168-455: Mebyon Kernow – The Party for Cornwall ( [mɛbjɔn kərnou] , MK ; Cornish for Sons of Cornwall ) is a Cornish nationalist , centre-left political party in Cornwall , in southwestern Britain. It currently has five elected councillors on Cornwall Council , and several town and parish councillors across Cornwall. Influenced by the growth of Cornish nationalism in the first half of
336-630: A 26% increase in its population in the two decades to 1981. The Cornish Nation gave increasingly sympathetic coverage of Irish republicanism; MK warned of civil unrest in Cornwall and the extermination of the Cornish national identity if overspill continued; and its members talked openly of plans to install a shadow government "in the name of the Cornish people in the event of civil breakdown". A motion to restrict party membership to those who were Cornish by "family trees going back through several centuries"
504-550: A Cornish Civil Service. It accuses the civil service and government of "deep-seated prejudice" against Cornwall. as part of their devolution commitments, MK seek devolved powers over health services establishing a “Cornish NHS”. On economic policy, MK is left-of-centre . It rejects "austerity politics, deregulation and support for trade treaties such as TTIP ." It is committed against poverty and social deprivation; it advocates free and equal access to education, health and welfare services. It advocates tackling tax avoidance. It opposes
672-566: A Cornish translation of Ælfric of Eynsham 's Latin-Old English Glossary, which is thematically arranged into several groups, such as the Genesis creation narrative , anatomy, church hierarchy, the family, names for various kinds of artisans and their tools, flora, fauna, and household items. The manuscript was widely thought to be in Old Welsh until the 18th century when it was identified as Cornish by Edward Lhuyd . Some Brittonic glosses in
840-555: A basis, and Nicholas Williams published a revised version of Unified; however neither of these systems gained the popularity of Unified or Kemmyn. The revival entered a period of factionalism and public disputes, with each orthography attempting to push the others aside. By the time that Cornish was recognised by the UK government under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages in 2002, it had become recognised that
1008-689: A birthday prayer in Cornish to the Duke of Cornwall . It highlighted the high proportion of executives in local government which were not Cornish and campaigned against inward migration to Cornwall from the rest of the United Kingdom. From 1952, the party was supported by New Cornwall , a magazine which was edited by Charles until 1956. MK's agenda received support from the Liberal Party, whose candidates endorsed Home Rule for Cornwall. MK won its first seat in local government in 1953, when Charles won
1176-575: A broadcast. Ahead of the 2016 referendum on the issue, MK endorsed the United Kingdom's continued membership of the European Union . On 23 June 2016, Cornwall voted to leave the European Union by 56.5%. Following the vote, MK reiterated its promise to campaign for a devolved Cornish Assembly. MK declined to stand candidates in the snap 2017 general election , citing a lack of financing and resources. It also did not stand candidates in
1344-401: A coeducational independent school, Highfields Private School , but it closed in 2012. Primary schools within the town include Pennoweth School, Treleigh School, Treloweth Community Primary School, Trewirgie Infant School and Trewirgie Junior School. The Curnow Community Special School caters for students with special needs. The Passmore Edwards Free Library was built in 1894. Its architect
1512-455: A complete version of a traditional folk tale, John of Chyanhor , a short story about a man from St Levan who goes far to the east seeking work, eventually returning home after three years to find that his wife has borne him a child during his absence. In 1776, William Bodinar, who describes himself as having learned Cornish from old fishermen when he was a boy, wrote a letter to Daines Barrington in Cornish, with an English translation, which
1680-559: A crossing in the river and started extracting metal ores, and this process turned the colour of the river red. Historically, Redruth was a small market town overshadowed by its neighbours until a boom in the demand for copper ore during the 18th century. Copper ore had mostly been discarded by the Cornish tin -mining industry but was now needed to make brass , an essential metal in the Industrial Revolution . Surrounded by copper ore deposits, Redruth quickly became one of
1848-725: A group in MK to leave the party and form the An Gof National Party, another short-lived splinter group. On 4 October 1997, at the Mebyon Kernow National Conference, Jenkin was replaced by Dick Cole as the leader of MK. One of Cole's earliest actions as leader was to launch the Cornish Millennium Convention on 8 March 1998, coinciding with protests at the closure of South Crofty , Cornwall's last working tin mine. However,
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#17327760749922016-551: A lampoon of either of the Tudor kings Henry VII or Henry VIII . Others are the Charter Fragment , the earliest known continuous text in the Cornish language, apparently part of a play about a medieval marriage, and Pascon agan Arluth ( The Passion of Our Lord ), a poem probably intended for personal worship, were written during this period, probably in the second half of the 14th century. Another important text,
2184-868: A less substantial body of literature than the Middle Cornish period, but the sources are more varied in nature, including songs, poems about fishing and curing pilchards , and various translations of verses from the Bible, the Ten Commandments, the Lord's Prayer and the Creed. Edward Lhuyd's Archaeologia Britannica , which was mainly recorded in the field from native speakers in the early 1700s, and his unpublished field notebook are seen as important sources of Cornish vocabulary, some of which are not found in any other source. Archaeologia Britannica also features
2352-516: A lesser extent French entered the Cornish language throughout its history. Whereas only 5% of the vocabulary of the Old Cornish Vocabularium Cornicum is thought to be borrowed from English, and only 10% of the lexicon of the early modern Cornish writer William Rowe, around 42% of the vocabulary of the whole Cornish corpus is estimated to be English loan words, without taking frequency into account. (However, when frequency
2520-503: A manifesto demanding a return to the old religious services and included an article that concluded, "and so we the Cornyshe men (whereof certen of us understande no Englysh) utterly refuse thys newe Englysh." In response to their articles, the government spokesman (either Philip Nichols or Nicholas Udall ) wondered why they did not just ask the king for a version of the liturgy in their own language. Archbishop Thomas Cranmer asked why
2688-767: A marriage ceremony from being conducted in Cornish as the Marriage Act 1949 only allowed for marriage ceremonies in English or Welsh. In 2014, the Cornish people were recognised by the UK Government as a national minority under the Framework Convention for the Protection of National Minorities . The FCNM provides certain rights and protections to a national minority with regard to their minority language. In 2016, British government funding for
2856-540: A mixture of English and Brittonic influences, and, like other Cornish literature, may have been written at Glasney College near Penryn . From this period also are the hagiographical dramas Beunans Meriasek ( The Life of Meriasek ) and Bewnans Ke ( The Life of Ke ), both of which feature as an antagonist the villainous and tyrannical King Tewdar (or Teudar), a historical medieval king in Armorica and Cornwall, who, in these plays, has been interpreted as
3024-648: A number of orthographic, and phonological, distinctions not found in Unified Cornish. Kernewek Kemmyn is characterised by the use of universal ⟨k⟩ for /k/ (instead of ⟨c⟩ before back vowels as in Unified); ⟨hw⟩ for /hw/, instead of ⟨wh⟩ as in Unified; and ⟨y⟩, ⟨oe⟩, and ⟨eu⟩ to represent the phonemes /ɪ/, /o/, and /œ/ respectively, which are not found in Unified Cornish. Criticism of all of these systems, especially Kernewek Kemmyn, by Nicolas Williams, resulted in
3192-678: A number of toponyms, for example bre 'hill', din 'fort', and bro 'land', and a variety of animal names such as logoden 'mouse', mols ' wether ', mogh 'pigs', and tarow 'bull'. During the Roman occupation of Britain a large number (around 800) of Latin loan words entered the vocabulary of Common Brittonic, which subsequently developed in a similar way to the inherited lexicon. These include brech 'arm' (from British Latin bracc(h)ium ), ruid 'net' (from retia ), and cos 'cheese' (from caseus ). A substantial number of loan words from English and to
3360-504: A number of verbs commonly found in other languages, including modals and psych-verbs; examples are 'have', 'like', 'hate', 'prefer', 'must/have to' and 'make/compel to'. These functions are instead fulfilled by periphrastic constructions involving a verb and various prepositional phrases. The grammar of Cornish shares with other Celtic languages a number of features which, while not unique, are unusual in an Indo-European context. The grammatical features most unfamiliar to English speakers of
