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adj adjective
adv adverb
art article
cnj conjunction
contr contraction
int interjection
n noun
n.coll collective noun
n.dl dual noun
n.f feminine noun
n.m masculine noun
n.m(f) or n.f(m) noun; masculine in some versions of Cornish and feminine in others
n.pl plural noun
num numeral
part particle
prfx prefix
prn pronoun
prp preposition
sffx suffix
top toponym
vb verb
² causes 2nd state mutation (lenition)
³ causes 3rd state mutation (spirantization)
⁴ causes 4th state mutation (provection)
⁵ causes 5th state mutation (mixed mutation)

CY Welsh
BR Breton
LAT Latin

'Middle' and 'Late' Cornish Forms

Today’s Cornish speakers use several different forms of the language. This applies to the spoken varieties as well as to orthographic systems. Basically, two ‘poles’ can be identified at the ends of a continuum that houses all kinds of spoken Cornish: Revived Middle Cornish (RMC) and Revived Late Cornish (RLC). In order to make things a bit clearer to learners, two tags have been chosen to mark words that are perceived as either exclusively Revived Middle Cornish (marked “M”) or Revived Late Cornish (marked “L”). Words that are in use across different groups of speakers with both RMC and RLC backgrounds are thought of as ‘common’ and are therefore not marked by any tag.

While in theory RMC and RLC may be defined as sharply distinct varieties of Cornish, the language spoken by many today is situated somewhere in between. For example some users of Middle Cornish-based orthographies will pronounce Middle Cornish long nn in words like penn ‘head’ as dn and say pedn, which is normally considered a feature of RLC. The SWF does not have a bias towards any end of the continuum and tagging is simply meant to help people choose forms that suit their style of Cornish. All kinds of Cornish are encouraged. Tagging provides additional information and makes forms that have hitherto been used by only one group available to everybody.

Pronunciation

One of the next stages of the Cornish language dictionary project is to add recordings to help learners hear how each word should be said. The aim of the Akademi is to start adding recordings in 2020.

Traditional graphs

By default, this dictionary writes <k> for /k/, <hw> for /ʍ/ or /hw/, and <-i> for word-final /i/.

The Standard Written Form also makes provision for the use of 'traditional graphs' such as word-final <y>, which are held to be equally correct, for personal use.

If you use 'traditional graphs' when writing the SWF, please refer to the following table to help you in using the dictionary:

'Traditional' to 'Main' form conversion table

c before a, o, u, l, r → k

qw (or: qu)→ kw

x → ks

wh → hw

unstressed final -y → -i