The Cornish Consonantal System: Implications for the Revival

Because there are no native speakers of Cornish, there is always the danger that revivalist will shape the revived language according to certain preconceptions. This was certainly true of Jenner and Nance. Revivalists should always be careful to study thoroughly the remains of the traditional language, and thus to base their speech on what is found in the texts rather than on either of the other Brythonic languages or on their own preferences. This is as true for matters of orthography and phonology as it is for the lexicon. In this book certain aspects of the Cornish consonantal system are examined, using as evidence only what is found in the surviving texts. Thereafter some emendations to the Standard Written Form are suggested by which it might be rendered less inauthentic.