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A note on the survival of the #Cornish language.
It's often said that the Cornish language died out with Dolly Pentreath (1692-1777) - but in fact it has long been known that the language persisted, one way or another, after that (see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Last_speaker_of_the_Cornish_language).
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It's often said that the Cornish language died out with Dolly Pentreath (1692-1777) - but in fact it has long been known that the language persisted, one way or another, after that (see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Last_speaker_of_the_Cornish_language).
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In this thread, I want to salvage some pieces of evidence from the 19th cenutry Cornish press of continued survival of the language.
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In passing, it is perhaps worth recording that Dolly Pentreath supported herself in part by fortune-telling.
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Cornish Telegraph, 1863 - "In the West of Cornwall many Celtic words are found to linger in far-away villages."
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Royal Cornwall Gazette, 1868 - "abundant relics of the language are still extant, both in peculiarities of pronunciation and in idiomatic words and phrases"
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Royal Cornwall Gazette, 1871, quoting form an 1862 book: "Many years ago, Mr. Norriss [Edwin Norris, 1795-1872] heard an old Cornishman repeat the Lord's Prayer, and part of the Creed, which he had been taught by his father, or grandfather."
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![Royal Cornwall Gazette, 1871, quoting form an 1862 book: "Many years ago, Mr. Norriss [Edwin Norris, 1795-1872] heard an old Cornishman repeat the Lord's Prayer, and part of the Creed, which he had been taught by his father, or grandfather."/6](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/EZV1uV5WsAEhxJo.png "Royal Cornwall Gazette, 1871, quoting form an 1862 book: \"Many years ago, Mr. Norriss [Edwin Norris, 1795-1872] heard an old Cornishman repeat the Lord's Prayer, and part of the Creed, which he had been taught by his father, or grandfather.\"/6")
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Cornish Telegraph, 1875 - half a dozen people in Paul still know a few words of Cornish.
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Cornish Telegraph, 1875 - new investigations revealed that people in several villages still knew a few scraps of the language.
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Cornish Telegraph, 1875 - "a considerable number of Keltic words are still in use by the rural population of Cornwall"
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Cornish Telegraph, 1877 - "many an old Celtic word is embedded in our Cornish dialect and the Cornish numerals are recollected by a few"
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The Cornishman, 1879 - a man writes in with a list of Cornish words which he learnt as a boy "50 years ago"
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The Cornishman, 1879 - "some [Cornish words] are still in daily use by the people of West Cornwall"
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![The Cornishman, 1879 - "some [Cornish words] are still in daily use by the people of West Cornwall"/12](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/EZV7O05XQAAV2th.png "The Cornishman, 1879 - \"some [Cornish words] are still in daily use by the people of West Cornwall\"/12")
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The Cornishman, 1879 - "some essays have recently been written on the exiting vestiges of the language in the common Cornish dialect"
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Cornish Telegraph 1882 - some old people in Mounts' Bay still remembered bits of Cornish from their childhood, as well as the celebration of the peace with Napoleon.
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Lake's Falmouth Packet and Cornwall Advertiser, 1883 - in Falmouth, there is "a very little of the old Cornish language talked now-a-days. Some words cling to the old people...."
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This brings us within striking distance of the start of the revival movement at the beginning of the 20th century.
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