Dolly Pentreath: a "very singular female"
Kensa Broadhurst presented a paper ‘ Dolly Pentreath: a “very singular female’ at the WESWWHN Annual Conference on Gender and Commemoration in October 2021. In this blog she tells Dolly’s story and explores how she is remembered. Dolly Pentreath’s place in history is as the so-called last speaker of the Cornish language. As such she has a certain notoriety in both historical and linguistic circles and is frequently mentioned in studies on language extinction in general and the Cornish language in particular. Both her contemporaries and nineteenth century antiquarians interested in the Cornish language dismissed Pentreath’s claims to be a fluent speaker of the language, and after her death she was portrayed as a figure of fun. Was this because those commenting on her legacy were educated men who felt an uneducated woman could have nothing of worth to contribute? Pentreath came to public attention after Daines Barrington visited Cornwall in 1768 to search for Cornish speakers. A guide ...