One of the practical interests in the study of Cornish is in the
interpretation of place-names. As quite ninety per cent. of the
place-names of Cornwall are Celtic, and as a very large proportion of
these are descriptive names, usually in a fairly uncorrupted state, this
gives much opportunity of research. There are, however, certain
considerations, grammatical and topographical, which should be kept
carefully in mind in attempting to discover the meanings of these names,
and it is a disregard of these considerations that has made most of the
published works on the subject so singularly valueless. The great
majority of Cornish names are composed of epithets suffixed to certain
nouns, such as _tre_, _trev_, a town; _pol_, a pool; _pen_ or _pedn_,
head or top; _rôs_, often written _rose_, a heath; _car_, a fort or camp;
_lan_, an enclosure, or a church; _eglos_, a church; _bal_, a mine;
_whêl_ or _wheal_, a work (_i.e._ a mine); _chy_, _ty_, a house; _park_,
a field; _forth_, a creek or harbour; _nans_, a valley; _carn_, a cairn
or heap of rocks; _hal_, a moor; _gûn_, _goon_, a down; _gwêl_, _gweal_,
a field; _bod_, _bos_, _be_, a dwelling; _les_, a court, a palace;
_carrack_, a rock; _creeg_, a tumulus; _crows_, a cross; _din_, _dun_, a
hill-fort; _fenton_ or _venton_, a spring; _kelly_, _killy_, a grove;
_cos_, _coose_, a wood; _mên_, a stone; _tol_, a hole; _triga_, _trigva_,
a dwelling-place; _melan_, _mellan_, _vellan_, a mill; _zawn_, _zawns_, a
cove; _bron_, _bryn_, a hill; _bar_, _bor_, _bur_, a summit; _tor_, a
hill. These are the commonest of the nouns. The epithets may be:—
1. Adjectives, signifying size, colour, position, etc., e.g. _mêr_,
_mear_, _vcar_, great; _bîan_, _bean_, _vean_, little; _glas_, blue;
_dew_, black; _gwin_, _gwidu_, _widn_, white; _gwartha_, _wartha_,
_gwarra_, upper; _gollas_, _gullas_, _wollas_, lower, etc., in
agreement with the noun.
2. Other nouns in the appositional genitive.
3. Proper names.
4. Adjectives or nouns preceded by the article _an_, the, or by a
preposition such as _war_, on.
The following points should be considered:—
1. The gender of the noun. Of the nouns mentioned above, _tre_, _ros_,
_car_, _lan_, _whêl_, _hal_, _goon_, _carrack_, _crows_, _fenton_,
_kelly_, _trigva_, _mellan_, _bron_, _tor_, are feminine, so that the
initial of the adjective epithet is changed to the second state. This
may often, more or less, determine whether the epithet is an adjective or
a noun in the genitive. Thus, in the name _Tremaine_, we may be sure
that the second syllable is not an adjective or it would be _Trevaine_,
so the meaning is not, as one would think, “the stone house,” not a very
distinguishing epithet in Cornwall, but probably the “house of the
stones,” i.e. of some stone circle or other prehistoric remains.
Sometimes, however, the initial of an appositional genitive, and
sometimes that of an epithet of a masculine noun is irregularly changed
in composition.
2. The stress accent of the compound. This is of great importance,
especially in determining whether an article or preposition intervenes
between the noun and its epithet, and also, in the rare cases in which it
occurs, in deciding whether the epithet may not precede the noun. _The
stress accent is almost invariably on the epithet_, and it is astonishing
to see how even in East Cornwall, where the language has been dead for
three centuries, this accentuation is still preserved. If the epithet
suffix is a monosyllable, the accent of the compounded word is on the
last syllable; if not, the accent is usually on the last but one, but the
intervening article or preposition is always a proclitic, and is
disregarded as to accent. The same sort of thing happens in English.
Thus, even if it were the custom to write _Stratfordonavon_ all in one
word, we should know by the accent that it meant _Stratford-on-Avon_; but
one, say some German philologist, who had never heard it pronounced, and
knew nothing of British topography and the distribution of surnames,
might conjecture that it was _Stratfor Dónavon_, might compare it with
_Lydiard Tregoze_, _Stoke Dabernon_, _Sutton Valence_, or _Compton
Wyniates_, and might build thereon a beautiful theory of an Irish
settlement in Warwickshire. Things every whit as absurd as this have
been done with Cornish names.
3. The position and general features of the place. Thus when we find
that a rather important town is situated at the innermost point of a bay
called in Cornish (cf. Boson’s Pilchard Song) _Zans Garrak Loos en Kûz_,
we may doubt whether its name signifies “the holy head or headland,” and
not “the head of the bay.” In this case there is a slight complication,
because there is actually something of a headland about the Battery
Rocks, and the town arms are St. John Baptist’s head in a charger; but
when we find that _Tremaine_ is some ten miles, as the crow flies, from
the nearest point of the coast, we may be quite justified in doubting
whether Pryce is right in calling it “the town on shore or sea coast.”
