Cornish people

## Country of Origin

Kernow (Rywvaneth Unys/United Kingdom): 84,000Keskar/Diaspora: 11 million+

## Language And Script

Kernewek: 557+/- (0.7% percent of Ethnic Population)

## Date When Land Was Settled

2,300 years ago, during the Great Celtic Expansion

## Related Ethnic Groups

Celts Welsh

The **Cornish people** or **Cornish** are an ethnic group native to, or associated with Cornwall and a recognised national minority in the United Kingdom, which can trace its roots to the ancient Britons who inhabited southern and central Great Britain before the Roman conquest. Many in Cornwall today continue to assert a distinct identity separate from or in addition to English or British identities. Cornish identity has been adopted by migrants into Cornwall, as well as by emigrant and descendant communities from Cornwall, the latter sometimes referred to as the Cornish diaspora. Although not included as an explicit option in the UK census, the numbers of those claiming Cornish ethnic and national identity are officially recognised and recorded.

Throughout classical antiquity, the ancient Britons formed a series of tribes, cultures and identities in Great Britain; the Dumnonii and Cornovii were the Celtic tribes who inhabited what was to become Cornwall during the Iron Age, Roman and post-Roman periods. The name Cornwall and its demonym Cornish are derived from the Celtic Cornovii tribe. The Anglo-Saxon invasion and settlement of Britain in the 5th to 6th centuries restricted the Romano-British culture and language gradually into the north and west of Great Britain whilst the inhabitants of southern and eastern Britain became English.

The Cornish people and their Brythonic Cornish language experienced a process of anglicisation and attrition during the Medieval and early Modern Period. By the 18th century, and following the creation of the Kingdom of Great Britain, the Cornish language and identity had faded, largely replaced by the English language (albeit Cornish-influenced West Country dialects and Anglo-Cornish) or British identity. A Celtic revival during the early-20th century enabled a cultural self-consciousness in Cornwall that revitalised the Cornish language and roused the Cornish to express a distinctly Celtic heritage. The Cornish language was granted official recognition under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages in 2002, and in 2014 the Cornish people were recognised and afforded protection by the UK Government under the Framework Convention for the Protection of National Minorities.

The Cornish self-government movement has called for greater recognition of Cornish culture, politics, and language, and urged that Cornish people be accorded greater status, exemplified by the call for them to be one of the listed ethnic groups in the United Kingdom Census 2011 form.

## Etymology (Etymologyl)

**Corn/Kernewek** originates from the Proto-Celtic "\*karnos" ("horn" or "headland") is cognate with the English word "horn" (both deriving from the Proto-Indo-European \*ker-). An Iron Age Celtic tribe that occupied the Cornish peninsula, the *Cornovii* ("peninsula people") may have also existed.

## History (Istori)

### Rome to Heptarchy - 100 CE-930 CE - Rom bys dhe Heptarchy

During the British Iron Age, Cornwall, like all of Britain, was inhabited by a Celtic people known as the Britons with distinctive cultural relations to neighbouring Brittany. The Cornish people are specifically descendant from the Cornovii people of the Kingdom of Dumnonia, which continued to exist after Roman rule over the kingdom's lands, until it was conquered by Wessex.

In the first four centuries CE, during the time of Roman dominance in Britain, Cornwall was rather remote from the main centres of Romanisation - the nearest being Isca Dumnoniorum, modern day Exeter. However, the Roman road-system extended into Cornwall with four significant Roman sites based on forts: Tregear near Nanstallon was discovered in the early 1970s, two others were found at Restormel Castle, Lostwithiel in 2007, and a third fort near Calstock was also discovered early in 2007. In addition, a Roman-style villa was found at Magor Farm, Illogan in 1935. However, after 410 CE, Cornwall appears to have reverted to rule by Romano-Celtic chieftains of the Cornovii tribe as part of the Brittonic kingdom of Dumnonia (which also included present-day Devonshire and the Scilly Isles), including the territory of one Marcus Cunomorus, with at least one significant power base at Tintagel in the early 6th century.