3528-459: A process which had steadily increased during the decade. In 1989, Carlyon resigned as MK's leader, leading to a review of the party's long-term strategy. Being close to collapse, in April 1990, the party's London branch convened a general meeting of all party members to consider whether the party should disband; it was agreed that the party would continue. Loveday Jenkin , daughter of Richard Jenkin,
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#17327760749923696-787: A proposed legal challenge by Cornwall 2000 over the UK Government 's exclusion of the Cornish from the Framework Convention for the Protection of National Minorities . Cornwall 2000 need to show that they have exhausted all domestic legal avenues by having the case summarily dismissed by the High Court , the Appeal Court and the House of Lords , before the case can be put to the European Court of Human Rights . MK requested
3864-446: A seat on Redruth-Camborne Urban District Council, under the slogan of 'A Square Deal for the Cornish'. Charles lost her seat in 1955. Following infighting between senior members who were frustrated at her radical separatism, in contrast to the passive culturalism of the broader Cultural nationalist movement, and following frustration at the party's dispersed and unenthusiastic membership, Charles resigned as Chairman of MK in 1956. Charles
4032-455: A second Tamar crossing, and calling for greater Cornish representation in Europe. In 1996, MK published 'Cornwall 2000 – The Way Ahead', its most detailed manifesto to date. The party fought the 1997 general election on its 18,000 words and delivered over 300,000 leaflets during the campaign; however, it polled merely 1,906 votes across four constituencies. MK activists were heavily involved in
4200-614: A study by Kenneth MacKinnon in 2000. Jenefer Lowe of the Cornish Language Partnership said in an interview with the BBC in 2010 that there were around 300 fluent speakers. Bert Biscoe , a councillor and bard, in a statement to the Western Morning News in 2014 said there were "several hundred fluent speakers". Cornwall Council estimated in 2015 that there were 300–400 fluent speakers who used
4368-574: A transport sub-committee of the party. MK campaigned for the establishment of a Cornish University, a Cornish Industrial Board, and the repatriation of Heligoland Frisians whose land was used by the British government as a bombing range in the mid-1950s. It published numerous policy papers to support its positions. MK gained popularity in the 1960s, when it campaigned against 'overspill' housing developments in Cornwall to accommodate incomers from Greater London. MK's opposition prompted opponents to label
4536-525: A variety of reasons by Jon Mills and Nicholas Williams , including making phonological distinctions that they state were not made in the traditional language c. 1500 , failing to make distinctions that they believe were made in the traditional language at this time, and the use of an orthography that deviated too far from the traditional texts and Unified Cornish. Also during this period, Richard Gendall created his Modern Cornish system (also known as Revived Late Cornish), which used Late Cornish as
4704-521: A very small number of families now raise children to speak revived Cornish as a first language . Cornish is currently recognised under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages , and the language is often described as an important part of Cornish identity, culture and heritage. Since the revival of the language, some Cornish textbooks and works of literature have been published, and an increasing number of people are studying
4872-514: A zero-waste strategy, which they believe will lead to "radical reduction of waste". It supports increasing planning restrictions to reverse the building of second homes in Cornwall, As well as a commitment to lower "more sustainable" housing building targets. It would scrap the Trident nuclear programme. It supports debt forgiveness for third world countries and supports the UN target of committing 0.7% of
5040-434: Is taken into account, this figure for the entire corpus drops to 8%.) The many English loanwords, some of which were sufficiently well assimilated to acquire native Cornish verbal or plural suffixes or be affected by the mutation system, include redya 'to read', onderstondya 'to understand', ford 'way', hos 'boot' and creft 'art'. Many Cornish words, such as mining and fishing terms, are specific to
5208-536: Is a Southwestern Brittonic language of the Celtic language family . Along with Welsh and Breton , Cornish is descended from the Common Brittonic language spoken throughout much of Great Britain before the English language came to dominate. For centuries, until it was pushed westwards by English, it was the main language of Cornwall , maintaining close links with its sister language Breton, with which it
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5376-488: Is a region of the United Kingdom or a county of England, preferring the label of 'duchy'. It advocates a National Curriculum for Cornwall, increased investment in the Cornish language, and a full inquiry into Cornwall's constitutional relationship with the United Kingdom. The party advocates the establishment of a "fully devolved, democratically elected" Cornish National Assembly , established by "a dedicated, stand-alone, bespoke Act of Parliament." This would be complemented by
5544-663: Is an Anchor point on the European Route of Industrial Heritage . It is home to Cornwall's first ILR Radio Station, Pirate FM . On 20 June 2008, the town held its first regular Farmers' Market in Market Place: the Market will now be held every Friday throughout the year. Redruth is an important transport hub. The railway station is a railhead for both Helston and the Lizard , and there are frequent buses connecting
5712-627: Is inherited direct from Proto-Celtic , either through the ancestral Proto-Indo-European language, or through vocabulary borrowed from unknown substrate language(s) at some point in the development of the Celtic proto-language from PIE. Examples of the PIE > PCelt. development are various terms related to kinship and people, including mam 'mother', modereb 'aunt, mother's sister', huir 'sister', mab 'son', gur 'man', den 'person, human', and tus 'people', and words for parts of
5880-541: Is now the Redruth Civic Centre and home of Redruth Town Council, as well as the Redruth Library and Information Service. The Mining Exchange building was used as a housing advice centre (it was built in 1880 as accommodation for share brokers). The Old Courthouse , which once accommodated the local council, was completed in 1850. The house now called Murdoch (or, sometimes Murdock) House in
6048-443: Is represented on Cornwall Council by three wards: Redruth Central , Redruth North and Redruth South . The composition of Redruth Town Council as of August 2024: Redruth School , a Technology College , is a secondary school, for ages 11–16. It used to have a sixth form , for students aged 11 to 16, however, it closed applications for new students in 2016 and officially closed in 2020 due to funding cuts. The town used to have
6216-503: Is to support the language, in line with the European Charter. A motion was passed in November 2009 in which the council promoted the inclusion of Cornish, as appropriate and where possible, in council publications and on signs. This plan has drawn some criticism. In October 2015, The council announced that staff would be encouraged to use "basic words and phrases" in Cornish when dealing with the public. In 2021 Cornwall Council prohibited
6384-454: Is without doubt closer to Breton as a whole than the modern Breton dialect of Quiberon [ Kiberen ] is to that of Saint-Pol-de-Léon [ Kastell-Paol ]." Also, Kenneth Jackson argued that it is almost certain that Cornish and Breton would have been mutually intelligible as long as Cornish was a living language, and that Cornish and Breton are especially closely related to each other and less closely related to Welsh. Cornish evolved from
6552-647: The Tregear Homilies , was realized to be Cornish in 1949, having previously been incorrectly classified as Welsh. It is the longest text in the traditional Cornish language, consisting of around 30,000 words of continuous prose. This text is a late 16th century translation of twelve of Bishop Bonner 's thirteen homilies by a certain John Tregear, tentatively identified as a vicar of St Allen from Crowan , and has an additional catena, Sacrament an Alter, added later by his fellow priest, Thomas Stephyn. In
6720-532: The Cranken Rhyme , a corrupted version of a verse or song published in the late 19th century by John Hobson Matthews , recorded orally by John Davey (or Davy) of Boswednack , of uncertain date but probably originally composed during the last years of the traditional language. Davey had traditional knowledge of at least some Cornish. John Kelynack (1796–1885), a fisherman of Newlyn, was sought by philologists for old Cornish words and technical phrases in
6888-675: The 1979 and 1983 elections. MK also contested the 1979 European Parliament election , winning 5.9% of the vote in the constituency of Cornwall & West Plymouth . Following Dunstone's death in 1973, E.G. Retallack Hooper was elected the party's Honorary President; Hooper was a former Grand Bard of the Gorseth Kernow who had been a founding member of MK and was a prolific Cornish language writer and journalist. The CNP's formation highlighted deep fissures in MK between its constitutionalist and separatist wings; these were exacerbated by continuing inward migration to Cornwall, leading to
