ACTA UNI VERSITATIS LODZIENSIS

FO LIA LITTER A R IA A N G L IC A 3, 1999

Piotr Stalm aszczyk

CORNISH LANGUAGE AND LITERATURE:

A BRIEF INTRODUCTION

C ornish is a South-W estern British Celtic language, closely related to

B reton and W elsh. In the period betw een 600 and 800 A D the w estw ard
m o vem ent o f A nglo-Saxon peoples separated the Celts o f S trathclyde,
C u m b ria, W ales, and the C ornish peninsula. T he dialects o f C om m on
B ritish 1 developed into Prim itive W elsh, Prim itive C ornish and Prim itive
B reton, the earliest stages o f separate languages spoken in W ales, C ornw all,
and B rittany, respectively. T he further history o f C ornish is conventionally
divided into Old C ornish (from its beginnings to the end o f the tw elfth
century), M iddle C ornish (1200-1600) and L ate C ornish (1600-1800). T he
last phase is also know n as T rad itio n al C ornish, in co n tra st to M o d ern
C o rn ish , th e result o f various c o n tem p o rary a ttem p ts at reviving th e
language.2

1 This reconstructed form o f the ancestral language is also called O ld British, Brittonic
or Brythonic, sometimes the names are used interchangeably, in other cases, however, they
refer to distinct phases in the developm ent o f the language. The m ost important study on
the early linguistic history o f the British Isles remains the m onum ental work by K enneth H.
Jackson, Language and H istory in E arly Britain (Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 1953,
reprinted 1994, Dublin: The Four Courts Press). Cornish language and literature is discussed
by Peter Berresford Ellis in The Cornish Language and its Literature (London: Routledge and
Kegan Paul, 1974); Brian M urdoch provides the m ost com prehensive account o f the literature
to date in Cornish Literature (Cambridge: D . S. Brewer, 1993); cf. also a brief summary by
G lanville Price, “ Cornish Language and Literature,” in: J. G lanville Price, ed., The Celtic
Connection (Gerrards Cross: Colin Smythe, 1992), pp. 301-314. The structure o f the Cornish
language is comprehensively discussed in Ken G eorge, “ Cornish , in: Martin J. Ball, ed., The
C eltic Languages (L on d on -N ew York: Routledge, 1993), pp. 410-468, and Alan R. Thom as,
“The Cornish Language,” in: D . M acAulay, The Celtic Languages (Cambridge: Cambridge
University Press, 1992), pp. 346-370.
2 Cf. a critical account in G lanville Price, The Languages o f Britain (London: Edward
Arnold, 1984), pp. 134-145. Price refers to the modern revived forms as “pseudo-C ornish”
and Com ic.
 T h e earliest evidence for Old C ornish consists o f nineteen glosses from
the end o f the n inth century and three glosses from the tenth century. T he
largest piece o f Old C ornish is a L atin-C ornish glossary - the Vocabularium
Cornicum, a tran slatio n o f A elfric’s L atin-O ld English glossary. T his word
list, know n also as the Cottonian Vocabulary, dates from aro u n d 1100 A D
and co n tain s 961 w ords. T he first entries in the list refer to G o d and
heaven and are w orth reproducing here:3

Deus om nipotent Duy chefuidoc (almighty G od)

Celum n ef (heaven)
Angelus ail (angel)

F u rth e r on the glossary provides vocabulary connected with creation,

m an k in d , parts o f the body, the ranks o f the church, m em bers o f the
fam ily, crafts and household goods, anim als and plants. C rysten F udge has
called the Cottonian Vocabulary “ a treasure in the history o f C o rn ish .” 4
A d d itional evidence on the earliest stages o f C ornish is provided by
personal nam es (o f freed slaves) noted in the Bodm in G ospels, place-nam es
occurring in A nglo-Saxon charters and in relevant fragm ents o f the Domesday
Book. In the Old C ornish period the language was still not very distinct
from Old B reton, and it is only by the end o f the tw elfth century th at
C o rn ish was established as a clearly separate language (in term s o f linguistic
features).
T h e m ain bulk o f C ornish literature is associated w ith the M iddle
C o rn ish period. C ornish lite ratu re o f th a t tim e is represented, alm ost
exclusively, by religious verse and m ystery plays. Pascon agan Arluth (“T he
Passion o f O ur L o rd ,” also know n as “T he Poem o f M o u n t C alvary” ) is
a religious poem o f over 2 000 seven-syllabled lines (259 eight-line stanzas)
com posed circa 1375, in the church college o f G lasney at P enryn (founded
in 1265). T his poem is a versified m editation on the P assion, from the
T em p tatio n in the desert to E aster Sunday; below is the closing stan za o f
th e p o em :5