The Battle of Deorham in 577 saw the separation of Dumnonia (and therefore Cornwall) from Wales, following which the Cornovii often came into conflict with the expanding English kingdom of Wessex. The *Annales Cambriae* report that in 722 AD the Britons of Cornwall won a battle at "Hehil". It seems likely that the enemy the Cornish fought was a West Saxon force, as evidenced by the naming of King Ine of Wessex and his kinsman Nonna in reference to an earlier Battle of Lining in 710.

The *Anglo-Saxon Chronicle* stated in 815 (adjusted date) "and in this year king Ecgbryht raided in Cornwall from east to west." and thenceforth apparently held it as a ducatus or dukedom annexed to his regnum or kingdom of Wessex, but not wholly incorporated with it. The *Anglo-Saxon Chronicle* states that in 825 (adjusted date) a battle took place between the Wealas (Cornish) and the Defnas (men of Devon) at Gafulforda. In the same year Ecgbert, as a later document expresses it, "disposed of their territory as it seemed fit to him, giving a tenth part of it to God." In other words, he incorporated Cornwall ecclesiastically with the West Saxon diocese of Sherborne, and endowed Eahlstan, his fighting bishop, who took part in the campaign, with an extensive Cornish estate consisting of Callington and Lawhitton, both in the Tamar valley, and Pawton near Padstow.

In 838, the Cornish and their Danish allies were defeated by Egbert in the Battle of Hingston Down at Hengestesdune (probably Hingston Down in Cornwall). In 875, the last recorded king of Cornwall, Dumgarth, is said to have drowned. Around the 880s, Anglo-Saxons from Wessex had established modest land holdings in the eastern part of Cornwall; notably Alfred the Great who had acquired a few estates. William of Malmesbury, writing around 1120, says that King Athelstan of England (924–939) fixed the boundary between English and Cornish people at the east bank of the River Tamar.

### Kingdom of England (Rywvaneth Pows Sow)

The *Anglo-Saxon Chronicle* stated in 815 (adjusted date) "and in this year king Ecgbryht raided in Cornwall from east to west." and thenceforth apparently held it as a ducatus or dukedom annexed to his regnum or kingdom of Wessex, but not wholly incorporated with it. The *Anglo-Saxon Chronicle* states that in 825 (adjusted date) a battle took place between the Wealas (Cornish) and the Defnas (men of Devon) at Gafulforda. In the same year Ecgbert, as a later document expresses it, "disposed of their territory as it seemed fit to him, giving a tenth part of it to God." In other words, he incorporated Cornwall ecclesiastically with the West Saxon diocese of Sherborne, and endowed Eahlstan, his fighting bishop, who took part in the campaign, with an extensive Cornish estate consisting of Callington and Lawhitton, both in the Tamar valley, and Pawton near Padstow.

In 838, the Cornish and their Danish allies were defeated by Egbert in the Battle of Hingston Down at Hengestesdune (probably Hingston Down in Cornwall). In 875, the last recorded king of Cornwall, Dumgarth, is said to have drowned. Around the 880s, Anglo-Saxons from Wessex had established modest land holdings in the eastern part of Cornwall; notably Alfred the Great who had acquired a few estates. William of Malmesbury, writing around 1120, says that King Athelstan of England (924–939) fixed the boundary between English and Cornish people at the east bank of the River Tamar.

Subsequently, however, Norman absentee landlords became replaced by a new Cornish-Norman ruling class including scholars such as Richard Rufus of Cornwall. These families eventually became the new rulers of Cornwall, typically speaking Norman French, Breton-Cornish, Latin, and eventually English, with many becoming involved in the operation of the Stannary Parliament system, the Earldom and eventually the Duchy of Cornwall. The Cornish language continued to be spoken and acquired a number of characteristics establishing its identity as a separate language from Breton.

