Page:The ancient language, and the dialect of Cornwall.djvu/65

 THE PROVINCIAL DIALECT OF CORNWALL. In the preceding account we have seen how the old Cornish language had been driven from the East to the extreme West of the County by the onward and un- ceasing progress of the English tongue. A little more than three hundred years ago, the ancient Cornish was understood, and spoken, from one end of Cornwall to the other. About the year 1700, we find its use confined to the Land's End district, about St. Paul, and St. Just, and there used only by fishermen, market people, and tinners. By the end of the last century it had become all but utterly extinct, and now, (1881) as an oral language, scattered words are all that are left ; and so ends the use of a fine old language which dates back to almost unknown time. We must, however, except the names of persons, towns, farms, villages, hills, valleys, &c., and also the technical names used by miners, farmers, fishermen, &c., a great proportion of such words being actual remains of the old Cornish language. During the long period that the old tongue was being superseded by the encroaching English language, the people of Cornwall had gradually become accustomed to the use of the new language, and the remote, almost