PREFACE.
The commencement of the 18th century beheld the extinction, as a spoken language, of the Celtic dialect of Cornwall.[1]
This dialect, which differs to a considerable extent from that of Wales,[2] and is most nearly allied to that of Bretagne, is now only to be found in a few manuscripts, the most remarkable of which are of the 15th century; in the names of Cornish localities; and in the surnames borne by many inhabitants of the county.[3] The latter are especially valuable, inasmuch as they throw light on the names of places
- ↑ The introduction of the English Church Service paved the way for the gradual decline of the Celtic dialect of Cornwall. In 1602 it was going fast into disuse. In the early part of the last century the Cornish was still spoken by the fishermen and market women near the extreme South-Western point of the county. Cf. Carew and P. Cyc. Pryce tells us, in the preface to his work (published 1790), that the Cornish was then spoken at the extremity of the county; and Polwhele (in 1806) adds, that he did not believe that there then existed two people who could converse for any continuance in the Cornish, whether ancient or modern.
- ↑ Observe that the Cornish flogh means a boy; guilkin, a frog; golvan, a sparrow; guis, a sow; louuern, a fox; croinoc, a lizard; colh, an old man; conna, the neck; abrans, the eyebrow; ail, an angel; steren, a star; while the Welsh equivalents are bachgen; llyffant, adar y to; hwch; cadnaw, llwynog; madgall; henafgwr, henwr; gwddf; ael; angel, cenad; seren.
- ↑ Pryce gives the Lord's Prayer, Apostles' Creed, and Commandments in the ancient and modern Cornish; and some proverbs, mottoes, rhymes, songs, &c., in the modern vulgar Cornish.