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7056-433: The 2001 general election , winning 3,199 votes across three constituencies. On 5 March 2000, MK launched a petition for a Cornish Assembly . This was modelled from the "Declaration for a Cornish Assembly", which stated that: Cornwall is a distinct region. It has a clearly defined economic, administrative and social profile. Cornwall's unique identity reflects its Celtic character, culture and environment. We declare that
7224-551: The 2010 general election . In 2011, the party gained some prominence owing to the Devonwall affair; this was the proposal of a parliamentary constituency which would have been partly in Cornwall and partly in Devon. The Parliamentary Voting System and Constituencies Bill sought to equalise the size of constituencies in the United Kingdom. An amendment to the bill by Lord Teverson would have ensured that "all parts of Cornwall and
7392-488: The 2019 European Parliament election , but its leadership endorsed the Green Party because of their historic cooperation, support for a Cornish Assembly and other similar policies. At a Policy Forum on 22 June 2018, Mebyon Kernow launched an updated version of its campaign publication titled "Towards a National Assembly of Cornwall." Mebyon Kernow chose not to field any candidates in the 2024 general election . After
7560-483: The Breton Democratic Union . Several former Cornish MPs have been supporters of MK, including Andrew George ( Liberal Democrat ), Peter Bessell ( Liberal Party ), John Pardoe (Liberal Party), David Mudd ( Conservative ), and David Penhaligon (Liberal Party). George was himself a member of MK in his youth. In the half-century preceding its foundation, Cornish identity had been strengthened by
7728-847: The Celtic Revival , especially by the revival of the Cornish language . Cornish politics was dominated by the Liberal Party and the Conservative Party , with the Labour Party a distant third in the Duchy, in part because of Cornwall's declining tin-mining industry. Both the Liberal Party and the Labour Party had courted Cornish nationalism in their local campaigns, with both parties portraying "a distinctly Cornish image"; in turn, this meant that Cornish nationalism
7896-484: The Celtic language family , which is a sub-family of the Indo-European language family. Brittonic also includes Welsh , Breton , Cumbric and possibly Pictish , the last two of which are extinct . Scottish Gaelic , Irish and Manx are part of the separate Goidelic branch of Insular Celtic. Joseph Loth viewed Cornish and Breton as being two dialects of the same language, claiming that "Middle Cornish
8064-650: The Common Brittonic spoken throughout Britain south of the Firth of Forth during the British Iron Age and Roman period . As a result of westward Anglo-Saxon expansion , the Britons of the southwest were separated from those in modern-day Wales and Cumbria , which Jackson links to the defeat of the Britons at the Battle of Deorham in about 577. The western dialects eventually evolved into modern Welsh and
8232-566: The Golden Jubilee and this part of town had taken on its present appearance – a far cry from the jumble of mining activity that had taken place there in the early 19th century. Redruth was making its transition from a market town dominated by mines and industry to a residential centre. Cornwall's last fully operational mine, South Crofty at Pool between Redruth and Camborne , closed in March 1998. The Camborne and Redruth constituency
8400-669: The Green Party of England and Wales . MK agreed not to stand its own candidates in the European election; in return, the Green Party would back MK candidates at the 2005 general election . In this latter election, MK did not contest George's seat of St Ives ; in return, the Greens did not contest other seats in Cornwall. The electoral partnership was not renewed for the 2009 European Parliament election . In August 2008 MK deputy leader, Conan Jenkin, expressed Mebyon Kernow's support for
8568-538: The House of Commons and the European Parliament , as well as local government in Cornwall . Infighting during the 1980s decimated the party but it revived in the 1990s. Ideologically positioned on the centre-left of British politics, the central tenet of Mebyon Kernow's platform is Cornish nationalism. It emphasises a distinct Cornish identity, including the Cornish language and elements of Cornish culture . It campaigns for devolution to Cornwall in
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#17327760749928736-553: The Isles of Scilly must be included in constituencies that are wholly in Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly"; this amendment was defeated by 250 to 221 votes in the House of Lords with 95% of Conservative and Liberal Democrat peers rejecting it. MK "accused the coalition government of treating Cornwall with "absolute contempt" as a result of this, stating that Prime Minister David Cameron and Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg had "devised
8904-675: The Royal Institution of Cornwall in Truro , which facilitated the exchange of ideas between Cornish nationalists and other Celtic groups. MK was founded as a pressure group on 6 January 1951. At the party's inaugural meeting, held at the Oates Temperance Hotel in Redruth , thirteen people were present and a further seven sent their apologies. Helena Charles was elected as the organisation's first chair. MK adopted
9072-492: The 'glotticide' of the Cornish language was mainly a result of the Cornish gentry adopting English to dissociate themselves from the reputation for disloyalty and rebellion associated with the Cornish language since the 1497 uprising. By the middle of the 17th century, the language had retreated to Penwith and Kerrier , and transmission of the language to new generations had almost entirely ceased. In his Survey of Cornwall , published in 1602, Richard Carew writes: [M]ost of
9240-621: The 1549 edition of the English Book of Common Prayer as the sole legal form of worship in England, including Cornwall, people in many areas of Cornwall did not speak or understand English. The passing of this Act was one of the causes of the Prayer Book Rebellion (which may also have been influenced by government repression after the failed Cornish rebellion of 1497 ), with "the commoners of Devonshyre and Cornwall" producing
9408-497: The 16th century, resulting in the nasals /nn/ and /mm/ being realised as [ᵈn] and [ᵇm] respectively in stressed syllables, and giving Late Cornish forms such as pedn 'head' (Welsh pen ) and kabm 'crooked' (Welsh cam ). As a revitalised language , the phonology of contemporary spoken Cornish is based on a number of sources, including various reconstructions of the sound system of middle and early modern Cornish based on an analysis of internal evidence such as
9576-429: The 18th century , although knowledge of Cornish, including speaking ability to a certain extent, persisted within some families and individuals. A revival started in the early 20th century, and in 2010 UNESCO reclassified the language as critically endangered , stating that its former classification of the language as extinct was no longer accurate. The language has a growing number of second-language speakers, and
9744-448: The 1970s. Criticism of Nance's system, particularly the relationship of spelling to sounds and the phonological basis of Unified Cornish, resulted in rival orthographies appearing by the early 1980s, including Gendal's Modern Cornish , based on Late Cornish native writers and Lhuyd, and Ken George's Kernewek Kemmyn , a mainly morphophonemic orthography based on George's reconstruction of Middle Cornish c. 1500 , which features
9912-496: The 1980s, Ken George published a new system, Kernewek Kemmyn ('Common Cornish'), based on a reconstruction of the phonological system of Middle Cornish, but with an approximately morphophonemic orthography . It was subsequently adopted by the Cornish Language Board and was the written form used by a reported 54.5% of all Cornish language users according to a survey in 2008, but was heavily criticised for
10080-464: The 1980s, these rallies were aggravated by the policies of the incumbent Thatcher government . Following the 1975 split, the party was re-energised by an influx of new, younger members, which also pushed MK more firmly away from its separatist wing. Citing concerns about its effect on Cornwall's fishing industry, the party opposed the Common Market; MK only began to endorse the UK's membership of
10248-507: The 19th century. It is difficult to state with certainty when Cornish ceased to be spoken, due to the fact that its last speakers were of relatively low social class and that the definition of what constitutes "a living language" is not clear cut. Peter Pool argues that by 1800 nobody was using Cornish as a daily language and no evidence exists of anyone capable of conversing in the language at that date. However, passive speakers , semi-speakers and rememberers , who retain some competence in
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#173277607499210416-452: The 20th century, including the growth in number of speakers. In 2002, Cornish was recognized by the UK government under Part II of the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages . UNESCO 's Atlas of World Languages classifies Cornish as "critically endangered". UNESCO has said that a previous classification of 'extinct' "does not reflect the current situation for Cornish" and is "no longer accurate". Cornwall Council 's policy
