project
  • Testament Noweth—New Testament in Cornish
  • Downloadable Machine Translation of the Entire Bible into Cornish with English Parallel Text
• Dictionaries
  • English-Cornish Dictionary 2nd edition
  • Cornish-English Dictionary: from Webster's Online Dictionary - the Rosetta Edition.
• International Celtic Congress
• The >>NEW<< Cornish edition of Wikisource
• The Ordinalia - A Synoptic Website
• Uniting the Cornish language

References

1. Stratejy rag an Tavas Kernewek, 2004 ISBN 1-903798-19-1, Strategy for the Cornish Language
2. http://members.fortunecity.com/gerdewnansek/

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