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"Where Cornish was Spoken and When: a Provisional Synthesis" by Matthew Spriggs, appearing in Cornish Studies, Vol. 11, 2003
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0% found this document useful (0 votes)
1K views22 pagesWhere Cornish Was Spoken and When: A Provisional Synthesis
"Where Cornish was Spoken and When: a Provisional Synthesis" by Matthew Spriggs, appearing in Cornish Studies, Vol. 11, 2003
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oldenglishblogCopyright
© Attribution Non-Commercial (BY-NC)
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
/ 22
WHERE CORNISH WAS
SPOKEN AND WHEN:
A PROVISIONAL SYNTHESIS
Matthew Spriggs
1 may seem 100 conjectural 10 those who will make no
tllonace forthe defects of History, wor besa with
nyhing bu een Tras: bu, where hee no Cera 10
br obtained, Probables must suffi and Conjectures are no
nue, bat whe they are eter advanced as real Tru, 07 00
copiously pred, or peremplonlyinied upon as decisive
(Wien Bocas)
IvrRopUcTION
Roman colonial rule in much of Britain from the mi-nstcentury
[AD represented language contact a well 8 major anges to material
‘aiture and many other aspects of li. Latin, however, di nt replace
the Brioni Cet language ofthe Romane re, sthough borrow:
ings di oceur. In contrast, Anglo-Saxon colonials represented «
nasi and rapid case of language shit over much of England duving
the ith to seventh cenores to what became OM! English Some would
‘nguethat Norman colonials nearly represented another language
Shit to Norman French hut even though that id not the cn
huppen, ‘Norman influence di cause significant contact induced
language change in English. One must not forget Viking setlement in
the ninth and tenth centuries as another hetorcal process having
linguistic elfes. This was much more load, however, although
erly sgicat in affected areas
Tt is iteresing that only ane ofthese colonial episodes Ted to
Where Corish war Spoken and When Bo
complete language eeplacement, the language shift fom a Britonic
(Celt anguage to Old English. This wok place extemely rapidly over
‘much of wit is now England, with very few Bionic words entering
(Old English a all. Although in local areas there may have been the
sSnughtr sometimes boasted about nthe Ang Saxon Chromite mst
‘authors now discount this asa general explanation a the situation *
The importance ofthe completeness ofthis sbi from Brioni ©
(Old Engi hs perhaps not been ally appreciated, I fis well how.
fever, within the’ evidence of eonformiam seen i other aspects of
‘Anglo Saxon culture Hines discusen how he tse of material culture
to symbolize proup ieatiy spread trom its Saxon. soute on
the continent «0 other Germanispenking aces sacha thone of the
Angles and Jus im about the midttth century. While al thers
Separate group identities were then cai over into Briain at that
lime, he abo points out that there some evidence of hybriiaton
with aspects of sub-Romsan British material ute during the erat
Pied of migration, ling us someting about relatonship between
tives and colons This aside, what diferenees there neve between
the colonizing groups soon came to be much Tess clealy marked
in material symbolism. As Hines puts, “England Oy now exited
sirtualy, even if conceptual time were yet to come’ In trial
aur there was a "marked shift towards uniformity around. the
it sth century, putclarly in art and dress sles whee regional
verity Had formerly prevailed"? The diferent Germanic languages
‘of these proups also beta to eeconverge ta surprisingly ealy prod
"0 form Od Eagih
‘ins suggests that a stronger sub-Roman Brits ethic identity
arose in resistance to this new “English elinie Ment), Ths, was
‘tansmited both through symbolically powerul material culture ies
fand perhaps through the medium of heroic poetry. He asks how
jusied we might be in proposing that where material eulure way a
Primary medium forthe expression of en in the Germanic worl,
language and ascouse served that funtion inthe Csi British one? +
Language and. poctry clearly served as 1 primary medi for
spressngidenity i the Enpinh world as wel, omever. Ths, to me
isthe signiocance of the “purty” of Old English, with vitally no
bocrowing from the native Briteh tongue. The defining citetion of
bing English was linguist: speaking OM! Engl (or dalects of 1)
‘without any rice of a Batsh subetrate. Such total language replace
‘ment ina short peviod of ime cold wsithave todo with deliberate
‘olnial policy of conformity which would have encouraged or foread
people shit language,
We know from th laws of In ofthe Ine seventh century that 20 Cornish Suds: leven
Bris subjects of Anglo-Sason kings were treated ina dsriminstory
‘manner compared with English nes” But by that ie who were the
[Britah? The deiniion must surely have teen essentially ngu
[Language si ia this ase represented 2 shift ent. The Bish
were not penoidally dispersed by language shill they too became
Enis.
