Anglo-Cornish
Encyclopedia
Anglo-Cornish is a dialect
Dialect
The term dialect is used in two distinct ways, even by linguists. One usage refers to a variety of a language that is a characteristic of a particular group of the language's speakers. The term is applied most often to regional speech patterns, but a dialect may also be defined by other factors,...

 of English
English language
English is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria...

 spoken in Cornwall
Cornwall
Cornwall is a unitary authority and ceremonial county of England, within the United Kingdom. It is bordered to the north and west by the Celtic Sea, to the south by the English Channel, and to the east by the county of Devon, over the River Tamar. Cornwall has a population of , and covers an area of...

 by Cornish people
Cornish people
The Cornish are a people associated with Cornwall, a county and Duchy in the south-west of the United Kingdom that is seen in some respects as distinct from England, having more in common with the other Celtic parts of the United Kingdom such as Wales, as well as with other Celtic nations in Europe...

. Dialectal English spoken in Cornwall is to some extent influenced by Cornish
Cornish language
Cornish is a Brythonic Celtic language and a recognised minority language of the United Kingdom. Along with Welsh and Breton, it is directly descended from the ancient British language spoken throughout much of Britain before the English language came to dominate...

 grammar
Grammar
In linguistics, grammar is the set of structural rules that govern the composition of clauses, phrases, and words in any given natural language. The term refers also to the study of such rules, and this field includes morphology, syntax, and phonology, often complemented by phonetics, semantics,...

, and often includes words derived from the Cornish language
Cornish language
Cornish is a Brythonic Celtic language and a recognised minority language of the United Kingdom. Along with Welsh and Breton, it is directly descended from the ancient British language spoken throughout much of Britain before the English language came to dominate...

. The Cornish language is a Celtic language of the Brythonic
Brythonic languages
The Brythonic or Brittonic languages form one of the two branches of the Insular Celtic language family, the other being Goidelic. The name Brythonic was derived by Welsh Celticist John Rhys from the Welsh word Brython, meaning an indigenous Briton as opposed to an Anglo-Saxon or Gael...

 branch as are the Welsh
Welsh language
Welsh is a member of the Brythonic branch of the Celtic languages spoken natively in Wales, by some along the Welsh border in England, and in Y Wladfa...

 and Breton
Breton language
Breton is a Celtic language spoken in Brittany , France. Breton is a Brythonic language, descended from the Celtic British language brought from Great Britain to Armorica by migrating Britons during the Early Middle Ages. Like the other Brythonic languages, Welsh and Cornish, it is classified as...

 languages. In addition to the distinctive words and grammar, there are a variety of accent
Accent (linguistics)
In linguistics, an accent is a manner of pronunciation peculiar to a particular individual, location, or nation.An accent may identify the locality in which its speakers reside , the socio-economic status of its speakers, their ethnicity, their caste or social class, their first language In...

s found within Cornwall from the north coast to that of the south coast and from east to west Cornwall. The speech of the various parishes being to some extent different from the others was described by John T. Tregellas and Thomas Q. Couch towards the end of the 19th century. Tregellas wrote of the differences as he understood them and Couch suggested the parliamentary constituency boundary from Crantock to Veryan as roughly the border between east and west.

History

The first speakers of English resident in Cornwall were Anglo-Saxon settlers primarily in the far northeast of Cornwall around between the Ottery
River Ottery
The River Ottery is a small river in northeast Cornwall, United Kingdom. The river is approximately twenty miles long from its source southeast of Otterham to its confluence with the River Tamar at Nether Bridge, two miles northeast of Launceston.The headwaters of the River Ottery are within the...

 and Tamar
River Tamar
The Tamar is a river in South West England, that forms most of the border between Devon and Cornwall . It is one of several British rivers whose ancient name is assumed to be derived from a prehistoric river word apparently meaning "dark flowing" and which it shares with the River Thames.The...

 rivers, and in the lower Tamar
River Tamar
The Tamar is a river in South West England, that forms most of the border between Devon and Cornwall . It is one of several British rivers whose ancient name is assumed to be derived from a prehistoric river word apparently meaning "dark flowing" and which it shares with the River Thames.The...

 valley, from around the 10th century and onwards. There are a number of relatively early placenames of English origin, especially in these areas.

The further spread of the English language in Cornwall was retarded by the change to Norman French as the main language of administration after the Norman Conquest. In addition continued communication with Brittany
Brittany
Brittany is a cultural and administrative region in the north-west of France. Previously a kingdom and then a duchy, Brittany was united to the Kingdom of France in 1532 as a province. Brittany has also been referred to as Less, Lesser or Little Britain...

, where a closely related Celtic language
Breton language
Breton is a Celtic language spoken in Brittany , France. Breton is a Brythonic language, descended from the Celtic British language brought from Great Britain to Armorica by migrating Britons during the Early Middle Ages. Like the other Brythonic languages, Welsh and Cornish, it is classified as...

 was spoken ensured the tendency to retain the usage of the existing Cornish language
Cornish language
Cornish is a Brythonic Celtic language and a recognised minority language of the United Kingdom. Along with Welsh and Breton, it is directly descended from the ancient British language spoken throughout much of Britain before the English language came to dominate...

.

However from around the 13th to 14th centuries as a result in the revival of the use of English in the administrative field, and the development of a vernacular Middle English
Middle English
Middle English is the stage in the history of the English language during the High and Late Middle Ages, or roughly during the four centuries between the late 11th and the late 15th century....

 literary tradition were perhaps reasons behind the expansion of the English language's domain within Cornwall. In the Tudor
Tudor period
The Tudor period usually refers to the period between 1485 and 1603, specifically in relation to the history of England. This coincides with the rule of the Tudor dynasty in England whose first monarch was Henry VII...

 period, various events, including the imposition of an English language prayer book in 1549, and lack of a translation of the Bible
Bible
The Bible refers to any one of the collections of the primary religious texts of Judaism and Christianity. There is no common version of the Bible, as the individual books , their contents and their order vary among denominations...

 into Cornish led to a process of language shift from Cornish to English.

The major difference in the history of Cornwall
Cornwall
Cornwall is a unitary authority and ceremonial county of England, within the United Kingdom. It is bordered to the north and west by the Celtic Sea, to the south by the English Channel, and to the east by the county of Devon, over the River Tamar. Cornwall has a population of , and covers an area of...

 in this respect was that the language shift to English occurred much later than in other areas. It is thought that in Devon
Devon
Devon is a large county in southwestern England. The county is sometimes referred to as Devonshire, although the term is rarely used inside the county itself as the county has never been officially "shired", it often indicates a traditional or historical context.The county shares borders with...

 and beyond, the Celtic language had ceased to be spoken before the Norman Conquest. In the westernmost areas of Cornwall, the date of the language shift was as late as the 18th century. For this reason, there are important differences between the Anglo-Cornish dialect and other West Country dialects
West Country dialects
The West Country dialects and West Country accents are generic terms applied to any of several English dialects and accents used by much of the indigenous population of South West England, the area popularly known as the West Country....

.
Cornish was the most widely spoken language west of the River Tamar until around the mid-1300s, when Middle English
Middle English
Middle English is the stage in the history of the English language during the High and Late Middle Ages, or roughly during the four centuries between the late 11th and the late 15th century....

 began to be adopted as a common language of the Cornish people. As late as 1542 Andrew Boorde
Andrew Boorde
Andrew Boorde was an English traveller, physician and writer.Born at Boords Hill, Holms Dale, Sussex, he was educated at Oxford University, and was admitted a member of the Carthusian order while under age...

, an English traveller, physician and writer, wrote that in Cornwall were two languages, "Cornysshe" and "Englysshe", but that "there may be many men and women" in Cornwall who could not understand English". With the Norman language
Norman language
Norman is a Romance language and one of the Oïl languages. Norman can be classified as one of the northern Oïl languages along with Picard and Walloon...

 holding primacy in much of the English aristocracy, Cornish was used as a lingua franca
Lingua franca
A lingua franca is a language systematically used to make communication possible between people not sharing a mother tongue, in particular when it is a third language, distinct from both mother tongues.-Characteristics:"Lingua franca" is a functionally defined term, independent of the linguistic...

, particularly in the remote far west of Cornwall. Many Cornish landed gentry
Landed gentry
Landed gentry is a traditional British social class, consisting of land owners who could live entirely off rental income. Often they worked only in an administrative capacity looking after the management of their own lands....

 chose mottos in the Cornish language for their coats of arms
Coat of arms
A coat of arms is a unique heraldic design on a shield or escutcheon or on a surcoat or tabard used to cover and protect armour and to identify the wearer. Thus the term is often stated as "coat-armour", because it was anciently displayed on the front of a coat of cloth...

, highlighting its socially high status. (The Carminow family used the motto "Cala rag whethlow", for example.) However, in 1549 and following the English Reformation
English Reformation
The English Reformation was the series of events in 16th-century England by which the Church of England broke away from the authority of the Pope and the Roman Catholic Church....

, King Edward VI of England
Edward VI of England
Edward VI was the King of England and Ireland from 28 January 1547 until his death. He was crowned on 20 February at the age of nine. The son of Henry VIII and Jane Seymour, Edward was the third monarch of the Tudor dynasty and England's first monarch who was raised as a Protestant...

 commanded that the Book of Common Prayer
Book of Common Prayer
The Book of Common Prayer is the short title of a number of related prayer books used in the Anglican Communion, as well as by the Continuing Anglican, "Anglican realignment" and other Anglican churches. The original book, published in 1549 , in the reign of Edward VI, was a product of the English...