D el sevys Cryst a’y veth-ef A s Christ arose from H is tomb

Y ’n ur-n dhe ‘n tressa deth, then on the third day,
Ynella oil ny a sef, so shall we all rise
D eth Brus, drok ha da ynweth: on Judgment D ay, evil and good also:

3 Cf. Crysten Fudge, The Life o f Cornish (Redruth: D yllansow Truran, 1982), p. 7. The
manuscript is in the British Library as part o f the collection made in the seventeenth century
by the antiquary Sir Robert C otton, cf. M urdoch, op. cit., p. 11.
4 Fudge, op. cit., p. 7.
s Pascon agan Arluth ([n.p.]: The Cornish Language Board, 1972), p. 69; m odern standard
spelling (i.e. Unified Cornish, cf. the discussion below) and English translation by R. M orton
N ance and A . S. D . Smith.
 Obereth dremas a dyf, the work o f the good m an shall grow,
Y ’n ur-na rych ef a vyth; he shall be rich then;
Drokdhen y ’n jeth-na, goef! a wicked man on that day, woe to him!
D h e Cryst y fyth a ’n barth clcth. he shall be on Christ’s left hand.

T h e single best know n piece o f C ornish literature is An Ordinalia

K ernewek (“T h e C ornish O rd in alia” ), a religious d ra m a in three p arts
telling o f the O rigin o f the W orld (Origo M undi, follow ing the biblical
account o f events from the C reation to Solom on), C h rist’s Passion (Passio
Domini) and the R esurrection o f O ur L ord (Resurrectio Domini). T he
Ordinalia were com posed in the late fourteenth century in G lasney. T he
oldest preserved m anuscript dates from the fifteenth century and consists
o f 8 734 lines.6 Below, the first lines o f the second play, Passio Domini,
are rep ro d u ced :7

Dheugh lavaraf ow dyskyblyon, U n to you I say, my disciples,

pyseugh toth da oil kescolon, pray forthwith, all in accord,
D ew dres pup tra us a-ughon, to G od above all things W ho is on high,
dheugh y ’n bys-ma y ras danvon, to send His grace to you in this world,
y’n deweth mayfeugh sylwys. that in the end you m ay be saved.

T h e Ordinalia is a long m ystery cycle (it has 125 different speaking

p arts) perform ed by the local people during three days in the open air in
large playing places (know n in C ornish as plen an gwary). These playing
places were circular arena w ith high earthen sides, terraced for w ooden or
stone seating. Such am phitheatres still survive in St. Just-in-P enw ith and
P erran zab u lo e.8 T h o ugh predom inantly a religious w ork, the Ordinalia also
reveals the a u th o rs’ fam iliarity w ith the k n ig h t’s code o f chivalry, the
conventions o f the to u rn am en t, and even details o f the k n ig h t’s arm o u r.
It is generally agreed th a t the Ordinalia is m ost significant for its
linguistic value, th o ugh it is also claim ed to be the m o st im p o rtan t piece
o f C ornish literature. E arlier studies .often dismissed the Ordinalia as an
im itation o f English m ystery plays; m ore recent studies, how ever, attem pt
a t a com prehensive analysis o f the texts in their p ro p er historical setting.9
It is interesting to note here th at the Ordinalia was perform ed in English
a t th e P erran R ound in 1969, u n d er the auspices o f B ristol U niversity.10

