Cornish is a very old language from Cornwall in the southwest of Britain. Cornish is a Celtic language and is very similar to Breton and Welsh because they used to be the same language but have become different.

A long time ago Cornish was the only language spoken in Cornwall, but more and more people began to speak English instead of Cornish. When the prayer book was written in English instead of Latin, in 1550 the Cornish people got angry and there was a rebellion. Because many Cornish speakers died and because they would now hear the Bible in English the language was used less and less.

By 1800 there were only a few people who could speak Cornish, and no-one spoke it to each other anymore. Some people say that a woman called Dolly Pentreath was the last person who could speak Cornish, this is not true, but she was one of the last people to use it instead of english.

Some people learned about Cornish by travelling around talking to people who could still speak it and reading old plays and books. Some people wanted to learn the language and speak it so in 1904 a man called Henry Jenner wrote a book to help people. After this many people began to learn the language and speak it again.

No one knows how many Cornish speakers there are now. People think there is probably about 3000 to 5000 people who speak Cornish. Some young people have grown up speaking it. Many other people in Cornwall know a few sentences or words in Cornish. In a hundred years the Cornish language grown from almost no speakers to many thousands which is very exciting for many people.

There are now many new books, films and songs in Cornish. The Bible has now been translated into Cornish. There is an event called the open Gorseth where there is a story and poetry competition. Sometimes Cornish is used in churches.

One problem with Cornish is that there are three different dictionaries with different spellings and people do not agree about how to write the words. They all speak words the same but spell them differently. This can be confusing for people when they have not been speaking long, but people learn how to read the different spellings and they are still very similar.

Here are some words in Cornish: These are from the 'kernewek kemmyn' dictionary.

Kernewek: Cornish

Kernow: Cornwall

Den: Man

Benyn: Woman

dyw genes!: Goodbye!

dydh da!: hello!

onan hag oll: one and all

Languages

Kornies | Kornisch | Córnicu | Корнская мова | Kerneveureg | Còrnic | Kornština | Cernyweg | Kornisk | Kornisch | Pow Sows | Cornish language | Idioma córnico | Kornvala lingvo | Cornique | Coirnis | 콘월어 | Lingua cornica | קורנית (שפה) | Kernewek | Lingua Cornovica | Cornish | Cornisch | コーンウォール語 | Kornisk språk | Cornic | Język kornijski | Língua córnica | Pow Sows | Kornin kieli | Korniska | 康瓦爾語