‘THE CASE OF CORNWALL
‘When we leave England, however, and cost the River Tamar that
‘most long-standing of European political borders o Cornwall we Find
2 diferent station, Here, in const, the Britoie language con
tinued to he spoken for nearly a thousand years afer becoming subject
{0 the Anglo Saxon kindom of Wessex. This contrast interesting
itself Corpvall was conquered later tha mest of mba ie now called
England, apart from Cumbvial? andthe Welsh Marches where the
Tanguage als survived fora period ater conquest. By then the mira
tion peti was ovr, send marked by fundamental social as well
materia etre changes i the fate sixth century” The more Muy
organized migrant elites of earer periods were at that tine colescing
into the groupings that became the formal leadership ofthe Angler
Sixon kitgdoms
The subjection of Conall occurred iil i the ninth century
and more detsively in the tenth century. with Atheta’s expulsion of
the Comish trom Exeter and his Fixing of the boundary Between the
Britons and English at the Tamar perhaps in 936 AD. To desaribe this
‘vent as‘etini lansing’ might seem exvegerated, andthe report of
‘ould jst be another example of the common Ang-Soxon hyperbole
‘bout how they dealt with the Britons they met Tf dhe ary welt
‘entury chronicler Willan of Malmesbury. who provides our only
Surviving account ofthis event presumably hared on now lost source,
'Stobe tasted, however, then this lea solation tothe British problem
vas indeed radical one: "Urbem igitur ila quam contaminate
fonts epurgio defccmverat (Having cleansed the cy ol i
Setement oy wiping oat that iy race =)!"
‘We can ony be thankful that Attia chose not to attempt thie
tactic beyond the Tamar, but instead used more conventional con
‘minstratve procedures. He, i Faberps interpretation echoed hy
Padel is to be accepted, even restored the sncent boundary ofthe
Tamar tothe Commish although Anglo Saxon colonization ad already
proceeded some way beyond i." Archaelogial evidence suggest
{hat the Tamar was indeed the longstanding Boundary of a distinly
Cornish identity gine back i Reman times or even eal The Ite
conquest of Comwall-shether complete or inally leaving cheat
Where Cornish war Spoken and When a
slate sill ruled by focal leaders i debated doubles has much to do
‘it the survival of the language wt the modern pi
AngloSaxon domination of England was secure by the sinth
entry agaist an indigenous popalation wo had everwchmingly oy
{en become Anglo-Saton in specch and ethnicity. The tea te
tenth century was ot really afew Coris speaking an alin nage
but he Vines who spoke a mich mie sl felted one. An
‘once subdued decisively and no longer poten! Viking bree,
‘he Comish were largely ef! alone inguisialy and sn weal
argue, administratively wll”
‘THE DECLINE OF THE CORNISH LANGUAGE
In the end, of course, the language di decline and dic out. Why? Is
fatto go past the tem to seventen reasons piven by Willam Scawen
in various manuscript versions of his seat work on the deine of the
language, Antiques ComueBrtannick; Or Obvervations om an Arent
‘Manuscript writen inthe Corish Langeage wien between 1678 sd
1689. Scawen noted factors of varying weigh. amon them
1 tos of conte fetes Coral and Britany wth he Reforma
thom in Brain inthe steenthcentiy. These languages ae Nery
toe ind an cont sro ih Chanvel Wat eno th
th ome
2. The comation of irate plays nthe Comings,
Terfoances probly being Spree btwcen su 3
{an avin the est of he couiey when Pusan bean ote
oid Staging ofthese tlio dramas wee early evens
{hat brought fogeer people mite by commun Tange snd
tron. Senwen pl "This waa feat mea o keepin ie
the tongue with delight and adniation, and conned aso
freneip and good earespondeny ofthe people They were
ths hey pertormancsof Crnh aay es and eas
3. The Commish gentry abandoned the language and became
Alcized. Ths seen 10 ave cored paralty in Tada
ine, perhaps parleing process in Waly atthe sae ne
‘The language then became ipmatzed aon cas.