### Decline (Difyk)

King Edward VI of England commanded that the Book of Common Prayer, an Anglican liturgical text in the English language, should be introduced to all churches in his kingdom, meaning that Latin and Celtic customs and services should be discontinued. The Prayer Book Rebellion was a militant revolt in Cornwall and parts of neighbouring Devon against the Act of Uniformity 1549, which outlawed all languages from church services apart from English, and is specified as a testament to the affection and loyalty the Cornish people held for the Cornish language. In the rebellion, separate risings occurred simultaneously in Bodmin in Cornwall, and Sampford Courtenay in Devon—which would both converge at Exeter, laying siege to the region's largest Protestant city. However, the rebellion was suppressed, thanks largely to the aid of foreign mercenaries in a series of battles in which "hundreds were killed", effectively ending Cornish as the common language of the Cornish people. The Anglicanism of the Reformation served as a vehicle for Anglicisation in Cornwall; Protestantism had a lasting cultural effect upon the Cornish by way of linking Cornwall more closely with England, while lessening political and linguistic ties with the Bretons of Brittany.

The English Civil War, a series of armed conflicts and political machinations between Parliamentarians and Royalists, polarised the populations of England and Wales. However, Cornwall in the English Civil War was a staunchly Royalist enclave, an "important focus of support for the Royalist cause". Cornish soldiers were used as scouts and spies during the war, for their language was not understood by English Parliamentarians. The peace that followed the close of the war led to a further shift to the English language by the Cornish people, which encouraged an influx of English people to Cornwall. By the mid-17th century the use of the Cornish language had retreated far enough west to prompt concern and investigation by antiquarians, such as William Scawen. As the Cornish language diminished the people of Cornwall underwent a process of English enculturation and assimilation, becoming "absorbed into the mainstream of English life".

### Present (Lemmyn)

As Pan-Celticism gathered pace in the early 20th century, Cornishman L. C. R. Duncombe-Jewell and the Cowethas Kelto-Kernuak (a Cornish language interest group) asserted the use of Cornish kilts and tartans as a "national dress ... common to all Celtic countries". In 1924 the Federation of Old Cornwall Societies was formed to facilitate, preserve and maintain Celticity in Cornwall, followed by the similar Gorseth Kernow in 1928, and the formation of the Cornish nationalist political party Mebyon Kernow in 1951. Increased interest and communication across the Celtic nations in Celtic languages and culture during the 1960s and 1970s spurred on the popularisation of the Cornish self-government movement. Since devolution in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, enthusiasts for Cornish culture have pressed for the Cornish language to be taught formally in Cornish schools, while Cornish nationalists have demanded greater political autonomy for Cornwall, for example that it be constituted as the United Kingdom's fifth consistuent country with its own Cornish Assembly.

## Cornish Wrestling (Omdowl Kernewek)

**Cornish wrestling** is a form of wrestling that has been established in Cornwall for many centuries and possibly longer. It is similar to the Breton Gouren wrestling style. It is colloquially known as "wrasslin’" in the Cornish dialect of English; historically, this usage is attested by Chaucer, Shakespeare and Drayton.

The referee is known as a 'stickler', and it is claimed that the popular meaning of the word as a 'pedant' originates from this usage.

Cornish wrestling is the local sport of Cornwall, and spread throughout the British Isles and then along with the Cornish diaspora to such places as the United States, Australia, Mexico, New Zealand and South Africa.

The objective of Cornish wrestling is to throw ones opponent and cause them to land as flat as possible on the back. Each of the wrestlers wears a ‘jacket’ of tough make and material, enabling them to better grip their opponent. Grabbing of the wrists or fingers is forbidden as well as holding below the waist. All holds are to be taken upon the jacket, although the flat of the hand is allowed to be used to push or deflect an opponent. Three sticklers watch and control each bout, keeping score of points.

Four pins are located on the back of a wrestler, two at the shoulders and two just above the buttocks. A wrestler scores points by throwing their opponent onto their back, the number of pins hitting the floor being the number of points scored. If a wrestler manages to score with three or four pins this is called a ‘Back’ and the bout is then finished, with the throwing wrestler as the winner. The sticklers each raise their sticks when they perceive a Back has been achieved. A Back may be awarded by majority, i.e. by two out of the three stickers. If a Back is not awarded, the winner is the wrestler with the most accumulated points within the time limit.

