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BEV. W. S. LACH-SZYRMA ON 



endeavoured to pick out those that seem to me to be bona fide 

 Cornu-British words, and with the aid of philological friends 

 weeding them out, I hope, ultimately, to have a list of the real 

 survivals of Cornu-British. 



The last sentence actually used was, I believe, the fishermen's 

 cry, still remembered by some of our Newlyn fishermen : — Breal 

 meta truja peswartha, pempthes, whethes all is scraived. 



Breal-brithel — mackerel — the striped fisTi. 



Meta — next (Q. for nessa, second). 



Truja — third. 



Peswartha — -fourth. 



Then we have the children's cry : — Vesy, vasy, vumfra. 



Also the game Pedn-a-mean — Heads and tails. 



The actual living survivals of Cornish in common speech, 

 however, I suspect are now reduced to mere words, simple or 

 compound, set in an EngKsh sentence. 



The following I have heard used, which are truly Celtic : — 

 Piggywidden — the little white one, used as a term of endearment 

 to a child at Tredavoe. 



Padj-i-pau, the four foot ; Padzher, four ; Pou, foot ; Gr., 

 vrous. 



Cheel vean — little child. Vean for little. Mutation for 

 Behan. This really is a compound English and Cornish word, 

 so also is Arish Mow, which I have heard used. 



As for simple words their number is considerable — probably 

 about 200 survive in living speech of Cornu-British words. Not 

 a few of them are names of animals, or plants, or else trade 

 terms. The cause of the survival of the latter is not difficult to 

 detect. The old Cornish tradesmen did not learn English from 

 men of their own calling. The consequence was that though 

 ordinary ideas were expressed in English, those dealing with 

 specialities retained their old Cornish forms. Thus some of the 

 mining and fishing terms are Cornu-British, though both 

 miners and fishermen are English speaking people, e.g., Bal is 

 probably mutation for pal, and is now used for a mine. 



I may here say that I have endeavoured to draw out a list 

 of Cornu-British words, still in use in the county. These have 