6 For a full survey cf. Jane Bakere, The Cornish Ordinalia. A C ritical Stu dy (Cardiff:
University o f Wales Press, 1980).
7 The Cornish Ordinalia, second play: Christ's Passion ([n.p.]: The Cornish Language
Board, 1982), pp. 4 -5 ; modern spelling and English translation by R . M orton Nance and
A . S. D . Smith.
8 Fudge, op. cit., p. 18, provides an illustration o f the plen an gw ary at Perran.
9 See the comment in Ellis, op. cit., p. 38: there is “nothing spectacular about the
Ordinalia cycle as literature.” Comprehensive revaluation is provided by Bakere, op. cit.
10 Hilary Shaw, “ Celtic Dram a - Cornish Miracle Plays,” The C eltic Pen 1 (1993): 17.
 M u ch C ornish m edieval literature draw s on the Bible as its source,
but the lives o f the saints also provided m aterial for plays. T he only
com plete sain t’s play to have survived in the whole o f B ritain is Beunans
M eriasek (‘T h e Life o f M eriasek,” patron saint o f Cam borne), a profoundly
religious verse d ra m a o f less than 5 000 lines, the earliest m anuscript of
which dates from 1504 (discovered in M erioneth in 1869). T he play tells
the story o f M eriasek, a Breton priest, who sailed to C ornw all, consecrated
a chapel in C am borne, worked m iracles and converted people. A ccording
to C rysten F udge there are several B reton lives o f the saint but none
m entions his visit to C ornw all; this episode, therefore, m u st have been
added to give the play “ topicality for a C ornish, and in particular a C am ­
borne, audience.” 11 T he sh o rt play dem onstrates the local ch aracter of
m edieval C ornish literature - it was com posed by native w riters, and
perform ed by the local population for the local population. Som e reference
to local affairs m ay be also found in the Ordinalia.
T h e first p rose w ritings in C ornish are the Tregear’s Homilies. These
are tran slatio n s o f 12 English serm ons by B ishop B onner (English version
published in 1555). T he C ornish m anuscript dates from the late fifties of
the sixteenth century and was w ritten dow n by a C atholic priest, Jo h n
T regear. T he vocabulary and gram m ar o f the H om ilies shows the influence
o f English, which suggests th a t T regear was perhaps n o t a native speaker
o f C o rn ish .12 T h e hom ilies are “ o f no literary interest,” 13 th o u g h they have
undisputed historical and linguistic value. T h e m anuscripts were discovered
only in 1949 in F lint (n o rth Wales).
T h e rem aining literature displays existing linguistic features typical o f
L ate C ornish and is represented by the d ram a Gwreans an B ys (know n
under the English title “T he C reacion o f the W o rld ” ) w ritten dow n in 1611
by W illiam Jo rd a n (but m ost pro b ab ly com posed earlier). The Creacion is
the first p a rt o f a m ystery cycle o f which the second an d third days are
lost. T h e play is based, to som e extent, on the first section o f the Origo
M u n d i (N o ah and the flood, L ucifer’s fall, Cain). It is com posed o f 2 548
lines. L ate C ornish also provides as w ith the only piece o f original secular
C ornish prose: Daralla Jooan Choye a Horr (‘T h e Tale o f John R am shouse”),
a sh o rt folk-tale adapted by N icholas Boson and w ritten dow n by E dw ard
L huyd in his Archaeologia Britannica (1707). Boson is also the a u th o r o f
a sh o rt essay on the C ornish language - Nebbaz Gerriau dro tha Carnoack
- th a t sheds som e interesting light on the socio-linguistic situation of