, an Anglican
Anglicanism
Anglicanism is a tradition within Christianity comprising churches with historical connections to the Church of England or similar beliefs, worship and church structures. The word Anglican originates in ecclesia anglicana, a medieval Latin phrase dating to at least 1246 that means the English...

 liturgical text in the English language, should be introduced to all churches in his kingdom, meaning that Latin
Latin
Latin is an Italic language originally spoken in Latium and Ancient Rome. It, along with most European languages, is a descendant of the ancient Proto-Indo-European language. Although it is considered a dead language, a number of scholars and members of the Christian clergy speak it fluently, and...

 and Celtic customs and services should be discontinued. The Prayer Book Rebellion
Prayer Book Rebellion
The Prayer Book Rebellion, Prayer Book Revolt, Prayer Book Rising, Western Rising or Western Rebellion was a popular revolt in Cornwall and Devon, in 1549. In 1549 the Book of Common Prayer, presenting the theology of the English Reformation, was introduced...

 was a militant revolt in Cornwall and parts of neighbouring Devon
Devon
Devon is a large county in southwestern England. The county is sometimes referred to as Devonshire, although the term is rarely used inside the county itself as the county has never been officially "shired", it often indicates a traditional or historical context.The county shares borders with...

 against the Act of Uniformity 1549
Act of Uniformity 1549
The Act of Uniformity 1549 established The Book of Common Prayer as the sole legal form of worship in England...

, which outlawed all languages from church services apart from English, and is specified as a testament to the affection and loyalty the Cornish people held for the Cornish language. In the rebellion, separate risings occurred simultaneously in Bodmin
Bodmin
Bodmin is a civil parish and major town in Cornwall, England, United Kingdom. It is situated in the centre of the county southwest of Bodmin Moor.The extent of the civil parish corresponds fairly closely to that of the town so is mostly urban in character...

 in Cornwall, and Sampford Courtenay
Sampford Courtenay
Sampford Courtenay is a village and civil parish in West Devon in England, most famous for being the place where the Western Rebellion, otherwise known as the Prayerbook rebellion, first started, and where the rebels made their final stand...

 in Devon—which would both converge at Exeter
Exeter
Exeter is a historic city in Devon, England. It lies within the ceremonial county of Devon, of which it is the county town as well as the home of Devon County Council. Currently the administrative area has the status of a non-metropolitan district, and is therefore under the administration of the...

, laying siege to the region's largest Protestant city. However, the rebellion was suppressed thanks largely to the aid of foreign mercenaries in a series of battles in which "hundreds were killed", effectively ending Cornish as the common language of the Cornish people. The Anglicanism of the Reformation served as a vehicle for Anglicisation in Cornwall; Protestantism
Protestantism
Protestantism is one of the three major groupings within Christianity. It is a movement that began in Germany in the early 16th century as a reaction against medieval Roman Catholic doctrines and practices, especially in regards to salvation, justification, and ecclesiology.The doctrines of the...

 had a lasting cultural effect upon the Cornish by way of linking Cornwall more closely with England, while lessening political and linguistic ties with the Bretons
Breton people
The Bretons are an ethnic group located in the region of Brittany in France. They trace much of their heritage to groups of Brythonic speakers who emigrated from southwestern Great Britain in waves from the 3rd to 6th century into the Armorican peninsula, subsequently named Brittany after them.The...

 of Brittany.

The English Civil War
English Civil War
The English Civil War was a series of armed conflicts and political machinations between Parliamentarians and Royalists...

, a series of armed conflicts and political machinations between Parliamentarians
Roundhead
"Roundhead" was the nickname given to the supporters of the Parliament during the English Civil War. Also known as Parliamentarians, they fought against King Charles I and his supporters, the Cavaliers , who claimed absolute power and the divine right of kings...

 and Royalists
Cavalier
Cavalier was the name used by Parliamentarians for a Royalist supporter of King Charles I and son Charles II during the English Civil War, the Interregnum, and the Restoration...

, polarised the populations of England and Wales. However, Cornwall in the English Civil War
Cornwall in the English Civil War
Cornwall played a significant role in the English Civil War, being a Royalist enclave in the generally Parliamentarian south-west.-Civil War military actions in Cornwall and the South West:...

 was a staunchly Royalist enclave, an "important focus of support for the Royalist cause". Cornish soldiers were used as scouts and spies during the war, for their language was not understood by English Parliamentarians. The peace that followed the close of the war led to a further shift to the English language by the Cornish people, which encouraged an influx of English people to Cornwall. By the mid-17th century the use of the Cornish language had retreated far enough west to prompt concern and investigation by antiquarians, such as William Scawen
William Scawen
William Scawen was a one of the pioneers in the revival of the Cornish Language in England. He was a politician who sat in the House of Commons in 1640 and fought for the Royalist cause in the English Civil War....