10584-573: The 500th-anniversary commemorations of the Cornish Rebellion of 1497 ; these included a march from St. Keverne to Blackheath retracing the steps of the rebels, following which the participants demanded a Cornish Development Agency, an exclusively-Cornish seat in the European Parliament, a university campus in Cornwall and a Cornish curriculum for Cornish schools. The renewed interest in Cornish nationalism from this march led
10752-544: The 9th-century colloquy De raris fabulis were once identified as Old Cornish, but they are more likely Old Welsh, possibly influenced by a Cornish scribe. No single phonological feature distinguishes Cornish from both Welsh and Breton until the beginning of the assibilation of dental stops in Cornish, which is not found before the second half of the eleventh century, and it is not always possible to distinguish Old Cornish, Old Breton, and Old Welsh orthographically. The Cornish language continued to flourish well through
10920-469: The Barncoose Industrial Estate . It is intended to reduce HGV traffic using the main Camborne road and provide a direct access to the Industrial Estate. It did, however, provoke some controversy, as some residents in Barncoose lost their parking spaces to make way for the new road. It was extended further towards Camborne in 2016. Redruth has been a major centre for Cornish wrestling for centuries. The ancient traditional location for wrestling tournaments
11088-401: The Convention's launch was eclipsed by the formation of Cornish Solidarity , a pressure group involved in direct action which grew from the South Crofty protests and had similar aims as MK. At the party's annual conference in 1998, Richard Jenkin was elected to succeed the late Hooper as Honorary President of MK. In 1999, over 95% of members voted in favour of relaunching MK as Mebyon Kernow –
11256-443: The Cornish kilt ." Daphne du Maurier , the well-known novelist, was an early member of MK. From its founding until the 1980s, the party was divided between proponents of ethnic nationalism and proponents of civic nationalism . Throughout the 1950s and 1960s, MK was in essence a small political pressure group rather than a true political party, with members being able to join other political parties as well. In February 1960, Beer
11424-445: The Cornish Language . The publication of this book is often considered to be the point at which the revival movement started. Jenner wrote about the Cornish language in 1905, "one may fairly say that most of what there was of it has been preserved, and that it has been continuously preserved, for there has never been a time when there were not some Cornishmen who knew some Cornish." The revival focused on reconstructing and standardising
11592-829: The Cornish language ceased, and responsibility transferred to Cornwall Council. Until around the middle of the 11th century, Old Cornish scribes used a traditional spelling system shared with Old Breton and Old Welsh, based on the pronunciation of British Latin . By the time of the Vocabularium Cornicum , usually dated to around 1100, Old English spelling conventions, such as the use of thorn (Þ, þ) and eth (Ð, ð) for dental fricatives , and wynn (Ƿ, ƿ) for /w/, had come into use, allowing documents written at this time to be distinguished from Old Welsh, which rarely uses these characters, and Old Breton, which does not use them at all. Old Cornish features include using initial ⟨ch⟩, ⟨c⟩, or ⟨k⟩ for /k/, and, in internal and final position, ⟨p⟩, ⟨t⟩, ⟨c⟩, ⟨b⟩, ⟨d⟩, and ⟨g⟩ are generally used for
11760-438: The Cornish orthography within them. Around 1700, Edward Lhuyd visited Cornwall, introducing his own partly phonetic orthography that he used in his Archaeologia Britannica , which was adopted by some local writers, leading to the use of some Lhuydian features such as the use of circumflexes to denote long vowels, ⟨k⟩ before front vowels, word-final ⟨i⟩, and the use of ⟨dh⟩ to represent the voiced dental fricative /ð/. After
11928-464: The Cornish-speaking area was largely coterminous with modern-day Cornwall , after the Saxons had taken over Devon in their south-westward advance, which probably was facilitated by a second migration wave to Brittany that resulted in the partial depopulation of Devon. The earliest written record of the Cornish language comes from this period: a 9th-century gloss in a Latin manuscript of De Consolatione Philosophiae by Boethius , which used
12096-513: The Cornishmen should be offended by holding the service in English, when they had before held it in Latin , which even fewer of them could understand. Anthony Fletcher points out that this rebellion was primarily motivated by religious and economic, rather than linguistic, concerns. The rebellion prompted a heavy-handed response from the government, and 5,500 people died during the fighting and
12264-478: The EEC in the 1980s. The party declined in the 1980s and was close to collapse by 1990. In 1980, renewed infighting over the party's structure led to a spate of resignations which received media attention; this included the resignation of Truran, who had served as party secretary after Jenkin had replaced him as Chairman of MK in 1973. Leading the infighting was a new, youthful leftist faction of MK, which sought to define
12432-578: The MK group, citing his increasing disillusionment with the independent group. In November 2011, former chair of the party Loveday Jenkin was elected in a by-election in Wendron . In September 2012, Tamsin Williams ( Penzance Central ) defected to MK from the Liberal Democrats, increasing MK's number of councillors on Cornwall Council to six. Mebyon Kernow contested every seat in Cornwall in
12600-560: The Middle Cornish ( Kernewek Kres ) period (1200–1600), reaching a peak of about 39,000 speakers in the 13th century, after which the number started to decline. This period provided the bulk of traditional Cornish literature , and was used to reconstruct the language during its revival. Most important is the Ordinalia , a cycle of three mystery plays, Origo Mundi , Passio Christi and Resurrexio Domini . Together these provide about 8,734 lines of text. The three plays exhibit
12768-471: The Party for Cornwall in order to distance itself from the ethnic nationalist 'Sons of Cornwall' label; the name change was adopted. Mebyon Kernow stood 25 candidates in the 1999 local elections in Cornwall, its highest number ever. The party did not contest the 1999 European Parliament election , given the size of the new South West England constituency and the large prerequisite £5,000 deposit. It contested
12936-690: The Redruth Urban District and Redruth Rural District . The urban district was merged with that of Camborne and parts of Redruth Rural District and Helston Rural District (both of which were being abolished) in 1934 to form the Camborne-Redruth Urban District . The urban district persisted until it was merged into the Kerrier district of Cornwall under the Local Government Act 1972 . Redruth
13104-742: The UK's GDP as foreign aid. The party would introduce proportional representation to UK elections through the Single Transferable Vote and would abolish the House of Lords . MK supported the UK's membership of the European Union. It endorsed a referendum on the final Brexit deal . Cornwall is part of the South West Regional Assembly and the South West Regional Development Agency (SWRDA) administrates economic development, housing and strategic planning. MK claims that
13272-629: The US. The results of the fight were disputed and at a later brawl in a hotel between the two, Carkeek bit off Pearce's ear. In August, Carkeek defeated Philip Hancock, although there were accusations that Hancock threw the fight. In 1889, Redruth hosted the tournament for "Championship of World", where many wrestlers descended on Redruth, including Carkeek, who eventually won. The Interceltic games were held in Redruth in 1933 and 1972. Men from Redruth were very successful in Cornish wrestling throughout
13440-944: The United States, and Real del Monte in Mexico. A museum organised by the Old Cornwall Society is housed in the Town Council office at the bottom of the main street. Redruth is also home to Carn Brea , which has most historical interest. The Carn, however, is not the highest point in Redruth; it is beaten slightly by Carnmenellis , south west of the town centre. Redruth Rugby Football Club currently play in National League 2 South (tier 4 of rugby union in England). Players such as Phil Vickery and Rob Thirlby have both passed through its ranks though
13608-471: The alias Kerrier District ; a reference to name of the district in which Redruth is located. Hedluv + Passman both grew up in Redruth, and wrote the song "'druth" in tribute to the town. The traditional Cornish dance and music group, Hevva is based in Redruth. The historians Kenneth Hamilton Jenkin and Charles Thomas were also born in Redruth, and the Victorian philanthropist John Passmore Edwards
13776-569: The area covered is an artificially imposed large region and not natural. Mebyon Kernow wants to break up the SWRDA into small county areas and implement a Cornish Regional Development Agency. The party supports making Saint Piran 's day, the day of Cornwall's patron saint, which falls on 5 March, a public holiday. It also advocates the establishment of a Cornish University. Cornish language Cornish ( Standard Written Form : Kernewek or Kernowek , pronounced [kəɾˈnuːək] )
13944-479: The authorities came to associate it with sedition and "backwardness". This proved to be one of the reasons why the Book of Common Prayer was never translated into Cornish (unlike Welsh ), as proposals to do so were suppressed in the rebellion's aftermath. The failure to translate the Book of Common Prayer into Cornish led to the language's rapid decline during the 16th and 17th centuries. Peter Berresford Ellis cites
