Chapter 4

§ 1. On the Pronunciation in general.

In simple Cornish words of more than one syllable the stress accent is generally, though not universally, on the last but one. {54} The vowel of this syllable has usually its plain, clear _long_ or _short_ sound. The vowels of the unaccented syllables are usually _obscure_ in the case of two of the broad vowels (_a_, _o_), and _short_ in the case of the thin vowels (_e_, _i_, _y_) and of _u_, unless they are combinations of two vowels, in which case they are always long; but _e_ in a final unaccented syllable is also generally _obscure_. The _obscure_ vowel is the sound of _u_ in the English word _until_, or _o_ in _London_, and there is very little, if any, difference in sound between the obscure _a_, _e_, _o_, and _u_. When this sound occurs, as it occasionally does, on an accented syllable, or anywhere where it might be mistaken for a plain sound, it is written, according to the spelling of this book, _ă_, _ŏ_, or _ŭ_.

In words of one syllable ending in a consonant the vowel is generally to be taken as _short_, unless it is marked long (_â_, _ê_, _î_, _ô_, _û_, _ŷ_), or is a combination of two vowels. In monosyllables ending in a vowel, that vowel usually has its _long_ sound, but as Cornish is largely accented in ordinary conversation by _sentences_ (as is the case in Gaelic, and to a considerable extent in English), many monosyllables are slurred over with no accent (as _enclitics_ or _proclitics_, according to whether they follow or precede the word on which they depend), and with more or less of the _obscure_ vowel. The modern Cornish intonation of English is probably a very fair guide to the intonation of Cornish. {55}

The consonants, especially _f_, _v_, _dh_, _th_, are rather more lightly sounded than in English. Any peculiarities of sound will be given under each consonant.

During the period in which the existing remains of Cornish literature were written, that is, between the twelfth and the middle of the eighteenth century, the spelling was very unsettled. There were at least six different systems, if no more.

1. That of the Cotton Vocabulary.

2. That of the _Ordinalia_, with a sub-variety in that of the _Poem of the Passion_.

3. That of the _St. Meriasek_.

4. That of Jordan’s _Creation_.

5. That of Boson, Keigwin, and other seventeenth and eighteenth century writers.

6. That of Lhuyd.

Not only did different writers differ from one another, but various ways of representing the same sound were used by the same writer. The earlier spelling shows a certain amount of Welsh, old English, and old French affinities; the latest is evidently modelled on modern English, which does not suit it very well, and the transition from one to the other is not very abrupt. It is the object of the present book to represent the probable pronunciation of Modern Cornish by a system fairly consistent in itself, but not too startlingly divergent from those adopted by previous writers (or from that of Breton, where coincidence occurs), and not too much encumbered with diacritical signs. It is to some extent a following of Dr. Edward Lhuyd, whose system, though rather clumsy and unnecessarily puzzling in places, was on the whole very good and of great value.

§ 2. The Vowels.

Simple: _a_, _â_, _e_, _ê_, _i_, _î_, _o_, _ô_, _ŏ_, _u_, _û_, _ŭ_, _y_, _ŷ_.

Compound: _aw_, _ei_, _ey_, _ew_, _oi_, _oy_, _ou_, _ow_.

a. Simple vowels.

1. _a_, short, as _a_ in _man_. Before _l_ and _r_ it is generally sounded as _o_ in _not_.

2. _â_, long, the lengthened sound of _a_ short, _not_ as the English broad _a_ in _father_, or long _a_ in _mane_, but as a broad _a_ is commonly sounded in Cornish English. Thus _bâ_ would have something between the sound of the English word _bare_ (of course without the _r_ trilled at all) in the mouth of a correct speaker, and the actual sound of the bleat of a sheep. {56}

In some words, and especially before a liquid followed by a consonant, _a_ tends to be sounded as _aw_ or short _o_. Thus _âls_, cliff, _gwander_, weakness, _wartha_, upper, are sounded _awls_, _gwonder_, _wortha_ or _worra_, and _brâs_, great, is sounded _brawz_.

In unaccented syllables _a_ represents nearly the sound of _u_ in _until_, or, as a final, the English sound of _a_ at the end of proper names, such as _Vienna_, _Maria_, etc., which is more or less the final _e_ of German, _meine_, _deine_, etc., or perhaps the _e_ of the French words _le_, _de_, _me_, etc.

3. _e_, short, as _e_ in _men_, _pen_, etc.

4. _ê_, long, as _ai_ in _main_, _ay_ in _say_. {57}

5. _i_, short, as _i_ in _in_, _pin_, etc.

6. _î_, long, as _ee_ in _seen_, etc.

