<html><body style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space; "><div>I agree, Craig, and would like to make a few further points.</div><div><br></div><div>1. There are cognates to K. <i>cadar</i> in at least 4 of the other 5 Celtic languages:</div><div>Br. <i>kador</i></div><div><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal; "><div>IG. <i>cathaoir (+ suíochán)</i></div><div><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal; "><div>SG. <i>cathair (+ suidheachan, seuthan)</i></div><div><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal; "><div>W. <i>cadair</i></div><div><i><br></i></div></span></i></div></span></i></div></span></i></div><div>That would make <i>cadar</i> a perfectly respectable interpolation into RC, even if it were totally unattested.</div><div><br></div><div>2. Of course, K. <i>cadar</i> is an attested Cornish word, even if only in toponyms.</div><div><br></div><div>3. <i>Cadar</i> is in universal use in Revived Cornish, and has been so for generations. Indeed, along with <i>chayr</i> and <i>scavel</i>, it is found in all of the RC dictionaries I've consulted, including Williams, Nance, Gendall and Kennedy.</div><div><br></div><div>Gendall gives attestations for the word in Thomas Tonkin (TT), place names (PN), and miscellaneous Traditional (TR) sources ("<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times; font-style: italic; ">Traditional sources per dialect dictionaries Jago, Thomas, Courtney, Couch, Sandys, Smith, Batten, Index Institute of Cornish Studies, & words directly communicated to Editor"). </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times; ">True, he does restrict <i>cadar</i> to such things as a professorial chair, or the Chair of a meeting, but it's hardly overstretching the word to use it to denote what the professorial/chairwomanly rump rests on in addition to their exalted office.</span></div><div><font class="Apple-style-span" face="Times"><br></font></div><div><font class="Apple-style-span" face="Times"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: SlimbachITC; ">If we can admit new words for new things, such as <i>pellwolok</i> and <i>dywyver</i> for 'television' and 'wireless', then we can hardly cavill at a possibly-new usage register for <i>cadar</i> 'chair'.</span></font></div><div><br></div><div>4. Statistical arguments about language usage are only mathematically valid if they're carried out on a statistically representative sample of the language. The historical corpus of Cornish is far too small and fragmentary --and far too slanted towards mediaeval religious plays!-- to be anything like an unbiased sample of the historical language.</div><div><br></div><div>(Ironically, the only place we find a more representative sample of Cornish usage in a fuller range of styles and registers is in the Revived corpus, rather than the historical one!)</div><div><br></div><div>Therefore, we cannot safely rely on (statistical) statements such as:</div><div><br></div><div><blockquote type="cite">"This word is historically attested X times, while that word only Y times. Therefore, we must use the 'commoner' word."</blockquote><div><br></div><blockquote type="cite">"This word is only found in place-names, so it can't be adopted into general use."</blockquote><div><br></div><blockquote type="cite">"This word is only found in the OCV, so it would be anachronistic to include it in RC."</blockquote><div><br></div><blockquote type="cite">"This noun is never found lenited, so we must avoid using it where it would require lenition."</blockquote><div><br></div>Eddie Climo<br><br></div><div><br></div><br><div><div>On 19 Gor 2009, at 07:22, Craig Weatherhill wrote:</div><br class="Apple-interchange-newline"><blockquote type="cite"><div>What I'm trying to say, Michael, is that, although chayr is used the word used in the texts, it has to be emphasised that these are the texts that we are lucky enough to have. We are drawing on an incomplete source. So, it's my case that place-names should be viewed as "textual" evidence, as well. Chayr appears in some of those, too, such as Carn Cheer, Chair Ladder, so this alternative was also good enough for place-names.<br><br>We also have 'tuttyn', "stool" ('Tutton Harry an Lader', N. Boson. This is now Chair Ladder); scavel, "stool"; scaun, "bench". What is now Irish Lady Zawn, between Sennen Cove and Land's End was Savyn an Skanow 1580 - I think this is 'scaunyow', "benches". The foot of the cliff on either side, under Pedn'men-du to the north and Carn-men-ellas to the south, takes the shape of massive benches.<br><br>I expect there are other words but that's what I can think of right now.<br><br>Craig</div></blockquote></div></body></html>