The National Library of Wales
Edward Lhuyd’s Cornish Dictionary online
Mon, 16 Jul 07 09:57:00
Geirlyer Kyrnẁeig (NLW MS Llanstephan 84), the Cornish dictionary by the erudite Welshman, Edward Lhuyd, is now online.
In 1702 Lhuyd spent around 4 months in Cornwall travelling from parish to parish in order to gather material for the Geirlyer Kyrnẁeig. During this time he talked to the natives of the region and recorded their vocabularies in a notebook. That, in its essence, is the content of the Geirlyer Kyrnẁeig, namely a Cornish glossary with corresponding meanings in English.
As to its size, the Geirlyer Kyrnẁeig is a small notebook of 172 pages, with the glossary filling 162 of those pages. It was written in black and red ink in Lhuyd’s own handwriting and contains a large number of corrections and several words have been crossed out.
Edward Lhuyd was born in 1660 and was educated at Oswestry Grammar School before going to study law at Jesus College, Oxford in 1682. Lhuyd had a great interest in antiquities, botany and geology. He died in 1709.
Llanstephan 84 is not the only Cornish manuscript that is contained in the National Library’s collections. There are also 2 of the language’s most important manuscripts, namely Beunans Meriasek, a drama in Middle Cornish that was written in 1504 (NLW MS Peniarth 105) and Beunans Ke, a copy from the second half of the 16th century of a drama based on the life of Saint Ke (NLW MS 23849D). Copies of Beuans Ke which was published by Exeter University Press and The National Library of Wales may be bought from the Library’s shop in Aberystwyth or online, siop.llgc.org.uk
Links:
Further Information:
Siôn Jobbins, NLW Press Office: 01970 632 902 sij@llgc.org.uk