The following specimens of names about whose meaning there can be no
doubt, will serve as examples of the construction of Cornish
place-names:—
1. Epithet following noun.
_a_. Masculine. _Porthmear_ (in Zennor), the great porth or creek.
(Murray’s Handbook says that it means the “sea-port,” but Murray’s
interpretations are intricately and ingeniously wrong-headed).
_b_. Feminine. _Trevean_, the little town. _Tre_ signifies _town_ in
the modern Cornish and old English sense, a farmhouse with its
out-buildings. It is the commonest of these generic prefixes. In
Brittany, though it is occasionally found, its place is usually taken
by _Ker_ (Cornish _Car_, Welsh _Caer_), probably the Latin _castrum_, a
fortified town or camp, a difference which has its historical
significance.
2. Epithet preceding noun.
_Hendrea_, the old town (in Sancreed). Note that this is _Héndrea_,
not _Hendréa_. Note also the change of initial in _tre_.
3. Intervening particles.
_a_. The definite article. _Crows-an-wra_, the witch’s cross.
(Murray says that it means “the wayside cross,” but _gwragh_, _gwrah_,
_gwra_, Breton _gwrac’h_, certainly means a hag or witch, and the
change of initial after the article shows that the noun is feminine.)
_Chy-an-dowr_, the house of the water.
_b_. Preposition. _Tywardreath_, the house on the sands;
_Tywarnhaile_ (=_Ty war an hayle_), the house on the tidal river. Note
that the syllable _war_ in these words is unaccented. In _Trewartha_,
the upper house, the accent is on _war_, so that even if we were not
accustomed to the epithet _wartha_ we should know that _war_ is here
not a preposition.
4. Appositional genitive without article.
_Chytan_, the house of fire; _Chypons_, the bridge house; _Pentreath_,
the head of the sands; _Portreath_ (=_Porth-treath_), the creek of the
sands.
_Nancemelling_ (=_Nans-mellan_), the valley of the mill.
5. Proper names as appositional genitives:—
_Trejago_, the house of Jago (or James).
_Chykembra_, the Welshman’s house.
_Gûn-an-Guidal_ (or _Anguidal Downs_), the down of the Irishman.
In West Cornwall, especially in Penwith, where the spoken language
lingered latest, there is a greater tendency to the use of the article
_an_ than in the more eastern part of the Duchy. Sometimes the article
is prefixed to the noun itself. Thus, _Andrewartha_ (=_an dre wartha_),
the upper town, in Gwithian, now called _Upton_, but inhabited by a
family of the older name; _Angarrack_, the rock, between Hayle and
Gwinear Road; _Angove_, the smith, and _Angwin_, the white, family names;
_Angrouse_, the cross, in Mullion; _Angear_, the castle; _Annear_ or
_Ennor_, the earth; _Angilley_ or _Anguilly_, the grove. {196}
Generally when the article comes between the generic noun and some other
word the latter is a noun also, an appositional genitive, but
occasionally it is an adjective, as in _Ponsanooth_ (in Perran Arworthal
and Gluvias), which is probably _Pons-an-nowedh_, the new bridge. The
generic prefix _Pleu_ or _Plou_, parish, so common in Brittany, is
altogether unknown in Cornish place-names of to-day, unless, as some
hold, _Bleu Bridge_ in Madron means “the parish bridge,” and is a partial
translation of _Pons-an-bleu_, but the word is common enough in Cornish,
and the names of parishes called after saints frequently began in Cornish
writings with _Pleu_ (_plu_, _plui_)—_Pleu East_, St. Just; _Pleu Paul_,
St. Paul; _Pleu Vudhick_, St. Budock. Though the word occurs in the
expression _tîz pleu_, people of [his] parish, in the tale of _John of
Chy-an-Hur_, the three parishes mentioned there, St. Levan, St. Hillary,
and Buryan, are called by their ordinary English names. The prefix
_lan_, originally an enclosure (cf. the English _lawn_), but later used
to signify a church with its churchyard, is still frequently found, with
occasional variants of _la_, _lam_, and _land_, but it is nothing like so
frequent as the Welsh equivalent _llan_. In earlier days it was more
common in Cornwall than it is now, and a number of parishes which now
have the prefix “Saint” appear in the Domesday Survey with _Lan_.
* * * * *
The family names of Cornwall, omitting those of the few great Norman
houses, Granvilles, Bevilles, Fortescues, Bassets, St. Aubyns,
Glanvilles, etc., which do not concern us at present, fall into at least
four classes.
