A practical guide to Cornish interrogative pronouns

Cornish questions introduce learners to more than simple information-seeking. The words for who, what, where, when, why, and how reveal how Cornish connects a question to the rest of the sentence. They also provide an immediate way to compare English word order with the structure of a Celtic language.

Strictly speaking, Cornish has two especially clear interrogative pronouns: piv for “who” and peth for “what”. Other common question words are usually described as interrogative adverbs because they ask about place, time, reason, or manner. Learners nevertheless often group all of them together, and older Cornish varieties may classify them differently.

Cornish is a revived language with several regional traditions, so spellings and preferred expressions can vary. The forms used here follow a common Standard Written Form-oriented approach, including established phrasebook wording. Speakers of Kernowek, for example, may use different spellings or sentence patterns.

The examples below place Cornish in familiar Australian settings, from supermarket checkouts to trains and legislative debates. The aim is to understand the underlying question forms rather than memorise isolated translations that fall apart when the sentence changes.

The core Cornish question words

Piv asks about a person and functions as the subject of the question. Peth asks about a thing, idea, or choice and can also mean “which”. Because peth can cover both “what” and “which”, learners should not assume that each English function has a separate Cornish word.

A frequent pattern in everyday Cornish questions is the question word followed by a or a’. This appears in phrases such as Piv a' gorf dh'ys? (“Who are you?”), Peth a' es? (“What is it?”), Pway a' es? (“Where is it?”), and Pwhen a' es? (“When is it?”). The pattern is useful, but it is not a universal instruction to insert a after every opening word.

Pronunciation affects recognition as well as production. In particular, piv and peth are short, while peth gal for “how” forms a two-word expression. The Cornish pronunciation guide for beginners provides a useful foundation for hearing these differences and for practising the connected forms that occur in normal speech.

Questions in Australian daily life

English-speaking Australians normally use “you” for one person or several people and do not maintain a strict formal and informal distinction. Cornish offers more choices: chwi is an informal singular, hwi is a polite singular, and chi is plural. This matters when addressing a shop assistant, a fellow train passenger, or a group at a community meeting.

On a Melbourne tram, at a Sydney railway station, or beside a bus timetable, pway has an immediate use. Pointing to a route symbol and asking Pway a' es? identifies the location without needing to translate the whole journey. On a crowded platform, Pwhen a' es? can ask when the service arrives, while Peth a' es? can identify an unfamiliar symbol or facility.

Supermarkets provide another useful setting. At a Woolworths or Coles checkout, or at a suburban farmers market, peth can introduce a question about an item, while piv identifies a person such as a stallholder or staff member. Australia’s widely spread time zones also make pwhen practical: travellers comparing a Brisbane flight with services in Sydney, Melbourne, or Perth often need to ask about times as well as places.

Comparing Cornish and English questions

Cornish commonly places the question word at the beginning, but it does not simply copy English auxiliary inversion. In Piv a' gorf dh'ys?, for example, the Cornish order is not the English pattern of “Who are you?” rearranged word for word. Learning a few reliable frames helps, but the broader lesson is to notice the Cornish sequence rather than translate each English word mechanically.

English function	Cornish form	Typical meaning	Grammatical description
Who	Piv	A person	Interrogative subject pronoun
What or which	Peth	A thing, idea, or choice	Interrogative pronoun
Where	Pway	A place	Interrogative adverb
When	Pwhen	A time or occasion	Interrogative adverb
Why	Preydy	A reason	Interrogative adverb
How	Peth gal	A manner or method	Interrogative expression

Peth is particularly flexible. It may introduce an unknown object, as in Peth a' es?, or ask someone to identify among several possibilities. In a market conversation, the same opening can become a choice question when the speaker points to two similar items and waits for the listener to identify one. Context and gesture often carry as much meaning as the pronoun itself.

The second-person forms should be chosen with equal care. A phrase addressed familiarly to one person may contain dh'ys, while a formal version can use hwi. Plural situations call for chi. Australian speakers accustomed to an all-purpose “you” should therefore listen for the form used by their conversation partner and practise changing it deliberately.

Work, law, and places

Question words become especially valuable in workplaces and public institutions. Piv can identify a decision-maker or colleague, peth can locate information in a document, pway can ask where an official source appears, and pwhen can establish a deadline. Even simple questions help learners confirm details instead of relying on an unfamiliar combination of Cornish vocabulary and English sentence habits.

Australian law is divided between Commonwealth and state or territory jurisdictions. A federal committee in Canberra may discuss a national measure while a state parliament considers a related issue under different legislation. Questions about who proposed a change, what the change covers, and when it takes effect map neatly onto piv, peth, and pwhen. For the vocabulary of office-holders, parties, policy, and debate, see politics vocabulary in Cornish.

Place names offer another way to connect these forms with local culture. Pway can begin questions about the origin or location of a Cornish place name, while Australian learners can make the same enquiry about an Aboriginal Australian place name. The two traditions should not be treated as interchangeable translations; asking about the source of a name, the language behind it, and the community that uses it creates a more respectful and accurate comparison.

A practical review routine

Build a small set of questions rather than attempting to memorise every possible sentence. Write one example for each core function: piv, peth, pway, pwhen, preydy, and peth gal. Check each example against the spoken form used in your course or book, since an accepted written form may differ from a regional alternative.

Next, read the questions aloud and record them without pausing between every word. This reveals whether the question sounds like a complete unit when spoken naturally. It also makes it easier to hear when a belongs in a particular frame and when the question can stand on its own. Practising in short conversations is more effective than repeating a list silently.

Questions about a specific phrase, pronunciation choice, or suitable course can be sent through the Learn Cornish contact page. Keep a note of the answers beside your five examples, using one page for personal forms and another for regional variations.

Write those five questions in a phone note today, beginning with Piv a' gorf dh'ys?, and label each line with the information it seeks.