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(delwedd F6726) (tudalen 001)
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GWIR YN ERBYN Y BYD.
THE CAMBRIAN JOURNAL:
PUBLISHED UNDER THE
AUSPICES OF
THE CAMBRIAN
INSTITUTE.
CAS GWR NA CHARO Y WLAD A'I
MACCO.
VOLUME FOR 1861.
TENBY:
R. MASON, HIGH STREET.
LONDON: J. RUSSELL SMITH, 36, SOHO SQUARE.
1861.
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(delwedd F6727) (tudalen 002)
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GWIR YN ERBYN Y BYD.
THE CAMBRIAN JOURNAL:
PUBLISHED UNDER THE AUSPICES OF
THE CAMBRIAN INSTITUTE.
CAS GWR NA CHARO Y WLAD A'I
MACCO.
VOLUME FOR 1861.
TENBY:
R. MASON, HIGH STREET.
LONDON: J. RUSSELL SMITH, 36, SOHO SQUARE.
1861.
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(delwedd F6728) (tudalen 113)
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CORNWALL AND THE CORNISH LANGUAGE. 113
CORNWALL AND THE CORNISH LANGUAGE
CORNWALL, at the time of the Roman occupation of
Britain, was called Carnubia, and the inhabitants of it Carnabii - names
probably derived from the ancient British Cernyw, which is said to signify a
projecting ridge, and also a promontory. According to some etymologists the
root of Cernyw is the Latin cornu, or the Celtic corn - a term used in
allusion to Cornwall being a promontorywith many projecting points. Norris,
the editor and translator of the Ancient Cornish Drama, has the following
explanation under the word Corn, in his Ancient Cornish Vocabulary: "Cornubia,
Carniu, Kernyw, nomina regionum ob prominentiam. The recent plural was Kernow."
The plural of the Welsh word corn is cyrn, and in some parts of South Wales
cyrnau is also used. Au in Welsh, ow in Cornish, and ou in Armoric, are very
common plural terminations of nouns.
The ancient British inhabitants of Cheshire, in the
time of the Romans, were also called Carnabii, as well as Cornavii or
Corinavii: and so were the occupiers of Caithness, north of the Ale or Ila,
which is the north-
CAMB. JOUR., 1861. Q
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(delwedd F6729) (tudalen 114)
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114 CORNWALL AND THE CORNISH LANGUAGES
eastern extremity of Scotland, named Carnabii, because they, in the opinion
of some antiquaries, like the Carnabii of Cernyw, were seated on a
promontory. Archaeologists are not agreed as to the identity of the Carnabii;
but those who inhabited Kernyw were doubtless the descendants in part of the
ancient Lloegrwys. According to the Historical Triads, vii. and ix., the
Lloegrwys, who were descended from the primitive nation of the Cymry,
composed the second peaceful colonywhich reached the shores of Britain. They
arrived here probably about a thousand years before the Christian era. But as
it is generally believed that the southern coasts of Britain, at the time of
the Roman invasion, were inhabited by the Belgae, it is very possible that
the Lloegrwys and other colonies, which subsequently arrived, several of
which are mentioned in the Triads, became amalgamated. Beale Poste, in his
Britannic Researches, p. 148, specifies three invasions of Britain by the
Belgae, the probable dates of which respectively he fixes about 350, 100, and
85 years before the Christian era. This may account for the difference which
exists between the two languages of the Britons of Cornwall and Wales, as
they have been transmitted to the present time. Norris, in the Appendix to vol.
ii. p. 457, of the Ancient Cornish Drama, states it as his "opinion,
that the Cornish is the representative of a language once current all over
South Britain at least." And again in p. 462, he says, "The close
resemblance of the Cornish to the Breton spoken at this day in France,
justifies us in believing that a language akin to the Cornish of our oldest
manuscripts, was the idiom of South Britain when the Roman departure took
place." Was not this the language of the Lloegrwys in general, and of the
Carnabii of Cernyw in particular?
