The Status of the Cornish Language 1777-1904
Kensa Broadhurst
Key points
- Explores the near fatal decline of Cornish, the myths surrounding its ‘last’ speaker, Dolly Pentreath of Mousehole, and how the language continued to be spoken throughout the 19th century.
- Explains who continued to use Cornish during its decline and why many began switching to English.
- Encourages the continued revival of Cornish that began with the publication of Henry Jenner’s handbook in 1904 and continues in the 21st century, both in schools and in the wider community.
Summary
This research is a crucial in-depth examination of the status of the Cornish language after its alleged death, or more accurately near-fatal decline. From the golden age of the 14th and 15th centuries and the production of the mystery plays of the Ordinalia and miracle plays, the decline can be traced back to the failure of the Book of Common Prayer to be printed in Cornish.
Particular focus is placed upon the period 1777 to 1904, dating from the death of Dolly Pentreath, the alleged last speaker of the language, to the publication of Henry Jenner’s Handbook of the Cornish Language, which actively sparked the modern Cornish revival.
The overarching theme of this research is that the Cornish language never truly died and there were many individuals in the nineteenth century, such as Dr Fred Jago and Reverend Wladislaw Lach-Szyrma, who sought to keep the language alive. That it declined drastically was undeniable; as the centuries progressed English had become the language of commerce and for ease of business speaking it was normalised.