Henry Jenner

A Handbook of the Cornish Language (Dodo Press) Henry Jenner

Henry Jenner FSA (1848-1934) was a Celtic scholar, Cornish cultural activist, and the chief originator of the Cornish language revival. As a small boy at St. Columb, his birthplace, he heard at the table some talk about a Cornish language. At the first pause in their talk he put his query... ?But is there really a Cornish Language? ?. In 1874 he continued his interest in Celtic languages, and in 1875 he read a paper to the Philological Society in London, his subject being the Manx language. The following year he read another paper on the subject of the Cornish language at Mount?s Bay. In 1877 he discovered, whilst working in the British Museum, forty two lines of a medieval play written in Cornish around the year 1450. In 1903 he was made Bard of the Breton Gorsedd, and he founded the first Cornish language society, ?Cowethas Kelto- Kernuak?. Shortly afterwards he published his Handbook of the Cornish Language and the Cornish Revival was born. His version of Cornish was based upon the form of the language used in West Cornwall in the 18th century.