The origin of the modern name, Cornwall, is by some antiquaries ascribed to
the Saxons, who designated the Ancient Britons, Weales; and those of them
who, in defiance of all attempts to subjugate or expel them, retained possession
of Cernyw, they distinguished by
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(delwedd F6730) (tudalen 115)
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CORNWALL AND THE CORNISH LANGUAGE. 1 15
the name of Cornweales, which implies Cornish Welsh; and their country,
Cornweale, which signifies Cornish Wales.
When Britain was invaded by the Saxons, the Lloegrwys were brought by
violence and conquest into confederacywith them, except such as were found in
Cernyw and in the north of Britain. The Cornish Britons were successful in
maintaining their independence as a distinct kingdom until the beginning of
the ninth century, when Cornwall was united to that of England by Egbert. But
their entire subjugation does not appear to have been effected until the
second quarter of the tenth century, when it was completed by Athelstan. From
that time the Cornish language began gradually to decline, until by the end
of the last century it became entirely extinct; of the gradual decay of which
some notices have been left on record, by several writers who have alluded to
the subject.
The name of Dr. Moreman, of Menheniot, near Liskeard, who lived in the reign
of Henry VIII., has been handed down, as that of the first person who taught
his parishioners the use of the "Lord's Prayer" in English. But
Andrew Borde, a physician in the same reign, who wrote during the second
quarter of the sixteenth century, states, "In Cornwal is two speches;
the one is naughty Englyshe, and the other is Cornyshe speche. And there be
many men and women the which cannot speake one worde of Englyshe, but all
Cornyshe."
From this statement it may evidently be inferred, that the Cornish language
was no longer used generally and exclusively by the inhabitants. A period of
six or seven hundred years had witnessed the introduction amongst them of
"naughty Englyshe," which may imply a species of mongrel or corrupt
dialect of the English.
Another author, whose name was Norden, about the year 1584 wrote a Survey of
the County of Cornwall, in which he states, "Of late the Cornishe men
have muche conformed themselves to the vse of the Englishe tounge, and their
Englishe is equall to the beste, especially in
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116 CORNWALL AND THE CORNISH LANGUAGE.
the easterne partes; euen from Truro eastwarde it is in manner wholy
Englishe. In the weste parte of the countrye, as in the hundreds of Penwith
and Kerrier, the Cornyshe tounge is moste in vse amongste the inhabitantes,
and yet (whiche is to be marueyled) thowgh the husband and wife, parentes and
children, master and seruantes, doe mutually comunicate in their natiue
language, yet ther is none of them in manner but is able to conuers with a
straunger in the Englishe tounge, vnless it be some obscure people, that
seldome conferr with the better sorte: but it seemeth that in few yeares the
Cornishe language wilbe by litle and litle abandoned."
Richard Carew, a native of Cornwall, who was educated for the bar, and was
appointed a magistrate of the county, in his Survey of Cornwall, written in
1602, says, "Most of the inhabitants can speak no word of Cornish, but
very few are ignorant of the English, though they sometimes affect to
be."
It appears from the foregoing statements of Norden and Carew, that the period
of fifty or sixty years which had intervened between their time and that of
Borde, had produced a marked improvement in the manner in which the English
language was spoken by the descendants of those who had acquired "naughty
Englyshe."
Hals, of Fenton Gympse, author of a Cornish Interpreter, and of an Account of
Cornwall, observed at the beginning of the last century that the use of the
old Cornish tongue was retained in the parish of Feock, near Truro, till
about 1640, when the Rev. William Jackman was obliged to administer the
sacrament of the Lord's Supper in that language, the formula for which has
been preserved to this day, because the old people did not well understand,
or were not sufficiently conversant with English.
Ray, in the year 1662, said that few of the children in Cornwall could then
speak the Cornish language, and that Mr Dicken Gwyn was regarded as the only
person who could write in it; and consequently that the language would soon
be lost.
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(delwedd F6732) (tudalen 117)
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CORNWALL AND THE CORNISH LANGUAGE. 117
Bishop Gibson in his Additions to Camden’s Britannia, published in 1695, p.
