Some surnames formed from within the Cornish-speaking community and ending in -ow had a tendency for this suffix to shift from a written -ow to -a. For example, Higow was found also as Hicka, Mathow as Matta and Clemo sometimes became Clyma. How far the pronunciation of this unstressed syllable changed is another matter. The … Continue reading Cornish cultural conservatism and surname formation
Category: Cornish language and culture
Cornish cultural distinctiveness: surnames with an -ow suffix
In the 1800s some surnames found in Cornwall helped to reinforce the myth of a Mediterranean origin for the Cornish, as multiple examples of names ending in -o, -oe or -ow seemed to hint strongly at Spanish antecedents. This was a romantic assumption with appeal to visitors and natives alike and was reinforced by other … Continue reading Cornish cultural distinctiveness: surnames with an -ow suffix
Tailors and bilingualism in 16th century Cornwall
The 80th most common surname in Victorian Cornwall was Taylor, an ubiquitous name found across southern Britain. This was already the case in Cornwall in the early 1500s when it appeared from the far east along the Tamar to West Penwith. But in Cornwall Taylor had a competitor. In the Cornish language the word for … Continue reading Tailors and bilingualism in 16th century Cornwall
Where was Cornish spoken in the middle ages?
From around 1100 to the 1330s Cornwall’s population tripled, from under 30,000 to a peak of around 100,000. After a few decades of stability, the Black Death in the middle of the 1300s turned population growth into fall. In fact numbers in Cornwall steadily declined to a low of around 60,000 by the beginning of … Continue reading Where was Cornish spoken in the middle ages?
5. Stephens or Stevens?
According to The Oxford Dictionary of Family Names, Stephen was the ‘partially vernacular’ medieval form of the biblical name Stephanus, which had its origin in turn in the Greek Staphanas. This first name had become popular as it was the name of the first Christian martyr, stoned to death in Jerusalem three years after the … Continue reading 5. Stephens or Stevens?
Who was St Piran?
Degol S.Peran da tha whye oll. You can find a brief account of the modern association of St Piran with Cornwall here and an introduction to the placenames associated with the saint here. Let’s add a few more details from the Life of St Piran. Written in the 1200s, 700 years after he was supposed … Continue reading Who was St Piran?
Cornwall’s First Golden Age – new edition out now
A new edition of Cornwall's First Golden Age - the critical synthesis of the history of Cornwall in its period of independence and initial colonisation from the 400s to the 1100s - is now available, back by overwhelming public demand (or at least a handful of requests). Revised, considerably restructured and updated to include the … Continue reading Cornwall’s First Golden Age – new edition out now
Heraldry and medieval identity, the 1549 rising and choughs
Save yourself all the bother of having to read them - here's the fifth instalment of very short summaries of some recent academic takes on Cornwall ... Nigel Saul ascribes the Carminow family's myth about their coat of arms to the family's sixteenth century decline while going on to claim the Cornish identity was by … Continue reading Heraldry and medieval identity, the 1549 rising and choughs
The steam engine, more on Gothic Cornwall and the Cornish dialect
The fourth in my series of one sentence (sometimes two) summaries of recent academic work on Cornwall ... Mary O'Sullivan follows the money and tells us why the miners who were demonstrating in 1787 had a better grasp of economics than some mines adventurers of the time. Joan Passey is attracted by the 'Cornish Gothic' … Continue reading The steam engine, more on Gothic Cornwall and the Cornish dialect
Stuart loyalism, early language revivalists and islandness
Another three micro-summaries of reviews ... James Harris digs into expressions of loyalty in Restoration Cornwall and finds they were the result of a well-organised Tory propaganda campaign. In a second article James Harris compares seventeenth century attempts to revive the Cornish language with the situation in south-west Wales and identifies the lack of support … Continue reading Stuart loyalism, early language revivalists and islandness
Cornish studies resources 