## Language (Yeth)

**Cornish** (Standard Written Form: *Kernewek* or *Kernowek*) is a Southwestern Brittonic language of the Celtic language family. It is a revived language, having become extinct as a living community language in Cornwall at the end of the 18th century. However, knowledge of Cornish, including speaking ability to a certain extent, continued to be passed on within families and by individuals, and a revival began in the early 20th century. The language has a growing number of second language speakers, and a very small number of families now raise children to speak revived Cornish as a first language. Cornish is currently recognised under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages, and the language is often described as an important part of Cornish identity, culture and heritage.

Along with Welsh and Breton, Cornish is descended from the Common Brittonic language spoken throughout much of Great Britain before the English language came to dominate. For centuries until it was pushed westwards by English, it was the main language of Cornwall, maintaining close links with its sister language Breton, with which it was mutually intelligible, perhaps even as long as Cornish continued to be spoken as a vernacular. Cornish continued to function as a common community language in parts of Cornwall until the mid 18th century. There is some evidence of knowledge of the language persisting into the 19th century, possibly almost overlapping the beginning of revival efforts.

A process to revive the language was begun in the early 20th century, and in 2010, UNESCO announced that its former classification of the language as "extinct" was "no longer accurate." Since the revival of the language, some Cornish textbooks and works of literature have been published, and an increasing number of people are studying the language. Recent developments include Cornish music, independent films and children's books. A small number of people in Cornwall have been brought up to be bilingual native speakers, and the language is taught in schools. The first Cornish-language day care opened in 2010.

## Religion (Kryjyans)

**Christianity in Cornwall** began in the 4th or 5th century AD when Western Christianity was introduced into Cornwall along with the rest of Roman Britain. Over time it became the official religion, superseding previous Celtic and Roman practices. Early Christianity in Cornwall was spread largely by the saints, including Saint Piran, the patron of the county. Cornwall, like other parts of Britain, is sometimes associated with the distinct collection of practices known as Celtic Christianity but was always in communion with the wider Catholic Church. The Cornish saints are commemorated in legends, churches and placenames.

In contrast to Wales, which produced Bible translations into Welsh, the churches of Cornwall never produced a translation of the Bible in the Cornish language, which may have contributed to that language's demise. During the English Reformation, churches in Cornwall officially became affiliated with the Church of England. In 1549, the Prayer Book Rebellion caused the deaths of thousands of people from Devon and Cornwall. The Methodism of John Wesley proved to be very popular with the working classes in Cornwall in the 19th century. Methodist chapels became important social centres, with male voice choirs and other church-affiliated groups playing a central role in the social lives of working class Cornishmen. Methodism still plays a large part in the religious life of Cornwall today, although Cornwall has shared in the post-World War II decline in British religious feeling. In 1876 a separate Cornish diocese of the Church of England was established with the bishop's see at Truro.

## Prominent Cornish People (Tus Kernewek Badnek)

**Peter Tregloan** (born 18 October 1957) is a former strongman and Powerlifter from Cornwall. He has won a number of titles including nine world championships in powerlifting and is the current world record holder in Squat, Deadlift and Total weight for the Masters age class.

**Helen Glover** MBE (born 17 June 1986) is a British professional rower and a member of the Great Britain Rowing Team. Ranked the number 1 female rower in the world in 2015-16, she is a two-time Olympic champion, triple World champion, quintuple World Cup champion and quadruple European champion. She and her partner Heather Stanning were the World, Olympic, World Cup and European record holders, plus the Olympic, World and European champions in the women's coxless pairs. She has also been a British champion in both women's fours and quad sculls.

**Michael Adams** (born 17 November 1971) is an English chess grandmaster and is a seven-time British Chess Champion. His highest ranking is world No. 4, achieved several times from October 2000 to October 2002. His peak Elo rating is 2761, the highest achieved by an English chess player.

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