7. _o_, short, as _o_ in _on_.

8. _ô_, long, as _aw_ in _dawn_, not as _o_ in _bone_.

9. _ŏ_, obscure, as _o_ in _London_, _ton_, etc.

10. _u_, short, as _u_ in _full_.

11. _û_, long, as _oo_ in _fool_.

12. _ǔ_, obscure, as _u_ in _until_.

13. _ŷ_, long, as _i_ in _mine_.

14. _y_, short, as _y_ in _carry_, _marry_, etc. This is used chiefly as an unaccented final in a word of more than one syllable.

In the case of the letter _y_, there is a variation of sound in such monosyllables as _nŷ_, _whŷ_, _jŷ_, _hŷ_ under certain circumstances. In this system of spelling the circumflex is omitted when these words are enclitic.

b. Compound vowels.

Of these, _aw_, _ai_, _ei_, _ay_, _ey_, _ou_, are only repetitions of the simple vowels _ô_, _û_, and _ŷ_. The other four have sounds not otherwise represented.

1. _aw_ has the same sound as _ô_. It is very rarely used.

2. _ai_, _ay_, _ei_, _ey_, have nearly the same sound as _ŷ_, rather more diphthongalised.

3. _eu_, _ew_ have the sound of _ew_ in the English word _dew_, the usual English long _u_. This sound is also represented in Cornish by _y_ consonant followed by _u_, as in the word _yu_, is, which has exactly the sound of the English personal pronoun _you_.

4. _oi_, _oy_ have the sound of _oy_ in _boy_.

5. _Ow_ has two sounds—(1) as an unaccented final, as _o_ in _bone_. This is also its sound when it occurs without any consonant, in the possessive pronoun _ow_, my, and the participle particle _ow_; (2) in other cases it sounds as _ou_ in _you_, and rarely as _ow_ in _now_.

6. _Ou_ has the same sound as _û_, and as the second sound of _ow_. It is the regular symbol for that sound in Breton, and very commonly in the Cornish dramas, where, as in Breton, _u_ commonly represented, approximately, the French _u_, which later became _î_ or _ew_.

General Remarks on the Vowels.

In the Middle Cornish manuscripts the vowels are represented in various ways, and there is a special uncertainty about unaccented and obscure vowels.

Vowels were sometimes lengthened by doubling, or by adding a _y_, and rarely, until Jordan’s _Creation_, by adding a mute _e_ after the closing consonant; but often quantity was not indicated at all.

Long _î_ (_ee_ in _see_) was more often than not represented by _y_, but, as in Welsh, _y_ not infrequently represented the obscure vowel (_u_ in _until_), and often a sound which later became a short _e_, but in unaccented syllables was, as is not unusually the case in English, more of the nature of the obscure vowel, or perhaps something between that and a short _i_. Indeed all unaccented vowels tend to become obscure, very much as they do in English, and hence are variously expressed.

The _u_ of the earlier MSS. probably once represented approximately the French _u_ or the German _u_, the _u_ of Devon and East Cornwall English, or the _ao_ of Scottish Gaelic, not exactly the same sounds, but very near to each other. As in Greek and Welsh, this sound approached nearer and nearer to _î_ (_ee_ in _seen_), until in Cornish it ceased to be recognised as having any _u_ sound in it at all. In Welsh it is still written as _u_, and in carefully spoken Welsh is quite distinguishable from _î_. In Breton the sound is still approximately that of the French _u_. In some words in Cornish this sound became _ew_ (as in the English word _few_) and rarely _û_ (_oo_ in _moon_), but generally it became _î_ (English _ee_). {59a}

What was once the sound of the French and Breton _eu_ or the German _o_, was represented in the MSS. by _u_, _eu_, _ue_. Later this became _ê_ (_ay_ in _may_). Thus, _dueth_ or _duth_, “came,” became _dêth_; _luen_, _leun_, “full,” became _lên_; _due_, “comes,” became _dê_; _mur_, _meur_, “great,” became _mêr_. This change is found occasionally as early as the _Poem of the Passion_. The rhythm shows that _ue_ and _eu_ form only one syllable. In the case of _lues_ (=_luas_), many, which later became _lîas_ (or _leeas_), the rhythm shows that the _u_ and _e_ did not form a single vowel. Occasionally, as in the second person plural of certain tenses, _eu_ of the early MSS. became _ew_, which it was probably intended to represent, but was often confused with _ou_ (=_û_ or _oo_). {59b}

The sound of _ô_ or _aw_, as it certainly became in later Cornish, was represented by _e_, _o_, _oy_, _a_, _oa_, _ao_, _au_, _aw_. The tendency to pronounce _a_ as _aw_ or short _o_ before _l_, _n_, _r_, doubled or followed by a consonant, and sometimes single, is very marked in the spelling of late Cornish, and in the present pronunciation of place-names. There is no evidence of its age in Cornish; but it is very common in English and Irish, though unknown in standard Welsh or Breton.

