Portal:Cornwall

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Flag of Cornwall Porth Kernow a'gas dynnargh!
Welcome to the Cornwall Portal!
Saint Piran's Flag
Location of Cornwall

Cornwall (/ˈkɔːrnwɔːl, -wəl/; Cornish: Kernow; Cornish pronunciation: [ˈkɛrnɔʊ]; or [ˈkɛrnɔ]) is a ceremonial county in South West England. It is recognised by Cornish and Celtic political groups as one of the Celtic nations, and is the homeland of the Cornish people. The county is bordered by the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, Devon to the east, and the English Channel to the south. The largest settlement is Falmouth, and the county town is the city of Truro.

The county is rural, with an area of 1,375 square miles (3,562 km2) and population of 568,210. After Falmouth (23,061), the largest settlements are Penzance, Newquay, St Austell, and Truro. For local government purposes most of Cornwall is a unitary authority area, with the Isles of Scilly having a unique local authority. The Cornish nationalist movement disputes the constitutional status of Cornwall and seeks greater autonomy within the United Kingdom.

Cornwall is the westernmost part of the South West Peninsula. Its coastline is characterised by steep cliffs and, to the south, several rias, including those at the mouths of the rivers Fal and Fowey. It includes the southernmost point on Great Britain, Lizard Point, and forms a large part of the Cornwall National Landscape. The national landscape also includes Bodmin Moor, an upland outcrop of the Cornubian batholith granite formation. The county contains many short rivers; the longest is the Tamar, which forms the border with Devon. (Full article...)

Selected article

Cornish (Standard Written Form: Kernewek or Kernowek; [kəɾˈnuːək]) is a Southwestern Brittonic language of the Celtic language family. Along with Welsh and Breton, Cornish is descended from the Common Brittonic language spoken throughout much of Great Britain before the English language came to dominate. For centuries, until it was pushed westwards by English, it was the main language of Cornwall, maintaining close links with its sister language Breton, with which it was mutually intelligible, perhaps even as long as Cornish continued to be spoken as a vernacular. Cornish continued to function as a common community language in parts of Cornwall until the mid 18th century, and there is some evidence for traditional speakers of the language persisting into the 19th century.

Cornish became extinct as a living community language in Cornwall by the end of the 18th century, although knowledge of Cornish, including speaking ability to a certain extent, persisted within some families and individuals. A revival started in the early 20th century, and in 2010 UNESCO reclassified the language as critically endangered, stating that its former classification of the language as extinct was no longer accurate. The language has a growing number of second-language speakers, and a very small number of families now raise children to speak revived Cornish as a first language.

Cornish is currently recognised under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages, and the language is often described as an important part of Cornish identity, culture and heritage. Since the revival of the language, some Cornish textbooks and works of literature have been published, and an increasing number of people are studying the language. Recent developments include Cornish music, independent films, and children's books. A small number of people in Cornwall have been brought up to be bilingual native speakers, and the language is taught in schools and appears on street nameplates. The first Cornish-language day care opened in 2010. (Full article...)

Selected biography

Portrait by Thomas Phillips, 1821

Sir Humphry Davy, 1st Baronet, FRS, MRIA, FGS (17 December 1778 – 29 May 1829) was a British chemist and inventor who invented the Davy lamp and a very early form of arc lamp. He is also remembered for isolating, by using electricity, several elements for the first time: potassium and sodium in 1807 and calcium, strontium, barium, magnesium and boron the following year, as well as for discovering the elemental nature of chlorine and iodine. Davy also studied the forces involved in these separations, inventing the new field of electrochemistry. Davy is also credited with discovering clathrate hydrates.

In 1799, he experimented with nitrous oxide and was astonished at how it made him laugh. He nicknamed it "laughing gas" and wrote about its potential as an anaesthetic to relieve pain during surgery.

Davy was a baronet, President of the Royal Society (PRS), Member of the Royal Irish Academy (MRIA), Fellow of the Geological Society (FGS), and a member of the American Philosophical Society (elected 1810). Berzelius called Davy's 1806 Bakerian Lecture On Some Chemical Agencies of Electricity "one of the best memoirs which has ever enriched the theory of chemistry." (Full article...)


Did you know?

St Buryan's Church

Selected quote

Thomas Bulfinch
It has, therefore, been a favorite boast of the people of Wales and Cornwall, that the original British stock flourishes in its unmixed purity only among them.
Thomas Bulfinch, American writer

Selected picture

Morvah Methodist chapel
Morvah Methodist chapel

Photo credit: Tim

A Methodist chapel in Morvah, with an Anglican church behind. The Methodism of John Wesley proved to be very popular with the working classes in Cornwall in the 19th century, becoming the leading form of Christianity. The chapels became important social centres, with male voice choirs and other church-affiliated groups playing a central role in the social lives of working class Cornishmen.

General images

The following are images from various Cornwall-related articles on Wikipedia.

WikiProjects

Related portals

Topics

History

Geography

Politics

Economy and demographics

Culture

Subcategories

Subcategories

Category puzzle
Category puzzle
Select [►] to view subcategories

Recognised content

Featured articles

Main page featured articles

Featured lists

Good articles

Former good articles

In the News articles

Things you can do'

Select "show" to view
Things you can do
Things you can do

Places

  • Create Articles for listed buildings in Cornwall.
  • Create Articles for conservation areas in Cornwall.
  • Create Articles for public parks in Cornwall.
  • Create Articles for historic sites, particularly hill-forts.

Flora and fauna

Maintenance

People

  • Create Articles for notable Cornish politicians.
  • Expand Alfred Aaron de Pass and add more info on him to the institutions he donated art and money to in Cornwall (RIC, Falmouth Gallery etc).
  • Create Articles for notable Cornish artists.

Organisations

  • Create Articles for local groups and charities.
  • Create Articles for notable art galleries.

History, language, culture and art

Translations

  • Illustrate the new Russian article Корнцы if you can work with Russian Cyrillic script

Associated Wikimedia

The following Wikimedia Foundation sister projects provide more on this subject:

Wikipedia in Cornish

Discover Wikipedia using portals

Purge server cache