Cornish Wedding

From the collection of

The Box
Established in 1992, the South West Film & Television Archive collection spans from 1893 to the present day containing more than 250,000 items. Formed from a variety of depositors, including broadcast news and programmes material from the Westward and TSW archive. In 2018 the archive collection transferred to The Box in Plymouth.

Cornish Wedding


Bride and Groom celebrate their big day in Cornish 

A Cornish wedding is conducted in Cornish or Kernewek. The Cornish language undergoes a revival in the 20th century and saying one's vows in Cornish is recognised by the Church and important to Cornish customs and culture. Henry Jenner (1848-1934) is credited with helping the revival of the language when as a child in St Columb Major he overhears it being spoken in a pub and thereafter dedicated his life to its return. My a'th kar means I love you in Cornish.

Jenner and Louis Charles Richard Duncombe-Jewell applied on behalf of Cornwall to join the Celtic Congress in 1904. Jenner worked at the British Museum and while studying Celtic languages he came across a medieval play Origo Mundi of the Ordinalia written in the Cornish language. The earliest known reference to Cornish is the Prophecy of Ambriosius Merlin concerning the Seven Kings, a poem from the 12th century the original of which is lost but in 2001 the Latin version is translated back into Cornish by Julyan Holmes.


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