Welsh and Cornish

If a Welsh speaker and a Cornish speaker were in conversation how well would they understand each other? Would it be hard work to make sense of things even with so many words that are either the same or quite similar?

It would be very hard work - they might get the gist of certain things, and they would definitely recognise individual words that happen to be the same or similat (they’d recognise the numbers, for example), but connected conversations would be largely unintelligible.

The thing I think we probably tend to forget is that Cornish and Welsh were divergent dialects of the same language around the time English and Dutch were mutually comprehensible. They’ve still got a lot in common, and a generally similar ‘feel’, but actual understanding is probably only the odd word here and there - like the grandfather of a Geordie friend, seeing the word ‘Uitgang’ in Schipol Airport on his first ever trip abroad, and exclaiming “I thought you said they spoke a foreign language over here!”

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When I was learning Cornish in evening classes I remember the teacher saying Cornish had more in common with Breton then Welsh although as has been said lots of words are the same or similar.
There’s several links, events and connections between Cornwall and Brittany and I’ve met several Bretons at Cornish language events but only a couple of Welsh, I think stronger ties between the two in the UK would be incredibly beneficial to Cornish

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Well it makes sense … Breton is basically migration of Cornish speakers mixing with the remnants of the Gaullic speakers of the decaying roman province of Armorica. Im sure there were probably brythonic speakers moving there from elsewhere in Britain like Cymru or Wales.
The UK has done basically nothing for Cornish culture and language - (I have Cornish family so Ive been kept fully abreast).
And recently has swiftly removed a tiny miniscule fund (a few grand) during a period of vast currency printing which I find insightful :joy: