History
Cornish evolved from the British language spoken throughout Britain south of the Firth of Forth during the Iron Age and Roman period. As a result of westward Anglo-Saxon expansion, the Britons of the south-west of the island were separated from those in modern-day Wales. Some scholars have proposed that this split took place after the Battle of Deorham in about 577. The western dialect eventually evolved into modern Welsh and the now extinct Cumbric, whilst south-western Brythonic became Cornish and Breton, the latter developing as a result of emigration to the continent over the following centuries.
Read more about this topic: Cornish Language
Famous quotes containing the word history:
“We don’t know when our name came into being or how some distant ancestor acquired it. We don’t understand our name at all, we don’t know its history and yet we bear it with exalted fidelity, we merge with it, we like it, we are ridiculously proud of it as if we had thought it up ourselves in a moment of brilliant inspiration.”
—Milan Kundera (b. 1929)
“Yet poetry, though the last and finest result, is a natural fruit. As naturally as the oak bears an acorn, and the vine a gourd, man bears a poem, either spoken or done. It is the chief and most memorable success, for history is but a prose narrative of poetic deeds.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“Every literary critic believes he will outwit history and have the last word.”
—Mason Cooley (b. 1927)