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Language code: kw

Technical information about ISO 639 language code kw

Documentation

The table below provides technical details for the Cornish language, designated by the kw code from the ISO 639-1 standard.

Code

kw

Name

Official

Cornish

Native

Kernewek

Family
Brittonic
Text direction

Left-to-Right

Related languages
BretonWelshCumbric (extinct)
Key facts
Became effectively extinct as a community language by the late 18th century and was revived in the 20th centuryvocabulary shows especially strong overlap with Breton, sharing around three-quarters of core lexemesemploys systematic initial consonant mutations triggered by grammatical contextthe Standard Written Form (SWF) was adopted in 2008 to unify previously competing orthographiesthe earliest surviving Cornish text is the 12th-century Charter Fragment.
Sample phrase

Dydh da, fatell os ta?

Character encodings

UTF-8, UTF-16, UTF-32

Supported in Localizely

Cornish belongs to the Indo-European language family, more specifically to the Brittonic subgroup. It is used by a minority group in Cornwall, England. It is estimated that there are around 500 to 1000 fluent speakers worldwide, with a larger number of people having some knowledge of the language.

Language presence globally

Speakers

United Kingdom

500

*The graph shows a rough estimate of Cornish speakers in countries where it is an official or minority language.

Related locale codes

kw-GB – Cornish (United Kingdom)

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