ALPHABET

Letter A or a

Cornish name A or a

Letter B or b

Cornish name Be or be

Letter C or c

Cornish name Ce or ce

Letter D or d

Cornish name De or de

Letter E

Cornish name E or e

Letter F

Cornish name Ef or ef

Letter G

Cornish name Ge or ge

Letter H

Cornish name Ha or ha

Letter I

Cornish name I or i

When employing a font that does not distinguish between capital I and small L, the alternative capital form Î can be used

Letter J

Cornish name Je or je

Letter K

Cornish name Ke or ke

Letter L

Cornish name Èl or èl

Letter M

Cornish name Èm or èm

Letter N

Cornish name Èn or èn

Letter O

Cornish name O or o

Letter P

Cornish name Pe or pe

Letter Q

Cornish name Qwo or qwo

Letter R

Cornish name Èr or èr

Letter S

Cornish name Ès or ès

Letter T

Cornish name Te or te

Letter U

Cornish name Û or û (pronounced without an initial y-sound)

Letter V

Cornish name Ve or ve

Letter W

Cornish name We or we

Letter X

Cornish name Ex or ex

Letter Y

Cornish name Ye or ye

Letter Z

Cornish name Zèd zèd)

Apostrophe

Cornish name collverk f collverkys

Capital letter

Cornish name lytheren vrâs f lytherednow brâs

Circumflex accent

Cornish name aken grobm f akednow crobm

Diaeresis

Cornish name aken dhewboynt f akednow dewboynt

Grave accent

Cornish name aken dhieskynus f akednow dieskynus

Hyphen

Cornish name nos jùnya m nosow jùnya

Small letter

Cornish name lytheren vian f lytherednow bian

Words are arranged alphabetically according to the same principles as for English. Digraphs are not treated as separate letters of the alphabet, in contrast to Welsh. Thus, for example, dhyworth ‘from’ and them ‘theme’ will be found under the letters d and t respectively in an alphabetical list.

When spelling out aloud a word that contains a vowel carrying an accent (‘diacritical mark’), the name of the letter is said first, followed by the name of the relevant accent.

Although the Cornish for ‘letter of the alphabet’ is lytheren, a feminine noun, the names of the letters themselves are treated as masculine, so none of them mutate after an ‘the’. The letter names have no plural form. For multiples of a letter, when playing Scrabble^® for example, we say ge dywweyth ‘two Gs’, èl terweyth ‘three Ls’.

For geminate consonants we use the adjective dobyl: e.g. ès dobyl ‘double S’. But speakers who pre-occlude geminate M and geminate N are more likely to spell out be èm and de èn aloud than say èm dobyl and èn dobyl. The name ve dobyl as an alternative to we is not recommended, as it can cause confusion in the case of geminate v in a word like covva 'hiding-place'.