Middle Cornish (1200-1510)


In Middle Cornish times (1200-1510) in the county of Cornwall most daily life was conducted in Cornish, though in some formal situations Latin or Norman French were needed. Most Cornish people didn’t speak much English. Middle Cornish showed many similarities to Middle Welsh and even more to Middle Breton. The reason for the cut-off date for Middle Cornish being 1510 is because the last major work in Middle Cornish was the "Bewnans Meryasek" of 1504. For a while there were not many examples of written Cornish. From then on the traditional spellings were not necessarily used.

1. broder    brother        1. *    yes        1.   
2. whor    sister        2. *    no        2.   
3. map    son        3.           3.   
4. myrgh    daughter        4.           4.   
5. tas    father                  5.   
6. mam    mother        1. de sul    Sunday        6.   
          2.           7.   
1. gwaynten    spring        3. de merth    Tuesday          
2. haf    summer        4. de mergher    Wednesday        1. yth of vy / yth esof vy    I am
3.           5. de yow    Thursday        2. yth os te / yth esos te    you are
4. gwaf    winter        6. de gwenar    Friday          
          7. de sadorn    Saturday        3. yw ef / yma ef    he is


* Often there was no single word for "yes" or "no" in Cornish. Instead, the verb of the question was repeated as a positive, or negative statement.


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