1. Names derived from places.
“By Tre, Pol, and Pen,
Ye shall know Cornishmen.”
or as Camden more correctly expands it at the expense of metre:—
“By Tre, Ros, Pol, Lan, Car, and Pen,
Ye shall know the most Cornishmen.”
And he might have added many more prefixes. It is probable that many of
these names originated in the possession of the estates of the same
names.
Of this class are such names as _Trelawny_, _Rosevear_, _Polwhele_,
_Lanyon_, _Carlyon_, and _Penrose_. To the ordinary Saxon they sound
highly aristocratic, and are introduced into modern “up country” novels
in a way that is often amusing to a Cornishman, and no doubt many of them
do represent the names of families of past or present gentility, for in
Cornwall, as in the Scottish Highlands, armigerous gentry were and are
very thick on the ground, and a very large number of Cornishmen of every
class and occupation might write themselves down “gentlemen” in the
strict heraldic sense if they only knew it. But some names of this class
are derived from very small landed possessions, and some probably, as
similar names in England, from mere residence, not possession.
2. Patronymics. These are the equivalents of the English names ending
in _son_ or _s_, of the Welsh names beginning with _ap_ (=_mab_, son),
and the Irish and Scottish beginning with _mac_ or _O’_. They fall into
five classes.
_a_. The Christian name used as a surname without alteration, as
_Harry_, _Peter_, _John_, _Rawle_, _Rawe_ or _Rowe_ (for _Ralph_ or
_Raoul_), _Gilbart_ and _Gilbert_, _Thomas_ or _Thom_, _Davy_,
_Bennet_, _Harvey_, _Tangye_, etc.
_b_. The diminutive of the Christian name, as _Jenkin_, _Hodgkin_,
_Rawlin_, _Tonkin_, _Eddyvean_ (=Little Eddy), _Hockin_ (—_Hawkin_,
i.e. _Harrykin_), etc.
_c_. The Christian name or its diminutive in its English possessive
form, as _Peters_, _Johns_, _Rogers_, _Jenkins_, _Rawlings_, _Roberts_,
etc.
_d_. Patronymics formed as in English, German, Dutch, and the
Scandinavian languages by adding _son_, as _Johnson_, _Jackson_,
_Wilson_, etc. When these occur in Cornwall they are probably often of
English origin.
_e_. Patronymics formed with the prefix _ap_ (for _mab_, son),
apocopated (as in the Welsh names _Probert_, _Pritchard_, _Price_,
_Bevan_, _Bowen_) to a _p_ or _b_. It is possible that to this class
may belong _Prowse_, _Prawle_ (_Ap Rowse_, _Ap Rawle_), _Bown_ (_Ap
Owen_?), _Budge_ (_Ap Hodge_?), _Pezzack_ (_Ap Isaac_).
The Christian names from which patronymics are formed are not as a rule
very peculiar. There are the usual names of the well-known saints,
_Peter_, _Paul_, _Mitchell_ (_Michael_), _John_, _James_ (or in its
Cornish form, _Jago_), _Thomas_, _Matthew_, _Francis_, _Dunstan_,
_Bennet_, _Andrew_, _Martin_, and the rest, the common general Christian
names, _Harry_, _William_, _Robert_, _Roger_, etc., and some less common
ones, such as _Julyan_, _Vivian_, _Nicholas_ (_Nicol_, _Nicholl_, etc.),
_Colin_, _Jeffry_, _Jasper_, _Gilbert_, etc., and names of Cornish
saints, _Keverne_, _Key_, _Gluyas_, _Ustick_ (probably adjectival form
from _Just_). Besides these there are a few from old British, or of
Breton or Norman introduction, _Harvey_ (_Hervé_), _Dennis_, _Rawle_,
_and Rawlin_ (_Raoul_, _Raoulin_, _Rivallen_), _Tangye_ (_Tanguy_, a
quite common name in Brittany, from St. Tanguy, one of the entourage of
St. Pol of Leon), _Arthur_, _David_ or _Davy_ (as representing the Welsh
saint, not the King of Israel), _Sampson_ (representing the Bishop of
Dol, not the Israelite hero), _Jewell_ (Breton _Judicael_ or _Juhel_).