14112-409: The basis of revived Cornish ( Kernewek Dasserghys ) for most of the 20th century. During the 1970s, criticism of Nance's system, including the inconsistent orthography and unpredictable correspondence between spelling and pronunciation, as well as on other grounds such as the archaic basis of Unified and a lack of emphasis on the spoken language, resulted in the creation of several rival systems. In
14280-420: The beginning of the Celtic Revival in the late 19th century, provided the groundwork for a Cornish language revival movement. Notwithstanding the uncertainty over who was the last speaker of Cornish, researchers have posited the following numbers for the prevalence of the language between 1050 and 1800. In 1904, the Celtic language scholar and Cornish cultural activist Henry Jenner published A Handbook of
14448-513: The bill to breach the territorial integrity of Cornwall", and that it broke election promises from their parties to protect Cornish interests. Cameron replied to concerns by stating that "it's the Tamar , not the Amazon , for Heaven's sake"; his controversial remark was widely ridiculed in Cornwall. MK welcomed the later rejection of the parliamentary constituency boundary review, which in turn prevented
14616-617: The body, including lof 'hand' and dans 'tooth'. Inherited adjectives with an Indo-European etymology include newyth 'new', ledan 'broad, wide', rud 'red', hen 'old', iouenc 'young', and byw 'alive, living'. Several Celtic or Brittonic words cannot be reconstructed to Proto-Indo-European, and are suggested to have been borrowed from unknown substrate language(s) at an early stage, such as Proto-Celtic or Proto-Brittonic. Proposed examples in Cornish include coruf 'beer' and broch 'badger'. Other words in Cornish inherited direct from Proto-Celtic include
14784-516: The cast bronze 'dogs' and also liked the large amount of work that had been done to the town in terms of landscaping the central area (mainly Fore St & the opeways). Just outside the town is a European funded visitor attraction, themed on the Robinson Shaft Mine, it offers parking, an adventure play ground for older children and a pleasant restaurant. At times the last working Cornish pumping engine can be seen working. The museum
14952-542: The club's most famous "son" must be Richard Sharp OBE. A resident of Clinton Road with his mother and brother Nigel, he represented Redruth, Cornwall, and England, leading his country to the Five Nations title in 1963 . Redruth football club has not enjoyed as much success but still thrives in its regular fixtures. On the high street there is a Tang Soo Do (Korean Karate) and Kickboxing Academy named ISK Martial Arts. Duchy Hockey Club are based at Pool Academy on
15120-508: The co founder of and drummer with Fleetwood Mac , Mick Fleetwood , were all born here. The writer and comedian Rory McGrath was born here and educated at the town's secondary school, Cornish artist Jonathan Polkest studied art at The Redruth School of Art in Clinton Road, The musician Aphex Twin (and friend of Vibert) grew up near Redruth. Luke Vibert has released an album called Chicago, Detroit, Redruth and has also recorded under
15288-573: The consultation process, that the town did not have anything to represent the history of the men who worked down the tin and copper mines in the area. David Annand was selected from over 70 artists who responded to an advert placed by Cornwall Arts Centre Trust, the project managers, for expressions of interest in August 2006. Redruth is a small commercial town. It is twinned with Plumergat and Meriadec in Brittany, France, Mineral Point, Wisconsin in
15456-557: The creation of Unified Cornish Revised, a modified version of Nance's orthography, featuring: an additional phoneme not distinguished by Nance, "ö in German schön ", represented in the UCR orthography by ⟨ue⟩; replacement of ⟨y⟩ with ⟨e⟩ in many words; internal ⟨h⟩ rather than ⟨gh⟩; and use of final ⟨b⟩, ⟨g⟩, and ⟨dh⟩ in stressed monosyllables. A Standard Written Form , intended as a compromise orthography for official and educational purposes,
15624-560: The culture of Cornwall. Examples include atal 'mine waste' and beetia 'to mend fishing nets'. Foogan and hogan are different types of pastries. Troyl is a 'traditional Cornish dance get-together' and Furry is a specific kind of ceremonial dance that takes place in Cornwall. Certain Cornish words may have several translation equivalents in English, so for instance lyver may be translated into English as either 'book' or 'volume' and dorn can mean either 'hand' or 'fist'. As in other Celtic languages, Cornish lacks
15792-627: The decision, a faction in MK remained frustrated at the continuing possibility of dual party membership, the wide range of views on Cornish nationalism in the party and MK's slow transition into a political party; this dissident faction formed the Cornish National Party in July 1969. The CNP's members were expelled from MK, but the CNP had disappointing election results in the 1970 county council elections, leading most CNP members to rejoin MK by
15960-408: The defeated motion, resigned his membership of MK to form a second Cornish Nationalist Party , which campaigned for full Cornish independence on a pro-European platform. This second CNP also had disappointing electoral results and has not contested elections since 1985. During the 1970s, MK held rallies in support of Cornwall's fishing industry and against regional unemployment and nuclear waste; in
16128-504: The dental fricatives /θ/ and /ð/, a usage which is unique to Middle Cornish and is never found in Middle English. Middle Cornish scribes tend to use ⟨c⟩ for /k/ before back vowels, and ⟨k⟩ for /k/ before front vowels, though this is not always true, and this rule is less consistent in certain texts. Middle Cornish scribes almost universally use ⟨wh⟩ to represent /ʍ/ (or /hw/), as in Middle English. Middle Cornish, especially towards
16296-401: The district authorities, several Cornish organisations and three of Cornwall's five MPs. The campaign was well-publicised, attained national attention, and collected over 3,000 signatures in three months. The campaign called for an exclusively-Cornish European Parliament constituency and was founded on MK's long-standing opposition to amalgamating public boards and companies in Cornwall and Devon,
16464-567: The election, the party called on Cornwall's new MPs to "unite and take this opportunity ... to demand meaningful devolution". MK is an advocate of Cornish nationalism , seeing Cornwall as a separate nation rather than an English county . It emphasises Cornwall's distinct Celtic culture and language , as well as its border along the River Tamar , which has largely remained unchanged since 936 AD. The party's leaders identify as both Cornish and British but Cornish first. It rejects that Cornwall
16632-431: The end of this period, tends to use orthographic ⟨g⟩ and ⟨b⟩ in word-final position in stressed monosyllables, and ⟨k⟩ and ⟨p⟩ in word-final position in unstressed final syllables, to represent the reflexes of late Brittonic /ɡ/ and /b/, respectively. Written sources from this period are often spelled following English spelling conventions since many of the writers of the time had not been exposed to Middle Cornish texts or
16800-436: The evidence of this rhyme, of what there was to lose by neglecting John Davey." The search for the last speaker is hampered by a lack of transcriptions or audio recordings, so that it is impossible to tell from this distance whether the language these people were reported to be speaking was Cornish, or English with a heavy Cornish substratum , nor what their level of fluency was. Nevertheless, this academic interest, along with
16968-475: The existence of multiple orthographies was unsustainable with regards to using the language in education and public life, as none had achieved a wide consensus. A process of unification was set about which resulted in the creation of the public-body Cornish Language Partnership in 2005 and agreement on a Standard Written Form in 2008. In 2010 a new milestone was reached when UNESCO altered its classification of Cornish, stating that its previous label of "extinct"
17136-424: The following objectives: By September 1951 they had officially come to a stance of supporting self-government for Cornwall, when the fourth objective was replaced with: "To further the acceptance of the Celtic character of Cornwall and its right to self-government in domestic affairs in a Federated United Kingdom." In its early years, MK engaged in cultural activities, such as producing Cornish calendars and sending
17304-567: The form of a Cornish Assembly . Economically, it is social democratic , calling for continued public ownership of education and healthcare and the renationalisation of railways. It also calls for greater environmental protection and continued UK membership of the European Union . The party is a member of the European Free Alliance and has close links with Plaid Cymru , the Scottish National Party and
17472-632: The formation in 1987 of the Cornish Alternatives to the Structure Plan, gained high-profile notability in Cornwall. MK also campaigned against tourism-centred economic development and the poll tax . Nevertheless, public support for action was far lower than the previous decade and MK regressed into a pressure group. In 1988, MK established the Campaign for a Cornish Constituency, which won the support of Cornwall County Council, all
