Post diwyethek, Sowsnek a-woles/Bilingual post, English below.
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Bydhewgh parys, yma marth ow tos, yth eson ni ow pesya dhe gowsel yn-kever geryow balweyth! Mes nyns yw henn re dhrog, ywa? Hedhyw y hwren ni viajya dre val Kernewek ha mires orth nebes geryow usi ena.
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| Shafta dhe Val Karn Soth re dhiskaras. An metol yw remenant an kappa. |
Ytho, gwryllyn dalleth ha mos down y'n dor yn-nans an shafta. Yma nebes leow a yll servya avel gwreydhen an ger ma, wosa'n Proto-Eyndo-Europek skapos usi tamm apert. An kensa a alsa bos Latinek, gwreydhen lies ger Brythonek, gans an ger scapus. Ev yw ogas dhe'n ger Proto-Eyndo-Europek, mes yn anfeusik ny withas y styr gwreydhek. Ev a janyas dhe vos an ger scape (shafta koloven) yn Sowsnek. An nessa, ha gwreydhen gwirhavalla, yw an ger Proto-Jermanek skaftaz. Hemm eth hag o an ger Sowsnek Koth sceaft kyn ev dhe vos and ger Sowsnek Kres hag Arnowyth shaft. Hemm veu asvebys dhe Gernowek, moy po le. Mes, fatel yllyn bos certan bos hemm an gwreydhen? Wel, gesewgh ni dhe vires orth an genderwi Vrythonek. Yn Kembrek yma siafft mes yn Bretonek yma barr. An Bretonek a dheu a-dhyworth an Proto-Keltek barko a styr guw po shafta, hemm a wrug mos ha bos bêr (guw) yn Kembrek, mes nyns yw an ger ma yn Kernowek namoy. Kenowek ha Kembrek veu diskudhys dhe Sowsnek, ytho ni a yll leverel gans nebes surneth y res an Almanyon shafta dhyn.
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| Kowfordh yn bal ogas dhe Val Sten Gever. |
Lemmyn, yth eson y'n dorr an bal hag yn-rag ahanyn yma kowfordh hir. Gwrys yw kowfordh a dhiw elven kow ha fordh - ger tamm prydydhyek yw, a nyns ywa? Kow yw ogas dhe cau (kow) yn Kembrek ha dhe kev (fow) yn Bretonek. Oll an re ma a dheu a-dhyowrth an ger cavus yn Latinek ha'n ger *ḱówHwos yn Proto-Eyndo-Europek, an dhew a styr kowva. Herwydh Wiktionary, chevisyes veu an ger fordh (ha'n Kembrek ffordd) a'n Sowsnek ford (rys). Ger haval dhe gowfordh a eksist yn Kembrek, ceuffordd, mes nyns yw devnydhyes y'n jydh hedhyw ha'n ger twnnel yw devnydhyes yn y le, chevisyes a-dhyworth an ger tunnel yn Sowsnek. An Bretonek ger rag kowfordh yw riboul. Ny allav trovya etymologieth an ger ma, kevrin yw. Mes mar kwrewgh y wodhvos, gesewgh kampol a-woles.
Wosa spys a gerdhes ha skrambla dre'n tewlder, ni a dhrehedh penn an gowfordh, le mayth yw meur a'n gwriansow balweyth. Yma versyonow a'n ger penn yn Kembrek ha Bretonek, pen ha penn. Oll an tri a styr rann a'n korf, mes ny styr saw an Kernowek ha'n Kembrek diwedh keffrys. Pub onan a dheu a-dhyworth an ger penn yn Proto-Brythonek ha kʷennom yn Proto-Keltek, an dhew a styr penn avel rann a'n korf.
Tardha a hwer dhe benn an bal. Yn anfeusik, ny yllis trovya etymologieth an ger ma po an geryow ogas tarddu yn Kembrek ha tarzhañ yn Bretonek.
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| Gwel dres an Nans Seythyn dhe Wonamena ow mires orth an Balyow Karn Soth (dhe'n dyghow) ha Karn West (dhe'n kledh). |
Yth esen vy tamm moy feusik gans an ger finek rag hedhyw, estenna. Hemm o elven posek a valweyth awos fatel alsa gwaynya arghans mar ny estennas an monow a-dhyworth an Nor? Gwrys yw an ger ma a dhiw elven es ha tenna ha ger ogas dhodho yw an Kembrek echdynnu, gwrys an keth elvennow ech ha tynnu. An es/ech ma yw didheurek, i a dheu a-dhyworth an Proto-Keltek exs- a styr mes a. An tenna/tynnu a dheu a-dhyworth an ger trahere yn Latinek dres lycklod a styr tenna po draylya. Tamm essa yw an ger Bretonek tennañ maez usi agos dhe'n Kernowek tenna yn-mes ha dhe'n Kembrek tynnu mas.
