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Page 1 of 4 John Chirgwin Jenkin proposes that the Cornish language was used far later than many scholars claim. The accepted view in Cornish language circles is that 1800 is the date after which Cornish was no longer a language known by most and one spoken by only a scattered few. Thereafter it was kept alive by scholars and students before being revived as a living modern language by Henry Jenner, Robert Morton Nance and others in the 1920s and 1930s. Yet what does this choice of date actually mean? It does not mean that on December 31, 1799, there were people who knew some Cornish and on January 1, 1800, there were none. Neither does it mean that thereafter no Cornish words were ever heard again.  An engraving of Dolly Pentreath, allegedly the last fluent Cornish speaker, although evidence suggests otherwise. Dolly was a minor celebrity and often swore at people in Cornish, when her visitors presumed she was making polite conversation. From this people commented that she swore like a fisherman's wife when she was, in fact, a fisherman's wife. Picture thanks to Cornwall Studies Library (Kresenn Kernow) cornishstudies.library@cornwall.gov.uk Prince Lucien Bonaparte originated the fable that Dolly Pentreath of Mousehole was the last person to speak Cornish. It is true that when she died in 1770, she probably had few people with whom she could converse but she certainly remembered it being spoken and remembered enough to be regarded as a local celebrity. By the end of the 18th century English was spoken everywhere as a first language. There is no suggestion that English was not generally understood during the Civil War and John Wesley’s audiences in West Cornwall in the mid and later 1700s had no difficulty in understanding what he said. The situation was akin to that in South Wales today where most people use English as their chief language and many know little or no Welsh even though they were taught it in schools. Purely monoglot Welsh speakers are found in the north and west and although Welsh is used exclusively in many places English has to be used as well in all but purely local affairs. It is said that some Mount’s Bay fishermen counted their catches in Cornish for many years after 1800. |
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