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| Cornish (Kernewek, Kernowek, Curnoack) | |
|---|---|
| Spoken in: | United Kingdom |
| Region: | Cornwall |
| Total speakers: | 3,500 |
| Ranking: | Not in top 100 |
| Genetic classification: | Indo-European Celtic |
| Official status | |
| Official language of: | - |
| Regulated by: | - |
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639ISO 639 is one of several international standards that lists short codes for language names. ISO 639 consists of different parts, of which two parts are currently published. The other parts are works in progress. Parts of ISO 639 There are two items for I-1 | kw |
| ISO 639-2 | cor |
| SIL | CRN |
During the Prayer Book rebellion of 1549Events July Kett's Rebellion Francis Xavier arrives in Japan. Salvador established, first capital of Brazil Petrus Canisius starts the Counter-Reformation in Bavaria Births Deaths November 10 Pope Paul III December 21 Marguerite of Navarre, Queen of Navar, which was a reaction to Parliament passing the first Act of UniformityOver the course of English history there were a number of acts of uniformity . All had the basic object of establishing some sort of religious orthodoxy within the English church. The Act of Uniformity 1552 (5 and 6 Edward VI, c. 1) required the use of th, people in many areas of Cornwall did not speak or understand English. In 1549, this imposition of a new language was sometimes a matter of life and death: many Cornish people protesting against the imposition of an English Prayer book were massacred by the King's army. Their leaders were executed and the people suffered numerous reprisals.
Early Modern Cornish was the subject of a study by the Welsh linguist Edward Lhuyd in 1700, and differs from the mediaeval language in having a simpler structure and grammar. By this time the language was already arguably in decline from its earlier heyday, and the situation worsened over the course of the next century. It is often claimed that the last native speaker of Cornish was the Mousehole resident Dolly Pentreath, who died in 1777. However, she spoke at least some English as well and the last monoglot Cornish speaker is believed to have been Chesten Marchant , who died in 1676 at Gwithian . It does, however, appear to be true that Dolly Pentreath spoke Cornish fluently and may have been the last to do so before the revival of the language in the 20th century. There is evidence that Cornish continued, albeit in limited usage by a handful of speakers, throughout the 19th century and into the early 20th century. In 1875 six speakers all in their sixties were discovered. Fishermen, for example, were counting fish in the Cornish language into the 1940s. Some dialects of English spoken in Cornwall display strong influences from the Cornish language that almost certainly go back several centuries.