Of the six modern languages, Cornish is easily in the worst condition: officially it is extinct, and has been for over two centuries. But, like Manx, there is a revival movement which has spawned a few devoted Cornish speakers.
History of Cornish
Cornish is one of the three Brythonic, or P-Celtic, languages, meaning it evolved alongside Welsh and Breton. The three languages began evolving along different paths during the 5th century, after the moves and geographical isolation caused by the Saxon invasions (1: History). Some of the speakers of the ancestral P-Celtic language at that time, Brittish, were isolated in what is now the Duchy of Cornwall, in the southwest of Britain, and eventually their language became Cornish. This area is the modern day counties of Cornwall and Devon. Until the 16th century, there was quite a bit of contact between Cornwall and Brittany.
The decline of Cornish is tied to the rise of English in the area, like all of the other Celtic languages except Breton. English was the language of the church in England, and by the 16th century, all literature in Cornwall was in English (replacing Latin, rather than Cornish) (4: 2.2). From that point, Cornish was regarded as a “low status” language, and eventually English replaced it as a spoken language, through a combination of immigration of English speakers to the area, the assimilation of the Cornish gentry into England’s ruling class, and the social reform efforts in the area, which were almost always carried out by English-speaking people of the Church (4: 2.2). This decline was almost complete by the 18th century.
Cornish Outside Cornwall
There are no immigrant communities in which Cornish was spoken significantly, though certainly Cornwall did produce its share of immigrants. There are several places along the east coast of the United States with Cornish place names, for example (5: Appendix: The Overseas Cornish).
Current Status of Cornish
Officially, Cornish is a dead language, because its last native speaker died in the late 18th or early 19th century (2, 1: History). But there has always been a strong Celtic sense of identity in Cornwall, and not surprisingly there are serious efforts to revive the language (1: History). The revival actually began as far back as the 19th century (4: 2.2), and already there are some young people (under age 20) who speak Cornish as a first language (2). According to some estimates, about 3000 people are fluent in the language, and a third of them use it as their primary language (2). Others put the numbers lower, around 1000 total speakers (4: 2.2).
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