Keeping your feet dry, 8,000BC

[TisILeclerc]

Does that mean that the Cornish are Slavs who were calling the English Germans in their own tongue?

[hvered]

By the Iron Age, we're told, 'cultures' as Hallstatt and La Tene extended across Europe. It's not inconceivable that a mining community in, say, Bohemia would have a common technology and vocabulary with miners from 'there'. My money would be on the Cornish miners.

[Boreades]

Which makes me wonder whether the very early Cornish miners did speak "Cornish" (as we know it Jim)

[TisILeclerc]

Borryovich

'Which makes me wonder whether the very early Cornish miners did speak "Cornish" (as we know it Jim)'

It used to be said that Czechs were the closest in character to the British, of all European populations. Rather laid back and phlegmatic, as well as being the second great industrial power after Britain. They were also influential in England in the reign of Richard II through his wife and Jan Hus and other religious reformers.

Would it be possible to compile a list of the oldest Cornish placenames or words and compare them with any of the Slavic languages?

Even Cornish language revivalists are at loggerheads as to which Cornish is the genuine one. Do they go for mediaeval Cornish which died out or do they go for Cornish with all its English imports which was the last known form of Cornish before that too died out?

[Boreades]

Would it be possible to compile a list of the oldest Cornish placenames or words and compare them with any of the Slavic languages?

Certainly, compiling a list for our treasure hunt would be fun. But how can we tell which place names are the oldest?

[Boreades]

How about a list of words that are supposed to be unique to Cornish Mining?

e.g. from here : http://www.cornishminers.com/wordswz.htm

Wheal = Term used in Cornwall for a mine (See also ‘Bal’)
Bal = old term for a mine or mine working.

[TisILeclerc]

Looking at two words in a Cornish site and a Czech site I've come across two possible matches which may not mean very much.

Most of the words in the Cornish mining words seem to be a bit general.

However the Czech for 'miner' is 'hornik'. Which sounds a bit like cornish perhaps

Cornish for 'why' is 'prog'. Czech is 'proc' with an accent on the final 'c' giving it a slightly different sound between ts and tchs I think.

http://www.cornwallinfocus.co.uk/language/phrases.php

http://www.wordbook.cz/index.php

I'll keep digging. There has been a lot of time for both languages to come up with new terms or become influenced by other languages so I imagine the best route to go would be for ancient placenames perhaps or at least placename elements and given the the possibility is that it is miners we are talking about I would assume mining areas may have similarities.

If there is any reason for similarity.

[Boreades]

And another thing:

Why do we have the word "Nymet", and not "Nimet" or "Nimmet" or perhaps "Neemet"?

What's the significance of "y" instead of "i" or "ee"?

[TisILeclerc]

Borryvich

'Why do we have the word "Nymet", and not "Nimet" or "Nimmet" or perhaps "Neemet"?

What's the significance of "y" instead of "i" or "ee"?'

I don't know where you got the 'y' from but

the Czech is 'nemec' with an accent on the first 'e'. That gives the pronunciation 'nyemets.'

[Boreades]

I don't know where you got the 'y' from but the Czech is 'nemec' with an accent on the first 'e'. That gives the pronunciation 'nyemets.'