The Uplifting Case of the Cornish Language

The 2nd video of the Celtic language series, I guess.

[lowri.williams]

"the Celtic languages are frigging fascinating"

YES. Let's be friends forever.

[laraharris]

Hello from the future! I wanted to point out that my great grandfather, born in 1888 in Penzance, Cornwall as a Cornish speaker. My grandma, his daughter, was raised in Kent and London but she recalls her father constantly saying words in Cornish, though she did not learn. She does not know if he was entirely fluent or not, but this little piece of family lore definitely suggests that there were indeed people who still spoke Cornish– or some Cornish– in the early 20th century. My point is, that I do not buy the whole 'Dolly Pentreath was the last native Cornish speaker'. My instinct tells me that rather the language was probably absorbed into English by the bilingual people in Cornwall and instead of disappearing, there was some sort of creolisation between Cornish and English... hard to prove, but certainly more plausible than an entire language dying with one person :)

[milosconster]

Brilliant video, thank you for making this. As someone who has lived in Cornwall my entire life I am very interested in the revival of the language.

[peterblinn]

I first discovered Cornish when I was leafing through the travel books in a store in Michigan that specialized in Scottish souvenirs and memorabilia. The paperback was "Cornish is Fun!” a sort of comic book that I was told began life as “Welsh is Fun!” and then, to produce another version, had the dialog in its speech balloons whited out and replaced with Cornish.

One interesting quirk I noticed with Cornish — and, it turns out, Welsh and Breton also — is in its numerals. As in most any language, numbers from 21 on up are expressed as sums: [number word] and [number word]. In the case of Cornish, the general word for and is ha, but it becomes warn (“over”) in constructions for numbers 21 to 39. For example, 21 is onen warn ügans (one over twenty) and 39 is naunjek warn ügans (nineteen over twenty). But 41 is onen ha deu-ügans (one and two twenties), and so on, reverting to the word for and: ha. In Welsh, you have ar up to 39, then ac from 41 on up. In Breton, it’s warn up to 29, then ha from 31 (not 41) on up.

[thecornishwriter]

Meur ras rag an vidyo ma! Thank you for this video! I really appreciate seeing people from outside of the Cornish language community interested in our language

[FrithonaHrududu]

I was born and raised in south Boston ma but luckily learned irish Gaelic from my grandmother which prompted an interest in the Celtic languages in general. I dont know if they still offer it but Stonehill college in MA had a celtic studies program including the six languages.

[ErtachKernow]

Meur ras. Pretty well encapsulated history of Kernewek. Enjoyed this and compliment you on being a really good talker, some good graphics help liven up the video.

[jck]

Love the Celtic Languages ❤
May they stand the test of time

[adhamhmacconchobhair]

And most people that speak that Irish speak and angocised version of it and usually forget to learn tradional Irish words or words that don't have English translations.
Kids in our schools are being taught the colour glas means green but it means greens in nature and is also the colour of water (not blue).
People with dark green eyes have "súile gorma" (blue eyes).
Dark green=blue
Dark grey=green
Light brown=yellow
Orange=yellow
Pink=red
Ect
They're being taught new english words just spelt differently too instead of the original words They think "Oráiste" means orange but in Irish that colour is just another shade of yellow or "buí"

[michaelmerrigan]

Interesting video - I uploaded it to Twitter - but I didn't find you on Twitter under the above. Many Cornish language activists and organisations are on Twitter. BTW, you're correct about that map, the position of Irish should be more accurately depicted as being both a community language in certain areas (mostly on west coast) and bilingual (in varying degrees) across the rest of the Republic and to a lesser extent in Northern Ireland. @MerriganMl

[theaxeman]

This is an amazing video! I'm Cornish myself and this video taught me so much, I'm definitely interested in learning the language now :)

[Joe]

Awesome video, please keep doing these!

[felicvik]

Petition to do something like this to sudovian

[ender]

The bit about Napoleon's nephew reminds me of Emperor Tigerstar's story about Napoleon being from Cornwall.

[jbw]

Your candid approach to discussing the development of languages is lovely to see. Looking forward to your video on Welsh (? c;)
Diolch!
[Edit : Your pronunciation is also impeccable! It's clear that you put a lot of work into your videos]

[celticbastardson]

So glad to see people interested in their culture. This true British/P-Celtic language is relevant to all Welsh, Corning, and actually English people, who are genetically more British than Germanic. Great video lesson. Meur ras.

[giarose]

proud teen cornish speaker here :) - ask anything.





we are still very poor and that has not changed in cornwall. so much so my celtic pagan mother moved me to Devon becuase it got bad, , , i still speak cornish with my family and friends back in cornwall but devon is a lot better. it is not my first language, that is english. the cornish radio is great and can be accessed in a car from below Devon. I only speak Cornish because of my celtic family all speaking it, else i probably would not know it at all.

[EcceHumanitatis]

What an absolutely wonderful channel. Please keep posting.

[nobodysaysnothingnowhereic]

Thank you so much for this video keep going and please do more research on Cornwall Love your videos on Cornish heritage and language will definitely share

[joelharb]

gwydhyow thank you so much for this, Kernow has such an amazing culture and the language is beautiful