Two modern Cornish dialects exist. That in the east very naturally is assimilated to the Devonshire; but in the west it has formed itself in comparatively recent times. The more common prefixes of names of places are: — Tre an enclosure or homestead, Lan also an enclosure for a church, Ty a dwelling, Bod a habitation, Chy a house, Pol a pool, Pen a head, Huel or Wheal a mine, Ros a moor, Men a stone, B[=a]l a mine, Bos is a corruption of Bod and is sometimes reduced to Bo; Car stands for Caer a fortress; Dun has the same signification. Burn stands for Bron a hill, Camborne should be Cambron, the crooked hill; Cara is Carreg a rock, and this is often found cut down to Car; Carn is a cairn or heap of stones or mass of rock; Enys or Innis an island or peninsula. Fenter occurring in many combinations is fenten a well or spring; Goon is the Welsh Waun a grassy down; Hal is a moor, Parc an enclosure, Dinas a chieftain's castle, Lis a court of justice.
It is possible that certain river names may derive from the original tongue of the earliest race. Some seem to be more akin to Goidelic than Brythonic dialect, as Fal (Gaelic foill, slow), and Fowey (Gaelic fobhaidh, swift); but there are not sufficient of these to assure us that the Goidels preceded the Brythons in Cornwall.
In East Cornwall there must have been a considerable influx of Saxon settlers, for there we light upon such names of places as are compounded with ton the home-farm, worth and worthy a fortified settlement, stoke, stow, sto a stockade, an earthwork surmounted by a defence of posts; ham a meadow by the waterside. In West Cornwall such names are few.
Miners: Camborne
The people are courteous and kindly, and very independent. In South Africa, whither many thousand miners have migrated, they are not popular, and are fain to disguise whence they come by pretending to hail from Furness. The reason is that the Cornish cling together and do not care to associate with others, and that they lack that breadth of sympathy which makes men give up their time and devote their energies to the common good. The Cornish miner cares nothing for the country and for those among whom he has placed himself, if only in three years he may have made enough money to return home to his wife and children. He does not go out to settle, and this explains the lack of interest he has in what interests and concerns the colony.
The Cornish are a broad-shouldered race, above the average in stature, and it is stated that west country regiments, when drawn up on parade, cover a greater space of ground than would those of other counties, the numbers being equal.
The census of 1901 gives as the population of the administrative county 322,334 persons, of whom 149,937 were males and 172,397 were females. There had been an increase in the number of males since 1891, and a decrease in the number of females. Of inhabited houses there were 72,660. The population of Cornwall in 1801 was 192,281, and it went on increasing steadily to 1861, but from that date it has been as steadily on the decrease. In military barracks there were 629 officers and men, in naval barracks 90, and on H.M. ships in home waters 2053; in workhouses 1308, in prison 75.
In 1901 there were 21,335 marriages, 88,636 births, and 55,790 deaths. There were 6434 wives whose husbands were absent, either at sea or mining in South Africa or South America. In agriculture 23,671 were engaged, in fishing 3734, in mining 13,426; in building and carpentering 9667. Of the 149,937 males enumerated in the county of Cornwall, 128,184 were natives of the county, 8007 had come from Devonshire, and there were resident in Cornwall 976 foreigners. Of blind there were 447, of deaf and dumb 163, of lunatics 798, of imbeciles 516.