The Cornish Language - What's that all about?

Commissioned by Tanya Brittain for Looe Music Festival. Produced by Falmouth School of Film and Television.

[Knappa]

You only need to look at an OS Explorer map of Cornwall to see how totally indigenous and authentic the Cornish language is. The Tre- Pen- Lan- Chy- Pol- prefixes abound everywhere. I hope one day the Cornish people will become bilingual, and fully revive their beautiful language.

[timflatus]

The figure of 500 speakers is from Census records, so that probably represents fluent speakers. It's reckoned that there are another 3, 000 who could hold basic conversations in the language.

[ryan]

A language older than English is only recognised in 2003... Woah. Kernow Rules

[MegaBoilermaker]

The first lesson in learning any language is to listen to a local person speaking English and understand that their accent is a vestige of the language.

[mylesreid]

This is quite upsetting how we’re losing this language we’ve lost so many and knowing this is is a large part of history this video deserved more fame

[Knappa]

Although Cornish is not in as strong a position as Welsh I do think Cornwall feels far more different to England than Wales is. There’s something completely magical about the place - surrounded on three sides by the sea. And its traditions, music and culture seem very distinctive and Celtic, whereas we in Wales have had ours regimented and diminished by all the pious religious revivals of the 18th and 19th centuries.
Wales is also riven by internal and parochial divisions eg the north/south rivalry. Cornwall, due to its size and vulnerability, seems more unified.
I wish the Cornish people pob bendith yn y dyfodol. Your language and national character are so beautiful.

[RaghnaidAnnaNicGaraidh]

Me on the second or third day of a Welsh short course: "Dydd da!"
Teacher: "I understand that, but it's not Welsh. Is it Gaelic?"
Me: "Um... no. I thought it was Welsh."

It was at that point that I realised that my grandmother on the other side of the family had spoken a little Cornish.
Funnily enough, the first Cornish language correspondence course was based in my home city, and the world's biggest Cornish festival is just a few towns over from where my mother grew up. Meanwhile I grew up with a different Celtic language from my father's side of the family.

[lunabranwen]

Blame your larger niegbor for it's extinction and decline. Thank God it's coming back

[Blondejam]

Welsh is one of the oldest languages in Europe.
It evolved from Brythonic, the main language spoken in Wales, England and Southern Scotland when the Romans invaded in 43AD. Welsh began to emerge as a distinctive language sometime between 400 and 700 AD – early Welsh poetry survives from this period. The place names in Cornwall are very similar to Welsh there was probably a huge influence in both of the languages through trade etc as the regions are very close with similar practices such as fishing and farming. Diolch i bawb! Thanks to all.

[rodgreen]

My Great Grandfather was Cornish, he came to New Zealand with his family when he was 10 years old in 1876.
I often wonder whether he or any of his family could speak fluent Cornish or had the Language started to fade towards more english by then.
According to my Grandmother he still had a bit of an accent even into his adult years.

[peteymax]

Maith thú, you last ten sentences sum up the real meaning of learning and preserving the Celtic languages

[sheilashigley]

Who is that phenomenal singer? Love his voice and BEAUT Cornish pronunciation.

[Jefff]

I put a down payment on a place in Cornwall for next summer. We'll be driving from Germany to Kernow in late July. I have an app on my phone and I'm trying to learn Kernewek. I know I don't need it, but I like languages; it's good for the brain and fights dementia later.

[urbanwarrior]

1:58 "Cornwall is a fairly large city"...??? Americans...lol

[goodbye]

I say a lot words from Cornish language but I can’t speak it just goes into what I’m speaking

[MegaBoilermaker]

A lot of people are unaware of the fact that the Cornish language was in use as far up as Exeter in past times in fact a lot of place/family names are still in Cornish even here in the South Hams of Devon.

[poluxazalee]

Buhez hir d'ar yezh kozh - bywyd hyr an yeth coth !

[chetisanhart]

Wait...wait ? Whi is that band playing in the beginning? I need that.
Anyone got a name ?

[rodgreen]

Their choice not to speak Cornish .Others see it differently and want to preserve the language etc for future generations, their sense of who they are, their Identity and so on .

[TeddyBland]

I dont know why they were laughing as they gave the numbers, they find it comical that their culture and language is being killed