Some names take a variety of forms. Thus _Clement_ is found as
_Clemens_, _Clemments_, _Clements_, _Clemo_ or _Clemmow_, _Climo_,
_Climance_, etc., _Ralph_ (_Radulphus_, _Rudolph_, _Randolph_, _Rollo_)
is found as _Ralph_, _Rapson_, _Rawe_, _Rawle_, _Rawlin_, _Rawling_,
_Rawlings_, _Rabling_, _Randall_, _Rowe_, _Rowling_, _Rowse_, etc. There
are also certain names which have a resemblance to Spanish names,
_Pascoe_, _Varcoe_, _Jago_, _Crago_, _Manuel_, etc., but no theory of
Spanish influence is necessarily to be built upon them, as they are
otherwise explainable. As the Cornish had got beyond the matriarchal
stage of culture before historic times, we do not find family names
derived from names of women, but no chapter on Cornish nomenclature can
omit that very remarkable and peculiarly Cornish name _Jennifer_, which
is beyond any doubt a local form of the name of Guenivere, the wife of
Arthur. A more Frenchified form is still found in Brittany, and the
Cornish form goes back to time immemorial. At one time the name of an
equally celebrated Queen of Cornwall was used as a Cornish Christian
name, for _Ysolt_ de Cardinham possessed the advowson of the church of
Colan in the thirteenth century, but except as a modern revival, of which
the present writer knows only one case connected with Cornwall, this name
is no longer found. Another not infrequent Christian name is _Hannibal_,
from which possibly may come the surnames _Hambly_, _Hamley_, and
_Hamblyn_. The name is too old in Cornwall to have originated in any
theory about the Phœnicians and the tin trade of the Cassiterides, for it
is found in times when no one troubled himself about either, but its
origin is decidedly a puzzle.
3. Names derived from trades or occupations. Some of these are only
English, _Smith_, _Wright_, _Carpenter_, _Brewer_, _Paynter_, etc., but
others are real Cornish, as _Marrack_, knight; _Angove_, the smith;
_Drew_, druid, magician (and perhaps _An-drew_, the druid, when it is not
merely a patronymic); _Tyacke_, farmer; _Sayer_ and _Sara_, possibly
_Saer_, carpenter; _Hellyar_, hunter; _Cauntor_ (Lat. _Cantor_), singer.
4. Nicknames or names derived from personal peculiarities, such as
_Black_, _White_, _Brown_, _Grey_, _Green_, which are mostly found in
English, though one finds _Angwin_, the white, and _Winn_, white; _Glass_
and _Glaze_, blue; _Couch_, red; _Floyd_ (cf. Welsh _Lloyd_), grey;
_Glubb_, moist, wet; _Coath_, _Coad_, and its English _Olde_ or _Ould_;
_Baragwaneth_, wheat-bread, etc. Also names derived from names of
animals, _Bullock_, _Cock_, _Fox_, or its Cornish _Lewarne_ (unless that
is _Le-warne_, the place of alders), _Mutton_ (though this may be a
place-name also), etc. One does not see why a man should have been
called _Curnow_, the Cornishman, in a country in which such an epithet
could not have been very distinguishing, but that name is not at all
uncommon, nor is _Andain_ or _Endean_, the man, which is still less
distinguishing.
This is only a slight sketch of a considerable range of investigation,
but the subject would require a book to itself, so that it is impossible
here to do more than indicate the direction in which students of Cornish
nomenclature should work. But in the investigation of place-names in any
language one must always allow for corruption and alteration in the
course of centuries, and in a Celtic country for the Celticising of names
of non-Celtic derivation. Thus the well-known Welsh name _Bettws_ is
probably the old English bede-house (prayer-house), _Gattws_, less
common, is gatehouse. The terminations _aig_, _sgor_, _bhal_, _dail_,
_ort_, so common in the Hebrides and West Highlands, are Gaelic forms of
the Norse _vik_, _skjœr_, _val_, _dal_, _fjord_, and many names in those
parts are altogether Norse, spelt Gaelic fashion, and have no meaning
whatever in Gaelic. Probably the Cornish place-name _Bereppa_,
_Barrepper_, _Brepper_, _Borripper_, of which instances occur in
Gunwalloe, Penponds, Mawnan, and elsewhere, is only the French
_Beau-Repaire_, and there are probably many other names of French
derivation. Dr. Bannister’s Glossary of Cornish Names is of so eminently
uncritical a character as to be of little use. Though he had a wide
knowledge of separate Cornish words, he was no philologist, and did not
seem to understand how to put his words together. Had he only given the
situation of the places—the name of the parish would have been something
towards it—he would have left a basis for future work. As it is, the
whole work needs to be done over again. Of course one need hardly say
that out of such a large collection of names a considerable number of the
derivations are quite correctly stated, but those are mostly the easy and
obvious ones, and even easy ones are often wrong, and it was quite
useless to encumber the glossary with the hopeless derivations of
eighteenth-century writers. But the interpretation of place-names is not
so simple as it looks, and it is easier to criticise other people’s
derivations than to find better ones, so that one may admire Dr.
Bannister’s industry while one deprecates the recklessness of many of his
conclusions.
APPENDIX
THE DAYS, MONTHS, AND SEASONS IN CORNISH
§ 1. The Days of the Week, _Dedhyow an Seithan_.
Sunday _Dê Zîl_.
Monday _Dê Lín_.
Tuesday _Dê Mergh_.
