The oldest surviving printed Cornish is in a book by Andrew Borde, published in 1540. "In Cornwall is two speches: the one is naughty Englysshe and the other is Cornysshe speche. There be many men and women the whiche cannot speake one worde of Englysshe but all Cornysshe." 1/
Andrew Borde has 3 pages on the Cornish language in his 1540 "The Book of the Introduction of Knowledge", including all numbers up to 30, saying "no Cornyshe man dothe number above xxx, and this is named, Deec warnegons. And whan they have told thyrty, they do begyn agayn." 2/
Here are the numbers from ten to thirty in Cornish from Andrew Borde's book. 3/
Borde includes twenty-four sentences of use to travellers, which represent an imaginary conversation between a stranger and his hostess at an inn, and were obviously taken down by the author as he heard them. 4/
Borde makes several references to Cornish food, none of them favorable, and seems to especially detest the local Cornish beer, of which he makes a native say:
"It is thick and smoky and also it is thin,
It is like wash as pigs had wrestled therein." 5/
"It is thick and smoky and also it is thin,
It is like wash as pigs had wrestled therein." 5/
The 1540-2 edition of "The Boke of the Introduction of Knowledge" is extremely rare - the @britishlibrary and @magdlibs in the Pepys Library have copies, but there isn't one in private hands AFAIK. These scans come from a type facsimile, printed by William Upcott in 1814. 6/
Loading suggestions...