Publisher's Synopsis
William Scawen, writing in the seventeenth century when Cornish was still the vernacular, compares Cornish with other Celtic languages, and says that Cornish is "lively and manly spoken". When we hear the majority of present-day Cornish speakers, however, this can rarely be said-particularly when considering the "lively" part. Rod Lyon believes that for a number of years matters have been getting worse. He therefore has undertaken some research to find out why this appears to be the case. Inevitably his research has led him to study in depth the traditional Cornish texts. Present-day teaching methods and a particular approach to the texts seem to be the main causes of the problem.