Wednesday _Dê Marhar_.
Thursday _Dê Yew_.
Friday _Dê Gwener_.
Saturday _Dê Sadarn_.
It will be seen that, like the Welsh and Bretons as well as the Latin
nations, the Cornish derived the names of the days directly from Latin,
and did not, like the Teutonic nations, translate them in accordance with
primitive ideas of comparative mythology.
§ 2. The Months of the Year, _Mîsyow an Vledhan_.
January _Mîs Genver_.
February _Mîs Whevral_.
March _Mîs Mergh_.
April _Mîs Ebral_.
May _Mîs Mê_.
June _Mîs Efan_.
July _Mîs Gorefan_.
August _Mîs Êst_.
September _Mîs Gwengala_.
October _Mîs Hedra_.
November _Mîs Deu_.
December _Mîs Kevardheu_.
§ 3. The Four Seasons of the Year, _Pajer Termen an Vledhan_.
Spring _Gwainten_.
Summer _Hav_.
Autumn _Kidniav_.
Winter _Gwav_.
§ 4. Festivals and Holy Days, _Dêdh Goilyow ha Dedhyow Sans_.
Christmas _Nadelik_.
New Year’s Day _Bledhan Nowedh_.
Epiphany / Twelfth Day _Degl an Stêl_ / _An Dawdhegvas
Dêdh_.
Easter _Pask_.
Low Sunday _Pask Bîan_.
Ascension Day _An Askenyans_.
Whitsunday / Pentecost _Zîlgwidn_ / _Pencast_.
Palm Sunday _Dê Zîl Blejyow_.
Ash Wednesday _Dê Marhar an Losow_.
Maundy Thursday _Dê Yew Hamblys_.
Good Friday _Dê Gwener an Grows_.
Holy Week _Seithan Sans_ / _Seithan Mêr_.
Purification / Candlemas _Degl Marîa an Golow_.
Annunciation / Lady Day _Degl agan Arledhes_ / _Degl Marîa en
Mîs Mergh_.
Visitation _Degl Marîa en Gorefan_.
Assumption _Degl Marîa en Hanter-Êst_ /
_Ewhelyans Marîa_.
Nativity of B.V.M _Genesegeth Marîa_.
Midsummer Day / Nativity of St. _Golowan_ (i.e. The Lights or
John Midsummer Fires) / _Genesegeth Jûan
Bejedhyor_.
Lammas Day / Harvest Home _Degoledh ŷs_ (pron. _dêgŭldŷz_
meaning, “Corn Feast”).
All Saints Day _Halan Gwav_ (i.e. the Kalends of
Winter).
All Souls Day _Dêdh an Enevow_.
Ember Days _An Pajer Termen_.
Whit Monday _Dê Lîn Pencast_.
Trinity Sunday _Dê Zîl an Drinjes_.
Corpus Christi Day _Degl Corf Crîst_.
Michaelmas Day _Degl Sans Myhal hag ŏl an Eleth_.
LIST OF SOME MODERN BOOKS AND ARTICLES RELATING TO CORNISH
1. The Ancient Cornish Drama. Edited and translated by Mr. Edwin
Norris. Oxford, University Press, 1859. 2 vols. 8vo. [This contains
the Trilogy known as the _Ordinalia_ (see p. 27), followed by notes and a
most valuable “Sketch of Cornish Grammar,” and the Cottonian Vocabulary,
arranged alphabetically].
2. _Pascon agan Arluth_: the Poem of the Passion (see p. 26). [With a
translation and notes by Dr. Whitley Stokes.] _Philological Society’s
Transactions_, 1860-1. 8vo.
3. _Gwreans an Bys_: the Creation of the World, a Cornish Mystery.
Edited, with a translation and notes, by Whitley Stokes. _Philological
Society’s Transactions_, 1864. 8vo.
4. _Lexicon Cornu-Britannicum_: a Dictionary of the ancient Celtic
language of Cornwall, in which the words are elucidated by copious
examples from the Cornish works now remaining; with translations in
English. The synonyms are also given in the cognate dialects of Welsh,
Armoric, Irish, Gaelic, and Manx, showing at one view the connection
between them. By the Rev. Robert Williams. Roderic, Llandovery, 1865.
4to.
5. A Collection of hitherto unpublished Proverbs and Rhymes in the
ancient Cornish Language: from the MSS. of Dr. Borlase. By William
Copeland Borlase. _Journal of the Royal Institution of Cornwall_, 1866.
8vo.
6. A Cornish Glossary. By Whitley Stokes. [Additions of about 2000
words to Williams’s _Lexicon_, with some corrections]. _Transactions of
the Philological Society_, 1868-9.
7. _Beunans Meriasek_: the Life of St. Meriasek, Bishop and Confessor.