4 Toque Scien
‘The coming in of stangers of all vrs pon ws, aie
tenders, home’ born and foreignrswhon out meat cam
modi of tin (ore profae to oir than sue) and
fig, have ied wo us 0 covert and fen to aay
wah tee aa thy could at ea etn our ong fe 232 Comish Studies: lever
pH hy ol mt ind an der deton an ich
than to snmmnate our fo ay improvement then
More recently Halliday put this pont nicely
The dicovery ofthe New Word let the discovery of Coe
wall bythe London merchants, by th adventurer. atl
those interested in the exploitation oF he Indes, she stugale
forthe New Work snd the consequent war with Spain fe
tothe development of the magiicen natura! Rarbouts slong
the southem eens of the county. From being an almost
forgotten extremity of the island, Cornwall ound sl a the
very eens of meeantle, marie and ming activites and
the slumbering ceaturies of olton wee alan end
5. The fale to transtate the ibe ino Cornish the Reformation
isaothe factor often cited It sone aways invoked in relation to
the preservation ofthe Welsh Inguags>" The ack of mich ater
Iiterstre in Cornish athe world entered the age of printing
Semen also mentioned further causes sich a the loss of the
Duchy of Comal records in his estimation presumably containing &
wealth of Coribh language mater, ding the Civil Wa, general
Malaise oe apy among the population (A general stupidity my
bo observed to be in the whole coumty)> a lack of interest in
the language among the farmed, the spread of English church spd
Place-names, the proximity of Engh speaking Devon, and “orign|
Inaeiages' among the gen that mariage out of Cornwall
Other causes which can be adduced include the rapid spread of
Enlnhanguage schooling around ISA AD. As Orie has noted
‘Schools have played important roles in the decline of smal idigenous|
languages in Post Medieval Europe’
WHERE CORNISH WAS SPOKEN AND WHEN
There are quite efferent views carent ato where Cornish wis spoken
at any partealar ime. Earker scholars looking tthe ue Include the
any revivalists Henry Jenner and. Robert Morion Nance. Jenner
Itived hat "unl at lest the ISth century the Tamar asthe general
oundary of English and Cornish and eltewhere ated that ta East
Corowa the language as Been dead for thee centuries In 1939
Nance opined that Old Cornish had been spoken over the whole of
Connwall a one time, Middle Cornish of the fourteenth sid fitenth
centuries had Been spoken over abut half of Cornwall with Late
Comish'of the sinteentt century onwards being limited 19 only 8
Where Cornish was Spoken and When as
quarter of Cornwall at best. All this was based on place-name
evidence Elsewhere he quoted as sping that in northeast Cort
‘all the language “could tary have been spoken there much later
than 1000.AD' Henderson's opinion war that i convenient for
Philolapis! purposes, to vise Corawall by line fom Paton’
through Bodmin to Fowey's!
