Cornish is a Southwestern Brittonic language of the Celtic language family. It is a revived language, having become extinct as a living community language in Cornwall at the end of the 18th century. However, knowledge of Cornish, including speaking ability to a certain extent, continued to be passed on within families and by individuals, and a revival began in the early 20th century. The language has a growing number of second language speakers, and a very small number of families now raise children to speak revived Cornish as a first language. Cornish is currently recognised under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages, and the language is often described as an important part of Cornish identity, culture and heritage.
Nicholas Jonathan Anselm Williams, sometimes credited as N. J. A. Williams, is a leading expert and poet in the Cornish language.
"Bro Goth agan Tasow" is one of the anthems of Cornwall. It is sung in the Cornish language, to the same tune as the Welsh national anthem, "Hen Wlad Fy Nhadau". The Breton anthem, "Bro Gozh ma Zadoù", also uses the same tune.
Kowethas an Yeth Kernewek is a Cornish language association which exists to promote, encourage and foster the use of the Cornish language. It is represented on the Cornish Language Partnership.
Henry Jenner was a British scholar of the Celtic languages, a Cornish cultural activist, and the chief originator of the Cornish language revival.
Cornish literature refers to written works in the Cornish language. The earliest surviving texts are in verse and date from the 14th century. There are virtually none from the 18th and 19th centuries but writing in revived forms of Cornish began in the early 20th century.
Robert Morton Nance (1873–1959) was a British writer and leading authority on the Cornish language, a nautical archaeologist, and joint founder of the Old Cornwall Society.
Kernewek Kemmyn is a variety of the revived Cornish language.
Modern Cornish (Kernuack Nowedga) is a variety of the revived Cornish language. It is sometimes called Revived Late Cornish (RLC) or Kernuack Dewethas, to distinguish it from other forms of contemporary revived Cornish.
Cussül an Tavas Kernôwek is an association founded in 1987 to teach, research and further the Cornish language in Cornwall, UK. Since the adoption of a Standard Written Form of Cornish (SWF) in 2008, it has worked closely with other bodies to achieve these aims. The Cussül encourages research into the Cornish of all periods but has a particular interest in developments after c.1600 and accordingly recommends a standard pronunciation based on c. 1600 to 1700. The Cussül largely draws its inspiration from those who attempted to save the language in the 18th century.
Unified Cornish (UC) is a variety of the Cornish language of the Cornish revival. Developed gradually by Robert Morton Nance during and before the 1930s, it derived its name from its standardisation of the variant spellings of traditional Cornish manuscripts. Nance's recommended spelling and grammar, based on Middle Cornish, soon supplanted Henry Jenner's system, which had been based largely on Late Cornish. Most of the older generation of Cornish users alive today would have started under this system. It was also the form originally used by Gorsedh Kernow, although they now use the new Standard Written Form.
Kernowek Standard, its initial version spelt Kernowak Standard, is a variety of the spelling of revived Cornish. It has two specifications, the first of which was published as a draft proposal in March 2007, and the second of which was published as a practical orthography in May 2012.
The Standard Written Form or SWF of the Cornish language is an orthography standard that is designed to "provide public bodies and the educational system with a universally acceptable, inclusive, and neutral orthography". It was the outcome of a process initiated by the creation of the public body Cornish Language Partnership, which identified a need to agree on a single standard orthography in order to end previous orthographical disagreements, secure government funding, and increase the use of Cornish in Cornwall.
Andrew Climo is a Cornwall-based, Cornish author and community activist. He is chief executive and founder of Community Leaders CIC, a community development agency, a Director of the Community Sector Coalition, a network for community groups in the British Isles, and an activist for Cornish devolution and the Cornish language.
The Cornish Language Partnership was a representative body that was set up in Cornwall, England, UK in 2005 to promote and develop the use of the Cornish language. and was dissolved in 2015. It was a public and voluntary sector partnership and consisted of representatives from various Cornish language societies, Cornish cultural and economic organisations and local government in Cornwall. The organisation was part-funded by the European Union's Objective One programme, the United Kingdom government's Department for Communities and Local Government and Cornwall Council.
Translations of parts of the Bible into Cornish have existed since the 17th century. The early works involved the translation of individual passages, chapters or books of the Bible. The first full translation of the Bible into the Cornish language was published in 2011. The New Testament and Psalms in another translation went on-line in 2014.
The Cornish language revival is an ongoing process to revive the use of the Cornish language of Cornwall, England. The Cornish language's disappearance began to hasten during the 13th century, but its decline began with the spread of Anglo-Saxon in the 4th and 5th centuries. The last reported person to have full knowledge of a traditional form of Cornish, John Davey, died in 1891. The revival movement started in the late 19th century as a result of antiquarian and academic interest in the language, which was already extinct, and also as a result of the Celtic revival movement. In 2009, UNESCO changed its classification of Cornish from "extinct" to "critically endangered", seen as a milestone for the revival of the language.
Cornish grammar is the grammar of the Cornish language, an insular Celtic language closely related to Breton and Welsh and, to a lesser extent, to Irish, Manx and Scottish Gaelic. It was the main medium of communication of the Cornish people for much of their history until the 17th century, when a language shift occurred in favour of English. A revival, however, started in 1904, with the publication of A Handbook of the Cornish Language, by Henry Jenner, and since then there has been a growing interest in the language.
The Cornish language separated from the southwestern dialect of Common Brittonic at some point between 600 and 1000 AD. The phonological similarity of the Cornish, Welsh, and Breton languages during this period is reflected in their writing systems, and in some cases it is not possible to distinguish these languages orthographically. However, by the time it had ceased to be spoken as a community language around 1800 the Cornish language had undergone significant phonological changes, resulting in a number of unique features which distinguish it from the other neo-Brittonic languages.
