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129-645: St Mawes Castle ( Cornish : Kastel Lannvowsedh ) is an artillery fort constructed by Henry VIII near Falmouth , Cornwall , between 1540 and 1542. It formed part of the King's Device programme to protect against invasion from France and the Holy Roman Empire , and defended the Carrick Roads waterway at the mouth of the River Fal . The castle was built under the direction of Thomas Treffry to

258-430: A Parliamentary army in 1646 in the final phase of the conflict. The castle continued in use as a fort through the 18th and 19th centuries. In the early 1850s, fears of a fresh conflict with France, combined with changes in military technology, led to the redevelopment of the fortification. The out-dated Henrician castle was turned into a barracks and substantial gun batteries were constructed beneath it, equipped with

387-491: A clover leaf design, with a four-storey central tower and three protruding, round bastions that formed gun platforms. It was initially armed with 19 artillery pieces , intended for use against enemy shipping, operating in partnership with its sister castle of Pendennis on the other side of the estuary. During the English Civil War , St Mawes was held by Royalist supporters of King Charles I , but surrendered to

516-735: A " device ", in 1539, giving instructions for the "defence of the realm in time of invasion" and the construction of forts along the English coastline. The stretch of water known as Carrick Roads at the mouth of the River Fal was an important anchorage serving shipping arriving from the Atlantic and the Mediterranean , and plans were made to protect it with five castles. In the event, only two of these were constructed, St Mawes and Pendennis , positioned on each side of Carrick Roads. The two castles' guns could provide overlapping fire across

645-566: 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

774-555: 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

903-609: A bronze saker dating from 1560 called the Albergheti gun, recovered from a shipwreck off the coast of Devon . Gun batteries and other auxiliary buildings stretch across the St Mawes Castle site. Above the Henrician castle is the 12-pounder quick-firing high-level battery, dating from the start of the 20th century. Its four concrete platforms and earth parapets have survived, along with an underground magazine just behind

1032-510: 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

1161-504: A drawbridge, although it is uncertain if one was ever fitted; it would originally have formed a sort of protective barbican . The yard behind it is approximately 20 by 59 feet (6 by 18 m) and dates from before 1735, originally being used a stable. This leads to a stone bridge that crosses a 25 feet (7.5 m) wide moat , cut out of the rock, to the main castle. The central tower is 47 feet (14 m) across and 44 feet (13 m) high, with 8 feet (2.4 m) thick walls. The basement

1290-551: 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,

1419-868: 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

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1548-516: 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

1677-503: 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

1806-712: 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

1935-434: A member of the local gentry, was appointed as the first captain of St Mawes and the surrounding land in 1544, and was followed by Hannibal Vyvyan in 1561. On Vyvyan's death in 1603, his son, Sir Francis Vyvyan , became captain. The captains of St Mawes frequently argued with those of Pendennis Castle and in 1630 a legal dispute broke out about the rights to search and detain incoming shipping: both castles argued that they had

2064-540: 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

2193-611: A modest role in building and maintaining fortifications, and while France and the Empire remained in conflict with one another, maritime raids were common but an actual invasion of England seemed unlikely. Basic defences, based around simple blockhouses and towers, existed in the south-west and along the Sussex coast, with a few more impressive works in the north of England, but in general the fortifications were very limited in scale. In 1533, Henry broke with Pope Paul III in order to annul

2322-648: 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

2451-678: 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

2580-504: 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

2709-435: A single, large room with gun embrasures, and was probably used by the garrison as living accommodation. Above it, the parapetted gun platform on the fourth floor could support up to seven guns and incorporates a lookout turret, topped by a 17th-century cupola , designed as a daymark to guide passing ships. The central tower is linked to the forward bastion, 59 feet (18 m) in diameter, which in turn has steps leading to

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2838-614: 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

2967-488: A substantial army. The captain of St Mawes, Major Hannibal Bonithon, was invited by Colonel John Arundell , captain of Pendennis Castle, to join them in defending his stronger fortress, but Bonithon and his men quickly surrendered to the Parliamentarians instead without putting up any resistance. This decision has been put down to a result of war-weariness, the large numbers of Parliamentary troops facing them and

3096-474: A traditional right to do so. The Admiralty issued a compromise, proposing that the castles share the incoming traffic. Sir Francis was dismissed from office in 1632, accused of "practising a variety of deceptions" at St Mawes, including falsely claiming wages for non-existent members of the garrison, and was replaced by first Sir Robert Le Grys and then Thomas Howard , the Earl of Arundel and Surrey . Meanwhile,

