Editing Cornish language (section)

== Vocabulary ==
Cornish is a Celtic language, and the majority of its vocabulary, when usage frequency is taken into account, at every documented stage of its history is inherited from [[Proto-Celtic language|Proto-Celtic]],{{sfn|Ball|Müller|2009|p=532}} either directly from the ancestral [[Proto-Indo-European language|Proto-Indo-European]] language or through vocabulary borrowed from unknown substrate language(s) at some point in the development of the Celtic proto-language from PIE.<ref>{{cite book |last=Matasović |first=Ranko |url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/262430534 |title=Etymological dictionary of proto-Celtic |date=2009 |publisher=[[Brill Publishing]] |isbn=9789004173361 |location=Leiden |pages=2 |oclc=262430534}}</ref> Examples of the PIE > PCelt. development are various terms related to kinship and people, including {{lang|oco|mam}} 'mother', {{lang|oco|modereb}} 'aunt, mother's sister', {{lang|oco|huir}} 'sister', {{lang|oco|mab}} 'son', {{lang|oco|gur}} 'man', {{lang|oco|den}} 'person, human', and {{lang|cnx|tus}} 'people', and words for parts of the body, including {{lang|oco|lof}} 'hand' and {{lang|cnx|dans}} 'tooth'.<ref>{{cite book |editor1-last=Klein |editor1-first=Jared |editor2-last=Joseph |editor2-first=Brian |editor2-link=Brian Joseph |editor3-last=Fritz |editor3-first=Matthias |editor4-last=Wenthe |editor4-first=Mark |url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/1004563249 |title=Handbook of Comparative and Historical Indo-European Linguistics: an International Handbook. |date=2016 |publisher=[[De Gruyter]] Mouton |isbn=9783110261288 |location=Berlin / Boston |pages=1251 |oclc=1004563249 |ref={{harvid|Klein et al.|2016}}}}</ref> Inherited adjectives with an Indo-European etymology include {{lang|oco|newyth}} 'new', {{lang|oco|ledan}} 'broad, wide', {{lang|oco|rud}} 'red', {{lang|oco|hen}} 'old', {{lang|oco|iouenc}} 'young', and {{lang|oco|byw}} 'alive, living'.{{sfn|Klein et al.|2016|p=1252}}

Several Celtic or Brittonic words cannot be reconstructed to Proto-Indo-European, and are suggested to have been borrowed from unknown substrate language(s) at an early stage, such as Proto-Celtic or Proto-Brittonic. Proposed examples in Cornish include {{lang|oco|coruf}} 'beer' and {{lang|oco|broch}} 'badger'.{{sfn|Klein et al.|2016|p=1254}}

Other words in Cornish inherited direct from Proto-Celtic include a number of toponyms, for example {{lang|cnx|bre}} 'hill', {{lang|cnx|din}} 'fort', and {{lang|cnx|bro}} 'land',{{sfn|Klein et al.|2016|p=1255}} and a variety of animal names such as {{lang|oco|logoden}} 'mouse', {{lang|oco|mols}} '[[sheep|wether]]', {{lang|cnx|mogh}} 'pigs', and {{lang|cnx|tarow}} 'bull'.{{sfn|Klein et al.|2016|p=1256}}

During the Roman occupation of Britain a large number (around 800) of Latin loan words entered the vocabulary of Common Brittonic, which subsequently developed in a similar way to the inherited lexicon.{{sfn|Klein et al.|2016|p=1255}} These include {{lang|oco|brech}} 'arm' (from [[British Latin]] {{lang|la|bracc(h)ium}}), {{lang|oco|ruid}} 'net' (from {{lang|la|retia}}), and {{lang|oco|cos}} 'cheese' (from {{lang|la|caseus}}).<ref>{{Cite book |url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/827952091 |title=Multilingualism in medieval Britain (c. 1066–1520): Sources and analysis |date=2013 |last=Jefferson |first=Judith |isbn=9782503542508 |location=Turnhout |publisher=Brepols |pages=62 |oclc=827952091}}</ref>

A substantial number of loan words from English and to a lesser extent French entered the Cornish language throughout its history. Whereas only 5% of the vocabulary of the Old Cornish Vocabularium Cornicum is thought to be borrowed from English, and only 10% of the lexicon of the early modern Cornish writer William Rowe, around 42% of the vocabulary of the whole Cornish corpus is estimated to be English loan words, without taking frequency into account. (However, when frequency ''is'' taken into account, this figure for the entire corpus drops to 8%.){{sfn|Ball|Müller|2009|p=532}} The many English loanwords, some of which were sufficiently well assimilated to acquire native Cornish verbal or plural suffixes or be affected by the mutation system, include {{lang|cnx|redya}} 'to read', {{lang|cnx|onderstondya}} 'to understand', {{lang|oco|ford}} 'way', {{lang|oco|hos}} 'boot' and {{lang|oco|creft}} 'art'.{{sfn|Jefferson|2013|p=62}}{{sfn|Ball|Müller|2009|p=532}}

Many Cornish words, such as mining and fishing terms, are specific to the culture of Cornwall. Examples include {{lang|cnx|atal}} 'mine waste' and {{lang|cnx|beetia}} 'to mend fishing nets'. {{lang|cnx|Foogan}} and {{lang|cnx|hogan}} are different types of pastries. {{lang|cnx|Troyl}} is a 'traditional Cornish dance get-together' and {{lang|cnx|Furry}} is a specific kind of ceremonial dance that takes place in Cornwall.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Mills |first=Jon |title=The Vocabularium Cornicum: A Cornish vocabulary? |journal=Zeitschrift für celtische Philologie |volume=60 |issue=1 |doi=10.1515/zcph.2013.009 |date=2013 |pages=141–150 |s2cid=161927698}}</ref> Certain Cornish words may have several translation equivalents in English, so for instance {{lang|cnx|lyver}} may be translated into English as either 'book' or 'volume' and {{lang|cnx|dorn}} can mean either 'hand' or 'fist'.
Like other Celtic languages, Cornish lacks a number of verbs commonly found in other languages, including modals and psych-verbs;{{sfn|Padel|2014}} examples are 'have', 'like', 'hate', 'prefer', 'must/have to' and 'make/compel to'. These functions are instead fulfilled by [[periphrasis|periphrastic]] constructions involving a verb and various prepositional phrases.