Cornish language

For the Cornish-English dialect see West Country dialects and List of Cornish dialect words.

Cornish
Kernewek, Kernowek
Native to	United Kingdom
Region	Cornwall, elsewhere in the United Kingdom, and handful of speakers in Australia, the United States, Brittany and Wales
Native speakers	~ 840 fluent in everyday conversation, 2,900 in simple conversation (estimate)
Language family	Indo-European Celtic Insular Celtic Brythonic Cornish
Writing system	Latin
Official status
Official language in	Not an official language; but a recognised minority language in the United Kingdom
Regulated by	Cornish Language Partnership
Language codes
ISO 639-1	kw
ISO 639-2	cor
ISO 639-3	cor
ELP	Cornish

The Cornish language (in Cornish: Kernewek or Kernowek) is one of the Brythonic group of Celtic languages. The language continued to function as a community language in parts of Cornwall until the late 18th century, and a process to revive the language was started in the early 20th century, continuing to this day with some success.

The revival of Cornish began in 1904 when Henry Jenner, a Celtic language enthusiast, published his book Handbook of the Cornish Language. His work was based on Cornish as it was spoken in the 18th century, although his pupil Robert Morton Nance later steered the revival more to the style of the 16th century, before the language became influenced by English. This set the tone for the next few decades; as the revival gained pace, learners of the language disagreed on which style of Cornish to use, and a number of competing orthographies were in use by the end of the century.

Nevertheless, many Cornish language textbooks and works of literature have been published over the decades, 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 children in Cornwall have been brought up to be bilingual native speakers, and the language is taught in many schools. Cornish gained official recognition under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages in 2002, and in 2008 a Standard Written Form was agreed in an attempt to unify the orthographies and move forward the revival.

Current status

A revived language

File:Kernow a'gas dynnergh 20050527.jpg

"Welcome to Cornwall" sign in English and Cornish

Cornish can be seen in many places in Cornwall.

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).

This revival can be traced to the work of Jenner, who in 1904 published his work A Handbook of the Cornish Language. This formed the basis for the language revival and learning. In his work he observed There has never been a time when there has been no person in Cornwall without a knowledge of the Cornish language.

The number of Cornish speakers is growing. Determining a figure for the number of Cornish speakers depends on how the ability to speak the language is defined. One figure for the mean amount of people who know a few basic words, such as knowing that "Kernow" means "Cornwall", was 300,000; the same survey gave the figure of people able to have simple conversations at 3,000. A study by Kenneth MacKinnon in 2000 suggested that there were then about 300 people who spoke Cornish fluently, i.e., were able to talk at ordinary speed on everyday matters. The Cornish Language Strategy project is in 2007 commissioning research to provide quantitative and qualitative evidence for the number of Cornish speakers: due to the success of the revival project it is estimated that 2,000 people are fluent (surveyed in spring 2008). A few people under the age of 30 have been brought up to be bilingual in Cornish and English.

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 and public festivals and gatherings.

Cornwall County Council has a policy of supporting the language, and recently passed a motion in favour of 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. A number of language organisations exist in Cornwall including (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 historical regional and minority languages in Europe (see European recognition below).

A decision to brand Cornish extinct, made by linguists working for UNESCO's Atlas of World Languages, was widely criticised. The Atlas's editor, Christopher Moseley, says a new category of "being revived" is being considered for the next edition.

European recognition

Welcome sign at Truro Cathedral in several languages, including Cornish.

On 5 November 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.

Government funding for the Cornish language

In June 2005, after much pressure from language groups and others such as the Gorseth Kernow, the government allocated £80,000 per year for three years of direct central government funding to the Cornish language. There have been complaints however that in the same period Ulster Scots is being allocated £1,000,000 per year of direct government funding. This comes after the British government acknowledged in its 1st European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages compliance report that: "There are no current demands from within the school system for Ulster-Scots to be taught as a language. There have been concerns that while the ECRML Level II Cornish language remains in the slow lane, the Ulster-Scots language is to be made a ECRML Level III language.

Classification

Cornish belongs to Brythonic languages, a branch of Celtic languages. Brythonic also includes Welsh, Breton, the extinct Cumbric and perhaps the hypothetical Ivernic. The languages 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.

