I've written a computer program to construct Cornish sentences. Before you ask, it is ethically aware: people cannot be bought, sold or eaten...

Here's a sample output showing a number of different sentence structures:

Piw a ladhas an tas? - Who killed the father?

Piw a welas an diwros na? - Who saw that bicycle?

Yw an chi drog? - Is the house bad?

Yw an pasti kottha? - Is the pasty oldest?

A nyns yw an chi yeyn? - Isn't the house cold?

Yw an lyver an kottha? - Is the book the oldest?

A garas ev onan myrgh drog? - Doesn't he like one bad horse?

A ny brensys jy chi an nowyttha. Didn't they buy the newest house?

Ny wrewgh hwi ladha deg broder kottha. - You didn't kill ten older brothers.

A ny vynnons i gweles diwros drog? - Didn't they see the a bad bicycle?

A vynnsys jy gul gwin an yeynna? - Did you make the coldest wine?

A welons i gwin gans an diwros nowydh? - Did they see wine with the new bicycle?

I a wra gwin. - They make wine.

I a bren pasti bras. - They buy a big pasty.

Ni a wre gweles etek hwoer. - We used to see eighteen sisters.

I a yll gwertha kath berr. - They can sell a short cat.

Ny gar hi seytek hwedhel. - She doesn't like seventeen stories.

Ty a brena pasti yn-dann an karr. - You used to buy a pasty under the car.

Ev a bren gwin war gwin an kottha. - He buys wine on the oldest wine.

Ni a wra ladha ki war ervin. - We kill a dog on turnip.

Hwi a vynna kara bugh war chi nowydh. You used to want to like a cow on the new house.

Ny werthydh jy kath yn-dann kyttrin. You don't sell a cat under a bus.

Ny yllons i prena gerlyver. - They can't buy a dictionary.

Ni a bren hy arghans. - We buy her money.

Hi a wela hy hath lent. - She used to see her slow cat.

Ty a wre gwertha agan jynn-tenna. - You used to sell our tractor.

Ni a vynn prena hy chi berr. - We want to buy her short house.

Ny wredh jy aga arghans. You don't make their money.

Ni a wre aga chi heb an ki. We used to make their house without the dog.

Hwi a brenas dha ji heb myrgh an berra. You bought your house without the shortest horse.

Hwi a allas dybri pasti yn-dann agas hogh. You can eat a pasty under your pig.

Ni a vynn kara kath gans y gi drog. We want to like a cat with his bad dog.

Ny garons i chi gans ow horev. - They don't like a house with my beer.

Ny vynnsons i prena ow fasti. They don't buy my pasty.

An kath a wela arghans. - The cat used to see money

An broder a vynnas kara karr nowyttha. - The brother wanted to love a newer car.

War diwros y pren ev an bugh. On a bicycle he buys a cow.

Yn-dann aval-dor y hwerthas ev arghans. Under potato he sold money.

Hy hogh a garas broder berr. - Her pig liked a short brother.

Hy bugh a ylla kara lyver an nowyttha. - Her cow use to be able to like the newest book.

Ny garas an margh karr byghan. The horse didn't like a small car.

An chi hag a welis vy. - The house that I saw.

An den na ladhens i. - The man they didn't kill.

In response to something I mentioned in a comment to the last post, about names starting with Bos- (or it's alternative forms Bod-, Bot- and Boj-) here's a couple of plots showing the relative and absolute numbers of Bos placenames. For some reason Bos placenames seem overwhelmingly favoured in West Penwith, although there's a second concentration further East.

I have made a couple more plots of Cornish placenames, this time as contour plots showing the relative and absolute density of Tre- placenames, interpolated to a 100x100 grid covering Cornwall. The relative density is plotted on the upper plot, the absolute numbers in the lower one.

I am now going to tell you about something I started doing a while ago, over a year ago now, I have done work on it occasionally in time I ought to have been working on my PhD...

This is a study of Cornish placenames, using a database that was published online at www.cornovia.org.uk There is a list of placenames in that database, which shows the parish it is located in, as well as historical forms for certain names.

I thought it would be a great idea if I could visualise that in some way. For instance what about showing the proportion of placenames that start with Tre- and how that varies across different locations in Cornwall. Tre is a placename element derived from the Cornish language: tre = "homestead" in Cornish.

I found a computer readable map of parish boundaries online, and with a bit of difficulty getting the cornovia parishes to map up with the other databases parishes I came up with this map:
Beyond the fact that Tre- names are rare in the extreme NE and SE of Cornwall (early English settlement displaced the Cornish language at an early date so much so that Cornish language placenames are rare in those regions) I can't really explain the variations that do exist, but still I think this is an interesting map.

A short section in Cornish about the recent Cornish language weekend in Newquay. In Cornish:
An 10ves-11ves Mis Ebrel o an Bennseythun Gernewek. Yth esa moy ages kans den ena, diworth Kernow oll, ha diworth broyow erell. Nebes tus ny wrug dyski Kernewek kyns, nebes tus o Kernowegoryon freth. Yth esa pymp bagasow rag an dyskansow. Yth esov vy yn Bagas Kres. My a wrug tremena apposyans nessa gradh hav yw tremenys. My a esedh tressa gradh an hav ma po hav nessa. Y'n bennseythun, y hwren ni gwari bord-gwari yn Kernewek rag dyski ha gul lavarow ha hwedhlow yn Kernewek. Yth esa bagas donsoryon "Hevva" ena war nos Dy' Sadorn. Oll an dus a wrug kavoes termyn lowen.