§ 3 The Consonants
Simple: b, c, d, f, g, h, j, k, l, m, n, p, q, r, s, t, v, w, y, z.
Compound: bm, ch, dh, dn, gw, gh, ng, qw, sh, th, wh, zh, gwl, gwr, qwr, wl, wr.
A. Simple Consonants
1. b has the same sound as in English.
2. c is always hard, being used only before a, o, u. The same sound before e, i, y is represented by k.
3. d before a, o, u is usually hard, as in English, but, as in Gaelic, before e, i, y it has a sound approaching to j, or like di in soldier. In the MSS. a soft g was often written for d in such cases. It is a common change in many languages. Cf. the Italian oggi, to-day, for the Latin hodie.
4. f has the same sound as in English. In the MSS. it is often confused with v. As a final it is very lightly sounded.
5. g is always hard, as in get, go. The soft g, as in gin, is here represented by j, but in the MSS. g was often used for it.
6. h has two degrees of sound. As an initial it is rather more lightly sounded than in English, except when it is a mutation of c (see Chapter II.), when it is more strongly sounded. Then, and when it occurs in the middle of a word, it represents in a lighter form the guttural c’h of Breton, the ch of German, Welsh, and Gaelic, or the guttural gh of older English. At the end of a word this is to be written gh. It is a smooth guttural, as in Scottish Gaelic, without the rasping sound which it has in colloquial Welsh or in German.
7. j is sounded as in English. It generally represents what was once written s. Lhuyd writes dzh for this sound, and the MSS. often represent it by g.
8. k is generally only used before e, i, y, or as a final. It has the same sound as in English. It often happens in grammatical inflections that a broad root vowel is changed to a thin one. In such cases if the preceding letter is a c it must be changed to k.
9. l has the ordinary English sound. Sometimes a double l of earlier Cornish was written lh (telhar, place, for teller). This may perhaps represent the aspirated ll of Welsh, or (as in Portuguese) the l mouillé (as li in valiant).
10. m has usually the same sound as in English. When it follows a short vowel in an accented syllable or a monosyllable, it has a peculiar sound as though a b were prefixed to it, or as though the speaker had a slight cold in the head. This b was frequently written in the later MSS., and in the mouths of less educated persons the b supplanted the m altogether. Thus lemmyn, now, became successively lebman and lebban. The vanishing of the m altogether did not occur in monosyllables, and it is undesirable to imitate it in other words. In the system of spelling adopted in this book, the b will be written in cases where it was habitually written in later Cornish, but even when it is not written it is always to be sounded in the case of short vowels in accented syllables or monosyllables.
11. n is usually sounded as in English. When it follows a short vowel in an accented syllable or in a monosyllable, a d sound (analogous to the b sound with m) precedes it. This d is often written in the later MSS., and will be used in this book in cases where it is regularly found in later Cornish, but it is to be pronounced even where it is not written. In words of more than one syllable 63 the d often supplanted the n (e.g. henna, that, became successively hedna and hedda), and monosyllables were sometimes made into dissyllables by it (e.g. pen, pedn, pedden); but both of these are vulgarisms not to be imitated.
12. p is sounded as in English.
13. q is sounded as in English, and is always followed by w. It is generally used in an initial mutation (see Chapter II.) of gw, but occurs occasionally, followed by w, as a radical sound.
14. r has the same sound as in correct English, that is to say, it is very slightly heard when followed by a consonant or at the end of a word, unless the next word begins with a vowel, but, as in English, it often influences the preceding vowel. Its full sound is trilled, not guttural.
15. s is the most puzzling of the consonants. It had probably four or five different values in the MSS., and might represent s, z, sh, zh, j according to circumstances. As an initial, or before c, k, f, l, m, n, p, q, r, t, w, it was generally s, as in so; as a final, and before b, d, g, j, v, it was normally z or as s in rose. But between two vowels in the same word, or coming after another consonant and followed by a vowel, or as a final followed by a word beginning with a vowel and closely connected grammatically with its predecessor, it had commonly the sound of j, so much so that g soft was often substituted for it, and there are cases where even an initial s must have meant sh or zh. Thus we find cowsesow, speeches, written cowgegyow, carensa, love, carenga (for carenja), and in place-names, though we find Nanskeval, Nanspean, Nanswidn when the epithet begins with a consonant, when it begins with a vowel we find Nanjizel (=Nans isal, the lower valley). Sometimes in late Cornish the definite j sound so completely superseded the s or z, that it or its equivalent, g soft or dzh, was always written for it, and in such cases it is written j in the present system of spelling, but in other cases the best rules will be to pronounce s
1. As an initial; before c, k, f, l, m, n, p, q, r, t, w; or when doubled, as s in so.
2. As a final, except when the next word, grammatically connected, begins with a vowel; or before b, d, g, j, v, as z or s in rose.