17640-728: The house was used as a tea room, run by a Mrs Knuckey. In 1931 Mr A. Pearce Jenkin, a leading citizen of Redruth purchased the house and gave it as a gift to the Society of Friends ( Quakers ). Murdoch House has since been fully restored and is now regularly used by the Redruth Old Cornwall Society , as well as the Cornish-American Connection and the Redruth Story Group. Next door are St. Rumon's Gardens . Kresen Kernow , on
17808-400: The individualised nature of language take-up. Nevertheless, there is recognition that the number of Cornish speakers is growing. From before the 1980s to the end of the 20th century there was a sixfold increase in the number of speakers to around 300. One figure for the number of people who know a few basic words, such as knowing that "Kernow" means "Cornwall", was 300,000; the same survey gave
17976-402: The inhabitants can speak no word of Cornish, but very few are ignorant of the English; and yet some so affect their own, as to a stranger they will not speak it; for if meeting them by chance, you inquire the way, or any such matter, your answer shall be, " Meea navidna caw zasawzneck ," "I [will] speak no Saxonage." The Late Cornish ( Kernewek Diwedhes ) period from 1600 to about 1800 has
18144-472: The introduction of a cross-border Devonwall constituency for the 2015 and 2017 general elections. In the 2013 Cornwall Council election , the party was reduced to three seats. Williams did not seek re-election and MK lost her seat; MK did not win any of the newly-redrawn seats in Camborne; and Plummer unsuccessfully contested Lanner & Stithians as an independent. Only Cole and Jenkin held their seats;
18312-957: The language are the initial consonant mutations , the verb–subject–object word order, inflected prepositions , fronting of emphasised syntactic elements and the use of two different forms for 'to be'. Cornish has initial consonant mutation : The first sound of a Cornish word may change according to grammatical context. As in Breton, there are four types of mutation in Cornish (compared with three in Welsh , two in Irish and Manx and one in Scottish Gaelic ). These changes apply to only certain letters (sounds) in particular grammatical contexts, some of which are given below: Cornish has no indefinite article . Porth can either mean 'harbour' or 'a harbour'. In certain contexts, unn can be used, with
18480-407: The language despite not being fluent nor using the language in daily life, generally survive even longer. The traditional view that Dolly Pentreath (1692–1777) was the last native speaker of Cornish has been challenged, and in the 18th and 19th centuries there was academic interest in the language and in attempting to find the last speaker of Cornish. It has been suggested that, whereas Pentreath
18648-580: The language regularly, with 5,000 people having a basic conversational ability in the language. A report on the 2011 Census published in 2013 by the Office for National Statistics placed the number of speakers at somewhere between 325 and 625. In 2017 the ONS released data based on the 2011 Census that placed the number of speakers at 557 people in England and Wales who declared Cornish to be their main language, 464 of whom lived in Cornwall. The 2021 census listed
18816-438: The language, including coining new words for modern concepts, and creating educational material in order to teach Cornish to others. In 1929 Robert Morton Nance published his Unified Cornish ( Kernewek Unys ) system, based on the Middle Cornish literature while extending the attested vocabulary with neologisms and forms based on Celtic roots also found in Breton and Welsh, publishing a dictionary in 1938. Nance's work became
18984-487: The language. Recent developments include Cornish music , independent films , and children's books. A small number of people in Cornwall have been brought up to be bilingual native speakers, and the language is taught in schools and appears on street nameplates. The first Cornish-language day care opened in 2010. Cornish is a Southwestern Brittonic language, a branch of the Insular Celtic section of
19152-593: The largest and richest mining areas in Britain and the town's population grew markedly, although most miners' families remained poor. In the 1880s and 1890s the town end of Clinton Road gained a number of institutions, notably a School of Mines and Art School in 1882–83, St. Andrew's Church (replacing the chapel in Chapel Street) in 1883 and, opposite, the Free Library, built in 1895. The Mining Exchange
19320-470: The largest conurbation in Cornwall. Redruth lies approximately at the junction of the A 393 and A3047 roads, on the route of the old London to Land's End trunk road (now the A30 ), and is approximately 9 miles (14 km) west of Truro , 12 miles (19 km) east of St Ives , 18 miles (29 km) north east of Penzance and 11 miles (18 km) north west of Falmouth . Camborne and Redruth together form
19488-550: The largest urban area in Cornwall and before local government reorganisation were an urban district . The name Redruth derives from its older Cornish name, Rhyd-ruth . It means Red Ford (literally ford-red). The first syllable 'red' means ford. The second 'ruth' means red. Rhyd is the older form of 'Res', which is a Cornish equivalent to a ford (across a river), a common Celtic word; Old Cornish rid ; Welsh rhyd (Old Welsh rit ); Old Breton rit or ret , Gaulish ritu- , all from Indo-European *prtus derived word in -tu from
19656-648: The main route out of the county as well as routes to the far West , North Cornwall , South East Cornwall and Plymouth . Another road, the A393, bisects the town in a north–south direction, and links the A30 with the port of Falmouth . A third road, the A3047, links Redruth with Camborne , some four miles (6.4 km) to the west. The Barncoose by-pass connects between the Redruth Community Hospital and
19824-436: The meaning 'a certain, a particular', e.g. unn porth 'a certain harbour'. There is, however, a definite article an 'the', which is used for all nouns regardless of their gender or number, e.g. an porth 'the harbour'. Cornish nouns belong to one of two grammatical genders , masculine and feminine, but are not inflected for case . Nouns may be singular or plural. Plurals can be formed in various ways, depending on
19992-485: The mid-1970s. In the 1970 election , Richard Jenkin , who would succeed Truran as Chairman of MK in 1973, won 2% of the vote in the Falmouth & Camborne constituency. James Whetter stood for MK in the Truro constituency in the general elections of February and October 1974, achieving 1.5% and 0.7% of the vote respectively. The party contested the constituencies of St Ives and Falmouth & Camborne in both
20160-407: The middle of Cross Street was erected in the 1660s as a chapel and it afterwards became a prison. William Murdoch lived in it from 1782 to 1798. During this time, he worked on local tin and copper mines, erecting engines on behalf of Boulton and Watt . He fitted the house out with gas lighting from coal gas – this was the first house in the world with this type of lighting. In the 19th century,
20328-482: The noun: Redruth Redruth ( / r ə ˈ d r uː θ / rə- DROOTH , Cornish : Resrudh ) is a town and civil parish in Cornwall , England, United Kingdom. According to the 2011 census, the population of Redruth was 14,018 In the same year the population of the Camborne -Redruth urban area, which also includes Carn Brea , Illogan and several outlying villages, stood at 55,400 which made it
20496-465: The now extinct Cumbric , while Southwestern Brittonic developed into Cornish and Breton, the latter as a result of emigration to parts of the continent, known as Brittany over the following centuries. The area controlled by the southwestern Britons was progressively reduced by the expansion of Wessex over the next few centuries. During the Old Cornish ( Kernewek Koth ) period (800–1200),
20664-565: The number of Cornish speakers at 563. A study that appeared in 2018 established the number of people in Cornwall with at least minimal skills in Cornish, such as the use of some words and phrases, to be more than 3,000, including around 500 estimated to be fluent. The Institute of Cornish Studies at the University of Exeter is working with the Cornish Language Partnership to study the Cornish language revival of
20832-410: The number of people able to have simple conversations as 3,000. The Cornish Language Strategy project commissioned research to provide quantitative and qualitative evidence for the number of Cornish speakers: due to the success of the revival project it was estimated that 2,000 people were fluent (surveyed in spring 2008), an increase from the estimated 300 people who spoke Cornish fluently suggested in
21000-415: The orthography and rhyme used in the historical texts, comparison with the other Brittonic languages Breton and Welsh, and the work of the linguist Edward Lhuyd , who visited Cornwall in 1700 and recorded the language in a partly phonetic orthography. Cornish is a Celtic language, and the majority of its vocabulary, when usage frequency is taken into account, at every documented stage of its history
