Editing Cornish language (section)

=== Decline of Cornish speakers between 1300 and 1800 ===
[[File:Dorothy Pentreath.jpg|thumb|right|upright=1.15|[[Dolly Pentreath]] (died 1777), said to be the last native speaker of Cornish, in an engraved portrait published in 1781|alt=A black and white engraving of a woman in 18th century clothing with a bonnet. Fish, a crab, a crustacean and a jug are below]]

It is difficult to state with certainty when Cornish ceased to be spoken, due to the fact that its last speakers were of relatively low social class and that the definition of what constitutes "a living language" is not clear cut. Peter Pool argues that by 1800 nobody was using Cornish as a daily language and no evidence exists of anyone capable of conversing in the language at that date.<ref name="pool">{{cite book |last=Pool |first=Peter |title=The Death of Cornish |date=1975 |publisher=County Museum |location=Truro |url=https://peterpool.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/The-Death-of-Cornish-compressed.pdf |access-date=16 January 2022}}</ref> However, [[Passive speaker (language)|passive speakers]], [[semi-speaker]]s and [[rememberer]]s, who retain some competence in the language despite not being fluent nor using the language in daily life, generally survive even longer.

The traditional view that [[Dolly Pentreath]] (1692–1777) was the [[Last speaker of the Cornish language|last native speaker of Cornish]] has been challenged,<ref name=":0" /> and in the 18th and 19th centuries there was academic interest in the language and in attempting to find the last speaker of Cornish. It has been suggested that, whereas Pentreath was probably the last ''fluent'' speaker, the last ''native'' speaker may have been [[John Davey (Cornish speaker)|John Davey]] of Zennor, who died in 1891.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Grenoble |first1=Lenore A. |url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/62410803 |title=Saving Languages: An Introduction to Language Revitalization |date=2006 |first2=Lindsay J. |last2=Whaley |isbn=9780511130892 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |page=46 |oclc=62410803}}</ref> However, although it is clear Davey possessed some traditional knowledge in addition to having read books on Cornish, accounts differ of his competence in the language. Some contemporaries stated he was able to converse on certain topics in Cornish whereas others affirmed they had never heard him claim to be able to do so.<ref name="pool" /> [[Robert Morton Nance]], who reworked and translated Davey's Cranken Rhyme, remarked, "There can be no doubt, after the evidence of this rhyme, of what there was to lose by neglecting John Davey."<ref>{{cite journal |last=Lowenna |first=Sharon |date=1 May 2011 |title=Charles Rogers' 'Vocabulary of the Cornish Language', the Rylands Vocabulary, and gatherers of pre-'Revival' fragments |url=http://www.ingentaconnect.com/content/10.1386/corn.19.1.105_1 |journal=Cornish Studies |volume=19 |issue=1 |pages=105–122 |doi=10.1386/corn.19.1.105_1 |issn=1352-271X}}</ref>

The search for the last speaker is hampered by a lack of transcriptions or audio recordings, so that it is impossible to tell from this distance whether the language these people were reported to be speaking was Cornish, or English with a heavy Cornish [[stratum (linguistics)#Substratum|substratum]], nor what their level of fluency was. Nevertheless, this academic interest, along with the beginning of the [[Celtic Revival]] in the late 19th century, provided the groundwork for a Cornish language revival movement.

Notwithstanding the uncertainty over who was the last speaker of Cornish, researchers have posited the following numbers for the prevalence of the language between 1050 and 1800.<ref name="ken"/><ref name="stalmaszczyk">{{cite journal |last=Stalmaszczyk |first=Piotr |date=1997 |title=Cornish Language and Literature: A brief introduction |url=http://cejsh.icm.edu.pl/cejsh/element/bwmeta1.element.hdl_11089_14418 |journal=Acta Universitatis Lodziensis. Folia Litteraria Anglica |volume=3 |issue=1999 |pages=117–127}}</ref>

{| class="wikitable"
|-
!Year
!Area where<br />Cornish<br />was spoken<br />(in km<sup>2</sup>)
!Total<br />population<br />of Cornwall
!Number of<br />Cornish<br />speakers
|-
|1050
|
|16,000
|15,000
|-
|1110
|
|21,000
|20,000
|-
|1150
|
|28,000
|26,000
|-
|1200
|3,270
|35,000
|30,000
|-
|1250
|
|43,000
|34,000
|-
|1300
|2,780
|52,000
|38,000
|-
|1350
|
|48,000
|32,000
|-
|1400
|2,360
|55,000
|34,000
|-
|1450
|2,360
|62,000
|33,000
|-
|1500
|1,890
|69,000
|33,000
|-
|1550
|
|76,000
|30,000
|-
|1600
|1,400
|84,000
|22,000
|-
|1650
|910
|93,000
|14,000
|-
|1700
|530
|106,000
|5,000
|-
|1750
|160
|140,000 
|"Very few"
|-
|1800
|0
|192,000
|0
|}