Chesten Marchant
Encyclopedia
Chesten Marchant or Cheston Marchant, who died in 1676 at Gwithian
, Cornwall
is believed to have been the last monoglot
Cornish
speaker, as opposed to other speakers such as Dolly Pentreath
who could also speak English
.
Gwithian
beach2Gwithian is a coastal village in west Cornwall, United Kingdom. It is situated three miles northeast of Hayle and four miles east of St Ives, Cornwall across St Ives Bay....
, 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...
is believed to have been the last monoglot
Monoglottism
Monoglottism or, more commonly, monolingualism or unilingualism is the condition of being able to speak only a single language...
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...
speaker, as opposed to other speakers such as Dolly Pentreath
Dolly Pentreath
Dolly Pentreath, or Dorothy Pentreath was probably the last fluent native speaker of the Cornish language, prior to its revival in 1904 and the subsequent small number of children brought up as bilingual native speakers of revived Cornish.She is often stated to have been the last monoglot speaker...
who could also speak 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...
.