11 Fudge, op. cit., p. 22, see also the discussion in M urdoch, op. cit.
12 Price, op. cit., p. 309.
13 Ibid., p. 308.
C o rn ish and its relations w ith English at the end o f th e seventeenth
ce n tu ry .14
F ro m the eighteenth century there rem ain som e songs, proverbs, let­
ters and fragm entary translations o f religious literature. All this w ork is
im p o rta n t fo r th e linguistic study o f L ate C o rn ish bu t it lack s any
literary m erit. In spite o f the efforts o f a g roup o f en th u siasts who
co rresponded with each other in C ornish and collected specim ens o f the
spoken language, by the end o f the eighteenth century the decline o f
C o rn ish reached its irreversible point. T he last piece o f trad itio n al C o r­
nish is m o st p ro b a b ly a letter w ritten by an old fisherm an, W illiam
B odinar, in 1776.15
W h at rem ains from C ornish literature is no t impressive: “T he to tal
volum e o f C ornish literature o f all periods is less th an 150 000 w ords
all to ld !” 16 H ow ever, the slender volum e o f w ritten lite ratu re has to
be seen against the small size o f the C ornish-speaking p o p u latio n and
the gradual decline o f the language. A t the tim e o f the N orm an C onquest
(i.e. in the Old C ornish period) the to tal p o pulation o f C ornw all, from
the river T a m a r to L a n d ’s E nd was aro u n d 20 000; fu rth e r increase
o f p o p u latio n was accom panied by decrease in the num ber o f C ornish
speakers, also the area w here the language was spoken was continually
sh rin k in g . By the year 1700 the language was spoken only by 5 000
people, chiefly in W est Penw ith and the Lizard P en in su la.17 A ccording
to the trad itio n , the last speaker o f C ornish was the fisherwife from
M ousehole, D olly P entreath, who died in 1777 in her late eighties. Over
the years several o ther claim ants to the title were identified (including
W illiam B odinar, cf. above and note 15); however, it is generally accepted
th a t C ornish did n o t survive as a com m unity language into the nineteenth
ce n tu ry .18

14 Richard G endall, “Early M odem Cornish Literature. A Perspective,” The C eltic Pen
2 (1993/1994): 19.
15 William Bodinar w as not a native speaker o f Cornish, he learnt the language when
going to sea with old fishermen. Cf. Price, op. cit., p. 304.
16 Richard G endall, op. cit., p. 17. Price, op. cit., p. 308, provides an even more
pessimistic opinion. A ccording to him extant Cornish literature am ounts in all to less than
100 000 words. Both these authors admit the possibility o f the irrecoverable loss o f some
Cornish manuscripts. T o what extent such manuscripts contained literary works ol interest is
at present an unanswerable question.
17 Cf. the m aps in G endall, op. cit., p. 18, and Ken G eorge, “H ow m any people spoke
Cornish traditionally?” , Cornish Studies 14 (1986): 70; see also the discussion in Price, op.
cit., pp. 301-305.
18 For the controversy around the identification o f “ the last native speaker o f Cornish
see Price, op. cit., pp. 303-305.
 A fter surveying num erous historical sources, K en G eorge m anaged to
estim ate the n um ber o f speakers o f C ornish th ro u g h o u t the centuries; the
results o f his survey are reproduced in T able l . 19

Tabl e 1
Number o f speakers o f Cornish throughout the centuries

A rea where Cor­ Fraction o f total

Total population Num ber o f Cor­
Year nish was spoken area where Cor­
o f Cornwall nish speakers
(in km2) nish was spoken

1200 3270 0.93 35,000 30,000

1300 2780 0.79 52,000 38,000

1400 2360 0.61 55,000 34,000
1500 1890 0.54 69,000 33,000
1600 1400 0.40 84,000 22,000
1650 910 0.26 93,000 14,000
1700 530 0.15 106,000 5,000
1750 160 0.05 140,000 very few
1800 0 0 192,000 0

T h e decline o f C ornish is attrib u tab le to a num ber o f causes and

factors w ith the principal ones being illiteracy in C ornish, lack o f C or-
n ish -language ed u catio n , social, econom ic and cu ltu ral preference for
E nglish.20
In terest in C ornish returned in the third q u arter o f the nineteenth
century, when H enry Jenner, a young C ornishm an on the staff o f the
British M useum , had studied the C ornish m anuscripts and delivered tw o
lectures on the language. W hile w orking in the British M useum Jenner also
discovered 41 lines o f (M iddle) C ornish verse on the back o f an old land
ch a rter d ated 1340 (the so-called Charter Fragment, w ritten dow n m ost
p ro b ab ly around 1400).21 In 1904 Jenner published a h an d b o o k o f C ornish,
based on the sources available to him at th at tim e, and proposed th a t the