. As the Cornish language diminished the people of Cornwall underwent a process of English enculturation
Enculturation
Enculturation is the process by which a person learns the requirements of the culture by which he or she is surrounded, and acquires values and behaviours that are appropriate or necessary in that culture. As part of this process, the influences which limit, direct, or shape the individual include...

 and assimilation
Cultural assimilation
Cultural assimilation is a socio-political response to demographic multi-ethnicity that supports or promotes the assimilation of ethnic minorities into the dominant culture. The term assimilation is often used with regard to immigrants and various ethnic groups who have settled in a new land. New...

, becoming "absorbed into the mainstream of English life".

International use

Large scale 19th and 20th century emigrations of Cornish people meant that there were large populations of Anglo-Cornish speakers established in parts of North America
Cornish American
Cornish Americans are citizens of the United States who describe themselves as having Cornish ancestry. Cornish ancestry is not recognised on the United States Census, although the Cornish people are recognised as a separate ethnic group and national identity for the United Kingdom Census...

, Australia
Cornish Australian
Cornish Australians are citizens of Australia whose ancestry originates in Cornwall, United Kingdom, one of the six Celtic Nations. They form part of the worldwide Cornish diaspora which also includes large numbers of people in the US, Canada, New Zealand, South Africa, Mexico and many Latin...

, and South Africa
South Africa
The Republic of South Africa is a country in southern Africa. Located at the southern tip of Africa, it is divided into nine provinces, with of coastline on the Atlantic and Indian oceans...

. This Cornish diaspora has continued to use Anglo-Cornish, and certain phrases and terms have moved into common parlance in some of those countries.

There has been discussion over whether certain words found in North America have an origin in the Cornish language, mediated through Anglo-Cornish dialect. Legends of the Fall
Legends of the Fall
Legends of the Fall is a 1994 epic drama film based on the 1979 novella of the same title by Jim Harrison. It was directed by Edward Zwick and stars Brad Pitt, Anthony Hopkins and Aidan Quinn. The film was nominated for the Academy Awards for Best Cinematography, Best Art Direction , and Best...

, a novella by American author Jim Harrison
Jim Harrison
James "Jim" Harrison is an American author known for his poetry, fiction, essays, reviews, and writings about food. He has been called "a force of nature", and his work has been compared to that of William Faulkner and Ernest Hemingway...

, detailing the lives of a Cornish American
Cornish American
Cornish Americans are citizens of the United States who describe themselves as having Cornish ancestry. Cornish ancestry is not recognised on the United States Census, although the Cornish people are recognised as a separate ethnic group and national identity for the United Kingdom Census...

 family in the early 20th century, contains several Cornish language terms. These were also included in the Academy Award-winning film of the same name starring Anthony Hopkins
Anthony Hopkins
Sir Philip Anthony Hopkins, KBE , best known as Anthony Hopkins, is a Welsh actor of film, stage and television...

 as Col. William Ludlow and Brad Pitt
Brad Pitt
William Bradley "Brad" Pitt is an American actor and film producer. Pitt has received two Academy Award nominations and four Golden Globe Award nominations, winning one...

 as Tristan Ludlow. Some words in American English are almost identical to those in Anglo-Cornish:
American Cornu-English Cornish Definition
Attle Atal Waste
Bal Bal Mine
Buddle Buddle Washing pit for ore, churn
Cann Cand White spar stone
Capel Capel Black tourmaline
Costean Costeena To dig exploratory pits
Dippa Dippa A small pit
Druse Druse Small cavity in a vein
Flookan Flookan Soft layer of material
Gad Gad Miner's wedge or spike


South Australia
South Australia
South Australia is a state of Australia in the southern central part of the country. It covers some of the most arid parts of the continent; with a total land area of , it is the fourth largest of Australia's six states and two territories.South Australia shares borders with all of the mainland...

n Aborigines
Australian Aborigines
Australian Aborigines , also called Aboriginal Australians, from the latin ab originem , are people who are indigenous to most of the Australian continentthat is, to mainland Australia and the island of Tasmania...

, particularly the Nunga
Nunga
Nunga is a term of self-reference for many of the Aboriginal peoples of southern South Australia.-Other names used by Australian Aboriginal people:There are a number of names from Aboriginal languages commonly used to identify groups based on geography:...

