Richard Gendall's Dictionary for Modern Cornish 6

ORTHOGRAPHY

The spelling used in Cornish in the Old Cornish Vocabulary was not unlike that of Welsh, and at the same time resembled that of Latin, but during the Middle Ages Cornish writers copied the system used in English, for all educated clerics had passed through the English universities. This was not entirely satisfactory since Cornish sounds were not necessarily the same as those of English, but in particular the spelling of both Old and Middle Cornish was too cryptic. For example, in Middle Cornish letter a covered several different vowel sounds, and there is no visual distinction between the stressed a in tan fire, pan cloth, can song, and cana to sing, but we know the first is [æ:] the second [æ], the third [«:], and the fourth [«], and after 1700, in Modern Cornish, these were spelt as tân, padn, caon and canna. By 1500 experiments were already being made to represent the long vowels more clearly, so that whereas tas father, had been the spelling for centuries, Ton began to spell this word as tays and taes, while by 1700 it was being written as taz, taaz, taze, tase and by Lhuyd in Modern Cornish as tâz.

Lhuyd put together a special orthography for use in his Geirlyfr Kyrnŵeig and Cornish Grammar, which he used in conjunction with his notes on pronunciation. It is scientific and phonetic, and in fact the first properly organised system in the history of our language, predating Johnson’s work for English by half a century. It is important to realise that it was composed while Cornish was still being spoken as a living vernacular, so that it carries considerable authority. This was the orthography used by Jenner who originated the Cornish language revival with his Handbook of the Cornish Language in 1904, a realistic resumption of Lhuyd’s recommendations that had been accepted by his contemporaries with a few adjustments. Had Cornish not died out, it is certain that this would have been the appearance of the language. As it is, a number of place-names in West Penwith and Kerrier, mostly the former, are to be found on the Ordnance Survey spelt in this system, including: Chûn, Caer Brân, Hwellan Vrân, Carrick Lûz; Mên-te-heul, Poldhu, Toldhu, Mên-E-grib, Rôskilly, Carn Kez, Pedn-mên-du, and so on.

An adaptation of Lhuyd’s system

The Cornish writers who were contemporaries of Lhuyd made certain adjustments to his system. His initial dzh was usually respelled as j except in cases of mutation. They also reduced the number of accents used, Lhuyd’s î often being generally reduced to і, and û to u in polysyllables. For use to-day the discarding of too many accents can have a detrimental effect, for wheareas the language was still to be heard in the 18th century, now that the tradition has been broken there remains some confusion over the true value of the vowels. In this dictionary simplification is treated with caution, the matter of clarity being regarded as very important.

These ideas of the Language Movement did not filter down to the working man, and the two surviving examples we have from this source are written in a style that would not have looked out of place in the 17th century. First is a letter written by William Bodinar in 1776, given here verbatim:

Bluth vee eue try egence a pemp. Theara ve dean bodjack an puscas. Mee rig deskey Cornoack termen me vee mawe. Me vee de more gen seara vee a pemp dean moy en cock. Me reg scantlower clowes eden ger Sowsnack cowes en cock rag sythen warebar. Na riga vee biscath gwellas lever Cornoack. Me deskey Cornoack moas da maore gen tees coath. Nag es moye vel pager po pemp en dreav nye ell clapia Cornoack leben, poble coath pager egance blouth. Cornoack ewe oll neceaves gen poble younk.

Some everyday use of Cornish continued among older people even as late as 1875, as averred by Paul Therris, a retired policeman, who had gone to sea with old fisherman at about that date, and heard them conversing in Cornish for ten minutes at a time. John Davey Jnr, who died in 1891, claimed to be the last native speaker, which appears not to have been a hollow boast for his poem that we know as The Crankan Rhyme, though taken down from dictation by Hobson Matthews who knew no Cornish, and therefor produced a somewhat confused version, can with some confidence be transcribed in modern spelling as follows:


A Grankan, A Grankan! = O Crankan, O Crankan!
A meano grou as ô mean! = How well endowed are you with granite stones!
Hond ez Park an Venton = Beyond Spring Field,
Pyb trê lûz a vean. = Each grey home of stone.
For Pensanz ha Mardzhou = On the the road to Penzance and Marazion
Ithak ma gwÿ = Very many more trees
Hag ithak ma crou, = And very many more cottages,
A mak trê lûz a varrak. = Where presents itself a gentleman’s grey home.

This charming poem gives Modern Cornish at a very late date an honourable place in our literature.

Some Special Features of Orthography

The pronunciation of the language is clearly reflected in its spelling, but this has to be understood, and some of the main features aer as follows.

(i) The Common Plural and associated similar terminations. In Middle Cornish this was normally -ow, though Ton in 1504 used -ou. This ending in fact conceals three different pronunciations, and by the end of the 16th century that was beginning to be recognised. In Bounaz Kê, rewritten late in the 16th century, we frequently find the spelling -aw for the first time, and Camden in 1607 uses this in his record of Kernaw. Throughout the 17th century -aw becomes common, Nicholas Boson always writing -au. At the same time, -o now makes its appearance in Rowe, with some examples variously spelled that can be summarised as -oo. Meanwhile, -ow and -ou continue in use sporadically.

A particular problem with the use of -ow and -ou is that these in themselves do not make their pronunciation clear, for they are found in use as alternatives in words otherwise spelled with -aw, -au, -a, -o, -oo & -u. Lhuyd resolved the problem by noting that this termination (applied to nouns, adjectives and adverbs as well as plurals) had by 1700 emerged as three types that he spells as -aụ, -o & -ụ, which is to say -aw, -o, & -u. This is clearly borne out by what we find in the later writers and also in place-names and dialect survivals where ­-aw is usually spelled as -a. Lhuyd further states that of all the variations -o is he commonest, another fact borne out in place-names.

These three variations indicate a gradual closing of the vowel between, say, 1600 and 1700, -aw being the more open vowel, -u the more closed, with -o in an intermediate position. A number of the ­-aw spellings found in Bounaz Kê and later are respelled by Lhuyd with -o. For example, tasaw & caraw BK, mennau NB, hannaw WS, WJ, are spelled as tazo, caro, & manno by Lhuyd, and hanno in at least one place-name. The major shift seems to have been towards -o which accounts for 50% of all examples in late literature and virtually all examples in place-names other than those in ­-a which represents -aw.

Since ­-ow and -ou are far too cryptic to be of any real use, they are discarded in this dictionary in favour of -aw, -o & -u, following Lhuyd. Where versions are found in both -aw and -o, these are given as alternatives, but it must be said that there was a strong tendency for -o to prevail.

(ii) The elision of final -dh [ð], -th [†], -gh [h], & th in internal rth, rdh This is a marked feature that must be heeded if a realistic reproduction of the language is wanted. Examples that have become permanent include for (fordh) way, hor (hordh) ram, furu (furdhu) ways. Examples that have become virtually normal include diua (diuadh) end, biu (biuh, arch. bugh) cow, mar (marh, arch. margh, marth) horse, perri (perthi) to bear, and stressed gwi (gwidh), trees.

(iii) The permanent conversion of older stressed internal es to er, as in era, thera, etc.