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'.