A Cornish Drama. Edited, with a translation and notes, by Whitley
Stokes. Trübner & Co., London, 1872. 8vo.
8. The Cornish Language. A Paper read before the Philological Society,
March 21st, 1873. By Henry Jenner. _Philological Society’s
Transactions_, 1893.
9. Traditional Relics of the Cornish Language in Mount’s Bay in 1875.
By Henry Jenner. _Philological Society’s Transactions_, 1876. 8vo.
10. The History and Literature of the Ancient Cornish Language. By
Henry Jenner. A Paper read before the British Archæological Association
at Penzance, August 19th, 1876. _British Archæological Journal_, 1877.
8vo.
11. Copy of a MS. in Cornish and English from the MSS. of Dr. Borlase.
_Nebbaz Gerriau dro tho Carnoack_. By John Boson. Edited by W. C.
Borlase. _Journal of the Royal Institution of Cornwall_, Nov. 1879.
8vo.
12. An English-Cornish Dictionary. Compiled from the best sources. By
Fred. W. P. Jago. Luke, Plymouth; Simpkin, Marshall, & Co., London,
1887. 4to.
13. A Glossary of Cornish Names: ancient and modern, local, family,
personal, etc. 2000 Celtic and other names, now or formerly in use in
Cornwall. . . By the Rev. John Bannister. Williams & Norgate, London; J.
B. Netherton, Truro, 1871. 8vo.
14. Articles in the _Revue Celtique_.
Vol. i. p. 332. “The Bodmin Manumissions.” By Dr. Whitley Stokes.
Vol. iii. p. 85. “Cornica.” _Durdala_, _Dursona_; Cornish in the
Vatican [John of Cornwall’s _Merlin_]; Cornish Life of St. Columba
[mention of a letter from Nicholas Roscarrock to Camden, referring to
such a work]. By Dr. Whitley Stokes.
Vol. iii. p. 239. “Le dernier écho de la Langue Cornique.” By the Rev.
W. S. Lach-Szyrma. [An account of the present writer’s Paper on
“Traditional Relics of Cornish in Mount’s Bay,” with additions.]
Vol. iv. p. 258. “Cornica.” Fragments of a Drama. [Text and
translation of the Add. Charter fragment (see p. 25)]. Cornish Phrases.
[From Andrew Borde (see p. 30)]. By Dr. Whitley Stokes.
Vol. xiv. p. 70. “Les Glosses de l’_Oxoniensis posterior_ sont elles
Corniques?” p. 301. “Les mots _Druic_, _Nader_, dans le Vocabulaire
Cornique.” By Prof. J. Loth.
Vol. xviii. p. 401. “Études Corniques I.” [On the pronunciation of _d_,
_t_, _s_, _z_, _j_, etc.]. By Prof. Loth.
Vol. xxiii. p. 173. “Études Corniques II. Textes inédits en Cornique
moderne.” [_Genesis_ iii., _St. Matth_. iv., ii. From the Gwavas MS.,
with a French translation and notes]. By Prof. Loth.
Vol. xxiii. p. 236. “Études Corniques IV. Remarques et corrections au
_Lexicon Cornu-Britannica_ de Williams.” By Prof. Loth.
Vol. xxiv. p. 1. “Études Corniques V. Les Dix Commandements de Dieu.”
[The versions of Boson and Kerew in the Gwavas MS., with a French
translation and notes]. By Prof. Loth.
Vol. xxiv. p. 155. “Notes aux textes inédits en Cornique moderne.”
[Notes, in English, on Prof. Loth’s edition of _Genesis_ iii., _St.
Matth._ iv., ii., in vol. xxiii.]. By Henry Jenner.
Vol. xxiv. p. 300. “Some Rough Notes on the present Pronunciation of
Cornish names.” By Henry Jenner.
15. Articles in _Archiv fur Celtische Lexicographie_.
Bd. i. p. 101. “Glossary to _Beunans Meriasek_.” By Dr. Whitley Stokes.
p. 161. “Collation of Norris’s Cornish Drama.” By Dr. Whitley Stokes.
p. 224. “Cornique Moderne.” [The dialogues of Andrew Borde, and William
Bodenor’s Letter; with restored texts, translations, and notes.] By
Prof. Loth.
16. Grammatica Celtica e monumentis vetustis tam Hibernicae linguae quam
Britannicarum dialectorum Cambricae Cornicae Aremoricae comparatis
Gallicae priscae reliquiis. Construxit I. C. Zeuss. Editio altera.
Curavit H. Ebel. Berolini, 1871. 4to.
Footnotes:
{0a} Cf. “Ista sunt nomina corrodiorum et pensionum _in Anglia et
Cornubia_ quæ sunt in dono Regis Angliæ.” Harl. MS. 433, f. 335, temp.
Ric. iii.
