Re: Richard Carew died (6/11/1620)

On 7/11/2024 1:43 a.m., Athel Cornish-Bowden wrote:

On 2024-11-06 09:30:36 +0000, Ross Clark said:
 

Cornish translator and antiquary, born 1555 at East Antony.
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I didn't find anything about whether Carew himself actually spoke Cornish, or wrote anything in it.

 Neither can I find anything much. However, I think it's very unlikely that he spoke Cornish. My great^14 grandfather Alexander Carew died in Antony in 1492, and was probably a relative of Richard Carew. However, he was born in Haccombe, Devon, and his ancestors were also from Devon, as far as the weak evidence goes. Notice, moreover, that Antony is on the Rame Peninsula, the most English part of Cornwall, and indeed part of Devon until the boundary reforms of 1889.
 

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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Carew_(antiquary)

 

Interesting family connection! That R.Carew didn't speak it seems likely. The language was already in retreat. (Wikipedia puts the peak of speaker numbers in the 13th century.) I did find one comment on it from Caqrew's _Survey_:
[M]ost of the inhabitants can speak no word of Cornish, but very few are ignorant of the English; and yet some so affect their own, as to a stranger they will not speak it; for if meeting them by chance, you inquire the way, or any such matter, your answer shall be, "Meea navidna caw zasawzneck," "I [will] speak no Saxonage."[66]