A Handbook of the Cornish Language - chiefly in its latest stages with some account of its history and literature

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A Handbook of the Cornish Language, by Henry
Jenner
The Project Gutenberg eBook, A Handbook of the Cornish Language, by Henry
Jenner
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Title: A Handbook of the Cornish Language
chiefly in its latest stages with some account of its history and literature
Author: Henry Jenner
Release Date: August 4, 2008 [eBook #26192]
Language: English
Character set encoding: UTF-8
***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK A HANDBOOK OF THE CORNISH
LANGUAGE***
Transcribed from the 1904 David Nutt edition by David Price, email
ccx074@coventry.ac.uk
A HANDBOOK OF THE CORNISH
LANGUAGE
chiefly in its latest stages with
some account of its history and
literature
by
HENRY JENNER
member of the gorsedd of the bards of brittany
fellow of the society of antiquaries “Never credit me but I will spowt some Cornish at him.
Peden bras, vidne whee bis cregas.”
The Northern Lass, by Rich Brome, 1632.
LONDON
DAVID NUTT, AT THE SIGN OF THE PHŒNIX
57-59 LONG ACRE
mcmiv
p. ivPrinted by Ballantyne, Hanson & Co.
At the Ballantyne Press
p. vDHÔ ’M GWRÊG GERNÛAK
H. L. J.
Kerra ow Holon! Beniges re vo
Gans bennath Dew an dêdh a ’th ros dhemmo,
Dhô whelas gerryow gwan pan dhetha vî,
Tavas dha dassow, ha dhô ’th drovya dî.
En cov an dêdh splan-na es pel passyes;
En cov idn dêdh lowenek, gwin ’gan bês,
War Garrak Loys en Côs, es en dan skês
Askelly Myhal El, o ’gan gwithes;
En cov lîas dêdh wheg en Kernow da,
Ha nŷ mar younk—na whekkah vel êr-ma
Dhemmo a dhîg genev an gwella tra,
Pan dhetha vî en kerh, en ol bro-na;
Dheso mî re levar dha davas teg,
Flogh ow empinyon vî, dhô ’m kerra Gwrêg.
GWAS MYHAL.
Scrîfes en agan Chŷ nŷ,
Dawthegves dêdh Mîs Gorefan
En Bledhan agan Arledh, 1904.
p. ixPREFACE
This book is principally intended for those persons of Cornish nationality who
wish to acquire some knowledge of their ancient tongue, and to read, write, and
perhaps even to speak it. Its aim is to represent in an intelligible form the
Cornish of the later period, and since it is addressed to the general Cornish
public rather than to the skilled philologist, much has been left unsaid that might
have been of interest to the latter, old-fashioned phonological and grammatical
terms have been used, a uniform system of spelling has been adopted, little
notice has been taken of casual variations, and the arguments upon which the
choice of forms has been based have not often been given.
The spelling has been adapted for the occasion. All writers of Cornish used to
spell according to their own taste and fancy, and would sometimes represent
the same word in different ways even in the same page, though certain general
principles were observed in each period. There was a special uncertainty
about the vowels, which will be easily appreciated by those who are familiar
with Cornish English. Modern writers of all languages prefer consistent
spelling, and to modern learners, whose object is linguistic rather than
p. xphilological, a fairly regular system of orthography is almost a necessity. Thepresent system is not the phonetic ideal of “one sound to each symbol, and one
symbol for each sound,” but it aims at being fairly consistent with itself, not too
difficult to understand, not too much encumbered with diacritical signs, and not
too startlingly different from the spellings of earlier times, especially from that of
Lhuyd, whose system was constructed from living Cornish speakers. The
writer has arrived at his conclusions by a comparison of the various existing
spellings with one another, with the traditional fragments collected and
recorded by himself in 1875, with the modern pronunciation of Cornish names,
with the changes which English has undergone in the mouths of the less
educated of Cornishmen, and to some extent with Breton. The author suggests
that this form of spelling should be generally adopted by Cornish students of
their old speech. The system cannot in the nature of things be strictly accurate,
but it is near enough for practical purposes. Possibly there is much room for
controversy, especially as to such details as the distribution of long and short
vowels, the representation of the Middle Cornish u, ue, eu sometimes by î,
sometimes by ê, and sometimes by eu or ew, or of the Middle Cornish y by i, e,