History

The Brythonic community around the 6th century. Welsh, Cornish and Breton are very closely related.

General outlook

The proto-Cornish language developed after the Southwest Britons of Somerset, Dorset, Devon and Cornwall became linguistically 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. In 927 Athelstan drove the south west Celts out of Exeter and in 936 he set the east bank of the Tamar as the boundary between Anglo-Saxon Wessex and Celtic Cornwall. "Exeter was cleansed of its defilement by wiping out that filthy race" (William of Malmesbury, writing around 1120) . There is no record of him taking his campaigns into Cornwall. It seems probable that Hywel, King of the Cornish, agreed to pay tribute to Athelstan and thus avoided more attacks and maintained a high degree of autonomy. and in 936 Athelstan fixed Cornwall's eastern boundary at the Tamar. 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. However the number of Cornish speakers is thought to have declined thereafter.

The earliest written record of the Cornish language, dating from the 9th century AD, 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".

Early modern period

In the reign of Henry VIII we have an account given by Andrew Borde in his Boke of the Introduction of Knowledge, written in 1542. He says, "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."

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 known, by the lawmakers, not 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 shifting of the linguistic boundary in Cornwall 1300-1750

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.

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. Richard Carew in his 1602 work - The survey of Cornwall, notices the almost total extirpation of the Cornish language in his days. He says; The principal love and knowledge of this language liveth in Dr. Kennall, the civilian, and with him lieth buried; Towednack is claimed to be the location of the last church in which services were conducted in the Cornish language (in 1678).

Nineteenth and twentieth centuries

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 from St Just who died in 1891 at Boswednack, Zennor should be considered the last traditional speaker. Others, however, dispute this, saying that Alison Treganning, who died in 1906 was the last traditional speaker and by this time the revival was well underway. Fishermen were counting fish using a rhyme derived from Cornish 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.

Sources on Traditional Cornish

The opening verses of Origo Mundi, the first play of the Ordinalia (the magnum opus of mediaeval Cornish literature), written by an unknown monk in the late 14th century

The Southwestern Brythonic, or Southwestern Brittonic, language evolved into Cornish, shrinking from the whole southwest of England into the western tip of Cornwall with time. Kenneth H. Jackson divided this long period into several sub-periods having different linguistic innovations.

"Primitive Cornish" existed between about 600 and 800 AD but nothing survives from this time. The "Old Cornish" period was between 800 and 1200 AD, for which there is a Cornish-Latin dictionary (the Vocabularium Cornicum or Cottonian Vocabulary; MS. Cotton Vespasian A.xiv) and various 10th century glosses in Latin manuscripts such as the Bodmin manumissions giving the Cornish names of freed slaves.

The "Middle Cornish" period between 1200 and 1578 has many sources of information, mostly religious texts. There are about 20,000 lines of text in total. Various plays were written by the canons of Glasney College intended to educate the Cornish people about the Bible and the Celtic saints.

The "Late Cornish" period from 1578 to about 1800 has fewer sources of information on the language. In this period there was considerable input from the English language. In 1776 William Bodinar, who had learnt Cornish from fishermen, wrote a letter in Cornish which was probably the last prose in the language. However, the last verse was the Cranken Rhyme written down in the late 19th century.

Further information on traditional Cornish can be obtained from the place names of Cornwall. The place names have been analysed into elements for which meanings have been inferred.

The rise of Cornish studies

William Scawen produced an epic manuscript on the declining Cornish language that continually evolved until he died in 1689, aged 89. He was the first person 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 hundreds of pages long. 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. They left behind a large number of translations of parts of the Bible, proverbs and songs. This group was contacted by the Welsh linguist Edward Lhuyd who came to Cornwall to study the language.

Early Modern Cornish was the subject of a study published by Lhuyd in 1702, and differs from the medieval language in having a considerably simpler structure and grammar. Such differences included the wide use of certain modal affixes that, although out of use by Lhuyd's time, had a considerable effect on the word-order of medieval Cornish. The medieval language also possessed two additional tenses for expressing past events and an extended set of possessive suffixes. Edward Lhuyd 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.