19 G eorge, op. cit., pp. 67-70.

20 F or a detailed study see M artyn F. W akelin Language and H isto ry in Cornwall
(Leicester: Leicester Press University, 1975).
21 Som e scholars believe the Charter Fragment to be a part o f a sacred drama like the
Ordinalia, others, however, consider it the only piece o f secular writing extant in M iddle
Cornish. A detailed analysis, together with the reproduction o f the text, is provided by Enrico
Campanile, “U n Frammento Scenico M ed io-C om ico,” Studi e Saggi Linguistici III (1963):
60-80. For a recent discussion, together with modernised Cornish text and English translation,
see Ray Edwards, ‘T h e Charter Fragment - Play or Poem?”, The Celtic Pen 1 (1995/1996): 17-20.
language m ight be revived. T he rationale behind this endeavour was purely
sentim ental: “T h e reason why a C ornishm an should learn C ornish, the
outw ard and audible sign o f his separate nationality, is sentim ental, and
n o t in the least practical, and if everything sentim ental were banished from
it, the w orld w ould n o t be as pleasant a place as it is.” 22 Jenner also w rote
poem s, hym ns and songs in C ornish.
Je n n e r’s w o rk was co ntinued by tw o o ther enth u siastic revivalists,
R o b ert M o rto n N ance and A. S. D. Smith. N ance based his reconstruction
on M iddle C ornish; however, since the quantity and quality o f the a u th e n ­
tic m aterial was not sufficient to reconstruct the language, he used all
available C ornish sources (Old and Late), w ords from the spoken English
o f W est Penw yth, W elsh and B reton sources, he also devised new w ords
using attested C ornish roots. T he resulting form o f the language becam e
know n as Unified (or Revived) C ornish.23 T he revivalists edited M iddle
C ornish texts in m odernised spelling, produced C ornish tran slatio n s o f
Tristan and Isolt and the M abinogi, they also published poem s and short
stories, h an d b o o k s and introductory gram m ars. M o re recent publications
include several o th er translations (e.g., R o b ert Louis Stevenson’s Treasure
Island) and, for the first tim e in C ornish history, a full-length novel.24 A t
present the m ain body responsible for the prom otion o f U nified C ornish
is Kesva an Tavas Kernewek (C ornish Language B oard, founded in 1967).
T h e B oard continues the activities o f its predecessors: T he C eltic-C ornish
Society (1901) and T he F irst Old C ornw all Society (1920). T o d ay the
B oard is responsible for education, research, publishing and exam inations
(held a t fo u r levels, including a G C SE). T h e present interest in C ornish is
to a large degree sentim ental and even ideological. T his a p p ro a c h to
lan g u ag e revival raises serious m ethodological questions. A c co rd in g to
G lanville Price, one o f the m ost severe critics, revived C ornic is “ to no
inconsiderable extent a nineteenth- and, m ore especially, tw entieth-century
invention, in its o rthography, its pronunciation, its vocabulary, and even
its g ram m ar.” 25
T h e principal objections to U nified C ornish concern the system of
spelling and vocabulary. R . M o rto n N ance w orked o u t a system o f

