2025 Day 69

2025 Dedh Trei Ügens ha Naw 

De Lün, degves mis Meurth 

Monday, 10th March  

  Anyone who watched Prime Minister’s Questions on March 5th will have heard Sir Keir Starmer wishing the people of Cornwall a happy St Piran’s Day. It would have been even better had he said “Gool Peran lowen”. Prompted by Perran Moon, Labour MP for Camborne and Redruth, he went on to reaffirm the Government’s commitment to national minority status for Cornwall – including “the proud language, the history and the culture”. So, why did our minority language decline to the point where it was declared “extinct” by Unesco in 2009, only to be upgraded to “critically endangered” a year later? 

  There was no sudden, dramatic extinction event, just a gradual retreat from east to west, when faced with the economically and politically stronger English language. Cornish evolved as it retreated, with the older forms being fossilised in place names as it went. Thus we find Old Cornish, Middle Cornish and Late Cornish. 

Gero nei mires orth nebes henwyn teleryow dres agan pow dhort est dhe west. Ogas dhe’n Dowr Tamar ma Calstock. Thew tre en Kernow bes nag eus hanow Kernowek dhedhy. Ma “Stoc” ow menya “tre” en Sowsnek Coth, ha ma “Cal” ow menya “bre noth”. Callington ew kehaval - “tre reb bre noth” bes en Sowsnek Coth. Tredh Calstock ha Callington nei a gav Cotehele. Hemm ew telher pur goth gen hanow en Kernowek Coth. “Cote” ew devedhys dhort “Cuit” - henn ew coos. Ma “Quite” dhort “Cuit” dhe nebes teleryow erel en Kernow est. Ma Kilquite, Penquite ha Trequite en ogas. An tavas a omdednas ha “cuit” a dreylyas dhe “coos” po “coose”. En Peran Treth ma telher henwys “Pencoose”. Ma “Coosebean” dhe Truru. Eus bre noth e’n west? Ma “Mulfra” ha “Mulvra” (Molvre). “Heyl” ew heb treylyans meur. Ma lies anodhans, “Hayle” rag sampel. 

Let's look at the names of some places across our land from east to west. Near the River Tamar is Calstock It is a village in Cornwall but it doesn’t have a Cornish name. “Stoc” means “farm” in Old English, and “Cal” means “a bare hill”. Callington is similar - “a farm by a bare hill” but in Old English. Between Calstock and Callington we find Cotehele. This is a very old place with a name in Old Cornish. “Cote” has come from “Cuit” - that is a wood. Some other places in east Cornwall have “Quite” from “Cuit”. Wood ridge, end/top of a wood and wood farm are nearby. The language retreated and “cuit” turned to “coos” or “coose”. In Perranzabuloe there’s a place called “end/top of a wood”. Truro has a “little wood”. Is there a “bare hill” in the west? There’s “Mulfra” and “Mulvra”. “Tidal flats” is without any great change. There are many of them, “Hayle” for example.