34: A FEW SPECIMENS OF THE ANCIENT COENISH LANGUAGE. Norden, writing of the Cornish people and language, about the year 1580, says : "The Cornishe people for the most part are descended of the Britishe stocke, though muche entermixed since with the Saxon and Norman bloude; but untill of late yeares retayned the Britishe speache corrupted as theirs is of Wales ; for the South Wales man understandeth not perfective the North Wales man, and the North Wales man little of the Cornishe, the South muche. "The pronunciation of the tounge differs in all, but the Cornish tounge is farr the easieste to be pronounced ; for they strayne not ther wordes so tediouslye throwgh the throate, and so harshlye throwgh and from the roofe of the mouth ; as in pronouncing Rhin, they fetch it with Eh. Rhin, and LL with a kinde of reflecting the tounge. " But of late the Cornishe men have muche conformed themselves to the use of the Englishe tounge, and ther Englishe is equall to the beste, espetially in the easterne partes; even from Truro eastwarde it is in a manner wholy Englishe. In the Weste parte of the Countrye, as in the hundreds of Penwith and Kerrier the Cornishe tounge is most in use amongste the inhabitants."
Page:The ancient language, and the dialect of Cornwall.djvu/54
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