{0b} The Bretons of to-day habitually speak of Brittany as “notre petite
patrie,” and France as “notre grande patrie,” and none have fought and
died for France more bravely than these. As soldiers (and still more as
sailors) they are to France what the Highlanders are to Britain, and
avenge the atrocities of 1793 in the same noble fashion as that in which
the Gaels have avenged the horrors of Culloden and its sequel. Loyalty
is in the blood of Celts, whether to clan, or to great or little
Fatherland.
{0c} “If that learned wise man should see this, he would find reason to
correct it in orthography, etc.”—_Nebbaz Gerriau_.
{6} The Britons of the Kingdom of the North (Cumberland and Strathclyde)
probably spoke the progenitor of Welsh, which they perhaps brought south
with them, displacing the South British in Gwynedd and Powys, and later
in South Wales, when they also drove out the Goidelic intruders.
{7} In September 1903, at the end of the Congress of the _Union
Régionaliste Bretonne_ at Lesneven in Finistère, the present writer made
a speech in Cornish, perhaps the first that had been made for two hundred
years, and rather to his astonishment he was fairly well understood by
the Bretons. It is true that all were educated men, but only one of them
had studied Cornish.
{10a} _Descript. Cambr._, vi.
{10b} _Cf._ “Where the great vision of the guarded mount
Looks toward Namancos and Bayona’s hold.”
{12} Clarendon’s account of the Cornish troops in the Great Rebellion
gives the impression that there was no lack of piety among them at that
time.
{17} Probably the well-known Sir John Maynard, whose MSS. are now in
Lincoln’s Inn Library. He represented a Devon constituency at one time.
{19} In Tonkin’s notes to Carew’s _Survey_ (Lord de Dunstanville’s
edition) passages which occur in Pryce are referred to pages of “my
_Archæologia Cornu-Britannica_.”
{39} The motto of Harris of Hayne, “_Car Dew dres pub tra_,” is
mentioned in Boson’s _Nebbaz Gerriau_, and is part of stanza 23 of the
_Poem of the Passion_.
{50} The remarks added here in brackets are those of the present writer.
{54} In compound words the accent is always on the qualifying part, and
if that is a monosyllable and comes last, the accent is therefore on the
last syllable. This is common in place-names.
{55} It seems likely that in the very peculiar intonation of Zennor,
Morvah, Towednack, and the country part of St. Ives the true intonation
of Cornish may be best preserved. But this is mere conjecture.
{56} The modern Cornish pronunciation of the word “trade,” in its local
and rather contemptuous sense of “ropes’ ends, dead mice, and other
combustibles” (as Cornishman once denned it), shows the sound of this
vowel fairly well.
{57} Care must be taken in this case to avoid that _ŷ_ sound given to
the English _a_ in London twang (_e.g._ lȳdy for lady).
{59a} The combination _ao_ in Irish is pronounced _t_. Thus _caol_,
narrow, is _cul_ in the Highlands and _kîl_ in Ireland.
{59b} The word _bewnans_, life, formed from the root _bew_, was often
written _bownans_ in late Cornish and probably pronounced _boonans_.
Similarly _bowjy_ (=_bewgh-chŷ_), cow-house, must have been _bewjy_.
This last, which is one of the surviving Cornish words, has its _ow_ at
present sounded as in _now_. This change has happened not infrequently
in place-names.
{63} The word _en_, in, in quite late Cornish, was apparently sounded
_et_, which is a solitary case of the disappearance of _n_ in a
monosyllable.
{64} _Cf._ the _s_ or _z_ of _azure_, _treasure_, _sure_, _pleasure_,
_sugar_, in English.
{65} Dr. Whitley Stokes, in a paper of additions to Williams’s Cornish
Lexicon (Philol. Soc. 1868), gives it as his opinion that the _th_ of the
MSS. should not be written _dh_ at the _end_ of a word, and that
Williams, in doing so, was wrongly following Welsh analogy. But there is
an evident tendency in _late_ Cornish to end words in _z_ for _s_, _v_
for _f_, _g_ for _k_, and a considerable number of words which Williams
ends in _dh_ end in the corresponding z in Breton, so that one is more
inclined to follow Williams in this matter, though there is a good deal
to be said both ways.
{70a} _C_ before a broad vowel, _k_ before a thin vowel, and _q_ before
a _w_.
{70b} The _ch_ and _j_ are used for an earlier _t_ and _d_ in a few
words, through intensification of the thin sounds of the latter. See
Chap. I. § 2.
{73} See Chap. IV. § 2.
{76} There is also a doubtful form _mescatter_, from _mescat_.
{78} The change of initial of the masculine plural is by no means
universal in the MSS., but it is not infrequent, and is the rule in
Breton (with a few exceptions), so it seems fair to conjecture that it
was the Cornish rule also.
