A Beginner's Guide to the Cornish Language: 20 Useful Words and Phrases

Cornish was the everyday speech of most of Cornwall well into the medieval period, and it held on in the far west for centuries after that. It never vanished completely. It survived in place names, in fishing vocabulary, in a small library of written texts and in family memory, and from the early twentieth century onwards it has been steadily rebuilt as a living language. Kernewek, as it calls itself, is a Brythonic Celtic language, which makes it a cousin of Welsh and Breton rather than of English. For a beginner, that is good news: the sounds follow rules, the spelling is far more consistent than English, and a modest vocabulary takes you a long way. Here are twenty words and phrases to start with, along with the pronunciation habits that make them work out loud.

Start with the sounds

Cornish spelling is a set of patterns rather than a set of traps. Read the following aloud a few times before you meet any vocabulary, and most of what follows will pronounce itself.

• dh — a voiced th, as in "this" and "breathe". Never the th of "thin".
• th — the unvoiced sound, as in "thin" and "with".
• gh and ch — throaty, like the ch in Scottish "loch". Keep it at the back of the mouth.
• w as a vowel — an "oo" sound, so dowr sits close to "dohr" and Kernow to "KER-noh".
• c and k — both hard, as in "cat". There is no soft c in Cornish.
• ll — most learners say a plain l; the older sound is the breathy l heard in Welsh.
• Stress — usually on the second-to-last syllable: ker-NEH-wek, gor-THOO-her.

Vowels are short and clean, so resist the English habit of sliding them into diphthongs. A tapped or lightly rolled r is plenty; nobody in a Cornish class will mark you down for a shy one.

Ten greetings and courtesies to learn first

These ten cover most of what you will actually say in your first few months. Several are simply "good" plus a noun, which makes them easy to remember as a set.

1. Dydh da (deeth DAH) — good day. The all-purpose hello, and the safest opener you have.
2. Mytin da (MIT-in dah) — good morning.
3. Gorthugher da (gor-THOO-her dah) — good evening.
4. Nos da (nohs DAH) — good night.
5. Fatla genes? (FAT-la GEN-es) — how are you? Said to one person you know well.
6. Fatla genowgh? (FAT-la gen-OH) — how are you? To several people, or to one person politely.
7. Da lowr (dah LORR) — fine, all right, not bad. The standard reply.
8. Meur ras (muh-RAHS) — thank you, literally "great thanks". Add dhis (dhees) for "thank you" to one person.
9. Mar pleg (mar PLEG) — please, literally "if it pleases".
10. Dyw genes (DEE-oo GEN-es) — goodbye to one person, literally "God with you". For a group, Dyw genowgh.

Ten more words that earn their keep

With these, you can comment on the weather, order something small and name the place you are standing in. That is a surprising amount of conversation.

1. Kernow (KER-noh) — Cornwall.
2. Kernewek (ker-NEH-wek) — the Cornish language, and also the word for "Cornish" as a description.
3. mor (mor) — sea. Living here, you will use this one constantly.
4. gwyns (gwins) — wind.
5. glaw (rhymes with "plough") — rain.
6. howl (howl) — sun.
7. dowr (dohr) — water, handy in cafés and on cliff paths.
8. bara (BAH-rah) — bread.
9. chi (chee) — house.
10. Yeghes da (YEGH-es dah) — good health, the toast you raise with a drink in hand.

Two bonus phrases worth knowing because you will hear them in public: Onen hag oll (one and all), the old motto shouted at gatherings, and Gool Peran, the name for St Piran's Day on 5 March, when Cornish is spoken and sung in towns across the county.

What the place names are telling you

The quickest way to feel at home in Cornish is to read the road signs. Hundreds of names around you are built from a small kit of descriptive elements, and once you know them, the landscape starts labelling itself.

Tre means a homestead, farm or settlement, so Treliske, Tremough and Trevose are all "somebody's place". Pol is a pool or pond, which gives us Poldhu, the dark pool. Pen is a head or end: Penzance comes from Pen Sans, holy headland, and Penryn is a head of a hill. Lan is a church enclosure, so Lanhydrock is the church of St Hydroc. Nans is a valley; the new town outside Newquay, Nansledan, takes its name from a broad one. Porth is a harbour or cove, as in Porthleven. Eglos is a church, found in Egloshayle and Egloskerry. Carn is a rocky hill or cairn, hence Carn Brea. Heyl is an estuary, which is exactly what Hayle sits on. And aber is a river mouth, which is why Falmouth is Aberfal in Cornish.

Making it stick without a teacher

Little and often works far better than a long session once a week. Ten minutes a day, spoken aloud, will take you further than an hour of silent reading on a Sunday. Learn phrases whole before you pull them apart; grammar makes more sense once you already know what a sentence is supposed to sound like.

Fill your ears with the language. There is a long-running online radio show, Radyo an Gernewegva, and BBC Radio Cornwall has carried a short Cornish news bulletin. Songs help too, because the rhythm carries the words. Label the kitchen — koffi, bara, dowr — and read every place name on the A30 out loud as you pass it.

One practical warning: there is more than one spelling system in circulation. The Standard Written Form is what you will see on signs, in schools and in most new material, and the differences between the main systems are largely a matter of spelling rather than of language. Choose the one your course uses and stay with it for a year. Switching constantly is the fastest way to lose momentum.

Where to take it next

Free online taster courses and phone apps are a good starting point, and the Go Cornish project publishes beginner material aimed at families and schools. If you prefer structure, look for the audio course Say Something in Cornish or the long-established correspondence course Kernewek Dre Lyther. Evening classes run at adult education centres around the county, and the language board, Kesva an Taves Kernewek, offers graded exams if you like a target to aim at.

Then find people. A class, an online learners' group or a singing session will do more for your confidence than any book. Turn up to a St Piran's Day event in March, order a coffee in Cornish, and raise a glass with Yeghes da. You will make mistakes, and that is genuinely fine — the language has been kept alive by people willing to use it imperfectly. Dyw genes, and good luck.

Photo: Myriams-Fotos / Pixabay