“The fst detalled consideration of the ie, however, was by
‘Wakelin He saw an early and rapid deci of the langue ack
{o the Fowey-Patstow ine by about 1100 AD and beyond Tro by
1300 AD. His evidence was fased lo some extent ‘on spot telerenced
testing to Cornish speech, but mainly on sound changes in place
‘ames that ean be Wacked a occurring at particular tines The
examples he ses ate nto on (ep Treen, 1086 > Trewens, 1300)
and 0 (tenis n place amex Rent, 1086 > Remy, 1387)
‘occrtng (he believed) soon ater 1100 AD, and toa (Tewpnnal
1525 > Towidnacke 169) which usualy cccured in place-name fom
around 15752 In support of his 1100 AD boundary he quoted the
‘pinion of Henderson cited above, Henderson hd ventured no dat
however, fr when this formed language boundary =
Im contrast and quoted often 4 1986 map by Geoege, bad
in large part on an Unpublished conference paper by Holmes and
reproduced here (Fgure 1). Holmes give evidence fom his own
ies which acs Up the map's “isobar, pareulery for easor
Cornwall. This is manly base on the sane sound change in pace
names showing vn t0- and tos used by Wakelin and tage
to have occured about 1100-1200 AD according 10 Holmes, The
itference is that he found many examples ofthe cheng tothe cst of
‘he Padstow-Fowey ine examples cited by Wakelin: Thus Watelins
1100 AD tne becomes the Holmes-George 1500 AD line and his 1300
AD line becomes thei 1650-AD tine. The published paper by Georne
In which the adjusted map ours is mre focused on how many people
spoke Cornish at any pater ime, an hus the actual evden om
which the map was produced has never been sited in publied font
George, while brondly accepting Holmes concisons, does not that
the arguments concerning the implictios af the 1100-1209 AD sound
shangss for where Commish was generally spoken have not recived
"ener scxpiance’® What appeats to be an updated version ofthe
sme map appears in 1889 French publication by Abaliin”
More recently, Willams has suggested that itsead ofthe slow but
steady tetreat of Commish represcated hy the Holimes-George map,
‘ee was an early deine inate Saxon times but then» fesurseace fe
‘he twelfth and thiteemh centuries withthe arial of Normans and
rotons in Cornwall the casters pat there would then have been 8 ae Comish Sti: Eleven
1 The Holmes Goorge 186 map of Crit gun reat
language shift back fo Cornish from English, He concdes that
‘Comish was spoken bya proportion ofthe population at east fa as
the Tamar until the Gitentscentry, no anil the Reformation It
would then have sfered catastrophic dese in ls than 4 hunded
yeas excep inthe far west beyond Truro. His arpument Based ona
‘ferent inerpetation of both when the Sound changes ocurred and
‘theory of dialectal variation between West and East Cornwall Th
{on novor happened in East Coral bestuse lt oscrred only in
the weston dae of Cornish rather than eatse Cornish was mot
spoken there athe time that thi sound change occured He dates this
Sound change ‘nt very much late than 1280, rather than the usa
‘ate of around 1380-1600 based on place names and oer evidence."
Wiliams as been roundly ertiszed Tor is interpretations by
Dunbar and George, who dspace almost every one of the ess he
presents. No addiuoasl published sipport for Will’ ies. on
language distibation fay come from any oter linguist a Tar a
1am aware Along the way Dunbar and Gorge pce a new ip
‘Where Comish was Spoken and When as
indicative of where Comish may ave been spoken at particular
‘esos, based thi time onthe structure of place-name in particu
tea. This produces tparttedivkion of Cornwall with tw ely
Enylahspeaking enclaves in the east" Pal suggested tht these
!eashecame English-speaking inthe eighth andlor ninth centres and
represent a pre-Athelstan Englsh migration across the Tamar?
‘The second major dvson wih inital Cormiahsetlemeat names snd
Engfsh ames of the separate pars ofthe seltmentsiretches nest)
1 the Fowey-Padstow in. I Tat it probably represents beet
‘pproximation of the longstanding ange boundary than calet
fharacterizaions do. such as Henderson (gute above) and the
olmes-George 1500 AD boundary. Comish primary and secondary
ames predominate to the west ofthat bounds. The boundary sete
se sharp that it mst represen a significant sil standin language sit
{o English, one perhaps lasting some hundreds of yeas: The names
thy discuss were those recorded between 1250 and 133 although the
Primary evidence fen presented
SOURCES FOR A LINGUISTIC GEOGRAPHY OF CORNISH.
