Page:The ancient language, and the dialect of Cornwall.djvu/93

 WOEDS IN THE COENISH DIALECT Compared with several tvhich are found in the writing of Chaucer, (Chaucer was born A.D. 1328, and died A,D. 1400.) The following are some common words as spoken in Cornwall. Without asserting that all are correctly com- pared, yet taken as a whole, they sesm very familiar to a Cornishman, as he meets with them in the quaint old English verse of Chaucer. It is not contended that similar words are never used elsewhere ; only that they are not now so pronounced by the educated classes in Cornwall, and that while found in Chaucer's writings, such words also form a portion of the Cornish dialect. As is well known, many old words in Spenser, and in Shakspere, are still used in Cornwall, but they are few compared with those to be found in Chaucer. The form of English which first reached Cornwall when the ancient language was passing away, was appar- ently that of Chaucer, which, after his death, at last passed the banks of the Tamar, and spread gradually towards the west. As the language changed, influenced as it must have been by such writers as Spenser, Shakspere, &c., so in succession, wave after wave of English passed from the