{80} Note how a masculine ending in _a_ affects the initial of the
adjective as if it were a feminine.
{81} It sometimes happens (as Dr. Stokes points out) that if the first
noun is feminine, the noun in the genitive has its initial in the second
state, in fact it is treated as an adjective qualifying the preceding
noun, e.g. _bennath Varya_, the blessing of Mary; _carek Veryasek_, the
rock of Meriasek; _fynten woys_, a well of blood, but as this also
happens at times when the first noun is masculine (e.g. _cledha dan_, Cr.
964), it probably only means that mutations were rather loosely used.
The last two are “genitives of material.”
{86} Note that when a syllable is added to a word ending in _gh_, the
_g_ is omitted.
{94} _Idn_, to qualify a noun; _omen_, used by itself. Thus, _idn dên_,
one man; _Ŏnen hag Ol_, One and All. _Wǒnnen_ is an alternative form of
the latter.
{96} It has been held that this apparent singular, which is used after
numerals in Welsh and Breton also, is really a genitive plural. In the
Gaelic languages, in which the case-inflections of nouns still exist, the
genitive plural is usually (though not universally) the same as the
nominative singular, except in Manx, where it is only distinguishable
from the nominative plural by its article, but except in the cases of
_da_, two, _fichead_, twenty, _ceud_, a hundred, and _mile_, a thousand,
which precede nouns in the singular, the plural follows numerals in those
languages.
{119} There is, however, some blight confusion in late Cornish MSS.
between this use of _re_, and the auxiliary form with _wrîg_. The
difference of sound in cases of verbs beginning with _g_ or _c_ would be
very slight.
{133} Spelling assimilated to that of this grammar.
{135} It will not be necessary to add the pronouns to every tense.
{136} The remarks on the use of the different forms of this tense apply
_mutatis mutandis_ to the other tenses. See also Chapter XIV. § I.
{140} See Chapter XIV.
{144} _Kegy_, _kehegy_ (in _St. Meriasek_), are _ke_, _kehe_, with _jy_
or _gy_ (=_dî_), the personal pronoun added.
{149} Older _yn_. When this is followed by a possessive pronoun of the
first or second person the _n_ is dropped, and the possessive pronoun
takes the form which follows a preposition ending in a vowel, _e’m_,
_e’th_. When the definite article would follow the two coalesce and
_en_=_en an_.
{153} _na_=_ni_ + a (_nag_ before a vowel), ought only to be used with
interrogatives, but the later writers of Cornish did not always do as
they ought.
{154} In Jordan’s _Creation_, 1. 599, “_Myhall sera thewgh gramercy_,”
though Keigwin and Dr. Stokes both read _my hall_=I may, one is inclined
to find this form of swear, and to translate it “Michael! sir, grammercy
to you!” Compare the English use of “Marry!” (for Mary!) or “Gad!” (for
God!) without _by_ before them. It is written all in one word and spelt
the same as the name of St. Michael in the same play. It is no more of
an anachronism to make Eve swear by St. Michael than (in _Res. Dom._,
1387) to make St. Thomas swear by St. Mary.
{156} _Vengeans y’th glas_! is used by the wife of the smith who makes
the nails for the Cross in the Drama of _The Passion_ (1. 2716).
{164} The spelling and mutations corrected.
{165} The spelling and mutations corrected.
{166} The spelling and mutations corrected.
{167} The spelling and mutations corrected.
{180a} Probably the apparent eight syllables in line 6 of the _Poem of
the Passion_ may be accounted for in this way, and one should read
_levarow_ as _larow_; cf. in the Breton of Treguier, _laret_ for
_lavarout_, and the late Cornish _lawle_ for _lavarel_. In English the
first would be no rhyme.
{180b} It may be that the Cornish ear for rhymes was like the French,
and that the explanation is to be sought in a theory like that of the
_rimes riches_ and the _consonne d’appui_ of modern French. In French
_chercher_—_rocher_ is a better rhyme than _aimer_—_rocher_ (in each case
with the accent on the last syllable).
{181} The numerals denote the number of syllables to each line. In the
original a long _z_ is used for _dh_ and _th_.
{188} The spelling of one of the original MSS. has been preserved here,
except that, in order to avoid confusion as to the number of syllables,
the final mute _e_ is omitted. In this _ee_—_î_, _ea_=_ê_, _oo_=_ô_.
{189a} “I have only to add that the metre of _Christabel_ is not
properly speaking irregular, though it may seem so through its being
founded on a new principle, namely, that of counting in each line the
accents, not the syllables.” (Preface to 1816 edition of _Christabel_.)
{189b} Spelling adapted to that of this grammar.
{196} Cf. the Arabic article _al_ prefixed to place-names in Southern
Spain, and to nouns of Arabic derivation in Spanish.