22 Henry Jenner, Handbook o f the Cornish Language (London: D avid N utt, 1904), p. xii.
23 See the explanations in the “ Introduction” in R. M orton N ance, A New Cornish-English
D ictionary (St. Ives: Old Cornwall Society, 1938, reprinted, with addenda and corrigenda,
Redruth: D yllansow Truran, 1990).
24 M elville Bennetto, An Gurun W osek a G eltya (“The B loody Crown o f Celtia,” [n.p.]:
The Cornish Language Board, 1984). This novel deals with Celtic resistance to present-day
conditions.
25 G lanville Price, The Languages o f Britain (London: Edward Arnold, 1984), pp. 134-145.
In later publications (cf. reference in note 1), Price som ewhat moderated his criticism, however,
he remains highly sceptical about the revival o f Cornish.
o rth o g rap h y which was based on M iddle C ornish (especially the Ordinalia
and the Passion), all earlier and later form s were re-spelt, additionally
“ som e irregularities or am biguities o f M iddle C ornish itself have been
rem oved.” 26 T he resulting system is to a large degree artificial and arb itrary .
F u rth erm o re, the pronunciation o f Unified C ornish tends to reproduce the
sounds o f C ornish in its last stages, whereas the w ritten form is based on
M iddle C o rn ish.27
Since the whole corpus o f w ritten C ornish is very lim ited, it should no t
com e as a surprise th a t m an y w ords and gram m atical form s never occur
in the extant texts. As far as vocabulary is concerned, Unified C ornish
uses w ords attested in the available texts, w ords invented by N ance on the
basis o f existing roots, and borrow ings from B reton or W elsh. In principle,
the dictionaries distinguish between these w ords, in practice, how ever, no t
all inventions are m arked. Sim ilar observations carry for C ornish gram m ar.
U nified C ornish, although criticised by academ ics on grounds o f m e­
thodology o f reconstruction, has rem ained the standard until recently, and
m o st o f the tw entieth century literature (both original and in tran slatio n )
has used it. R esearch on the history o f the C ornish sound system conducted
by K en G eorge resulted in proposing significant changes in the system o f
o rth o g rap h y . T he principal aim o f these changes was to accurately represent
the historic p ron u n ciatio n and reflect the phonological developm ent o f
C ornish. T h e new system is know n as Kernewek K em m yn (C om m on C ornish,
also called Phonem ic C ornish), it was adopted by the C ornish L anguage
B oard in 1987 and is now officially recom m ended.28 Also this version o f
C o rn ish is heavily criticised, and the C ornish Language B oard condem ned
for advocating “ a spurious language th at is no t C ornish in any real sense.” 29
T h e m ost recent developm ent in reconstructing C ornish is the Teere ha
Tavaz (‘L and and L anguage’) m ovem ent founded in 1986 by R ichard
G endall. O ne o f the basic aim s o f this organisation is to m ove from the
devised language to the vernacular form o f M odern C ornish (C ornoack,

26 N ance, op. cit., “Introduction” . It has to be noted here that the orthography o f M iddle
Cornish lacked a com m only accepted standard.
21 Price, op. til., p. 143, puts it very bluntly: “ a language based on its own fifteenth-century
written form and the twentieth-century spoken form o f another language is indeed a curious
anim al.”
28 K en George presented the results o f his research in a doctoral dissertation to the
University o f Western Brittany in Brest in 1984, published later as The Pronunciation and
Spelling o f Revived Cornish (Saltash: The Cornish Language Board, 1986). The grammar o f
C om m on Cornish is standardized now in: Weila Brown, A Grammar o f M odern Cornish
(Saltash: The Cornish Language Board, 1993, 2nd edition), and the vocabulary in Ken G eorge,
Gerlyver Kernewek Kemmyn (Callington: The Cornish Language Board, 1993).
29 Cf. Nicholas W illiams, “T he Case against Kernewek K em m yn,” in: Cornish Studies:
Four (Exeter: University o f Exeter Press, 1996).
also referred to as K em uak), assum ed to be a n atu ral co n tin u atio n o f Late
C ornish. M o d ern C ornish is based prim arily on the last period o f the
existence o f C ornish as a vernacular and therefore differs considerably
in p ro n u n ciatio n , spelling, vocabulary and gram m ar from U nified C o ­
rn ish .30
T h e m u tu al relations am ong different stages and variants o f C ornish can
be illustrated on F igure 1 (reconstructed form s in italics):31

Old Cornish

M iddle Cornish

Common Cornish
(Kernewek Kemm yn)

Fig. 1. The mutual relations am ong different stages and variants o f Cornish

T o d ay literature is still w ritten in Unified C ornish, w ith new contributions

in C om m on C ornish and M odern C ornish. This literature includes poetry,
sh o rt stories, children’s books, translations, and even sh o rt radio plays.
C ornish-language literary m agazines are published: A n Gannas (‘I h e M es­
senger’, a m o n th ly started in 1977) and Delyow Derow (‘O ak Leaves ,