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 - "The 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"

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 Whitley Stokes in A Cornish Glossary. William Borlase published Proverbs and Rhymes in Cornish in 1866 while A Glossary of Cornish Place Names was produced by John Bannister in the same year. Dr Frederick Jago published his English-Cornish Dictionary in 1882.

Varieties of Revived Cornish

During the 19th century the Cornish language was the subject of antiquarian interest and a number of lectures were given on the subject and pamphlets on it were published.

Unified Cornish (UC)

Main article: Unified Cornish

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. Jenner published his "Handbook of the Cornish Language" in 1904 while Nance published "Cornish For All" in 1929. A. S. D. Smith produced "Lessons in Spoken Cornish" in 1931.

The resulting system was called Unified Cornish or UC (Kernewek Uny[e]s, KU) 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. A dictionary of Unified Cornish was published by Nance in the 1930s. 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 archaizing literary style Nance had employed, and in part with a realisation that Nance's phonology lacked some distinctions which must have existed 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.

Modern Cornish or Revived Late Cornish (RLC)

Main article: Modern Cornish

In the early 1980s, Richard Gendall, who had worked with Nance, published a new system based on the rather limited works of writers such as Nicholas Boson and John Boson, William Rowe, Thomas Tonkin and others, few of whom spoke Cornish as their first language. 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 sometimes called "Revived Late Cornish" or RLC as well. 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).

Kernewek Kemmyn or Common Cornish (KK)

Main article: Kernewek Kemmyn

In 1986 Ken George developed a revised orthography (and phonology) for Revived Cornish, which became known as Kernewek Kemmyn or KK (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 many active Cornish speakers.

Unified Cornish Revised (UCR)

In 1995 an alternative revision of Unified Cornish known as Unified Cornish Revised or UCR (Kernowek Unys Amendys, KUA) was proposed by Nicholas Williams. UCR built 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 was that only attested Cornish can serve as a guide to its phonology, and that other attempts at regularisation had on the one hand introduced alien elements and on the other hand not known how to interpret the variations in extant material, which it turned to explain in accordance with the assumptions of nineteenth-century Middle European philology. In common with Kernewek Kemmyn, UCR made 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.

Towards unification

Unification projects

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.

In response to the orthographic mayhem, the Cornish Language Partnership has initiated a period of review. In 2007 an independent Cornish Language Commission consisting of sociolinguists and linguists from outside of Cornwall was formed to review the four existing forms (UC, RLC, KK, and UCR) and consider whether any of those could be suitable to be a Single Written Form for Cornish, or whether a new fifth form should be adopted. Two groups made proposals of compromise orthographies.

• The group UdnFormScrefys ('Single Written Form') proposed an orthography called Kernowek Standard (KS) which is based on traditional orthographic forms and also has a clear relation between spelling and pronunciation, taking both Middle Cornish and Late Cornish dialects of Revived Cornish into account.
• Two members of the CLP's Linguistic Working Group, Albert Bock and Benjamin Bruch, proposed another orthography called Kernowek Dasunys (KD) which endeavours to reconcile UC, KK, RLC, and UCR orthographies.

Standard Written Form (SWF)

Main article: Standard Written Form

In May 2008 the Partnership agreed on a single written form to be known as Standard Written Form (SWF), to be used by Cornwall County Council authorities for the purposes of education and public life. The Cornish Language Partnership has specified that Furv Skrifys Savonek (FSS) is the SWF translation for Standard Written Form. Users of UCR and KS prefer the term Form Screfys Standard.

On Friday 9 May 2008 the Cornish Language Partnership met with the specification for the Standard Written Form as the main item on the agenda. All four Cornish language groups, Unified Cornish, Unified Cornish Revised, Common Cornish and Modern Cornish were represented at this meeting. Reactions were mixed from the various language groups, Kowethas an Yeth Kernewek, Cussel an Tavaz Kernûak, Kesva an Taves Kernewek and Agan Tavas, but the majority wanted resolution and acceptance. The Cornish Language Partnership said that it would 'create an opportunity to break down barriers and the agreement marked a significant stepping stone in the Cornish language.'. The vote to ratify the SWF was carried and on 19 May 2008 it was announced that the single written form had been agreed. Eric Brooke, chairman of the Cornish Language Partnership, said: "This marks a significant stepping-stone in the development of the Cornish language. In time this step will allow the Cornish language to move forward to become part of the lives of all in Cornwall."

