Cornish people
The Cornish people or Cornish (Cornish: Kernowyon, Old English: Cornƿīelisċ) are an ethnic group native to, or associated with Cornwall[20][21] and a recognised national minority in the United Kingdom,[22] which (like the Welsh and Bretons) can trace its roots to the Brittonic Celtic ancient Britons who inhabited Great Britain from somewhere between the 11th and 7th centuries BC and inhabited Britain at the time of the Roman conquest.[23] Many in Cornwall today continue to assert a distinct identity separate from or in addition to English or British identities. Cornish identity has also been adopted by some migrants into Cornwall, as well as by emigrant and descendant communities from Cornwall, the latter sometimes referred to as the Cornish diaspora.[12] Although not included as a tick-box option in the UK census, the numbers of those writing in a Cornish ethnic and national identity are officially recognised and recorded.[24][25]
This article is about the ethnic group and worldwide diaspora. For the inhabitants of Cornwall, see Demographics of Cornwall.
Throughout classical antiquity, the ancient Celtic Britons formed a series of tribes, kingdoms, cultures and identities throughout Great Britain; the Dumnonii and Cornovii were the Celtic tribes who inhabited what was to become Cornwall during the Iron Age, Roman and post-Roman periods.[26] The name Cornwall and its demonym Cornish are derived from the Celtic Cornovii tribe.[26][27] The Anglo-Saxon invasion and settlement of Britain starting from the late 5th and early 6th centuries and the arrival of Scots from Ireland during the same period gradually restricted the Romano-British culture and Brittonic language into parts of the north and west of Great Britain by the 10th century, whilst the inhabitants of southern, central and eastern Britain became English and much of the north became Scottish. The Cornish people, who shared the Brythonic language with the Welsh, Cumbrics and Pics, and also the Bretons who had migrated across the sea to escape the Anglo-Saxon invasions, were referred to in the Old English language as the "Westwalas" meaning West Welsh.[26] The Battle of Deorham between the Britons and Anglo-Saxons is thought to have resulted in a loss of land links with the people of Wales.[28]
The Cornish people and their Brythonic Cornish language experienced a slow process of anglicisation and attrition during the medieval and early modern periods. By the 18th century, and following the creation of the Kingdom of Great Britain, the Cornish language and to some degree identity had faded, largely replaced by the English language (albeit Cornish-influenced West Country dialects and Anglo-Cornish) or British identity.[29][30] A Celtic revival during the early-20th century enabled a cultural self-consciousness in Cornwall that revitalised the Cornish language and roused the Cornish to express a distinctly Brittonic Celtic heritage. The Cornish language was granted official recognition under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages in 2002,[31] and in 2014 the Cornish people were recognised and afforded protection by the UK Government under the Framework Convention for the Protection of National Minorities.[22]
In the 2021 census, the population of Cornwall, including the Isles of Scilly, was recorded as 570,300.[3] The Cornish self-government movement has called for greater recognition of Cornish culture, politics, and language, and urged that Cornish people be accorded greater status, exemplified by the call for them to be one of the listed ethnic groups in the United Kingdom Census 2011 form.[32]