Ha henn yw pubtra rag hedhyw. My a wayt hwi dhe omlowenhe'n viaj byghan aral ma dre erva valweyth Gernowek! Martesen yth an a-ugh dhe'n dor nessa tro...
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Surprise surprise, we're till talking mining vocabulary, but is that really so bad? Today we will take a journey through a Cornish mine and have a look at some of the words we encounter as we go through.
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| A collapsed shaft a South Cradon Mine. The metal is the remains of the shaft cap. |
So, let's begin by going deep into the ground down the shafta or shaft as English speakers may call it. There's a couple of different places which could serve as the possible root of this word, after the obvious Proto-Indo-European skapos. One might assume that Latin, the source of many words in the Brythonic languages, would have been the source, scapus. It cognates nicely to the Proto-Indo-European but alas did not retain its original meaning. It did, however, give English its word scape. The second possible, and much more likely root, of shafta is from the Proto-Germanic skaftaz. This developed into the Old English sceaft before becoming the Middle and Contemporary English shaft. This was then adopted into Cornish, more or less. But how can we be sure that this is the root, well let's have a look at our Brythonic cousins. In Welsh we have siafft whereas the Breton is barr. The Breton comes from the Proto-Celtic barko meaning spear or shaft, this become bêr (pike/spear) in Welsh and does not appear to exist in contemporary Cornish anymore. Only Cornish and Welsh were thusly exposed to English, so we can say with some certainty that the Germans gave us shafta.
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| A mine tunnel, near Geevor Tin Mine. |
So, we've descended into the bowels of the mine and ahead of us there is a long tunnel or kowfordh in the Old Tongue. Kowfordh is made up of two words kow meaning hollow and fordh meaning road or way - which I believe is quite a poetic way of putting it, the 'hollow way'. So, kow, which cognates to the Welsh cau (hollow) and the Breton kev (cave) comes from the Latin cavus, and the Proto-Indo-European *ḱówHwos (cavity). According to the good people over at Wiktionary the word fordh along with the Welsh ffordd are borrowings from the English word ford. This is yet another Proto-Germaic word which has found its way across to the Brythnoic languages, the source word being furduz meaing crossing or ford. A cognate of kowfordh does exist in Welsh, ceuffordd, but this is no longer used and the English borrowing twnnel is now more common. The only Breton word for tunnel I could find was riboul, about which I can say nothing - but if anyone who reads this knows the story behind this strange word, please leave a comment below.
After a while of walking and scrambling through the darkness we finally reach the penn or end of the tunnel where the actual mining action takes place. Variations of penn exist in all three of the Brythonic tongues, pen in Welsh and penn in Breton. All three mean top or head, but only the insular Cornish and Welsh mean end as well. These all come from the Proto-Brythonic penn meaning head which itself comes from the the Proto-Celtic kʷennom with the same meaning.
Tardha (exploding) is a key activity that takes place at the end of the mine. I've come up with nothing after trying to seek the etymology of this one, but there are direct cognates in Welsh and Breton, tarddu and tarzhañ.
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| A view acorss the Seaton Valley at Gonamena, showing South Caradon Mine (on the right) and West Caradon Mine (on the left) |
I had a little more luck with our final word for today, estenna (to extract). This was one of the most important aspects of mining, for how else could money be made if the minerals were not first extracted from the earth? This word is also made up of two parts es and tenna (to pull) and cognates to the Welsh echdynnu, also made up of the same two parts ech and tynnu. This es/ech is rather interesting as it isn't often used these days, they are a form of out fro the Proto-Celtic exs- meaning out of. The tenna/tynnu part is most likely decended from the Latin trahere which means to drag or to pull. The Breton language uses a slightly less complicated way of extracting, they simply tennañ maez or pull out compare with Cornish tenna yn-mes and Welsh tynnu mas.
And so there we have it, another historical trip through the Cornish lexicon of mining. Maybe next time we will go above ground... Hope you enjoyed!
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Pennfentynnow:
- www.cornishdictionary.org.uk/
- George. K, An Gerlyver Meur, Kesva an Taves Kernewek (Nessa Dyllans, 2009).
- http://geiriadur.ac.uk/gpc/gpc.html
- https://www.wiktionary.org/
- http://www.wales.ac.uk/Resources/Documents/Research/CelticLanguages/EnglishProtoCelticWordList.pdf
- https://glosbe.com/en/br/
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