or y, or occasionally by an obscure ă, ŏ, or ŭ, and it is quite likely that others
might arrive at different conclusions from the same evidence, though those
conclusions might not be any the nearer to the sounds which the Cornishmen
of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries really did make. As for
grammatical forms, it will be seen that the writer is of opinion that the difference
between Middle and Modern Cornish was more apparent than real, and that
p. xiexcept in the very latest period of all, when the language survived only in the
mouths of the least educated persons, the so-called “corruptions” were to a
great extent due to differences of spelling, to a want of appreciation of almost
inaudible final consonants, and to an intensification of phonetic tendencies
existing in germ at a much earlier period. Thus it is that inflections which in the
late Cornish often seem to have been almost, if not quite, inaudible, have been
written in full, for that is the author’s notion, founded on what Middle
Cornishmen actually did write, of what Modern Cornishmen were trying to
express. For most things he has precedents, though he has allowed himself a
certain amount of conjecture at times, and in most cases of difficulty he has
trusted, as he would advise his readers to do, to Breton rather than to Welsh, for
the living Breton of to-day is the nearest thing to Cornish that exists.
Why should Cornishmen learn Cornish? There is no money in it, it serves no
practical purpose, and the literature is scanty and of no great originality or
value. The question is a fair one, the answer is simple. Because they are
Cornishmen. At the present day Cornwall, but for a few survivals of Duchy
jurisdictions, is legally and practically a county of England, with a County
Council, a County Police, and a Lord-Lieutenant all complete, as if it were no
[0a]better than a mere Essex or Herts. But every Cornishman knows well
enough, proud as he may be of belonging to the British Empire, that he is no
more an Englishman than a Caithness man is, that he has as much right to a
p. xiiseparate local patriotism to his little Motherland, which rightly understood is no
[0b]bar, but rather an advantage to the greater British patriotism, as has a
Scotsman, an Irishman, a Welshman, or even a Colonial; and that he is as
much a Celt and as little of an “Anglo-Saxon” as any Gael, Cymro, Manxman, or
Breton. Language is less than ever a final test of race. Most Cornishmen
habitually speak English, and few, very few, could hold five minutes’
conversation in the old Celtic speech. Yet the memory of it lingers on, and no
one can talk about the country itself, and mention the places in it, without using
a wealth of true Cornish words. But a similar thing may be said of a very large
proportion of Welshmen, Highlanders, Irishmen, Manxmen, and Bretons.
Omnia Græce,
Quum sit turpe magis nostris nescire Latine.
The reason why a Cornishman should learn Cornish, the outward and audiblesign of his separate nationality, is sentimental, and not in the least practical,
and if everything sentimental were banished from it, the world would not be as
pleasant a place as it is.
Whether anything will come of the Cornish part of the Celtic movement remains
to be seen, but it is not without good omen that this book is published at the
“Sign of the Phoenix.”
A few words of comprehensive apology for the shortcomings of this handbook.
p. xiiiWhen the writer was asked by the Secretary of the Celtic-Cornish Society to
undertake a Cornish grammar, which was the origin of this book, it was more
than twenty years since he had dropped his Cornish studies in favour of other
and more immediately necessary matters. Much of what he once knew had
been forgotten, and had to be learnt over again, and the new grammar was
wanted quickly. There must needs be, therefore, inaccuracies and
inconsistencies, especially with regard to the spelling, which had to be
constructed, and he is conscious also that there are at least two living men, if
no more, who could have made a far better book. Of either of these two, Dr.
Whitley Stokes and Prof. Joseph Loth, Doyen of the Faculty of Letters in
Rennes University, who probably know more about Cornish between them than
any one else ever did, the writer may well say, as John Boson of Newlyn said
of Keigwin two centuries ago, “Markressa an dean deskez fear-na gwellaz
[0c]hemma, ev a venja kavaz fraga e owna