An dowlen 2026
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The seventh research conference for the Cornish language will take place online on Saturday 7th November 2026.
- Colin SHORT: Marianism in five major Middle Cornish texts
- Ken GEORGE: The development of final unstressed /ɛ/ and /ɔ/ in Cornish
- Andrew BREEZE: Cornwall’s Place-names: Language, History, Archaeology
- Ffion Mair JONES: Cornish Language Manuscripts in the National Library of Wales and during the
1777–1904 period
Rev. Colin Short
Marianism in five major Middle Cornish texts
This paper is a first step in identifying in the Cornish sources a form of spiritual devotion popular
in the religion of ordinary people in the pre-Reformation era. Marianism in the pre-Reformation
era is considered as characterised in Nicholas Orme’s Going to Church in Medieval England
(2021). The study has developed from first having noted Marianism in Bewnans Meryasek.
Thus he considers its occurrence in the plays of the Ordinalia, in Passhyon agan Arloedh and in
Bewnans Meryasek. Its presence in each of the texts is outlined and then characterised in three ways in which it
appears. Then he speculates on what these patterns might imply in Cornish pre-Reformation theology and
devotion.
Marianism in five major Middle Cornish texts
This paper is a first step in identifying in the Cornish sources a form of spiritual devotion popular
in the religion of ordinary people in the pre-Reformation era. Marianism in the pre-Reformation
era is considered as characterised in Nicholas Orme’s Going to Church in Medieval England
(2021). The study has developed from first having noted Marianism in Bewnans Meryasek.
Thus he considers its occurrence in the plays of the Ordinalia, in Passhyon agan Arloedh and in
Bewnans Meryasek. Its presence in each of the texts is outlined and then characterised in three ways in which it
appears. Then he speculates on what these patterns might imply in Cornish pre-Reformation theology and
devotion.
Dr Ken George
The development of final unstressed /ɛ/ and /ɔ/ in Cornish
In early Middle Cornish, final unstressed /ɛ/ and /ɔ/ were usually spelled and respectively.
They were frequently rhymed with words containing stressed /ɛ/ and /ɔ/, suggesting that their
pronunciations were [ɛ] and [ɔ]. In later Middle Cornish, they were spelled , as was unstressed
/a/. They were then often rhymed with each other and with stressed /a/. All of this suggests
that final unstressed /ɛ/ and /ɔ/ fell together with /a/; that there were two sound-changes,
[-ɛ] > [-a] and [-ɔ] > [a]. The first change took place before the second. Evidence is presented
from rhymes in Middle Cornish verse, and from spellings in Late Cornish, which supports this
view, and contradicts Bruch’s idea that the change in spelling e > a was purely orthographic and
represented schwa. The implications for dealing with revived Late Cornish are examined.
The development of final unstressed /ɛ/ and /ɔ/ in Cornish
In early Middle Cornish, final unstressed /ɛ/ and /ɔ/ were usually spelled and respectively.
They were frequently rhymed with words containing stressed /ɛ/ and /ɔ/, suggesting that their
pronunciations were [ɛ] and [ɔ]. In later Middle Cornish, they were spelled , as was unstressed
/a/. They were then often rhymed with each other and with stressed /a/. All of this suggests
that final unstressed /ɛ/ and /ɔ/ fell together with /a/; that there were two sound-changes,
[-ɛ] > [-a] and [-ɔ] > [a]. The first change took place before the second. Evidence is presented
from rhymes in Middle Cornish verse, and from spellings in Late Cornish, which supports this
view, and contradicts Bruch’s idea that the change in spelling e > a was purely orthographic and
represented schwa. The implications for dealing with revived Late Cornish are examined.
Dr Andrew Breeze
CORNWALL’S PLACE-NAMES: LANGUAGE, HISTORY, ARCHAEOLOGY
Publications in Devon and Cornwall Notes and Queries on Cornwall’s toponyms continue to break
ground both for the region’s history and for Old and Middle Cornish. That can be shown from
such forms as BOJEWYAN, DIN DRAITHOU (= Trevelgue), DOWNDERRY, FAL, GOLBERDON, KERRIS,
HOT POINT, LANHERNE, LANISLEY, LANSALLOS, LYNHER, MORVAL, RELUBBUS, SCILLY, SEATON,
SMITH SOUND, or VOLIBA (= Warbstow Bury). Although described in The Cambridge Dictionary of
English Place-Names and elsewhere as ‘obscure’, all can yet be given clear derivations, whether
from Cornish, British, Middle English, Latin, or even Greek.
CORNWALL’S PLACE-NAMES: LANGUAGE, HISTORY, ARCHAEOLOGY
Publications in Devon and Cornwall Notes and Queries on Cornwall’s toponyms continue to break
ground both for the region’s history and for Old and Middle Cornish. That can be shown from
such forms as BOJEWYAN, DIN DRAITHOU (= Trevelgue), DOWNDERRY, FAL, GOLBERDON, KERRIS,
HOT POINT, LANHERNE, LANISLEY, LANSALLOS, LYNHER, MORVAL, RELUBBUS, SCILLY, SEATON,
SMITH SOUND, or VOLIBA (= Warbstow Bury). Although described in The Cambridge Dictionary of
English Place-Names and elsewhere as ‘obscure’, all can yet be given clear derivations, whether
from Cornish, British, Middle English, Latin, or even Greek.
Dr Ffion Mair Jones
Cornish Language Manuscripts in the National Library of Wales and during the
1777–1904 period.
In 1939, William Llewellyn Davies, chief librarian, prepared an account of the National Library of
Wales [NLW]’s Cornish Manuscripts for a Celtic Congress at Truro (cancelled at the outbreak of
war). Davies’s sixteen items numbered plays, poems and stories, vocabularies and dictionaries,
translations, and testimony on spoken Cornish. 1939 was also the anniversary of the death of
Cornish antiquary Henry Jenner, whose Handbook of the Cornish Language (1904) has been
considered as the beginning of the Cornish revival. Expansions to NLW’s Cornish manuscripts
corroborate Kensa Broadhurst’s findings (2023), providing evidence that, although critically
endangered at the death of its supposed last speaker (1777), Cornish survived until the
appearance of Jenner’s Handbook, displaying a vitality through 18C–19C Welsh and Cornish
writers’ correspondence, poetry and comparative word lists. This was sustained into the 20C
and beyond, with original works (new and rediscovered) complementing learned interest in
the language. The paper gives an overview of the NLW material before focusing on the 1777–
1904 period, where the manuscripts display lexicographical and other interests held by figures
including Edward Williams (Iolo Morganwg), Robert Williams, and Frederick Jago.
Cornish Language Manuscripts in the National Library of Wales and during the
1777–1904 period.
In 1939, William Llewellyn Davies, chief librarian, prepared an account of the National Library of
Wales [NLW]’s Cornish Manuscripts for a Celtic Congress at Truro (cancelled at the outbreak of
war). Davies’s sixteen items numbered plays, poems and stories, vocabularies and dictionaries,
translations, and testimony on spoken Cornish. 1939 was also the anniversary of the death of
Cornish antiquary Henry Jenner, whose Handbook of the Cornish Language (1904) has been
considered as the beginning of the Cornish revival. Expansions to NLW’s Cornish manuscripts
corroborate Kensa Broadhurst’s findings (2023), providing evidence that, although critically
endangered at the death of its supposed last speaker (1777), Cornish survived until the
appearance of Jenner’s Handbook, displaying a vitality through 18C–19C Welsh and Cornish
writers’ correspondence, poetry and comparative word lists. This was sustained into the 20C
and beyond, with original works (new and rediscovered) complementing learned interest in
the language. The paper gives an overview of the NLW material before focusing on the 1777–
1904 period, where the manuscripts display lexicographical and other interests held by figures
including Edward Williams (Iolo Morganwg), Robert Williams, and Frederick Jago.