3. Between two vowels in the same word; after another consonant and followed by a vowel; or as a final followed by a grammatically connected word, such as an epithet, beginning with a vowel, as j.
For the last rule compare Mrs. Gamp’s pronunciation of English (in Martin Chuzzlewit). There seems to have been an inherent tendency to the j, sh, or zh sounds in every Cornish s, 64 but especially in those which represent a d or t of Welsh and Breton. The writer is aware that this is a very inadequate discussion of the question, but he does not wish to be unduly intricate, or to enter into a deep phonetic explanation. Those who would study the question more minutely are referred to an article by Prof. J. Loth in vol. xviii. of the Revue Celtique.
16. t before a, o, u is hard, as in English, but before e, i, y has a sound approaching to that of ch in church, or to ti in words ending in tion. Sometimes ch is written and fully pronounced where a t was formerly written. Thus chŷ, house, was formerly ty, and in the eighteenth century tî, thou, was pronounced and often written chee.
17. v is sounded as in English, but is often nearly inaudible at the end of a word, unless the next word begins with a vowel. Thus ev, he, is often written e in later MSS.
18. w, except in compound vowels, is always a consonant, and has the same sound as in English. For its sound before l and r see Compound consonants.
19. y consonant is sounded as y consonant in English, or as j in German. It is always consonant when it precedes a vowel, unless it is written ŷ, when it is a vowel, as in such words as crŷes, tŷak, etc.
20. z is only used as an initial, but it is seldom used at all. The sound is that of an English z.
B. Compound Consonants
1. bm, dn represent respectively the sound of m and n after a short vowel in an accented syllable or monosyllable (see m, n). There is no vowel sound between the two letters.
2. ch is always sounded as in church. It usually represents a former t, or else occurs in borrowed English words.
3. dh is sounded as th in thy, the, etc., the Welsh dd, the Old English and Icelandic ð, the Modern Greek δ. In the MSS. it is represented by th or Letter. Lhuyd writes it δ. 65
4. th (written Letter by Lhuyd) is sounded as th in thin, thick, etc., the Welsh th, the Old English and Icelandic þ, the Greek θ. At the end of a syllable, especially after r, the sounds of dh and th are very light and tend to become inaudible, and are often represented by h, or omitted altogether. Thus, gwartha, porth, barth, lowarth, gordhya, gortheb, kerdh often appear as gwarha, gwarra, por, barh, lowar, lowarh, gorria, gorreb, kerr. Thus also, Porthgwartha (in St. Levan), is now written Porthgwarrah and pronounced nearly Pergworra.
5. gh is used at the end of words for the strong or guttural h. Lhuyd writes a Greek χ for this sound.
6. ng (written by Lhuyd with an inverted Irish g) has the sound of ng in singer, not as in finger or manger.
7. sh has the same sound as in English. It is only used in a few words of English derivation.
8. In wh the h is always sounded. This combination represents the Welsh chw. Lhuyd writes it hu.
9. zh has the broader sound of sh, or that of the French j.
10. In gwl, gwr, qwr, wl, wr there is a very light but quite audible sound of w before the l or r. So light is the w that it was often omitted in the MSS. Thus gwlasketh, kingdom, gwrîg, did, and the mutation wrîg were sometimes written glasketh, grîg, rîg. But this was incorrect.
There must have been among Cornish speakers a tendency to a somewhat blurred sound of certain letters, as though there were an obstruction of some sort in their vocal organs, not altogether unlike that attributed on the stage and in fiction, with some foundation in fact, to the Hebrew race. This is shown by the tendency to turn s and z into sh and zh, and to insert b before m, and d before n. In the English spoken in Cornwall at the present day this tendency has quite disappeared, and the pronunciation, though not always the same as the standard English, is remarkably crisp and clear. Readers are solemnly warned against attempting to base or support any theories of Jewish or even of Phœnician influence in Cornwall on the above coincidence.
These directions for pronunciation must needs be only approximate. The exact phonetics are not attainable. The pronunciation of Cornish place-names forms something of a guide to the old sounds, only one must be careful not to be misled by the modern tendency to pronounce words as they are spelt according to the English values of letters, and one must also remember that there is no settled system of place-name orthography.