16, states, "The old Cornish is almost quite driven out of the country,
being spoken only by the vulgar in two or three parishes at the Land's End;
and they too understand the English. In other parts, the inhabitants know
little or nothing of it; so that in all likelihood, a short time will destroy
the small remains that are left of it. ’Tis a good while since, that only two
men could write it, and one of them no scholar or grammarian, and then blind
with age."
In the year 1700, the Cornish language was, however, still spoken by the
tinners and the fishermen of St. Just, near the Land's End, and by the
inhabitants of the western side of Mount's Bay. And it is stated by Scawen of
Molinick, a Cornish gentleman, who wrote towards the latter part of the
seventeenth century, that the Rev Francis Robinson, of Llandewednack, near
the Lizard Point, preached to his parishioners in the Cornish language in 1768,
it being then the language best understood by his hearers: that was, however,
in a remote corner, which had little communication with other parts of the
county; and Mr. Robinson is said to have been the last person who preached in
Cornish. Scawen further states, that an old woman had died about two years
before, that is about 1766, at the great age of 164, who could scarcely speak
in any language but in the Cornish; but he also adds, that the Cornish
language was then, in general, become quite extinct.
In the latter part of the last century, two aged women of Mousehole, whose
names were Jane Cock and Jane Woolcock, are said to have been acquainted with
the language: and about the same time, John Nancarrow, of Marazion, is
reported to have learned it in his youth. William Bodener, a fisherman, of
Mousehole, in 1766, could write both Cornish and English. In a letter,
written by him that year in Cornish, which was published in the Archceologia,
vol. v. p. 83, he says that he was then sixty-five years of age, that he had
learned Cornish when he was a boy, and that there were then
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118 CORNWALL AND THE CORNISH LANGUAGE.
not more than four or five persons living in Mousehole old people, fourscore
years old who could speak the language, which, he adds, was entirely
forgotten by the young. Mr. Polwhele, who wrote a History of Cornwall,
affirms that the same William Bodener died in 1794, (1)
1/ 1 If the above dates be correct, it appears that
William Bodener survived Dolly Pentreath by a period of sixteen years.
and left two sons, neither of whom knew enough of
the language to converse in it. But the individual who has the reputation of
having been the last of the Cornish Britons who understood it and could
converse in it, was Dolly Pentreath, whose death is reported to have taken
place in 1778, (2)
2/ "Coth is a word unknown to the Welsh
language, but is preserved in the Armoric coz, old.
at the great age of 102. She was interred in St.
Paul's Church-yard, near Penzance, where her grave remained, without a tomb
to point it out, until last year. Mr. Tompson, an engineer of Truro, who had
studied the Cornish language, wrote the following epitaph upon her, and
circulated it among his friends, but it was never inscribed on her grave:
Epitaph on Dolly Pentreath, in Cornish.
"Coth Doll Pentreath cans ha deau;
Marow ha kledyz ed Paul pleu:
Na ed an eglos, gan pobel bras,
Bes ed eglos-hay, coth Dolly es."
The above Epitaph in Welsh.
"Hen Ddol Pentraeth, cant ha dwy;
Marw a chladdedig yn mhlwyf Paul:
Nid yn yr eglwys gan (gyda) bobl fras,
Ond yn mynwent yr eglwys, hen Ddoli sydd."
The Original Epitaph translated into English.
"Old Doll Pentreath, aged one hundred and two:
Deceas'd and buried in Paul parish too;
Not in the church with people great and high,
But in the church-yard doth old Dolly lie !"
The following critical notes on the original epitaph have been kindly
supplied by the most proficient Cornish scholar of the present time, the
learned author of the Celtic Dictionary: -
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CORNWALL AND THE CORNISH LANGUAGE. 119
"The Cornish has dyw, fem., but often uses the masc. dew with fem,
nouns.
"In Welsh the copulative a was formerly ha. Cledhys is the part. pass.
Ed is a late form for yn, which is always used in the Classic Ordinalia.
"Plwyf is from the Lat. plêbs, Welsh, wy = ê; thus the Welsh word eglwys
is from the Lat. ecclêsia; Canwyll = Lat. candêla; Cwyr = Lat. cêra; Rhwyd = rête,
&c. B changes regularly into f (v).
"Hay is the Saxon haya, an inclosure."