Linguistic and historical evidence for constructing soch maps cam come
fom
| Linguistic novations reflected in place-name changes. Where the
linguistic innovation has cecrzed sy a change fom ant ending
to-ns them the language i thought to ve been sil spoken it
that area atthe time the innovation tack place The problem here
‘sa seeming ack of such innovations in he peviod between about
1200 and 1500 AD.* In addition, there is a yet no deiitive
survey available of where such changes oxcured. One has to we
hat area present only partial and potently misleading deta
2. Atlestatons of Commish speech in Historical econ Ihave been
looking at thes forthe period upto 180 (age Append) These
‘ze inthe form of pleas by priests who sa) they want To sive wp
‘Meir beneies as they cannot understand ther Commish speaking
Ptsioners. traveller reports trom the 153s onward on stating
where Comish was sill heard, Consstory Court evidence that
someone called someone ia church whore bitchin English and not
in Cormowok’ (thas suggesting Cornish 3 sil-ving tongue wed
for ks heated speech). or lets of pares where Cornish a
sil spoken during ss final decline. Although 18) AD. con
vweationlly given here—following Nance asthe date by which
‘se of Comish as community language had ded out, Lyon hat
recently collated signiiant body of evidence to suggest the 26 ComishSties Eleven
posiiiy thatthe Inge was sili we in pockets util about
50 or shy Iter
3, Summame evilence such a8 the practice of people taking their
father's Chistian name a thelr summa, Cornish language dese
tive and occupation sumames. and two-part srmames made up of
two Chistian names: These later names may have partelat
eicance for the survival of Commish language and other
Aistinaly Cote cultural practices. Padel had eae dscussed the
“lstvoutlon of personal ames containing the Cornish word pl
‘parish. These ave found from about 148) 0 1880 tothe west of
Padstow. The concentration of uch names in docutents fen St
Colum Major llowed hi to suggest that Cornish as silken
‘herein the mi-sixteenth century. In adion, srmames to may
show the sound shifts found in placenames. Thur the nirame
‘uly recoded ar Chopin cr Chigwen i recorded Chigwin
a Chepwiden in 168 in Sihney, and somewhat flcousty
Pengwyn or Pengwen becomes Pengien in Gwennap in 1664*
4 Records of orrawings into recent Cornish dialects of English of
‘Cornish language words, indenting that the language wae spoken
Any map is going to represen simplification of he ral ingistic
situation. The "soars produced do not mean that no one spoke
Cornish at that ime t he east of them. o tat no one spoke English
to the west of them. They are generalizations showing atees where
Cornish speaking could be generaly found BY about 1700 atthe latest
‘ere would have ben no monolingual Cornish speakers, and even in|
the westenmoet peninsla of Penwith many could have, Been found
‘who spoke no Cornish at all Some have suggested that he towns were
Targly English-speaking from an early date but the late eteaion of
enative Corns names for several of the more important centres
toch as Bodmin (Bosvenna) Padstow (Lodenek, Fowey (Couwhadh—
Perhaps a misprint for Fouvhath?) and Heston (Hella) sugussts that
hough Cornish speakers ha reason to go to thos centres that sich
ames were retnned in memory"
Way be that fishermen moving from port to port kept Cornish
fing longer in coastal ares after it bad died out it the more inland
‘sires along the main rood route to the west, via Launceston,
‘Bodmin, Truro, Camborne, Redruth, St Erik and on to Penzance in|
‘Macron parish? Perhape the relatively late aestation of Cornish in
‘inser parish in the est, inconpocating te ishing pot of Boscastle,
{in 1349 and 1355 as ecause of regular coat by Sea with Cori
speaking pots urhee west such as Lndenek?
Where Cornish wus Spoken and When an
Before presenting a provisional synthesis ofthe current evidence
for where Com was spoken and when, there are two peremilly
Popular Hinguistie sues Which need fo be addressed. The it he
suzzeston that Cornish was spoken during the medieval period in
ats of South Devon, and the second concerns the cai that Joh
Moreman, the vicar of Meahenio in the east of Cornwall, wa
ministering to Cornishspeaking Mock atthe ime ofthe Reformation
inthe 53h
WAS CORNISH SPOKEN IN DEVON?
