‘The greatest masterpiece in literature is only a dictionary out of order.’ (Jean Cocteau). What does Dr Jago’s English-Cornish dictionary tell us about the status of Cornish in the 1880s?

Abstract

Fred W.P. Jago’s ‘An English-Cornish Dictionary: compiled from the best sources’ (1887) has been sadly neglected by scholars thus far. The Royal Cornwall Museum in Truro is home to Jago’s working copies of his dictionary. Through six volumes from hand-written first draft to the draft of the second edition, it is possible to chart not only Jago’s work but gain wider insights into the status of Cornish at this time. In addition to the dictionary and translations of many Biblical passages into Cornish, these volumes contain a wealth of information on the social conditions of the language including: subscriber lists, newspaper reviews, and Jago’s correspondence regarding the history of Dolly Pentreath and the donation of these volumes to the Royal Institution of Cornwall. Jago was seeking to ensure a record was kept of his working methods and decisions. This paper offers an overview of the wider information which these working editions of Jago’s dictionary contain, and what this tells us about interest in and the status of the Cornish language in the 1880s.