A new book has been published about Dolly Pentreath, famously one of the last known fluent native speakers of the Cornish language.

Dolly was born in Mousehole into a fishing family, and worked as a fishwife. She was especially famed for her capacity to swear in Cornish when irked. She died in 1777 at the age of 85, and is buried in Paul churchyard; a plaque marks her last home in Brook Street, Mousehole.

“Dolly Pentreath and the Cornish Language” is written by Dr Jan Pentreath, a marine scientist and member of Cowethas an Yeth Kernewek Cambron (the Camborne Cornish Language Fellowship). Dr Pentreath was born in Mousehole himself, and in researching his family’s maritime history, kept running into “the ‘Dolly’ issue”.

Was she really a Pentreath and, if so, by birth or by marriage? How old was she really? Who were her parents and grandparents? Was she really the ‘last speaker’ of Cornish and, if so, why? Indeed, was her fame truly warranted, or was she just a fraud?

Dr Pentreath resolved to answer these questions in a rational way. “Dolly Pentreath has always been something of an enigma, even for the Pentreath family,” he said.

A new book has been published about Cornish speaker Dolly Pentreath
A new book has been published about Cornish speaker Dolly Pentreath (Agan Tavas )

The book explores Dolly’s rise to fame and the subsequent efforts to defame her, set against a background of Cornish history and its language throughout the 17th and 18th centuries. It then goes on to evaluate her historical standing, and the present state of the language that was once her own.

Profusely illustrated, with a full index and end notes, this book will be of value to anyone who is interested in Cornwall’s past, and to all of those who are involved with teaching or learning its language.

The book is published by Agan Tavas, the Campaign for the Cornish Language, and will be available at the Gorseth Kernow in September and online.