21168-835: The other Brittonic languages. The first sound change to distinguish Cornish from both Breton and Welsh, the assibilation of the dental stops /t/ and /d/ in medial and final position, had begun by the time of the Vocabularium Cornicum , c. 1100 or earlier. This change, and the subsequent, or perhaps dialectical, palatalization (or occasional rhotacization in a few words) of these sounds, results in orthographic forms such as Middle Cornish tas 'father', Late Cornish tâz (Welsh tad ), Middle Cornish cresy 'believe', Late Cornish cregy (Welsh credu ), and Middle Cornish gasa 'leave', Late Cornish gara (Welsh gadael ). A further characteristic sound change, pre-occlusion , occurred during
21336-907: The outskirts of Redruth and compete in the West of England regional leagues. Redruth Cricket Club currently consists of 4 Men's playing XIs, one women's XI and multiple youth sides. Redruth First XI play in the Cornwall Cricket League ECB Premier League, coming second in the 2019 season. The Second XI placed second in County League One, the second division of Cornish Cricket, in the same year. Actress Kristin Scott Thomas , electronic musician Luke Vibert , baritone Benjamin Luxon , opera singer Alan Opie , record producer and broadcaster Tris Penna, and
21504-601: The party also gained a seat in Penwithick & Boscoppa. It held these seats and gained no further seats at the 2017 Cornwall Council election . MK decided not to stand candidates in the 2014 European elections, claiming the system is skewed against them winning seats. MK contested all six Cornish constituencies in the 2015 general election . It complained against not being granted a party election broadcast: under current guidelines, it would need to stand in eighty-three constituencies outside of Cornwall in order to qualify for
21672-578: The party as racialist ; the party denied the allegations and responded with What Cornishmen Can Do , a pamphlet published in September 1968 which proposed more investment in natural resources, food processing and technological industries, as well as a Cornish University, tidal barrages and more support for small farmers. Partly due to its opposition to overspill, by 1965, the party numbered 700 members, rising to 1,000 by early 1968. In April 1967, Colin Murley
21840-537: The party focussed on its opposition to the creation of a South West England region and the construction of a nuclear station at Luxulyan ; this latter campaign culminated in the formation of the Cornish Anti-Nuclear Alliance, which drew over 2,000 attendees to its first rallies in Truro in July 1980. MK's vociferous response to the planned building of 40,000 new homes in Cornwall, manifested in
22008-553: The party's first Honorary President. By the 1970s the group developed into a more coherent and unified organisation. At the annual conference in October 1967, party members voted for a resolution to contest elections to the House of Commons , marking a turning point in MK's transition from a pressure group into a political party. The decision meant that councillors, prospective parliamentary candidates and MPs who held dual party membership began to disassociate themselves from MK. Despite
22176-469: The party's policies on defence, the monarchy and public ownership, bringing the party away from its traditional nationalist focus. While the infighting consolidated MK's economic stance as left-of-centre, the party's everchanging positions confused voters and presided over the decline of its magazines, including the Cornish Nation . In 1983, Jenkin was replaced by Julyan Drew as the party leader; Drew
22344-517: The people of Cornwall will be best served in their future governance by a Cornish regional assembly. We therefore commit ourselves to setting up the Cornish Constitutional Convention with the intention of achieving a devolved Cornish Assembly. Three months later the Cornish Constitutional Convention was held with the objective of establishing a devolved Assembly. Within fifteen months, Mebyon Kernow's petition attracted
22512-413: The phonemes /b/, /d/, /ɡ/, /β/, /ð/, and /ɣ/ respectively, meaning that the results of Brittonic lenition are not usually apparent from the orthography at this time. Middle Cornish orthography has a significant level of variation, and shows influence from Middle English spelling practices. Yogh (Ȝ ȝ) is used in certain Middle Cornish texts, where it is used to represent a variety of sounds, including
22680-462: The privatisation of the NHS and would renationalise railways and utilities. The party regularly highlights problems with the Cornish economy : Cornwall has lower wages and higher unemployment than the rest of the United Kingdom. The party is environmentalist, advocating strong environmental safeguards and a "Green New Deal for Cornwall" aimed at creating jobs in the environmental sectors. It is pushing for
22848-514: The publication of Jenner's Handbook of the Cornish Language , the earliest revivalists used Jenner's orthography, which was influenced by Lhuyd's system. This system was abandoned following the development by Nance of a "unified spelling", later known as Unified Cornish , a system based on a standardization of the orthography of the early Middle Cornish texts. Nance's system was used by almost all Revived Cornish speakers and writers until
23016-473: The rebellion's aftermath. Government officials then directed troops under the command of Sir Anthony Kingston to carry out pacification operations throughout the West Country. Kingston subsequently ordered the executions of numerous individuals suspected of involvement with the rebellion as part of the post-rebellion reprisals. The rebellion eventually proved a turning-point for the Cornish language, as
23184-440: The recognition of Cornwall as a European region. Despite a promising local election result in 1993, obtaining an average of 17.5% per candidate in local government elections, MK's vote share declined further to 1.5% of the vote in the 1994 European Parliament election , in the new constituency of Cornwall & West Plymouth . Jenkin, who stood as the party's candidate, campaigned on a platform opposing out-of-town developments and
23352-508: The reign of Henry VIII, an account was given by Andrew Boorde in his 1542 Boke of the Introduction of Knowledge . He states, " In Cornwall is two speches, the one is naughty Englysshe, and the other is Cornysshe speche. And there be many men and women the which cannot speake one worde of Englysshe, but all Cornyshe. " When Parliament passed the Act of Uniformity 1549 , which established
23520-590: The root *per " to cross, to go through "; Proto-Germanic *furdúz (English ford, German Furt ); Latin portus , all related to the Celtic word. Again, it is the -ruth (and not the Red- part of the name) which means the colour red. Beroul 's Roman de Tristan features a location in Cornwall called Crois Rouge in Norman French or 'red cross' in English. Traditionally in the Penwith Hundred ,
23688-629: The signatures of over 50,000 people calling for a referendum on a Cornish Assembly, which was a little over 10% of the total Cornish electorate. A delegation including Cole, Andrew George , then the Liberal Democrat MP for St Ives , and representatives of the Convention presented the Declaration to 10 Downing Street on 12 December 2001. Ahead of the 2004 European Parliament election , MK reached an electoral partnership with
23856-583: The site of Redruth Brewery , houses the archives and collections of the former Cornwall Records Office and Cornish Studies Library. It also holds a collection of Tregellas Tapestries which depict the history of Cornwall in embroidery. A bronze sculpture of a Cornish miner by artist David Annand standing at 6 feet 7 inches was erected in April 2008. The sculpture was commissioned by the Redruth Public Realm Working Party's Mining Art Group in response to comments received during
24024-462: The south of the railway station ) and Green Lane to the north. Street landscaping in Redruth includes wooden seating, with granite furniture, signposts , street lights and litter bins , and two sets of bronze 'dogs', which were cast from the boots of former tin miners by sculptor David Kemp. The town has a burgundy colour theme, which is in the Public Realm regeneration work to highlight
24192-576: The support of all of its members for this legal action. However the fund failed to meet the required target of £100,000 by the end of December 2008, having received just over £33,000 in pledges, and the plan was abandoned. In 2009, the former Cornwall County Council was replaced by the unitary authority of Cornwall Council . In the first election to the new body, three MK candidates were elected: Andrew Long ( Callington ), Stuart Cullimore ( Camborne South ) and Dick Cole ( St Enoder ). In August 2010, an independent councillor, Neil Plummer ( Stithians ), joined
24360-577: The three places. Bus services to the town are provided by Go Cornwall Bus , First Kernow , and Hopley's Coaches , all under the Transport for Cornwall scheme. The railway station is served by Great Western Railway (GWR) operated trains from Paddington , South Wales , and the Midlands, as well as a daily CrossCountry service to the North. Redruth is next to the main A30 road and thus has access to
24528-472: The town has developed away from the original settlement, which was near where the present Churchtown (around St. Euny 's Church) district of Redruth stands today. This location is a steeply wooded valley, with Carn Brea on one side and the now-called Bullers Hill on the other. The presence of shallow lodes of tin and copper lying east to west made it an advantageous site for extracting metals, including, tin, lead and copper. The first settlers stayed by