, are said to speak English with a Cornish accent because they were taught English by Cornish miners. Most large towns in South Australia had newspapers at least partially in Cornish dialect; for instance, the Northern Star published in Kapunda in the 1860s carried material in dialect. At least 23 Cornish words have made their way into Australian English
Australian English
Australian English is the name given to the group of dialects spoken in Australia that form a major variety of the English language....

; these include the mining terms fossick
Fossicking
Fossicking is a term found in Cornwall, Australia and New Zealand referring to prospecting, especially in more recent times, when carried out as a recreational activity. This can be for gold, precious stones, fossils, etc. by sifting through a prospective area. In Australian English and New...

and nugget
Gold nugget
A gold nugget is a naturally occurring piece of native gold. Watercourses often concentrate and grow the nuggets. Nuggets are recovered by placer mining, but they are also found in residual deposits where the gold-bearing veins or lodes are weathered...

.

Geography

There is a difference between the form of Anglo-Cornish spoken in west Cornwall and that found in areas further east. In the eastern areas, the form of English that the formerly Cornish-speaking population learnt was that of the general southwestern dialect, picked up primarily through relatively local trade and other communications over a long period of time. In contrast, in western areas, the language was learned from English as used by the clergy and landed classes, who would have been educated at the English universities of Oxford
University of Oxford
The University of Oxford is a university located in Oxford, United Kingdom. It is the second-oldest surviving university in the world and the oldest in the English-speaking world. Although its exact date of foundation is unclear, there is evidence of teaching as far back as 1096...

 and Cambridge
University of Cambridge
The University of Cambridge is a public research university located in Cambridge, United Kingdom. It is the second-oldest university in both the United Kingdom and the English-speaking world , and the seventh-oldest globally...

. was learned relatively late across the western half of Cornwall (see map above) and this was a more Modern English
Modern English
Modern English is the form of the English language spoken since the Great Vowel Shift in England, completed in roughly 1550.Despite some differences in vocabulary, texts from the early 17th century, such as the works of William Shakespeare and the King James Bible, are considered to be in Modern...

 style of language since the standard form itself was undergoing changes. Particularly in the west, the Cornish language substrate left characteristic markers in the Anglo-Cornish dialect due to this.

Phonologically
Phonology
Phonology is, broadly speaking, the subdiscipline of linguistics concerned with the sounds of language. That is, it is the systematic use of sound to encode meaning in any spoken human language, or the field of linguistics studying this use...

 speaking, the lentition of f, s, th occurs in East Cornwall, as in the core West Country
West Country dialects
The West Country dialects and West Country accents are generic terms applied to any of several English dialects and accents used by much of the indigenous population of South West England, the area popularly known as the West Country....

 dialect area, but not in west Cornwall. The second person pronoun, you (and many other occurrences of this vowel) is pronounced as in standard English
Standard English
Standard English refers to whatever form of the English language is accepted as a national norm in an Anglophone country...

 in the west of Cornwall, but east of the Bodmin district, a 'sharpening' of the vowel occurs, which is a feature also found in Devon
Devon
Devon is a large county in southwestern England. The county is sometimes referred to as Devonshire, although the term is rarely used inside the county itself as the county has never been officially "shired", it often indicates a traditional or historical context.The county shares borders with...

 dialect. Plural nouns such as ha'pennies, pennies and ponies are pronounced in west Cornwall as if these words ended not in -eez but -uz. The pronunciation of the numeral five varies from foive in the west to vive in the east, approaching the Devon
Devon
Devon is a large county in southwestern England. The county is sometimes referred to as Devonshire, although the term is rarely used inside the county itself as the county has never been officially "shired", it often indicates a traditional or historical context.The county shares borders with...

 pronunciation.

Variations in the lexicon also occur, for example: the dialect word for ant
Ant
Ants are social insects of the family Formicidae and, along with the related wasps and bees, belong to the order Hymenoptera. Ants evolved from wasp-like ancestors in the mid-Cretaceous period between 110 and 130 million years ago and diversified after the rise of flowering plants. More than...

 is in East Cornwall, emmet
Emmet (Cornish)
Emmet is a pejorative nickname that some Cornish people use to refer to the many tourists who visit Cornwall.-Etymology:It is commonly thought to be derived from the Cornish-language word for ant, being an analogy to the way in which both tourists and ants are often red in colour and appear to mill...

which is a word of Old English etymology, whereas in West Cornwall the word muryan is used. This is a word from the Cornish language
Cornish language
Cornish is a Brythonic Celtic language and a recognised minority language of the United Kingdom. Along with Welsh and Breton, it is directly descended from the ancient British language spoken throughout much of Britain before the English language came to dominate...