‘The answer to this bay stated question clearly a que yes, in
that prior to the Anglo-Saxon conquest of eastern Dumnonia dine
‘te seventh and eighth coatorie the language of Devom would fae
been form of Britton simi to that fom which histories Cornish
subsequently derived. But how long aid British speech survive i
Devon? On the evidence of placenames, ot long cnouph to be
‘ecorded. For insane, there ae something Hike 1.30 placenames of
{he form + in Cornval, but ony 3 in Devon," Other Celle pce
ames ar rare, The Cornish expelled by Athlsan fom Exeter Wed
have beea ideniible by ther lnguage ace above) but whether any
‘ther British communities survived im Devon by that late date
‘unknown. Todd nots of Celtic place-ames inthe fertile South Tame
fare of southwest Devon hat there ae virtually none!
Despite this, there has been an ftrepeted claim that Cornish
survived in the South Hams area between the Pym and the Dart Unt
the fourteenth or sistent centuries. Potwhele wrote in 1806 that "The
Cornish language was current ins pat of the Southam, (whch T
have galled Eas-Cormvall) inthe time of Edward the Fis: amd ong
tes in all the viities ofthe Tamar. Ip Cornwall twas universal
spoken He heavier opined that ahouph English ad become
fashionable among the Devonian upper cases, ‘the inferior cases
ered fly to their old vernaclar tongue. Not thatthe Carns
ris was abandoned hy every Devonian of rank or educalion It as
sertainly spoken in Devonsite by person of tinction, on fcr the
‘resent [Saxon] period."
‘There was some discussion of the ise of Cornish speech
in Devon inthe pages of The Western Antiquery during 182. when
ES. Radford asd for corroboration ofthe assertion by one “CAT
(possibly Grant Allen) in Cornhill Mogacine of November I881 thnt
Wels was spoken in remote parts of Devonshite a ate the cg of
Elizabeth’ WS. Lach Szyema alo asked for caiicalion ofthe Sout
‘Hams statement, but noting was forthcoming in response to either of
these questions which extended the tal bk past Polwhele The 28 Cormi Sudie: Eleven
source of G.A‘+ statement i almost certainly tane Taylor's 1865
Words on lacs eee ea tema part of Deven the
tren Cy spec etl lngered om til the eign of Ezeh
(dies ot reereme Pole in tht ‘work, although some Inter
Com pucatins are quoted which might provide an nest
Source, but me esto mond wether Elabeth was snl 2 hip Tor
Eval here?
“The mutes complied by frtor reference to Cornish being
spoken in Elvabetha Devon. The culprit here Nicholas Boson
{Weae.198), who in Neo Gor do tho Coroack (few words
tout Com wrote soncerning the Cori mt he Lamy of
tons ot Hayne fund ons cot sms enravd on wera above
2 hundred year's sc} ol. Hayne self a Stowford in Devon,
though the family seat was nea Peace, andthe Devon connection
ied oso so cncde that's ne it cems) Coos wa 9 that
{County & mow it ans i'd nth Stonford however, 8B
{ar north fo he considered pat of the South Hams.
"The souce ot Polvile’s statement reais obscure, bu as
Nebte Geria was int published in TB the Boson slatermen may
Ive intgenced Jeane and eters who further repeated reference
Elvabothange Cohn Devon’ Obscure oto, however there
bo good evsac of Bash spec song tthe fourteenth een
nye in Devon The fenie South Hams it abuts an area of
Cornwell which shows oversciming and ety Engh betement,
frosbly y the i setury sb) Crash was ely spoken ot
{he Camis side clone tothe Tomar into the teva period inthe
‘ini of Lancenon on pacename evidence, and by Hlzaeths
Teien ad retreated far othe wet
WHAT LANGUAGE DID JOHN MOREMAN SAY HIS
PRAYERSIN?
‘As over popuTa a the cla of Cornish speskers ia the South Hams i
that of # Connishspeaking enclave in the parish of Menheniot in East,
‘Cornwall asting util the Reformation. The aim i that the ver of
Menbenit in eastern Cornvall near Liskeard fom 1529 to 1884, Dr
Jolin Moreman, waste first o teach the Lord's Prayer Creed and Ten
Commandments Engl, withthe implication Being taken that poe
{o that date they would have boon ght in Coeish. Most recent his
has teen srentously championed by Willams But it bas = much
Tonger history among Cori language scholars.