24696-425: The town's name. A project to light various public buildings around the town with LED coloured lights has already commenced. Some of the buildings opposite the railway station and the St Rumon's Gardens have now (April 2008) been completed. On 7 November 2007, Redruth jointly won (with Luton ) the annual UK town centre environment awards, which are run by the BCSC (a retail property consortium). The judges praised
24864-464: The twentieth century, Mebyon Kernow formed as a pressure group in 1951. Helena Charles was its first chair, while the novelist Daphne du Maurier was another early member. In 1953 Charles won a seat on a local council, but lost it in 1955. Support for MK grew in the 1960s in opposition to growing migration into Cornwall from parts of England. In the 1970s, MK became a fully-fledged political party, and since then it has fielded candidates in elections to
25032-481: The words ud rocashaas . The phrase may mean "it [the mind] hated the gloomy places", or alternatively, as Andrew Breeze suggests, "she hated the land". Other sources from this period include the Saints' List , a list of almost fifty Cornish saints, the Bodmin manumissions , which is a list of manumittors and slaves, the latter with mostly Cornish names, and, more substantially, a Latin-Cornish glossary (the Vocabularium Cornicum or Cottonian Vocabulary),
25200-480: The years 1550–1650 as a century of immense damage for the language, and its decline can be traced to this period. In 1680 William Scawen wrote an essay describing 16 reasons for the decline of Cornish, among them the lack of a distinctive Cornish alphabet , the loss of contact between Cornwall and Brittany , the cessation of the miracle plays, loss of records in the Civil War, lack of a Cornish Bible and immigration to Cornwall. Mark Stoyle , however, has argued that
25368-402: Was mutually intelligible , perhaps even as long as Cornish continued to be spoken as a vernacular. Cornish continued to function as a common community language in parts of Cornwall until the mid 18th century, and there is some evidence for traditional speakers of the language persisting into the 19th century. Cornish became extinct as a living community language in Cornwall by the end of
25536-405: Was James Hicks who used a castellated baronial style; there is a prominent octagonal tower. The reading room was once the school of Thomas Collins, where Collins, who had been headmaster of Trewirgie School, taught local children and the children left behind by parents who had emigrated overseas. The Parish Church of St Uny, which is some distance from the town centre, is of Norman foundation but
25704-409: Was at Plain-an-Gwarry, Redruth , which continued to be used as a venue, even after the Plen-an-gwary disappeared. Many other venues started to be used in the 1800s onwards such as South Turnpike, and the Recreation Ground/football ground. In 1887, Redruth hosted 2 challenge matches for the world title in Cornish wrestling at the recreation ground. In July, John Pearce drew with Jack Carkeek from
25872-418: Was born in the neighbouring village of Blackwater. Key shops and other outlets within the town centre include a multi-screen cinema , a covered market way, an old butter market, various antique shops , a second hand book shop and two supermarkets, plus Greens Newsagents, and the local cash and carry Jims. Off the main street (Fore Street), there are two separate specialist shopping areas, Bond Street (to
26040-410: Was built in 1880 as a place for the trading of mineral stock. By the end of the 19th century, the Cornish mining industry was in decline and Britain was importing most of its copper ore. To find employment, many miners emigrated to the newer mining industries in the Americas, Pachuca, Mexico, Australasia and South Africa. By the turn of the 20th century, Victoria Park had been laid out to commemorate
26208-399: Was created for the 2010 general election , following a review of parliamentary representation in Cornwall by the Boundary Commission for England , which increased the number of seats in the county from five to six. It is primarily a successor to the former Falmouth and Camborne seat. In the 2024 United Kingdom general election the results were: Redruth until the late 1800s comprised
26376-455: Was defeated in 1973; and a September 1974 issue of the Cornish Nation describing Michael Gaughan , an IRA hunger striker, as a "Celtic hero" was widely criticised in the press and rebuked by the party. MK's divisions came to a head in May 1975, when a motion to depose the party's leadership and integrate the party with the Revived Stannary Parliament , which had newly reopened in 1974, was narrowly defeated. On 28 May 1975, Whetter, who had led
26544-486: Was elected for MK onto Cornwall County Council for the seat of St Day & Lanner ; he had stood on an anti-overspill platform. MK members also sat as independent councillors on the district council. The party grew to become the leading champion for Cornish nationalism . On St. Piran's Day in 1968, the first edition of Cornish Nation was published; this is the party's magazine. In the same year, Leonard Truran succeeded Dunstone as Chairman of MK; Dunstone then became
26712-404: Was from its inception associated with centre-left politics . Many of MK's initial supporters came from the Liberal Party, which had endorsed Home Rule for Ireland . Early members of MK cited their absence from Cornwall during their university years and the war as instrumental in the formation of their Cornish identity. A catalyst for the party's foundation was the Celtic Congress of 1950, held at
26880-586: Was introduced in 2008, although a number of previous orthographic systems remain in use and, in response to the publication of the SWF, another new orthography, Kernowek Standard , was created, mainly by Nicholas Williams and Michael Everson, which is proposed as an amended version of the Standard Written Form. The phonological system of Old Cornish, inherited from Proto-Southwestern Brittonic and originally differing little from Old Breton and Old Welsh, underwent various changes during its Middle and Late phases, eventually resulting in several characteristics not found in
27048-417: Was no longer accurate. Speakers of Cornish reside primarily in Cornwall , which has a population of 563,600 (2017 estimate). There are also some speakers living outside Cornwall, particularly in the countries of the Cornish diaspora , as well as in other Celtic nations . Estimates of the number of Cornish speakers vary according to the definition of a speaker, and is difficult to determine accurately due to
27216-567: Was probably the last monolingual speaker, the last native speaker may have been John Davey of Zennor, who died in 1891. However, although it is clear Davey possessed some traditional knowledge in addition to having read books on Cornish, accounts differ of his competence in the language. Some contemporaries stated he was able to converse on certain topics in Cornish whereas others affirmed they had never heard him claim to be able to do so. Robert Morton Nance , who reworked and translated Davey's Cranken Rhyme, remarked, "There can be no doubt, after
27384-403: Was probably the last prose written in the traditional language. In his letter, he describes the sociolinguistics of the Cornish language at the time, stating that there are no more than four or five old people in his village who can still speak Cornish, concluding with the remark that Cornish is no longer known by young people. However, the last recorded traditional Cornish literature may have been
27552-410: Was promptly elected MK's leader. At this time, Truran, who had become a leading light in the Social Democratic Party in Falmouth & Camborne since he had left the party in 1980, rejoined MK, re-energising the party. Nevertheless, MK did not contest the 1992 general election , focusing its efforts on lobbying for an exclusively-Cornish European Parliament constituency, a Cornish unitary authority, and
27720-440: Was rebuilt in 1756. The patron saint is also honoured at Lelant. The tower is two centuries earlier and the whole church is built of granite. A chapel of ease was built in the town in 1828 but it is no longer in use. Other places of worship include the Wesleyan Church of 1826, the Free Methodist Church of 1864 (in grand Italianate style) and the Quaker Meeting House of 1833 (no longer in use). The former post office in Alma Place
27888-422: Was replaced by Major Cecil Beer , a former civil servant who sought to reunify the Cornish nationalist movement. Beer's three years as chairman of MK provided "a period of quiet but steady growth", in which MK increased its membership and focussed on cultural rather than political issues. Party meetings largely focussed on "calendars, Christmas cards, serviettes, Cornish language classes and proposals for things like
28056-458: Was succeeded by Pedyr Prior in 1985 and Loveday Carlyon in 1986. At the 1983 general election , MK achieved 1.2% of the vote in both Falmouth & Camborne and St Ives, reduced from 3% and 4% respectively in the previous election. It contested neither the 1984 European Parliament election nor the 1987 general election ; it received 1.9% of the vote in Cornwall & West Plymouth in the 1989 European Parliament election . During this period,
28224-411: Was succeeded by Robert Dunstone as Chairman of MK. By March 1962, the party had seventy members, of which thirty were attending the party's infrequent meetings. Under Dunstone, the party followed a policy of "patient, persistent, and polite lobbying", the standard for which was set by its reaction to proposed railway closures in 1962, which included public meetings, letters of protest and the formation of
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