Cornish Language - Geographic Distribution

Geographic Distribution

Cornish was the predominant language of the Cornish people for most of their history, and is still seen today as a vital aspect of Cornish culture and identity.

Speakers of Cornish reside primarily in Cornwall. There are also some speakers living outside of Cornwall, particularly in the countries of the Cornish diaspora, as well as other Celtic nations. Estimates of the number of Cornish speakers vary according to the definition of being a speaker, and is difficult to accurately determine due to the individualised nature of language take-up. Nevertheless there is recognition that the number of Cornish speakers is growing. One figure for the mean number of people who know a few basic words, such as knowing that "Kernow" means "Cornwall", was 300,000; the same survey gave the figure of people able to have simple conversations at 3,000. The Cornish Language Strategy project commissioned research to provide quantitative and qualitative evidence for the number of Cornish speakers: due to the success of the revival project it was estimated that 2,000 people were fluent (surveyed in spring 2008), an increase from the estimated 300 people who spoke Cornish fluently suggested in a study by Kenneth MacKinnon in 2000.