Thanks Cronos.
Posted on 06/16/2024 10:10:59 PM PDT by Cronos
The ancient Cornish language has been declared dehwelans dhyworth an marow – back from the dead – amid a rise in popularity thanks to Covid-19 and a critically acclaimed psych-pop star.
There has been a significant rise in the number of people learning Cornish since the pandemic lockdown forced classes online, according to the volunteer network An Rosweyth.
“We have people in America, we have people in Australia, Mexico, Spain, Turkey,” said Emma Jenkin, its support officer, who said her last online lesson had “a couple of people in Cornwall – but mostly people are dotted all over the place”.
Jenkin added there had been a “huge influx” of people wanting to learn Cornish during the pandemic and the interest has kept growing – not just from those overseas who mostly have Cornish heritage, she said.
Younger people are taking up lessons as a result of its recent revival in popular culture. The singer-songwriter Gwenno’s second album, Le Kov, was written and performed entirely in Cornish, and its follow-up, Tresor, was nominated for the Mercury prize. The comedian Edward Rowe, better known as Kernow King, has also helped popularise the language.
The sudden popularity is quite the turnaround for a language that was described as “extinct” by Unesco’s world atlas of languages little over a decade ago. The UN’s heritage agency now classifies Cornish – Kernewek – as “endangered”, having been reclassified as “critically endangered” in 2010.
Phrases: Good morning – Myttin da
Good afternoon – Dohajydh da
Thank you – Meur ras
Please – Mar pleg
More cake – Moy tesen
How’s it going? – Fatla genes?
Very good – Pur dha
Evil/awful – Euthyk
I would like to – My a vynnsa
How’re you doing my beauties? – Fatla genowgh hwi ow thekteryow?
(Excerpt) Read more at theguardian.com ...
Agan Tas ni, eus y’n nev,
bennigys re bo dha hanow.
Re dheffo dha wlaskor,
Dha vodh re bo gwrys y’n nor kepar hag y’n nev.
Ro dhyn ni hedhyw agan bara pub dydh oll,
ha gav dhyn agan kammweyth
kepar dell evyn nyni
dhe’n re na eus ow kammwul er agan pynn ni;
ha na wra agan gorra yn temptashyon,
mes delyrv ni dhiworth drog.
Meulwers (Doxology):
Rag dhiso jy yw an wlaskor,
ha’n galloes ha’n gordhyans,
bys vykken ha bynari.
Amen.
Just try saying “Myttin da” in New York.
Thanks Cronos.
In the show Deadwood on HBO they have some Cornish characters. They are minor characters, who play miners who are treated poorly by the mine owners for stealing gold and organizing unions. That was aired about 20 years ago and the show took place in the late 1880s. But there’s several scenes of them speaking Cornish - the townsfolk and the Sheriff have a hard time understanding them and need an interpreter.
What is psych-pop?
William Shatner speaks Esperanto.
When Anglo Saxons invaded England from what now is Denmark in the 5th and 6th century AD they pushed the native Celts westward into the remote areas of the Island Wales, Scotland, and Cornwall The Celtic languages survived in these areas.
“In the show Deadwood on HBO they have some Cornish characters.”
They called them Cornish miners but they were speaking Irish Gaelic (I could understand what they were saying).
All the same, it’s great to hear there’s interest in Cornish. I’d love to see Duolingo create a Breton/Cornish course.
Down in Cornwall / Cornwall Bridge the natives say “ yuht” for yes, “nuht” for no, and “I sez to him I sez” for I said to him.
MRS. ROSS: It’s Cornish game hen.
FRANK: What is that, like a little chicken?
GEORGE: It’s, uh, it’s not a little chicken. [laughing] Little chicken. It’s a game bird.
FRANK: Gamebird?
GEORGE: Yeah.
FRANK: What do you mean? Like, you - you hunt it?
MR. ROSS: Yes.
FRANK: How hard could it be to kill this thing?
Oh, *that* kind of psych... 😄
Wonder if there’s a Duolingo course?
Like a native!
I think it is closely related to Welsh (and more distantly to Breton) but don't know how easily a Welsh-speaker could understand a Cornish-speaker.
Only Celtic language I have ever heard spoken is Gaelic, when I was in Killarney, Ireland.
Mid-1870s. The 'real' Deadwood was founded in 1876. The show opens weeks after Custer's last stand, which took place on 25 June, 1876. And the murder of J.B. Hickok, which took place on 2 August, 1876, is in (IIRC) the third episode. So it's safe to say the show opens between those two dates.
Both the Cornish and the Welsh were legendary miners because both tin and copper were abundant in Cornwall and Wales. That made them one-stop-shopping back in the Bronze Age (ca. 3300 - 1200 BC) because bronze is an alloy of copper and tin.
They Cornish have been using steam engines to "dewater" mines since at least 1714. Wales and Cornwall both are coastal regions and they had hand-dug mining tunnels that went down as much as 1000 feet and then ran horizontally as much as a mile offshore and beneath the sea. All dug with pick-axes, shovels, and sweat. And it took serious horsepower to pump water up from those depths, well more than what humans or draught animals could produce.
The Cornish pasty meat pie was made like it was so the miners could hold it by the braided crust as they ate it so as not to get the powdered tin covering their hands on what they were about to eat. Then they'd lose nothing but a bit of bread when they threw out the contaminated crust.
That's why they would have imported miners from the other side of the Atlantic. Because they long since were experts in digging and managing the mines. Even figured out how to eat down there without cleaning up before or killing themselves after.
Yes you’re right. Near the show’s opening they flash the date on the screen I must’ve got it mixed up with another show. It was 1876.
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