208 RECENT ARCHAEOLOGICAL DISCOVERIES IN CORNWALL. 



LANGUAGE OF THE CORNISH. 



(Tavazeth Kernttak). 



The linguistic sounds uttered by the old heathen inhabitants 

 of the west, — the rock-markers, the builders of rude stone 

 enclosures and of earth mounds, &c, whose relics have just been 

 described, — have not been communicated to us by means of any 

 characters traced by their hands, but yet, I think, the very echo 

 of the words they spoke resounds amid the hills and valleys of 

 the Cornwall of to-day. 



Their ancient utterances, instead of having died out, are 

 still heard whenever we pronounce (like natives) the old names 

 which have clung to certain places, natural objects, and antique 

 remains. 



Such terms as the following, familiar to us all, were probably 

 used by the old dwellers in Kernow or Cornubia long before a 

 knowledge of Christianity was introduced among them : — 



Coit, a horizontal flat stone. 



Men-hir, stone long, i.e., a long or tall stone, set erect. 

 Pen-tire, head of land, headland. 

 Tre-geare, place of war, war-place, camp. 

 Tintagel, (din or dun, — diogel), Fortress-secure, or sure. 

 Brownwilly, (bre, brea, bray, bryn or bron, — uhella), hill- 

 highest, highest hill. 



As Christianity became known to the Celts, it greatly 

 augmented their simple language, and brought into it several 

 foreign terms connected with itself. 



It is clear that originally the Celtic language in Cornwall 

 and Wales did not contain such words as Eglos, Eglwys, (church, 

 from the Creek ecclesia ; Credgyans an abesteleth, Creed of the 

 Apostles; Escop, Ebscob, Bishop, from the (Creek episcopos) ; nor 

 of course Lis-escop,* Court or Palace of the Bishop. They are 

 of later formation, and were added as the language expanded 

 with time and civilization, and the last of them was brought into 

 use in our own day. (Lis, or Les, is an early word). 



* Chosen by Bishop Benson (now Archbishop) as a new title for the old 

 Vicarage House, Kenwyn, when it had become his episcopal residence in the 

 Truro Diocese. 