30 The publications by Richard G endall include A Stu den t’s D ictionary o f M odern Cornish
(M enheniot: Teere ha Tavaz, 1990), A Student's Grammar o f M odern Cornish (M enheniot.
Teere ha Tavaz, 1991), and a succinct pam phlet Traditional Cornish: A B rie f E xpose
(M enheniot: Teere ha Tavaz, 1988).
31 Old, M iddle and Late Cornish are the historical stages in the developm ent o f the
language, Unified Cornish (and its successor, C om m on Cornish) and M odem Cornish are the
revived forms o f the language (i.e. ‘C om ic’ in Price’s terminology), whereas Breton and Welsh
are the other tw o British Celtic languages. A com parison o f the reconstructed forms is
provided by Ken George in “W hich Base for Revived Cornish?” , in: Cornish Studies: Three
(Exeter: University o f Exeter Press, 1995), pp. 104-124.
a twice-ycarly started in 1988 for w riters continuing to use Unified C ornish).
T exts in C ornish occasionally ap p ear also in Cornish L ife, Cornish Scene,
N ew Cornwall, and local m agazines.32 H ow ever, publishing in C ornish
is n o t impressive: “ the initial sale o f a book in C ornish is usually less
th a n 100 and several years are needed to sell 300 copies.” 33 T he situation
is fu rth er aggravated by the existence o f different spelling system s (and
M o d ern C o rn ish m ay be considered as a drastically d ifferent variety
o f the language). Full standardization o f the language seems to be an
indispensable condition for m ak in g the language m o re accessible to a wi­
d er read ersh ip . A t the sam e tim e the actual p ro d u c tio n o f lite ratu re
in C o rn ish has increased considerably in co m p ariso n to all previous
periods.
W hether this is a genuine literary revival w ith long-lasting effects and
consequences for Celtic literature rem ains to be seen, nevertheless the
p resent activities have to be perceived as pioneering endeavours to create
m o d ern literatu re in the revived C ornish language and as such deserve close
atten tio n an d interest. O n the o th er hand, however, it has to be rem em bered
that: “T he old Celtic speech o f C ornw all died ou t tw o centuries ago. It is
still d ead, and will everm ore rem ain so.” 34

Departm ent o f English Language

University o f Łódź

P iotr Stalm aszczyk

JĘZYK I LITERATURA KÓRNICKA: R O ZW A ŻA N IA W ST Ę PN E

Język kórnicki należy do języków celtyckich i jest spokrewniony z walijskim i bre-

tońskim . Jego historię dzieli się na trzy okresy: starokom icki (od czasów inwazji ang­
losak soń sk ich aż po kon iec X II w .), średniokornicki (1 2 0 0 -1 6 0 0 ) i późnok orn ick i
(1600-1800).
D o najstarszych zabytków języka kornickiego należy 19 glos z końca IX w. oraz
pochodzący z początku XII w. słownik łacińsko-kornicki ( Vocabularium Cornicum) zawierający
961 słów. Najważniejsze dzieła literackie pow stały w okresie średniokornickim. Były to misteria
( Ordinalia, Ż yw ot iw . M eriaska) i wiersze, głównie o chrakterze religijnym (M ęka Pańska).
Z okresu późnokom ickiego pozostał, najprawdopodobniej jedynie we fragmencie, jeden dramat

32 For a brief survey see Richard G. Jenkin “M odern Cornish Literature in the 20th
century,” The Celtic Pen 3 (1994): 3-5.
33 Ibid., p. 5.
34 Price, op. cit., p. 134.
(iStworzenie świata), krótka powiastka osnuta na m otywach ludowych, piosenki, przysłowia
i tłumaczenia, zwłaszcza tekstów o charakterze religijnym. N a przełomie XVIII i X IX w. język
kórnicki przestał istnieć.
W X X w. są podejm owane próby wskrzeszenia języka. M im o m etodologicznych zastrzeżeń
wysuwanych przez niektórych językoznawców istnieje obecnie kilka wariantów rekonstruowanego
kornickiego (Unified Cornish, Com m on Cornish, M odern Com ish). W każdym rozwija się
literatura, głównie poezja, ale także opowiadania, pow ieści, tłumaczenia, literatura dla dzieci,
a naw et słuchow iska radiowe. W arunkiem dalszego rozwoju literatury jest ujednolicenie
i upowszechnienie rekonstruowanego języka.