Last year a monument to the memory of Dolly Pentreath was put up in the
church-yard of St. Paul's, near Penzance, by Prince Lucien Bonaparte, who is
well known for his extensive acquaintance with the several branches of the
great Celtic language, which bears on it the following inscription:
"Here Lieth interred
Dorothy Pentreath
who died in
1778.
Said to have been the
Last person who conversed
in the ancient Cornish
The peculiar language of
This Country from the
Earliest records
Till it expired in the
Eighteenth Century
In this Parish of
Saint Paul
This Stone is erected by
The Prince Louis Lucien Bonaparte
in union with
The Revd John Garrett
Vicar of St Paul
June 1860.
Honour thy father and thy mother:
that thy days may be long upon
the Land which the Lord thy God
giveth thee. Exod.
xx. 12.
Gwra Perthi De taz ha de mam:
mal de dy thiow bethenz hyr war
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(delwedd F6735) (tudalen 120)
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120 CORNWALL AND THE CORNISH LANGUAGE.
an tyr neb an arleth de dew
ryes Dees. (2) Exod. xx 12."
2/ With reference to this extract, the author of the
Celtic Dictionary states, that if properly rendered, it would be thus:
"Gwra perthy dhe das ha'th vam
Mai y fy^dh dhe dhydhyow hir
war an tir, neb an Arluth dhe Dhew
a ros dhyso.
The Welsh version of this would be as follows:
"Gwna berchi dy dâd a'th fam
fel y bydh dy dhydhiau hir ar
y tir yr hwn yr Arglywydd dy Dhuw
a roes i ti."
Mr. Williams further observes: "The Cornish texts of the two epitaphs
are of the latest form, and consequently very much corrupted: they are of
little importance in a philological point of view."
The above inscription is on the side nearest the public road, known as
Mousehole Lane. On the side of the monument facing the south porch of the
church and principal entrance, the following is inscribed:
"Dorothy Pentreath
who conversed
In ancient Cornish
Died in
1778 This stone is erected by
The Prince Louis Lucien Bonaparte
and the
Revd John Garrett 1860."
The letters of the inscription are in the style called "Pica
Doric." Near the base of the monument, the name of the sculptor, "Martin
Teague," is inscribed in small characters.
The reasons assigned by Bishop Gibson, in the Additions already referred to,
for the decay and extinction of the Ancient Cornish Language, are principally
the following:
“1. The suspension and loss of commercial intercourse and correspondence with
the Armoricans under Henry VII., previous
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(delwedd F6736) (tudalen 121)
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CORNWALL AND THE CORNISH LANGUAGE. 121
to which time mutual interchanges of princes and families with them occurred.
"2. The general introduction of the use of the Liturgy in English into
the parish churches, when the Act of Uniformity was passed.
"3. The discontinuance of the Guirremears, or mystery-plays, which had
been performed in Cornish at the great conventions of the country.
"4. The settlement among the inhabitants of English artisans, tradesmen,
ministers and others."
The above causes, together with the lack of village and parochial schools, in
which the Cornish might have been taught, as well as the want of a
translation of the Holy Scriptures, and of the Book of Common Prayer into the
vernacular speech, combined with the increasing apathy of the people
themselves as regarded the continuance of the aboriginal language,
contributed very materially, no doubt, to its general neglect. Had the Prayer
Book and the Bible been translated into Cornish, as they ought have been, at
the Reformation, and copies of them circulated among the inhabitants in
general, and the services in the parish churches conducted in that language,
it might have been a living speech to this very day, and possibly might have
continued to be spoken for many future generations. And the labour and
difficulty attending the study of a defunct speech, with the view of acquiring
a competent knowledge of it, would have been avoided.
This article cannot be concluded in better terms than in the language of the
following reflection on the decline and extinction of the Cornish, taken from
The Illustrated Itinerary of the County of Cornwall, by Cyrus Redding:
"In the death of a language there is something painfully striking as
being the medium through which, for perished ages, perished generations of
men communicated alike wants the most trivial, or the thoughts that wander through
eternity."
LLALLAWG.
CAMB. JOUR., 1861.
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