Cornwall Life: August 2019 9KERNOW SPLANN!
Merv Davey is a Bard of Gorsedh Kernow which exists
to maintain the national Celtic spirit of CornwallY
ou are never far from
a beach in Cornwall
and likewise never
far from our Celtic
language, indeed for many of
us Cornwall is synonymous
with both. A fascinating part
of the story of Cornish is that
coastal communities in the west
continued to use Celtic words
and expressions long after it
had ceased to be an everyday
language.
Cornish is technically a
revived language in that modern
spelling and pronunciation are
underpinned by considerable
research but in practice it
never died out completely.
Early researchers were able to
interview and record people with
traditional knowledge of the
language, especially around the
coast.
This resulted in some
delightful Cornish terms being
recorded for the creatures to
be found on our beaches and
in our coastal waters. Walking
across the beach we see brennik
(limpets) and bessel (mussels)
clinging to the rocks and a we
pull aside gommon (seaweed) in
rockpools to catch a glimpse of a
kanker (crab) sliding across the
sand.
It is important not to forget
the goolan (seagull) who is
probably after your ice cream but
my favourite creature name on
the beach has to be bibyn bubyn,
meaning shrimp.
The ocean safari extends our
contact with creatures of the sea
and as we set off the morvrini
(cormorants) and reunes (seals)
will eye us up to make sure we
do not get to close. What we
hope to see along the cliff edge of
course is the palores, the Cornish
chough which legend assures
us is the spirit of King Arthur.
Further out to sea we may be
privileged to meet the morvilCornwall has its own names for our beach and
coastal wildlife – so why not learn a few?What’s in a name
‘My favourite creature
name on the beach
has to be bibyn bubyn,
meaning shrimp’
For further information visit
an-daras.com
@GorsedhKernow(whale), the morhogh (porpoise)
and the delightfully named pyffer
(dolph i n).
The name that captures
the imagination out here is
morvleyth, (shark) literally
meaning seawolf.
Back on land it is the harvest
of the sea we are interested
in. If you happen to be coming
off the beach in Newquay, then
my friend Gareth Horner of E
Rawle & Co will tempt you in
Cornish and English. What about
a nice bit of dojel (pollack), linecaught out in Newquay bay, some
morbulhorn bras (whelks) or
baramanynnow kanker (crab
sandwiches)?
Eat well, but it is back down
to the beach for me, rockpooling
with my granddaughter to find
some bibyn bubyn and perhaps
do a bit of mordartha (surfing)
out in the waves myself later.
Kernow bys vykken! iStock/Getty Images Plus/irkus