Matthew Shaw spent this year becoming increasingly interested in Kernewek — the language of Cornwall.

I’ve never learnt a language other than English, the language I was born to and the language I use. This year though I have been increasingly interested in Kernewek, the language of Cornwall, or Kernow if you will.

I did once manage a very little amount of French at school which was enough to buy a French copy of a 7” of ‘A Kind of Magic’ by Queen from a supermarché on a school trip. I also managed to buy beer and on our return journey sat next to a boy whose only bounty was a pen that made the illustrated clothes of an illustrated woman disappear when you tipped the pen up, only to re-clothe her when it was tipped back again. 

I also learned some very basic Dutch but never enough for an actual conversation, or indeed to buy a 7” record by anyone.

Living in Cornwall though has made me consider language and its use and meaning in a place. There are a number of reasons for this. It all started on first meeting my friend Denzil. Not long after we met Denzil presented me with a test of basic Cornish words. I think about a third of the words and phrases stuck with me. On travelling around I always look for the street names which are now increasingly bilingual and through them figure out what the Cornish words must mean. For Stone Club Denzil also created some basic Cornish lessons for anyone to use for free which we put on the Stone Club website. They are mostly of use for people visiting standing stones and stone circles as they all revolve around the names for rock, stone and ancient sites — but they are a useful start and we all need to start somewhere!

Another reason was as a result of Gwenno; her use of Kernewek on Tresor (Treasure) and Utopia, as well as the experience of touring with her around the UK a couple of years ago. Lally and I would DJ every night as Stone Club and as part of the gigs we projected the Kernewek and English words for stones, meteorites, gravel, balancing stones and so on. This increased my lithic vocabulary no end. 

Across this year I recorded a new record and used these words and phrases for each of the titles, making the record, if not me myself, a product of Cornwall.

My proudest moment this year though in relation to Kernewek was managing to get The Lost Gardens of Heligan to add Kernewek to their signs on entering and exiting the garden, as well as arranging Cornish lessons for the staff. Dydh da is a phrase you might be met with the next time you visit, hello, or good day you might say in return. 

Mark Jenkin’s masterful films are also a huge influence on so many people taking up the language again, as are the brilliant short films that Edward Rowe has been writing and directing too. 

It is genuinely exciting to see a resurgence of language in this way. To speak the words of a land in the landscape that shaped the sounds themselves is a powerful thing. 

For the past two years Stone Club have also made films and played music for the Gorsedh Kernow, a celebration of Cornish language and culture. This year the setting was the large green in Marazion opposite Saint Michael’s Mount. It was a blustery day that was thankfully blessed with more sunshine than rain. The Bards processed into the circle, the Old Cornwall Society local branches were resplendent with their beautiful banners, proudly proclaiming from whence they came, and new bards were welcomed for their services to Cornwall. It might be a strange sight to an out-of-season visitor passing by, but it is an event full of pride, and one that I found to be truly welcoming to the curious — with such passion for both preserving and evolving what creativity in Cornwall can look like and why it matters. 

In yet another year where nationalism can be exclusionary and actively hateful, it was refreshing, a moment of real hope, that a relatively small group of people could create intergenerational magic in such a peaceful way.

Now, as 2025 is drawing to an end, I say splann or bryntin about all of the books, films and music that have lit up my imagination this year, and meur ras for a year of better health and for each new day that comes.