3225-525: 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

3354-472: A vehicular chain ferry that links the parishes of Feock and Philleigh . Carrick Roads and the Fal Estuary are favoured by ornithologists for birdwatching, especially the waders and waterbirds that visit in autumn and winter. The little egret and kingfisher can be seen all year while various passage waders pass through in spring, late summer and autumn. These include the whimbrel, the spotted redshank,

3483-521: 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

3612-434: 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

3741-536: 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

3870-428: Is a popular location for layup moorings for a wide variety of commercial vessels, during economic downturns, when changing owners or when being mothballed near the end of their careers. A pilchard fishery was still operating in the 1880s. In 1882, at a meeting of the seine owners at St Mawes , it was decided to place a huer (lookout) on a hill, for the first time in a few years, to look out for shoals. Names given to

3999-627: 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

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4128-509: Is navigable from Falmouth to Truro . The Carrick Roads have large tidal flows; the water starts to recede six hours and five minutes before high water at Dover. Tidal speeds can reach three knots in the upper parts of the basin and one and a half to two in the lower stretches. The journey from Truro to Falmouth is a Grade A route for kayakers. The Carrick Roads can be seen well from the Trelissick Peninsula. From this viewpoint

4257-416: Is now her Duke", referring to Henry's eldest son and heir . Carved sea monsters and gargoyles also feature around the fortification, along with heraldic shields which would originally have been painted and visible from the river. The castle is entered through the gatehouse , a polygonal, stone building approximately 25 feet (7.6 m) across. The gatehouse has gunloops , murder holes and slots for

4386-474: Is operated by English Heritage as a tourist attraction, receiving 21,104 visitors in 2010. It is protected under UK law as a Scheduled Monument . St Mawes Castle is situated on a headland over the Carrick Roads, overlooked by higher land to the rear. At the top of the site is the entrance to the castle, the high-level gun batteries and the 16th-century Henrician Castle; the terraced site slopes down to

4515-503: 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

4644-454: 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

4773-647: 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

4902-532: 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

5031-484: 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

5160-650: 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

5289-429: The Earl of Bath . The castle continued in use as a fort through the 18th and 19th centuries under the command of successive captains, still operating in conjunction with Pendennis. A review by Colonel Christian Lilly in 1714 reported that the fortification was in a satisfactory condition, and in the 1730s, St Mawes was equipped with 17 artillery pieces, including six 24-pounder (11 kg) cannons, mostly positioned in

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5418-500: The Second World War , naval artillery and an anti-aircraft gun were installed at the castle to defend against the risk of German attack. With the end of the war, St Mawes again returned to use as a tourist attraction. In the 21st century, the castle is operated by English Heritage . The castle has elaborate, carved 16th-century decorations including sea monsters and gargoyles , and the historian Paul Pattison has described

5547-492: 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

5676-621: 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

5805-497: 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

5934-429: 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

6063-448: 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

6192-496: 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

6321-507: 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

6450-452: 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

6579-544: 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

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6708-512: 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

6837-898: 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

6966-438: 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

7095-584: 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

7224-513: 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

7353-474: The Henrician castle is a complex of artillery positions, cut out of the rock from around 1854 onwards, and collectively known as the Grand Sea Battery. The Grand Sea Battery was served by a 19th-century magazine for holding gunpowder, approximately 35 by 18 feet (10.7 by 5.5 m) with stone walls and bomb-proof brick roof, topped with turf to help to protect against incoming shells. For many years

7482-560: 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

7611-590: The No 173 Coast Battery took over running a new, twin 6-pounder (2.7 kg) battery positioned just north-west of the castle, combined with a 40-millimetre (1.6 in) Bofors gun closer to the castle for anti-aircraft protection, and searchlights along the base of the Grand Sea Magazine. Some of the 115-strong garrison lived in a local Nissen hut , with the remainder housed in St Mawes itself. The castle

7740-479: 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

7869-409: 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

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7998-532: The batteries beneath the Henrician castle. Britain's wars with France in the late-18th century made the defence of Falmouth critical and from 1775 until 1780 the local militia was called up to defend St Mawes. By the 1780s, the castle was equipped with over 30 pieces of heavy artillery. There were repeated concerns emerged about its ordnance, however, and an inspection in 1797 during the French Revolutionary Wars found that only one 24-pounder gun

