tag="{http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml}a">[0b] as has a Scotsman, an Irishman, a Welshman, or even a Colonial; and that he is as much a Celt and as little of an “Anglo-Saxon” as any Gael, Cymro, Manxman, or Breton.  Language is less than ever a final test of race.  Most Cornishmen habitually speak English, and few, very few, could hold five minutes’ conversation in the old Celtic speech.  Yet the memory of it lingers on, and no one can talk about the country itself, and mention the places in it, without using a wealth of true Cornish words.  But a similar thing may be said of a very large proportion of Welshmen, Highlanders, Irishmen, Manxmen, and Bretons.

         Omnia Græce,
Quum sit turpe magis nostris nescire Latine.

The reason why a Cornishman should learn Cornish, the outward and audible sign of his separate nationality, is sentimental, and not in the least practical, and if everything sentimental were banished from it, the world would not be as pleasant a place as it is.

Whether anything will come of the Cornish part of the Celtic movement remains to be seen, but it is not without good omen that this book is published at the “Sign of the Phoenix.”

A few words of comprehensive apology for the shortcomings of this handbook.  When the writer was

asked by the Secretary of the Celtic-Cornish Society to undertake a Cornish grammar, which was the origin of this book, it was more than twenty years since he had dropped his Cornish studies in favour of other and more immediately necessary matters.  Much of what he once knew had been forgotten, and had to be learnt over again, and the new grammar was wanted quickly.  There must needs be, therefore, inaccuracies and inconsistencies, especially with regard to the spelling, which had to be constructed, and he is conscious also that there are at least two living men, if no more, who could have made a far better book.  Of either of these two, Dr. Whitley Stokes and Prof. Joseph Loth, Doyen of the Faculty of Letters in Rennes University, who probably know more about Cornish between them than any one else ever did, the writer may well say, as John Boson of Newlyn said of Keigwin two centuries ago, “Markressa an dean deskez fear-na gwellaz hemma, ev a venja kavaz fraga e owna en skreefa-composter, etc.” [0c]  For, indeed, even in that same skreefa-composter is there much scope for argument, and Boson’s “et cetera” stands for a good deal besides.

It is not given to a grammar-writer to strive after originality.  If he did so, he would probably not be the better grammarian.  The writer therefore has no hesitation in acknowledging to the full his many obligations to previous workers on the subject.  To Lhuyd and Pryce, to Gwavas, Tonkin, Boson, and Borlase he owes much (and also, parenthetically, he thanks Mr. John Enys of Enys for lending him the Borlase MS.).  But

it is to the workers of the second half of the nineteenth century, living or departed, that he owes most, and especially to Dr. Edwin Norris, Dr. Whitley Stokes, Prof. Loth, Canon Robert Williams, and Dr. Jago.  Of the works of these writers he has made ample use, though he has not necessarily agreed with them in every detail.

The well-known work of Edwin Norris has been of the greatest value in every way, and the copious examples given in his “Sketch of Cornish Grammar” have frequently saved the writer the trouble of searching for examples himself.  Dr. Whitley Stokes’s editions of two dramas and a poem have been of the greatest assistance, the notes to the St. Meriasek being especially valuable in collecting and comparing the various forms of irregular verbs, etc.  Without Canon Williams’s Lexicon nothing could have been done, and though some amount of friendly criticism and correction has been given to it by Dr. Stokes and Prof. Loth, neither of whom, of course, really undervalues the Lexicon in the least, no one can fail to appreciate that excellent work.  Prof. Loth’s articles are mostly on details.  A more general work from his hand is much to be desired, and every Cornish student must look forward to the forthcoming volume of his Chrestomathie Bretonne, which will contain the Cornish section.  It would have been better for the present work if its author could have seen that volume before writing this.  But Prof. Loth’s articles in the Revue Celtique have been full of suggestions of the greatest value.  Dr. Jago’s English-Cornish Dictionary has also been most useful.  In a somewhat uncritical fashion, he has collected together all the various forms and spellings of each word that he could find, and this

rendered it possible to make easily comparisons which would otherwise have given a good deal of trouble.  Even the somewhat unconventional lexicographical arrangement of the book has had its uses, but, if one may venture an adverse criticism, it was a pity to have followed Borlase in including without notice so many Welsh and Breton words for which there is no authority in Cornish.  It is on this account that the work needs to be used with caution, and may at times mislead the unwary.

The author begs to thank very heartily Mr. E. Whitfield Crofts (“Peter Penn” of the Cornish Telegraph) for his great service in making this handbook known among Cornishmen.

Perhaps a subject in connection with Cornish which may be of greater general interest than anything else is the interpretation of Cornish names.  It is for this reason that a chapter embodying shortly some general principles of such a study has been added, and for those who would try their hands at original verse composition in Cornish a chapter on the principles of Cornish prosody has also been given.  The composition of twentieth-century Cornish verse has already begun.  Dr. C. A. Picquenard of Quimper, well known as a Breton poet under the title of Ar Barz Melen, has produced several excellent specimens, Mr. L. C. R. Duncombe-Jewell published the first Cornish sonnet in Celtia in 1901, and the present writer has contributed a sonnet and translations of the Trelawny Song and the National Anthem to the Cornish Telegraph, besides writing two Christmas Carols, one in Celtia and one printed separately, and the dedication of this book, which, he may

remark, is not meant for a sonnet, though it happens to run to fourteen lines.

The writer had originally intended to add some reading lessons, exercises, and vocabularies, but it was found that the inclusion of these would make the book too large.  He hopes to bring out shortly a quite small separate book of this character, which may also include conversations, and he has in preparation a complete vocabulary, though he has no idea as to when it will be finished.

PART I—THE HISTORY OF THE CORNISH LANGUAGE AND LITERATURE

CHAPTER I—THE STORY OF THE CORNISH LANGUAGE

There have been seven Celtic languages—not all at once, of course—and indeed it is possible that there may have been more; but seven are known to have existed.  One other may have been a Celtic speech, or it may have been something pre-Celtic, but of it we know too little to judge.