Culture

See also: Cornish literature

Commemorative plaque in Cornish and English for Michael Joseph the Smith (An Gof) mounted on the north side of Blackheath common, south east London, near the south entrance to Greenwich Park

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 Kernow Urgent Care. 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. In March 2008, Benjamin Bruch started teaching the language as part of the Celtic Studies curriculum at the University of Vienna, Austria.

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 another Cornish translation 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. Cornish electronic musician Richard D James has often used Cornish names for track titles, most notably on his DrukQs album.

Phonetics and phonology

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

Consonants

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).

	bilabial	labio- dental	dental	alveolar	post- alveolar	palatal	labio-velar	velar	glottal
plosive	p  b			t  d				k  g
nasal	m			n				ŋ
fricative		f  v	θ  ð	s  z	ʃ  ʒ			x	h
approximant				ɹ		j	ʍ  w
lateral approximant				l

Vowels

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).

Short vowels

	Front	Central	Back
Close	i	y
Near-close	ɪ		ʊ
Mid		ə
Open-mid	ɛ	œ	ɔ
Near-open	æ
Open		a	ɒ

Long vowels

	Front	Central	Back
Close	i:	y:	u:
Mid	e:	ø:
Open-mid			ɔ:
Near-open	æ:
Open		a:

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).

Consonant Mutation in Cornish
(spelled as in Kernwek Kemmyn)

Unmutated consonant	Soft mutation	Aspirate mutation	Hard mutation	Mixed mutation
p	b	f
t	d	th
k	g	h
b	v		p	f
d	dh		t	t
g1	disappears		k	h
g²	w		k	hw
gw	w		kw	hw
m	v			f
ch	j

¹ Before unrounded vowels, l, and r (provided it is followed by an unrounded vowel).
² Before rounded vowels, and r (provided it is followed by a rounded vowel).

• 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.
• A zero 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.

Pronouns

Personal pronouns (Late Cornish)

Person	Singular	Plural
First	me	nye
Second	che	why
Third	e, eve (masc.), hye (fem.)	angye, gye

Dialects

Traditional Cornish would have probably had regional varieties, but due to the nature of revival, modern varieties have more to do with differences of opinion.

There are, essentially, four orthographic 'dialects' of Revived Cornish, but in linguistic terms, Unified Cornish and Common Cornish reflect Middle Cornish grammar and pronunciation while Revived Late Cornish favours Late Cornish grammar and punctuation. UCR stands somewhere between but closer to the Middle Cornish end of the spectrum. The two new proposed compromise orthographies, Kernowak Standard and Kernowek Dasunys attempt to represent both dialects of Revived Cornish.

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".

Some people from Devon have begun to learn a language based on Joseph Biddulph's booklet A handbook of Westcountry Brythonic which attempts to recreate the hypothetical southwestern Brythonic tongue which would have been spoken in the southwestern peninsula in around 700AD. However these self-published booklets have been heavily criticised by other scholars.

Examples

Comparison table

This table compares some Cornish words (written using UCR, Kernewek Kemmyn and the Standard Written Form orthographies) with equivalents from its sister Brythonic languages of Welsh and Breton and its cousin languages Irish, Scottish Gaelic and Manx.