8127-482: The battery. The eastern platform has pivots and racers for mounting four traversing gun carriages , one of which now houses a 12-pound smooth-bore artillery piece dating from 1815, mounted on a replica carriage. Just below the Grand Sea Battery is the 16th-century blockhouse, positioned by the water's edge, 160 feet (49 m) from the Henrician castle. The blockhouse is semi-circular in shape, with 56 feet (17 m) wide with 9.8-foot (3 m) thick stone walls facing

8256-483: 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

8385-617: 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

8514-436: The captaincy was abolished in 1849, with the death of the final incumbent, Sir George Nugent , and the command of the garrison became a regular military appointment. In the early 1850s, fears of a conflict with France led to a review of the state of the harbour's defences. The development of ironclad warships equipped with rifled guns meant that St Mawes required a comprehensive overhaul. A new Grand Sea Battery and magazine

8643-464: The contemporary work of the Moravian engineer, Stefan von Haschenperg , on some of the other Device Forts constructed during this period. It had little protection to the landward side, and would have depended upon the local militia providing protection against such an attack. The castle has been little altered since its original construction, and the historian Paul Pattison considers it to be "arguably

8772-557: 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,

8901-616: 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

9030-520: The defences. The batteries for these were found to be poorly sited, and an additional battery was therefore built above the Henrician castle between 1900 and 1901, again for housing quick-firing guns. A 1905 review of the Falmouth defences concluded that the naval artillery at St Mawes had become superfluous, as the necessary guns could be mounted at combination of Pendennis and the recently re-established battery at St Anthony's instead. Disarmed, St Mawes

9159-504: 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

9288-431: 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

9417-436: 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

9546-475: 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"

9675-418: The failed Armada of 1597 ; two earth and timber bastions were built out from the original stone castle to hold guns, eventually becoming the main batteries for the castle. By 1623 the castle held two brass culverins, six iron culverins, one demi-culverin and one saker , with a small garrison of 14 men, overseen by a captain and a lieutenant. A survey in 1634 indicated structural problems, and suggested that £534

9804-542: The fort was garrisoned by only one, elderly man. At the end of the Napoleonic Wars in 1815, the St Anthony's battery was closed but St Mawes remained in use, albeit being operated once again on a "care and maintenance" basis in the post-war years. Falmouth Harbour became one of the most important ports in England during the 19th century, attracting much of the transatlantic shipping trade. The Tudor office of

9933-440: The generous surrender terms on offer, although the 19th-century historian Samuel Oliver also suspected that Bonithon might have had Parliamentarian sympathies. 160 small arms and 13 artillery pieces were captured: the castle's guns were removed and redeployed in the siege of Pendennis, which fell that August. The castle was placed on a "care and maintenance" footing, with a skeleton garrison. Parliament appointed George Kekewich as

10062-461: The greenshank, the common sandpiper, the curlew sandpiper and the little stint. In the winter, the great northern diver and the black-throated diver can be seen, as well as the black-necked grebe, the red-necked grebe and the Slavonian grebe, the goldeneye and red-breasted merganser, and sometimes the long-tailed duck and the scoter. Fal Estuary is said to be the third largest natural harbour in

10191-545: The harbour itself (whose capture would have made the perfect place for an enemy fleet to establish a foothold during an attack), Henry VIII , who was under threat from Catholic Europe, made plans to construct five artillery forts to protect it. Only Pendennis Castle and St Mawes Castle were built, with the work undertaken between 1540 and 1542. The waters of the fiord-like Carrick Roads are steep-sided and deep, with depths of 12–14 m (39–46 ft) in many places, and can allow large ships to anchor safely midstream. It

10320-400: 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

10449-402: 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

10578-490: The invasion threat from France passed and a lasting peace was made in 1558, but the Spanish threat to the south-west of England grew in importance to the government. War broke out in 1569, with the threat of invasion and the garrison at St Mawes was strengthened: in 1578 it comprised 100 soldiers. An additional battery of guns was built to allow the fort to fire further upriver. Fears of a Spanish attack continued especially after

10707-957: 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

10836-407: 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

10965-580: 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

11094-438: 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

11223-487: 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

11352-456: The latest naval artillery . In the 1880s and 1890s an electrically operated minefield was laid across the River Fal, operated from St Mawes and Pendennis, and new, quick-firing guns were installed at St Mawes to support these defences. After 1905, however, St Mawes' guns were removed, and between 1920 and 1939 it was run by the state as a tourist attraction . Brought back into service in

11481-588: The long-standing marriage to his wife, Catherine of Aragon and remarry. Catherine was the aunt of Charles V , the Holy Roman Emperor, and he took the annulment as a personal insult. This resulted in France and the Empire declaring an alliance against Henry in 1538, and the Pope encouraging the two countries to attack England. An invasion of England appeared certain. In response, Henry issued an order, called

