The Cornish and Their Language

A stay in our Cornwall holiday cottage is bound to pique your interest in all things Cornish and what could be more Cornish than the Cornish language?

If you think of the Cornish language as a dying language you may be surprised to hear Cornish when you visit a Cornwall holiday cottage. Actually, what many people living outside of Cornwall don’t realise is that the Cornish language is on the up. Officially accepted as a minority language by the British government nearly four years ago, the Cornish language proved that it was going from strength to strength as the Cornish Language Support received £80,000 of government funding this year. For many Cornish speakers it doesn’t seem too long ago that this level of development of the Cornish language seemed like a dream.

The history of the Cornish language is one which spans four thousand years when it began its linguistic evolution from the language of the Dumnonii tribe. The earliest known examples of written Cornish date from the end of the 9th century ADCornish continued to develop as a separate language until the 17th century, when it began to be looked upon as the language of the poorer people. Some people claim that the last speaker of Cornish as a mother tongue language was Dorothy Pentreath in 1777 but there is some evidence to suggest that the language never died out and there were some speakers in the 19^th and early 20^th century. Indeed, rather bizarrely, six Cornish speakers all in their sixties were discovered in 1875.

Over the last century since Henry Jenner introduced the first handbook of the Cornish language, there has been a determined effort to revive the Cornish language and it has resulted in approximately 400 fluent speakers of Cornish, of a population of almost 331,000. There are even a number of people under the age of thirty who have been brought up speaking Cornish as a first language. There are a number of books and magazines available in Cornish and some local newspapers such as the Western Morning News often have articles in Cornish. The first Cornish film – Hwerow Hweg - Bitter Sweet - was released in 2002.

If you are looking for exceptionally high standard of Cornwall Holiday Cottage then look no further. Simply pick up the phone and give us a ring on 01872 863553.

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