“The myth appears fo have arisen from to Souees. Fis i may
have begun froma too tert reading of 8 passage in Carew’ 1602
‘Sisey of Commull thatthe Lord's Prayer the Apostles Creed, and
Where Cons was Spoken and When 2
{he Ten Commandinens have been wed in Cornish beyond al remem
trance which may possibly have ecm tre nthe west of Coral at
this time bot was most unlikely to have been the ee for eastemmost
‘Connvall om the evidence of Appendix I. Secondly, a informed y
the fist reading, it stems tom a misiterprctation of Hookers account
‘of Moreman which may have fis been made ty thst most inaccurate
‘of Cornish historians, Willa Hale (1635-1737, and then repeated
dle by other
‘As quoted by Prines, Hooker wrote: ‘and (what is very
emarkable) that he was the fist, in those. Day, that tag his
shames and People to say the Lord's Prayer, the Bele and the
Commandments, inthe English Tongue, and da Teach and Catchine
ther therein" Defoe, whose source is presumably Prince, states
the mater plainly: "Dr John Moreman of Southold, famous foe being
te fist Clergyman in England, who ventured a teach hs Parsioners
te Lond Prayer, Cred and Ten’ Commandments inthe English
‘Tongue’ As Nance pointed oul, and a¢ would have heen cea to
readers atthe time, these would have previously been given in Latin
throughout England indeed, one of the governments responses
the petitions ofthe 1549 Prayer Book rebels, the previous language of
the prayer is explicily noted: "And where ye se certein Cornish men
be offendd hecause they have nt their service in Cornith fr so much
2 the! understand no English, whie shulde they nowe be ofended
‘more when they understand ito in English then whe they hod in
Taten and understood i ot?"
A REVISED VIEW
In the set of maps map prseated here (Figures 2-6) {have tried to
summarize the evidence avaiable tome of the above kin for a series
‘of time slices from about 1200 to 1800 AD. Figure 7 symheszes the
Information contained therein and in Appendix 1. The, Willams
Scenario of Cornish being spoken wp to the Tamar border until the
{S00 followed bya catastrophic decine to the wes, doesnot eet a
all key. On the other hand Wakelin’ 19S judgement seems fat od
harsh in te other direction, given the evidence valle Figure 7 8
generally comparable tothe 1986 Holmes- George map, not surpis
ingly perhaps as itis based very mach onthe se ines of evidence It
is even closer to the Abusin map" It has been adjusted, however,
{o take account of the very sharp place-name’ evidence, boundary
‘Mentfied by Dunbar and George in 197 frm neat Tintagel to Powe,
which T take to represent potentially longstanding. hngusic
boundary, perhaps trom about 130 1 1S or even sigh ter,
Talbo take into account the carly English-speaking enclaves 2a
Cornish Sues: Eleven
viene for he Cosh aga 700-170
Tots from te Holmer Core man
7. Arevitd mp of whore Comish wa pokes and when
Where Cornish war Spoken and When 23
‘dentified by the Dunbar and George map and by caer researchers,
which Usee av the boundary at aboat 10M) AD, The south-eastern
ncave was ot nated inthe Holmes-George map of 198, but was
Slluded 1 by Homes i is earier pup.” But forte area in between
‘he enclaves andthe proponedTS00-1500.AD boundary I find the
evidence dificult 10 interpret. can onl refer the reader to Homer's
‘ete treatment ofthe ses involved (se his contribution inthis
olume), There ate ceaty pos-1800 Comish-speaking outers, such
3% Minster mentioned above, but itis possible that the afea where
Cornish was spoken retreated sigiiantly soon after the sound shils
fof about 11Q0 1200 AD, T have thus chosen not to give 110 or 120)
“soba of Cornish language speech."
‘West ofthe adjusted Padstow-Fovey' ine as indicated by Dunbar
and George my view largely pales that ofthe 1986 Holmes-George
map, but wih some signicant diferences. For instance, Figure 7