Cornish (UCR)	Cornish (KK)	Cornish (SWF)	Welsh	Breton	Irish	Scottish Gaelic	Manx	English
Kernowek	Kernewek	Kernewek, Kernowek	Cernyweg	Kerneveureg	Coirnis	Còrnais	Cornish	Cornish
gwenenen	gwenenenn	gwenenen	gwenynen	gwenanenn	beach	seillean, beach	shellan	bee
chayr, cadar	kador	kador, cador	cadair	kador	cathaoir	cathair	caair	chair
cues	keus	keus	caws	keuz	cáis	càise	caashey	cheese
yn mes	yn-mes	yn-mes	tu fas, tu allan	er-maez	amuigh / amach	a-muigh / a-mach	y-mooie / (y-)magh	outside
codha	koedha	kodha, codha	codwm, disgyn, syrthio, cwympo,	kouezhañ	titim	tuiteam	tuittym	(to) fall
gavar	gaver	gaver	gafr	gavr/gaor	gabhar	gobhar/gabhar	goayr	goat
chy	chi	chi, chei	tŷ	ti	tigh/teach	taigh	thie	house
gwues	gweus	gweus	gwefus	gweuz	béal/beol (plural beola/beolta); liopa/lioba	bile/liopa	meill	lip
ryver, aber	aber	aber	aber	aber	inbhear	inbhir	inver	mouth (river), inlet, fjord
nyver	niver	niver	rhif, nifer	niver	uimhir/ríomh/áireamh	àireamh	earroo	number
peren	perenn	peren	gellygen, peren	perenn	piorra	peur / piar	peear	pear
scol	skol	skol, scol	ysgol	skol	scoil	sgoil	scoill	school
megy	megi	megi, megy	ysmygu	mogediñ	gal / tabac a chaitheamh	smocainn	smookal	(to) smoke
steren	sterenn	steren	seren	steredenn	réalt	reult / rionnag	reealt	star
hedhyw	hedhyw	hedhyw	heddiw	hizhiv/hizio	inniu/inniubh	an-diugh	jiu	today
whybana	hwibana	hwibana, whibana	chwibanu	c'hwibanat	feadaíl	feadghal	feddanagh	(to) whistle
whel	hwel	hwel, whel	chwarel	arvez	cairéal	coireall/cuaraidh	quarral	quarry

Common phrases

The spelling and pronunciation below use the Standard Written Form:

Cornish	IPA	English
Myttin da	[ˈmɪttin ˈdaː]	"good morning"
Dydh da	[ˈdɪːð ˈdaː]	"good day"
Fatla genes?	[ˈfatla ˈgɛnɛs]	"how are you?"
Yn poynt da, meur ras	[ɪn ˈpɔjnt ˈdaː mœːr ˈraːs]	"Well, thank you"
Py eur yw?	[ˈpɪː ˈœːr ɪw]	"What time is it?"
Ple'ma Rysrudh, mar pleg?	[ˈplɛː maː ˈrɪzryð mar ˈplɛːg]	"Where is Redruth please?"
Yma Rysrudh ogas dhe Gambron, heb mar!	[ɪˈmaː ˈrɪzryð ˈɔgas ðɛ ˈgambrɔn hɛb ˈmaːr]	"Redruth is near Camborne, of course!"

In popular culture

• Cornish is spoken by some characters in Enid Blyton's Famous Five novel, Five Go Down to the Sea.
• Cornish immigrant miners are depicted speaking Cornish in the TV series Deadwood.
• Several track titles form the Aphex Twin album Drukqs are in Cornish.
• Gwenno Saunders is bilingual in Cornish and English

See also

• 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)
• European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages
• Irish language revival

Bibliography

• Ellis, Peter B. (1974) The Cornish Language and its Literature. London: Routledge
• Ellis, Peter B. (1971) The Story of the Cornish Language. Truro: Tor Mark Press
• Jackson, Kenneth (1953) Language and History in Early Britain.
• Weatherhill, Craig (1995) Cornish Place Names & Language. Wilmslow: Sigma Press (reissued in 1998, 2000) ISBN 1-85058-462-1

External links

• A Handbook of the Cornish Language, by Henry Jenner A Project Gutenberg eBook
• Cornish Language Partnership website
• 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 localized software in Cornish
• Blas Kernewek - A Taste of Cornish - basic Cornish lessons hosted by BBC Cornwall
• Cornish Language Fellowship
• Cornish today by Kenneth MacKinnon - from the BBC
• A short Cornish - English - Japanese phrasebook with pronunciation
• Bibel Kernewek Cornish Bible Translation Project
• Cowethas Peran Sans Cornish Christian fellowship promoting use of Cornish in prayer and worship

Dictionaries

• Cornish-English Dictionary: from Webster's Online Dictionary Rosetta Edition.
• Lexicon Cornu-Britannicum: a Dictionary of the Ancient Celtic Language of Cornwall by Robert Williams, Llandovery, 1865.