 spelt in the revived language (in Kernewek Kemmyn
Kernewek Kemmyn
Kernewek Kemmyn is a variety of the revived Cornish language.Kernewek Kemmyn was developed, mainly by Ken George, from Unified Cornish in 1986. It takes much of its inspiration from medieval sources, particularly Cornish passion plays, as well as Breton and to a lesser extent Welsh...

 dictionaries) as muryon. There is also this pair; meaning the weakest pig of a litter; nestle-bird (sometimes nestle-drish) in East Cornwall, and (piggy-)whidden in West Cornwall. Whidden may derive from Cornish byghan (small), or gwynn (white). Further, there is pagetty-pow vs a four-legged emmet in West and mid Cornwall respectively. It may be noted that the Cornish word for the numeral four is peswar. For both of these Cornish language
Cornish language
Cornish is a Brythonic Celtic language and a recognised minority language of the United Kingdom. Along with Welsh and Breton, it is directly descended from the ancient British language spoken throughout much of Britain before the English language came to dominate...

 etymologies, sound changes within the Cornish language
Cornish language
Cornish is a Brythonic Celtic language and a recognised minority language of the United Kingdom. Along with Welsh and Breton, it is directly descended from the ancient British language spoken throughout much of Britain before the English language came to dominate...

 itself between the Middle Cornish, and Late Cornish periods are in evidence.

There are also grammatical variations within Cornwall, such the use of us for the standard English we and her for she in East Cornwall, a feature shared with western Devon dialect. I be and its negative I bain't are more common close to the Devon border.

Lexicon and grammar

There are a range of dialect words including words also found in other West Country Dialects
West Country dialects
The West Country dialects and West Country accents are generic terms applied to any of several English dialects and accents used by much of the indigenous population of South West England, the area popularly known as the West Country....

, as well as many specific to Anglo-Cornish.

There are also distinctive grammatical features:
  • reversals (e.g. Her aunt brought she up)
  • archaisms (e.g. give 'un to me - 'un is a descendant of Old English hine)
  • the retention of thou and ye (thee and ye (’ee)) - Why doesn't thee have a fringe?
  • double plurals - clothes-line postes
  • irregular use of the definite article - He died right in the Christmas
  • use of the definite article with proper names - Did 'ee knaw th'old Canon Harris?
  • the omission of prepositions - went chapel
  • the extra ‘y’ suffix on the infinitive of verbs I ain't one to gardeny, but I do generally teal the garden every spring
  • ‘they’ as a demonstrative adjective - they books
  • frequent use of the word ‘up’ as an adverb - answering up
  • the use of ‘some’ as an adverb of degree - She's some good maid to work


Many of these are influenced by the substrate of the Cornish language. One example is the "yo" at the end of a sentence for emphasis and another the usage for months, " May month", rather than just "May" for the fifth month of the year.

Sociolinguistics

From the late 19th to the early 21st century, the Anglo-Cornish dialect declined somewhat due to the spread of long-distance travel, mass education and the mass media, and increased migration into Cornwall of people from, principally, the south east of England
South East England
South East England is one of the nine official regions of England, designated in 1994 and adopted for statistical purposes in 1999. It consists of Berkshire, Buckinghamshire, East Sussex, Hampshire, Isle of Wight, Kent, Oxfordshire, Surrey and West Sussex...

. Universal elementary education had begun in England and Wales in the 1870s. Although the erosion of dialect is popularly blamed on the mass media, many academics assert the primacy of face-to-face linguistic contact in dialect levelling
Dialect levelling
Dialect levelling is the means by which dialect differences decrease. For example, in rural areas of Britain, although English is widely spoken, the pronunciation and grammar have historically varied. During the 20th century people have been moving into towns and cities, standardizing the English...

. It is further asserted by some that peer groups are the primary mechanism. It is unclear whether in the erosion of the Anglo-Cornish dialect, high levels of migration into Cornwall from outside in the twentieth century, or deliberate efforts to suppress dialect forms (in an educational context) are the primary causative factor. Anglo-Cornish dialect speakers are more likely than Received Pronunciation
Received Pronunciation
Received Pronunciation , also called the Queen's English, Oxford English or BBC English, is the accent of Standard English in England, with a relationship to regional accents similar to the relationship in other European languages between their standard varieties and their regional forms...

 speakers in Cornwall to experience social and economical disadvantages and poverty, including spiralling housing costs, in many, particularly coastal areas of Cornwall, and have at times been actively discouraged from using the dialect, particularly in the schools.

