Apparently, Italki doesn't recognize the Cornish language, or at least, I did not see its English name or Cornish name listed under languages. Anyhow, does anyone know if these are the correct translations and plural forms of these words? Thanks. Also, I see that dog can be spelled kei, ki, and ky. Are these technically different words or just alternate spellings?
== Masculine Nouns ==
aval (an apple)
avalow / lavalow (apples)
chy (a house)
chiow (houses)
den (a man)
tus (men)
gwerthji (a shop)
gwerthjiow (shops)
hatt (a hat)
hattow (hats)
kav (a cave)
kavyow (caves)
ki (a dog)
keun (dogs)
kloud (a cloud)
kloudys (clouds)
lever (a book)
levrow (books)
parkynn (a field)
parkynnow (fields)
rannji (an apartment)
rannjiow (apartments)
studhyer (a student)
studhyoryon (students)
treth (a beach)
trethow (beaches)
== Feminine Nouns ==
benyn (a woman)
benenes (women)
diwros (a bike)
diwrosow (bikes)
edhen (a bird)
edhyn / edhnow (birds)
enys (an island)
enesow (islands)
fos (a wall)
fosow (walls)
kath (a cat)
kathes (cats)
koswik (a forest)
koswigow (forests)
pluven (a pen)
pluvennow / pluvednow (pens)
I'm not particularly well versed in Cornish, but your list of words seems convincing enough to me.
The words you have found for "dog" are most likely just different ways of writing the same word according to different spelling systems. Bear in mind that Cornish died out at some point and the modern language is an attempt to reconstruct it, but there are rival versions of Modern Cornish which differ slightly in certain respects. Some are based on the language of the last speakers, some hark further back in time to what they see as a purer form of the language; some use orthographies adapted from mediaeval sources, others employ more innovative orthographies; some try to minimise the influence of English while others are more willing to accept English loans. I don't want to overemphasise the differences, because they're all recognisably the same language anyway. There has been some attempt to unify all these versions into a single Cornish language but I'm not really up to date with the current situation.
Fair play to you for supporting the Cornish revival. Have you also looked into Welsh? It's also P-Celtic and you can easily spot the similarities with Cornish.
Shawn, I'm afraid I don't know the answer to your question, but I'm interested all the same. Do you have a particular reason why you want to learn Cornish, its a pretty obscure language.
Interesting. There has been a concerted effort in recent years to try and revive the Cornish language in the Cornwall area, which has been supported by the UK government. Cornish people are known for being very proud of their local area and I guess the language is a big part of that cultural identity. I never expected someone from the USA to be interested in learning it though! As I said before its a pretty obscure language. But as you say it has similarites to Gaelic and also to Welsh, so I agree it would be kind of cool to try and study and identify how they have changed and diverged.
Paul, I just love learning and analyzing languages in my spare time. It would be great to learn some Cornish, since it is a P-Celtic language, and then compare its grammar, sound mutations, etc. with those of Irish, one of the Q-Celtic languages that I am already learning. Plus there is the added benefit of being part of the effort to revive the language. How cool and fun is that? :)
