John Davey (Cornish speaker)
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John Davey or Davy was a Cornish farmer who was one of the last people with some traditional knowledge of the Cornish language. According to Henry Jenner, the level of his ability in the language is u
Plaque commemorating Davey in Zennor
Identifying the last native speaker of the Cornish language was a subject of academic interest in the 18th and 19th centuries, and continues to be a subject of interest today. The traditional view tha
John Davey (Cornish speaker)
…that he may indeed have learned traditionally from his father. As such he is an important figure in the study of Cornish in its last stages, along with Chesten Marchant (died 1676) and Dolly Pentreath (died 1777), judged by various scholars to be the last monoglot and native speakers of Cornish respectively. Matthews…
Dolly Pentreath (1692–1777)
William Bodinar's letter, dated 3 July 1776