All About Cornwall
Matthi ab Dewi (Matthew Clarke) is a fluent Cornish speaker and radio host, and he joined me today to talk all about Cornwall – on topics of language, history, and a teeny bit of travel.
Timestamps
- 3:48 – Matthi’s Introduction
- 4:53 – How many people speak Cornish today?
- 7:32 – Where is Cornwall? (in England?)
- 9:23 – (A bit of ) The History of Cornwall
- 15:51 – Cornish and Breton
- 19:54 – Why didn’t English take over these languages completely?
- 25:56 – Matthi teaches me Cornish
- 31:40 – Best place to visit in Cornwall
- 33:24 – Where to find Matthi
Where to Find Matthi
& Other Resources
anradyo.com (Cornish Radio & TV show)
Radyo An Gernewegva (Radio)
An Mis (TV show)
Like a Buried City (Matthi’s Book on Amazon – English Version)
Like a Buried City (Cornish Version)
Cornwall’s First Golden Age (Recommended Book)
Vocabulary & Expressions
A lot of tough words were mentioned today! The full transcripts might help you more, but I hope this list will clear a couple of words up.
- Defacto (07:54) – existing or holding a specified position in fact but not necessarily by legal right
- Under the auspices of (08:06) – With the help or support of someone
- Will (noun) (08:31) – A document that says where your possessions will go after you die
- To put one’s stamp on something (09:53) – To claim that you own something (eg. land), to make a mark or impression on something
- Mutually intelligible (11:55) – You can’t tell 2 things (languages) apart, they sound the same
- Vice versa (12:14) – The opposite/reverse is also true
- Void (13:15) – Emptiness, Lack
- Incursion (13:27) – invasion, attack
- To peter out (13:47) – To gradually decrease or slow down until it disappears
- Strait (15:47) – A narrow passage of water connecting two seas
- To get the gist (17:07) – To understand the main idea of something
- Pervasive (20:30) – Something that spreads everything (ie. English languages spreading around the world)
- Encroachment (20:49) – Moving in and taking over someone’s land or personal rights
- Skew-whiff (24:13) – Casual word for “wonky” or “not straight”
- Gunk (25:18) –Casual word for “dirt”
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