11610-499: The magazine was protected by an additional concrete fortification, but this was removed in 1970. There are two gun platforms along the west and east sides of the complex, 110 feet (34 m) and 80 feet (24 m) across respectively and known as the Lower Gun Battery. The current design of the western platform dates from the 1890s, with two raised concrete platforms for rotating guns and a brick-vaulted magazine just behind

11739-436: 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

11868-472: The most perfect survivor of all Henry's forts". The castle is extensively decorated with carvings and inscriptions in stone and wood, praising Henry VIII and his lineage, leading the historian A. L. Rowse to describe the castle as the most decorative of all of Henry's building works. These include Latin verses, such as "Henry, thy honour and praises will remain forever", written by the antiquarian John Leland , and "Let fortunate Cornwall rejoice that Edward

11997-437: The new captain and he probably remained in post until the restoration of Charles II to the throne in 1660, when Sir Richard Vyvyan , Sir Francis's son, took over command. Richard inherited a garrison of 13 men, which he considered insufficient. Richard's son, Sir Vyel Vyvyan , became captain in turn on his father's death, but he had no heirs and separated the castle's lands from the captaincy, selling them to John Granville ,

12126-493: The noun: Carrick Roads Carrick Roads ( Cornish : Dowr Carrek , meaning "rock anchorage") is the estuary of the River Fal on the south coast of Cornwall in England. It joins the English Channel at its southern end near Falmouth . It is a large flooded valley, or ria , created after the ice age by the melt waters that caused a dramatic rise in sea level, resulting in a large natural harbour which

12255-465: 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),

12384-565: 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

12513-410: 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

12642-415: 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

12771-835: 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

12900-413: 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

13029-484: The project was £5,018. The clover leaf shaped castle, with an additional small blockhouse at the water's edge below, was armed with 19 artillery pieces - a demi-cannon , a demi-culverin , a demi-sling , five slings , four portpieces and seven bases - along with 12 large hagbusshes, a form of arquebus . The artillery was originally mounted in the castle's stone bastions and was intended as "ship-sinking" weapons for use against enemy vessels. A smaller blockhouse

13158-447: 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

13287-473: 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

13416-508: 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

13545-468: The sea, but much thinner walls to the rear. It originally had four gunports, one of which has since been blocked up, along with an upper gun platform and battlements . The upper storey was later destroyed to turn it into a solid gun platform, although this has since been re-excavated. Beside the blockhouse are the foundations of four searchlight emplacements dating from the Second World War. To

13674-550: The seines at that time were Diligence, Enterprise, Hope, Onward and St Just. Truro Council's Oyster Fishery Committee closed the oyster-beds of Mylor and St Just-in-Roseland for two years. The 580 acres (230 ha) beds were over-dredged and shut in September 1883. The Falmouth Harbour Commissioners are the statutory port authority with responsibility for the Inner Harbour at Falmouth (excluding Falmouth Docks ),

13803-523: The side bastions, each 54-foot (16.4 m) across. Each of the bastions forms a gun platform, with embrasures for larger artillery pieces - five in the forward bastion, three on each of the sides - as well as swivel mounts for lighter guns, and parapets for protection. The forward bastion's roof is modern and was added after an archaeological debate in the 1960s as to whether the bastions would originally have been covered. The bastions have various 18th- and 19th-century artillery pieces on display, as well as

13932-469: The site as "arguably the most perfect survivor of all Henry's forts". The castle is a scheduled monument and Grade I listed building . St Mawes Castle was built as a consequence of international tensions between England, France and the Holy Roman Empire in the final years of the reign of King Henry VIII . Traditionally the Crown had left coastal defences to the local lords and communities, only taking

14061-549: The site. A small bungalow from this period at the entrance to the battery is still in use, serving as the English Heritage custodian's house. Alongside the Henrician castle is the Engine House, approximately 41 feet (12 m) square and dating from around 1902. It originally contained an internal combustion engine , generating power for the castle's searchlights, but was later converted into a storeroom. Beneath

14190-411: The water, where gun batteries and the 16th-century blockhouse look out across the water. The central castle is built from slatestone rubble, with granite features and detailing; it has a clover leaf design with a central, four-storey circular tower, or keep , at its core, and three circular bastions emerging from it. The design allowed for multiple levels of artillery, and may have been influenced by