There seems no doubt, by the same evidence, that a long _y_ of older Cornish often became _i_, as in the English word _mine_. Vulgarly, as with the English long i, it sometimes even became _oy_. Boson writes _choy_ for _chy_, house, but Lhuyd writes it _tshẏi_ or _tshei_, which last is its usual modern sound in place-names. _Nŷ_, we, _whŷ_, you, _jŷ_, they, and _hŷ_, she, are written _nei_, _huei_, _dzhei_, _hei_, by Lhuyd, and Jenkins of Alverton, using the earlier form of the third person plural, written _y_ in the Dramas, spells it _eye_. Yet there are cases where the older pronunciation is retained, and probably this was always the case when the words were enclitic. Prof. Loth has pointed out a similar change in the Quiberon sub-dialect of Vannetais Breton, and that in some of the same words.

In the unscientific spelling of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, that is to say, in the system of every one except Lhuyd, and occasionally of Gwavas and Tonkin when they followed Lhuyd, the English values of the period were often given to the letters; but the following were vowel symbols in general use:—

For _â_ of the _a_, _aa_ Lhuyd _â_. present system

,, _a_ ,, _a_, _u_, _e_, _o_ ,, _a_.

,, _ê_ ,, _ea_ ,, _ê_.

,, _e_ ,, _e_, _i_ ,, _e_.

,, _î_ ,, _ee_ ,, _î_, _ŷ_.

,, _i_ ,, _i_ ,, _i_.

,, _ô_, _aw_ ,, _oa_, _o_, _aw_, Lhuyd writes an inverted _au_, _ao_ _a_ or _ô_.

,, _o_ ,, _o_ Lhuyd _o_.

,, _ŏ_, _ŭ_, _ă_ ,, _o_, _u_, _a_, _e_ ,, _ẏ_.

,, _ŭ_, _ou_ ,, _u_, _oo_, _ou_ ,, _ụ_, _û_.

,, _ow_ ,, _ô_, _ow_, _ou_, _au_ ,, _oụ_, _o_, _ô_.

,, _u_ ,, _u_, _oo_ ,, _u_.

,, _ew_, _yu_, _eu_ _ew_, _yu_, _yw_ ,, _iụ_, _yụ_, _eụ_. ,,

,, _ŷ_, _ei_, _ay_ ,, _y_, _ei_, _ay_ ,, _ei_, _y_, _ẏ_.

,, _y_ ,, _y_, _i_, _e_ ,, _y_, _i_.

A final _e_ mute was often used to lengthen a vowel, as in English. Many names of places and persons retain this _e_ mute at the present day, and when the preceding vowel is _a_, educated persons generally give it the sound of the English long _a_ in _mane_, but that is a change analogous to the modern vulgarism of pronouncing _clerk_ as _clurk_ instead of _clark_. The proper sound of the Cornish _â_ is still heard in such words in the mouths of the peasantry. Compare such a name as _Polglaze_ in the two pronunciations.

§ 3. The Consonants.

Simple: _b_, _c_, _d_, _f_, _g_, _h_, _j_, _k_, _l_, _m_, _n_, _p_, _q_, _r_, _s_, _t_, _v_, _w_, _y_, _z_.

Compound: _bm_, _ch_, _dh_, _dn_, _gw_, _gh_, _ng_, _qw_, _sh_, _th_, _wh_, _zh_, _gwl_, _gwr_, _qwr_, _wl_, _wr_.

a. Simple consonants.

1. _b_ has the same sound as in English.

2. _c_ is always hard, being used only before _a_, _o_, _u_. The same sound before _e_, _i_, _y_ is represented by _k_.

3. _d_ before _a_, _o_, _u_ is usually hard, as in English, but, as in Gaelic, before _e_, _i_, _y_ it has a sound approaching to _j_, or like _di_ in _soldier_. In the MSS. a soft _g_ was often written for _d_ in such cases. It is a common change in many languages. Cf. the Italian _oggi_, to-day, for the Latin _hodie_.

4. _f_ has the same sound as in English. In the MSS. it is often confused with _v_. As a final it is very lightly sounded.

5. _g_ is always hard, as in _get_, _go_. The soft _g_, as in _gin_, is here represented by _j_, but in the MSS. _g_ was often used for it.

6. _h_ has two degrees of sound. As an initial it is rather more lightly sounded than in English, except when it is a mutation of _c_ (see