Cornish Wedding

Bride and Groom celebrate their big day in Cornish 

A Cornish wedding is conducted in Cornish or Kernewek. The Cornish language undergoes a revival in the 20th century and saying one's vows in Cornish is recognised by the Church and important to Cornish customs and culture. Henry Jenner (1848-1934) is credited with helping the revival of the language when as a child in St Columb Major he overhears it being spoken in a pub and thereafter dedicated his life to its return. My a'th kar means I love you in Cornish.

Jenner and Louis Charles Richard Duncombe-Jewell applied on behalf of Cornwall to join the Celtic Congress in 1904. Jenner worked at the British Museum and while studying Celtic languages he came across a medieval play Origo Mundi of the Ordinalia written in the Cornish language. The earliest known reference to Cornish is the Prophecy of Ambriosius Merlin concerning the Seven Kings, a poem from the 12th century the original of which is lost but in 2001 the Latin version is translated back into Cornish by Julyan Holmes.