14319-429: The water, while St Mawes also overlooked a separate anchorage on the eastern side of the estuary. The construction work began in 1540, under the direction of Thomas Treffry , a prominent member of the local gentry appointed to act as the project's Clerk of Works by Lord Admiral Russell . By later that year, the castle was described as being "half-made", with most of the build having been finished by 1542. The total cost of

14448-421: The waters stretch away towards Falmouth. On the left is Camerance Point, a tree-clad promontory. The Feock Peninsula is on the right and beyond that is the creek leading to Mylor village, with the Fal Estuary in the distance behind. Nearby lie the gardens of Trelissick House with their oaks, pines, beeches, rhododendrons, azaleas and camellias. The Roads are crossed by the historic and scenic King Harry Ferry ,

14577-530: The west of the Grand Sea Battery are landscaped gardens, built on top of earlier gun positions along the site. Five 19th-century smooth-bore guns from the Napoleonic period are on display, forming a saluting battery . Beyond the gardens is the site of the Second World War 6-pounder battery, but little now remains of this position. Cornish language Cornish ( Standard Written Form : Kernewek or Kernowek , pronounced [kəɾˈnuːək] )

14706-585: 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),

14835-495: The world, of which Carrick Roads itself extends 4 miles (6.4 km) from Black Rock to Turnaware Point with nowhere being less than 1 mile (1.6 km) wide. As a result Carrick Roads has always been an important anchorage especially given that it is at the gateway to the Western Approaches serving shipping arriving from the Atlantic and the Mediterranean . As a result, to protect both ships anchored in it and

14964-537: 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

15093-402: 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

15222-431: Was built beneath the Henrician castle, linked with deep passages, and equipped with eight 56-pound (25 kg) and four 64-pounder (29 kg) rifled muzzle loader guns. The old castle was used as a barracks but, since it could only hold 30 men, St Mawes was typically used as a training base and manned by militia and volunteer units. Fresh concerns about France rose in the 1880s, and an electrically operated minefield

15351-415: Was constructed beneath the main castle, at sea level; this may have been constructed ahead of the main castle build as a form of early protection. Normally the castle would have held a small garrison, which would have been supplemented by the local militia in the event of a crisis; St Mawes had 18 billhooks and 30 bows in its stores, probably for the use of the militia in such a situation. Michael Vyvyan,

15480-708: 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

15609-447: Was laid across Carrick Roads in 1885, jointly controlled from St Mawes and Pendennis. Additional contact mines were added, forcing incoming vessels to sail into a channel alongside St Mawes, illuminated with electric search lights. As part of this transformation, the castle's 64-pounder guns were partially replaced with light, quick-firing guns in the 1890s, able to engage any torpedo boats or mine sweepers attempting to break through

15738-644: Was needed for repairs. When civil war broke out in 1642 between King Charles I and Parliament , St Mawes and the south-west of England was held by the Royalists. The growing town of Falmouth was a strategically important part of their supply routes to the Continent, while Carrick Roads formed a base for Royalist piracy in the English Channel . The war turned in favour of the Parliamentarians and, by March 1646, Thomas Fairfax had entered Cornwall with

15867-526: 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

15996-435: Was originally a kitchen and storerooms, with the first floor was subdivided and used by the garrison, before being later converted for storing gunpowder . The bridge across the moat leads into the second storey, which originally had four chambers with fireplaces and windows, linked by a central corridor; this area may have been used by the castle's officers, and to house an enlarged garrison in an emergency. The third floor forms

16125-567: 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

16254-403: 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

16383-517: Was removed from active service in January 1945 and reopened to the public the following year. The Second World War gun battery was finally closed in 1956 after several years of use as a training site. Between 1945 and 1970, much of the Victorian earthwork and concrete defences were cleared from the Grand Sea Battery, and the 1941 battery was completely destroyed. In the 21st century, St Mawes Castle

16512-438: Was serviceable. In 1796, a new gun battery was created at St Anthony Head , just along the coast from St Mawes. For a period this battery became the primary defensive position on the east side of the estuary, although in 1805 St Mawes was still armed with ten 24-pounder guns. The poet Lord Byron , visiting in 1809, complained that St Mawes was "extremely well calculated for annoying every body except an enemy", and commented that

16641-624: Was then used as a barracks in the First World War . In 1920 the castle was transferred to the control of the government's Office of Works, and was opened to visitors, being promoted as a tourist destination by the Great Western Railway company who hoped to profit by increased numbers of visitors to Falmouth. With the outbreak of the Second World War in 1939, St Mawes was reoccupied by the British Army. In late 1941,

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