Our Mission
We are dedicated to making the Cornish language accessible to everyone through modern, engaging learning tools.
History of Cornish
Cornish (Kernewek) is a Brythonic Celtic language revived from historic written and spoken records. This site curates the breadth of ways you can learn and use the language today — not just our own app, but the classes, books, media, organisations, shops and events that make up the living Cornish-language world.
Meet Peder
Peder an Palores — Peter the Chough — is the official mascot of Learn Cornish. Cornwall's national bird, the chough was once thought lost from the county but has been quietly returning over the past two decades. Like the language itself, Peder represents endurance, homecoming, and a little bit of cheek.
Our Team
Learn Cornish is built by a small team of developers and Cornish-language learners. The site is open-source and contributions are welcome.
Cornish Orthographies
Cornish has been written in several orthographic forms since the modern revival began in the twentieth century. Here is a brief guide to the main ones you will encounter on this site and in the resources we list.
SWF — Standard Written Form
The Standard Written Form was adopted in 2008 as a compromise orthography agreed between representatives of the main Cornish-language organisations and the Cornish Language Partnership. It is the form recommended by the Cornish Language Board (Akademi Kernewek) and used in most modern publications, educational materials and signage. Most new resources on this site use SWF.
KK — Kernewek Kemmyn (Common Cornish)
Kernewek Kemmyn was devised by Ken George in 1987, drawing on phonological analysis of medieval texts. It was widely used through the 1990s and 2000s and has a large back-catalogue of textbooks, workbooks, dictionaries and recordings — most produced by Kowethas an Yeth Kernewek. The Skeul an Yeth and Holyewgh an Lergh series are KK.
UC and UCR — Unified Cornish (Revised)
Unified Cornish was created by Robert Morton Nance in the 1920s–1940s, aiming to reconstruct Middle Cornish from the surviving literature. Unified Cornish Revised (UCR) is a later refinement by Nicholas Williams.
KS — Kernowek Standard
Kernowek Standard is a more recent orthographic system developed by Nicholas Williams and Michael Everson. The Cara Kernowek and Desky Kernowek courses use this form.
Late Cornish
Late Cornish refers to the language as it was spoken and written in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, before it fell dormant. Some learners and researchers prefer to study from these later texts rather than reconstructed forms. It is less commonly used in teaching materials but present in some academic and folk-revival contexts.
Mixed
Some resources combine more than one orthography — for example, a children's pack that quotes from texts originally in different forms. These are tagged Mixed so you can filter for them or skip past them as you prefer.