A. L. Rowse
A. L. Rowse
Alfred Leslie Rowse, CH, FBA , known professionally as A. L. Rowse and to friends and family as Leslie, was a British historian from Cornwall. He is perhaps best known for his work on Elizabethan England and his poetry about Cornwall. He was also a Shakespearean scholar and biographer...

 wrote in his autobiographical A Cornish Childhood, about his experiences of a Received Pronunciation
Received Pronunciation
Received Pronunciation , also called the Queen's English, Oxford English or BBC English, is the accent of Standard English in England, with a relationship to regional accents similar to the relationship in other European languages between their standard varieties and their regional forms...

 prestige variety of English (here referred to as the "King's English"), being associated with well-educated people, and therefore Anglo-Cornish by implication a lack of education:

'It does arise directly from the consideration of the struggle to get away from speaking Cornish dialect and to speak correct English, a struggle which I began thus early and pursued constantly with no regret, for was it not the key which unlocked the door to all that lay beyond—Oxford, the world of letters, the community of all who speak the King’s English, from which I should otherwise have been infallibly barred? But the struggle made me very sensitive about language; I hated to be corrected; nothing is more humiliating: and it left me with a complex about Cornish dialect. The inhibition which I had imposed on myself left me, by the time I got to Oxford, incapable of speaking it; and for years, with the censor operating subconsciously...'

Preservation

Once it was noticed that many aspects of Cornish dialect were gradually passing out of use, various individuals and organisations (including the Federation of Old Cornwall Societies
Federation of Old Cornwall Societies
The Federation of Old Cornwall Societies was formed in 1924, on the initiative of Robert Morton Nance, with the objective of collecting and maintaining "all those ancient things that make the spirit of Cornwall — its traditions, its old words and ways, and what remains to it of its Celtic language...

) began to make efforts to preserve the dialect. This included collecting lists of dialect words, although grammatical features were not always well recorded. Nevertheless, Ken Phillipps's 1993 Glossary of the Cornish Dialect is an accessible reference work which does include details of grammar and phonology. A more popular guide to Cornish dialect has been written by Les Merton
Les Merton
Les Merton is a Cornish writer from Medlyn Moor, Cornwall, England, UK, now living in Redruth. Educated at Halwin School, and employed in various ways, he writes in a range of genres including humour and Cornish dialect....

, titled Oall Rite Me Ansum!

Another project to record examples of Cornish dialect is being undertaken by Azook Community Interest Company. More information on their project should hopefully be uploaded dreckly, although it has received coverage in the local news.

Literature

There have been a number of literary works published in Anglo-Cornish dialect from the 19th century onwards.
  • John Tabois Tregellas (1792–1863) was a merchant at Truro, purser of Cornish mines, and author of many stories written in the local dialect of the county. (Walter Hawken Tregellas
    Walter Hawken Tregellas
    Walter Hawken Tregellas , miscellaneous writer, born at Truro, Cornwall, UK on 10 July 1831, was a professional draughtsman and writer of historical, biographical and other works.-Life and writings:...

     was his eldest son.)
  • William Robert Hicks
    William Robert Hicks
    William Robert Hicks was a British asylum superintendent and well known humorist of the 19th century.-Biography:Hicks, son of William Hicks, a schoolmaster, of Bodmin, Cornwall, who died 16 March 1833, by Sarah, daughter of William and Margaret Hicks, was born at Bodmin on 1 April 1808, and...

     (known as the "Yorick of the West") was an accomplished raconteur. Many of his narratives were in the Cornish dialect, but he was equally good in that of Devon, as well as in the peculiar talk of the miners. Among his best-known stories were the "Coach Wheel", the "Rheumatic Old Woman", "William Rabley", the "Two Deacons", the "Bed of Saltram", the "Blind Man, his Wife, and his dog Lion", the "Gallant Volunteer", and the "Dead March in Saul". His most famous story, the "Jury", referred to the trial at Launceston in 1817 of Robert Sawle Donnall for poisoning his mother-in-law, when the prisoner was acquitted. Each of the jurors gave a different and ludicrous reason for his verdict.
  • There is a range of dialect literature dating back to the 19th century referenced in Bernard Deacon
    Bernard Deacon
    Bernard W. Deacon is a multidisciplinary academic, based at the Institute of Cornish Studies of the University of Exeter at the Tremough Campus. He has an Open University doctorate and displays his thesis on the ICS website.-Academic career:...

    's PhD thesis.
  • 'The Cledry Plays; drolls of old Cornwall for village acting and home reading' (Robert Morton Nance
    Robert Morton Nance
    Robert Morton Nance was a leading authority on the Cornish language, nautical archaeologist, and joint founder of the Old Cornwall Society....

     (Mordon), 1956). In his own words from the preface: these plays were "aimed at carrying on the West-Penwith tradition of turning local folk tales into plays for Christmas acting. What they took over from these guise-dance
    Guise Dancing
    Guise dancing is a folk practice celebrated between Christmas Day and Twelfth Night in Cornwall, UK...

     drolls, as they were called, was their love of the local speech and their readiness to break here and there into rhyme or song". And of the music he says "the simple airs do not ask for accompaniment or for trained voices to do them justice. They are only a slight extension of the music that West-Penwith voices will put into the dialogue."
  • Cornish Dialect Stories: About Boy Willie (H. Lean, 1953)
  • Pasties and Cream: a Proper Cornish Mixture (Molly Bartlett (Scryfer Ranyeth), 1970): a collection of Anglo-Cornish dialect stories that had won competitions organised by the Cornish Gorsedh.
  • Cornish Faist: a selection of prize winning dialect prose and verse from the Gorsedd of Cornwall Competitions.
  • Various literary works by Alan M. Kent
    Alan M. Kent
    Alan M. Kent is a Cornish poet, novelist, dramatist, author and editor of a number of works on Cornish and Anglo-Cornish literature.-Creative writing:* Proper Job, Charlie Curnow!* Electric Pastyland...

    , Nick Darke
    Nick Darke
    Nick Darke born Nicholas Temperley Watson Darke was best known as playwright but was also a writer, poet, lobster fisherman, environmentalist, beachcomber, politician, broadcaster, film-maker and chairman of St Eval Parish Council.-Life and writings:Nick Darke was born at St Eval, near Padstow in...

     and Craig Weatherhill
    Craig Weatherhill
    Craig Weatherhill is a Cornish author both of fiction and non-fiction works about Cornwall.-Biography:Raised in St Just in Penwith and then in Falmouth, after serving in the forces he developed a career in conservation and architecture. In his younger days, the 6' 3" Weatherhill was a goalkeeper,...


See also

  • List of Cornish dialect words
  • Regional accents of English speakers
    Regional accents of English speakers
    The regional accents of English speakers show great variation across the areas where English is spoken as a first language. This article provides an overview of the many identifiable variations in pronunciation, usually deriving from the phoneme inventory of the local dialect, of the local variety...

  • Gallo
    Gallo language
    Gallo is a regional language of France. Gallo is a Romance language, one of the Oïl languages. It is the historic language of the region of Upper Brittany and some neighboring portions of Normandy, but today is spoken by only a small minority of the population, having been largely superseded by...

     (Brittany)
  • Lowland Scots
    Scots language
    Scots is the Germanic language variety spoken in Lowland Scotland and parts of Ulster . It is sometimes called Lowland Scots to distinguish it from Scottish Gaelic, the Celtic language variety spoken in most of the western Highlands and in the Hebrides.Since there are no universally accepted...



Other English dialects heavily influenced by Celtic languages
  • Anglo-Manx
  • Bungi creole
  • Hiberno-English
    Hiberno-English
    Hiberno-English is the dialect of English written and spoken in Ireland .English was first brought to Ireland during the Norman invasion of the late 12th century. Initially it was mainly spoken in an area known as the Pale around Dublin, with Irish spoken throughout the rest of the country...

  • Highland English
    Highland English
    Highland English is the variety of Scottish English spoken by many in the Scottish Highlands. It is more strongly influenced by Gaelic than other forms of Scottish English. Island English is the variety spoken as a second language by native Gaelic speakers in the Outer Hebrides...

     (and Scottish English
    Scottish English
    Scottish English refers to the varieties of English spoken in Scotland. It may or may not be considered distinct from the Scots language. It is always considered distinct from Scottish Gaelic, a Celtic language....

    )
  • Welsh English
    Welsh English
    Welsh English, Anglo-Welsh, or Wenglish refers to the dialects of English spoken in Wales by Welsh people. The dialects are significantly influenced by Welsh grammar and often include words derived from Welsh...


Further reading

  • M. A. Courtney
    Margaret Ann Courtney
    Margaret Ann Courtney was an author resident in Penzance, Cornwall, UK in the late 19th century. M. A. Courtney is best known for her book Cornish feasts and folklore , first published in 1890...

    ; T. Q. Couch: Glossary of Words in Use in Cornwall. West Cornwall, by M. A. Courtney; East Cornwall, by T. Q. Couch. London: published for the English Dialect Society, by Trübner & Co., 1880
  • Pol Hodge: The Cornish Dialect and the Cornish Language. 19 p. Gwinear: Kesva an Taves Kernewek, 1997 ISBN 0907064582
  • David J. North & Adam Sharpe: A Word-geography of Cornwall. Redruth: Institute of Cornish Studies, 1980 (includes word-maps of Cornish words)
  • Martyn F. Wakelin: Language and History in Cornwall. Leicester University Press, 1975 ISBN 0718511247 (based on the author's thesis, University of Leeds, 1969)

External links



Attribution
The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.  The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.
 
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