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  • Richard Carew died (6/11/1620)

    From Ross Clark@21:1/5 to All on Wed Nov 6 22:30:36 2024
    Cornish translator and antiquary, born 1555 at East Antony.
    Best known for his _Survey of Cornwall_ (1602). But our linguistic
    interest is in "An Epistle concerning the Excellencies of the English
    Tongue" (1605). He praises English as being, not just as good as Latin,
    but better. Crystal quotes a passage in which he extols the copiousness
    of the English vocabulary, by listing 30 different ways to say "Go away!"
    There was a lot of this about in those years -- Nebrija's grammar and dictionary of Spanish (1490s, the first of any modern European
    language); du Bellay's _Défense et illustration de la langue française_ (1549) -- just to name a couple I've heard of -- all asserting the worth
    of modern languages as objects of study, as vehicles for literature and statesmanship -- against the exclusivity of Latin.

    The Epistle is here: https://www.bartleby.com/lit-hub/elizabethan-critical-essays/the-excellency-of-the-english-tongue-15956/

    also online as an appendix to the _Survey of Cornwall_, which is how it
    was first published.

    I didn't find anything about whether Carew himself actually spoke
    Cornish, or wrote anything in it.

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Carew_(antiquary)

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  • From Athel Cornish-Bowden@21:1/5 to Ross Clark on Wed Nov 6 13:43:32 2024
    On 2024-11-06 09:30:36 +0000, Ross Clark said:

    Cornish translator and antiquary, born 1555 at East Antony.

    [ … ]

    I didn't find anything about whether Carew himself actually spoke
    Cornish, or wrote anything in it.

    Neither can I find anything much. However, I think it's very unlikely
    that he spoke Cornish. My great^14 grandfather Alexander Carew died in
    Antony in 1492, and was probably a relative of Richard Carew. However,
    he was born in Haccombe, Devon, and his ancestors were also from Devon,
    as far as the weak evidence goes. Notice, moreover, that Antony is on
    the Rame Peninsula, the most English part of Cornwall, and indeed part
    of Devon until the boundary reforms of 1889.


    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Carew_(antiquary)


    --
    Athel -- French and British, living in Marseilles for 37 years; mainly
    in England until 1987.

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  • From Ross Clark@21:1/5 to Athel Cornish-Bowden on Thu Nov 7 17:36:04 2024
    On 7/11/2024 1:43 a.m., Athel Cornish-Bowden wrote:
    On 2024-11-06 09:30:36 +0000, Ross Clark said:

    Cornish translator and antiquary, born 1555 at East Antony.

    [ … ]

    I didn't find anything about whether Carew himself actually spoke
    Cornish, or wrote anything in it.

    Neither can I find anything much. However, I think it's very unlikely
    that he spoke Cornish. My great^14 grandfather Alexander Carew died in
    Antony in 1492, and was probably a relative of Richard Carew. However,
    he was born in Haccombe, Devon, and his ancestors were also from Devon,
    as far as the weak evidence goes. Notice, moreover, that Antony is on
    the Rame Peninsula, the most English part of Cornwall, and indeed part
    of Devon until the boundary reforms of 1889.


    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Carew_(antiquary)



    Interesting family connection! That R.Carew didn't speak it seems
    likely. The language was already in retreat. (Wikipedia puts the peak of speaker numbers in the 13th century.) I did find one comment on it from Caqrew's _Survey_:

    [M]ost of the inhabitants can speak no word of Cornish, but very few are ignorant of the English; and yet some so affect their own, as to a
    stranger they will not speak it; for if meeting them by chance, you
    inquire the way, or any such matter, your answer shall be, "Meea navidna
    caw zasawzneck," "I [will] speak no Saxonage."[66]

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