[Spellyans] vocabulary

ewan wilson butlerdunnit at ntlworld.com
Tue Jun 22 19:58:59 BST 2010


Craig,

It's interesting to see the thinking behind your adoption of 'tota 
Cornicitus' especially from someone very favourable to LC which I had 
assumed'd be more skewed towards borrowings which by their nature are more 
likely to be Late ( though not necessarily so!)
As Jennifer said here some time back, if the language has incorporated both 
Celtic and borrowed lexical items why not use both? I agree 'stevel' is a 
good word not to thrown over lightly!

On the pronunciation of '-ow' I've been following the UC stipulations. Are 
these now totally discredited?
The plural -au suffix in Welsh is pronounced differently in North Welsh, 
more as an 'a' sound than the South 'eye' if I recall my old Welsh 
lecturer's ideas ( he was South Wales) I've heard South Waleans say North 
Welsh sounds like it's being pronounced with a Liverpudlean accent!!
Vowels must be the worst things to master, the beggars!

Ewan.
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Craig Weatherhill" <craig at agantavas.org>
To: <spellyans at kernowek.net>
Sent: Tuesday, June 22, 2010 6:56 PM
Subject: [Spellyans] vocabulary


> I'm concerned over one or two views that have been expressed re. 
> vocabulary.  On one hand I'm hearing support for tota Cornicitas, and  on 
> the other, I'm hearing that a word only attested in OCV and not in  the 
> MC/Tudor texts shouldn't be used (stevel being an example that 
> immediately springs to mind; use rom instead is the advice).  I don't 
> agree with this.  Here's an example to illustrate why I think this way.
>
> Dyek (SWF: diek), 'lazy' occurs on OCV as 'dioc', and not in MC at  all. 
> Until the 80s, when Dick Gendall was the first to look at Late  Cornish in 
> depth, it was being assumed that the word didn't survive  into MC.  In 
> fact, it must have survived into Late Cornish because it  turns up in 
> dialect as 'jack'.  So, if the word made it to Late  Cornish and dialect, 
> it follows that it must have existed in MC.  We  just don't have a text 
> that features it and, let's face it, we only  have a fraction of the texts 
> that must once have existed.  Attestation  in MC texts supports the use of 
> a word; absence from what survives of  the MC texts is not a reason for 
> rejection.  It only tells us that the  word isn't found in those few 
> texts; not that it didn't exist.
>
> For me, tota Cornicitas is essential.
>
> I'm afraid that some words being put forward will never find use with  me. 
> I don't see the point of 'valy' for "valley", when so many  Cornish words 
> for different types of valley already exist. Nor am I  minded to reject 
> lyw/liw (or however we're spelling it) in favour of  'color'.  I want to 
> write Cornish.  I already know English.
> --
> Craig
>
>
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