WIA LANGUAGES PROJECT

[Day 9/221]

Kernewek

Cornish | Kernowek

“Declared dead but never truly died”

A quiet revolution, 221 languages’ digital archive • We’re not saving languages. We’re saving humanity.

🎵 Old Land of Our Fathers

In 1777, Dolly Pentreath of Mousehole passed away. Everyone believed that with her, the Cornish language had died. Yet 250 years later, Kernewek is miraculously coming back to life. In 2010, UNESCO changed Cornish’s classification from ‘extinct’ to ‘critically endangered’. A dead language had risen again.

📖 Songs of Lost Time

Cornish is a Brythonic Celtic language with 4,000 years of history. Sister to Welsh and Breton, Cornish flourished in medieval times with about 38,000 speakers at its peak in the 13th century. The Cornwall Peninsula, known as the birthplace of King Arthur legends, was a fortress of Celtic culture alongside this ancient language.

However, from the 13th century, English expansion began pushing Cornish westward. After the failed Cornish Rebellion of 1497, thousands of Cornish speakers lost their lives, and Tudor oppression caused rapid language decline. By the late 18th century, Cornish survived only among poor fishermen in western coastal villages.

In 1776, William Bodinar wrote with grief: “There are no more than four or five in our village who can speak Cornish now, old folk of fourscore years. Cornish is all forgotten by young people.” The last traditional Cornish speaker is officially recorded as John Davey, who died in 1891.

🌏 Between Hope and Despair

The Cornish revival movement, beginning in the early 20th century, has achieved remarkable success. Currently, over 4,000 students learn Cornish in 23 schools across Cornwall, and the first Cornish-language nursery opened in 2010. During the COVID-19 pandemic, online Cornish lesson applications surged, and there’s now more demand than available teachers.

💎 Untranslatable Beauty

Cornish preserves unique expressions embodying the essence of Celtic culture:

The famous Cornish patriotic song “Trelawny” contains the line “Here’s twenty thousand Cornish men will know the reason why!” This symbolizes the indomitable spirit of the Cornish people and has become the spiritual pillar of the language revival movement.

🌟 WIA’s Promise – Records Made by Technology

🎭 Why It Must Not Disappear

Cornish is not just a communication tool. It is a living record of Celtic civilization, the source of Arthurian legends, and the identity of brave people facing the Atlantic.

Every year on St Piran’s Day (March 5) and at Gorsedh Kernow (Cornwall cultural festival), thousands sing in Cornish. The cry “Kernow bys vyken!” (Cornwall forever!) shows that the language is not merely a relic of the past but a living culture.

🚀 The Tomorrow We’ll Create

2025 marks the end of Cornwall Council’s 10-year language strategy. Their goal is to increase Cornish speakers and expand usage opportunities. In 2024, they plan to perform the entire Ordinalia (medieval Cornish religious plays) completely in Cornish.

Cornish’s revival serves as a beacon of hope for endangered languages worldwide. The revival movement started by one passionate scholar, Henry Jenner, has now created thousands of speakers. WIA preserves this miraculous journey digitally forever.

WIA Languages Project

Connecting the world through 221 languages
A quiet revolution, humanity’s digital archive

📚 WIA Languages: wialanguages.com
🌐 WIA Tools: wia.tools | 🔗 WIA Go: wiago.link
📰 The Korean Today: thekorean.today | 🌍 The Korean Today Global: thekoreantoday.com

Day 9/221: Cornish (Kernewek)
“Quietly, unwaveringly, one step at a time”

© 2025 WIA Language Institute. All rights reserved.
Made with passion, without compromise, for humanity.