Cornish (Kernowek or Kernewek) is a Brythonic Celtic language and a recognised minority language of the United Kingdom. Along with Welsh and Breton, it is directly descended from the ancient British language spoken throughout much of Britain before the English language came to dominate. The language continued to function as a common community language in parts of Cornwall until the late 18th century. Some children used the language to converse in, and families used it as a language of the home through the 19th century and possibly into the 20th. Some elderly speakers were known to be still living into the 20th century including one still alive in 1914. A process to revive the language was started in the early 20th century, continuing to this day.

The revival of Cornish began in 1904 when Henry Jenner, a Celtic language enthusiast, published his book Handbook of the Cornish Language. Jenner's work was based on Cornish as it was spoken in the 18th century, although his pupil Robert Morton Nance later steered the revival to the style of the 16th century, before the language became more heavily influenced by English. This set the tone for the next few decades; as the revival gained pace, learners of the language disagreed on which style of Cornish to use, and a number of competing orthographies were in use by the end of the 20th century.

The Cornish (Cornish: Kernowyon) are a people associated with Cornwall, a county in the South West of England, in the United Kingdom, which is seen in some respects as distinct from the rest of England and having more in common with the other Celtic parts of the UK such as Wales as well as with other Celtic nations in Europe. It has been long argued that the Cornish represent a distinct ethnic group within the UK, which can trace its roots to the ancient Britons who inhabited southern and central Great Britain prior to the Roman conquest, and some in the county today continue to assert a distinct identity, separately or in addition to English or British identities. Cornish identity has been adopted by migrants into Cornwall, as well as by emigrant and descendant communities from Cornwall, the latter sometimes referred to as the Cornish diaspora. Although not included as an explicit option in the UK census, the numbers of those claiming Cornish ethnic and national identity are officially recognised and recorded.

Richard Gendall is a British expert on the Cornish language, born in 1924. He is the founder of "Modern Cornish"/Curnoack Nowedga, which split off during the 1980s. Whereas Ken George mainly went to Medieval Cornish as the inspiration for his revival, Gendall went to the last surviving records of Cornish, such as John and Nicholas Boson, in the eighteenth-century. He is involved with University of Exeter

He is a folk musician, and has made several recordings with Brenda Wootton, as well as a poet in writer in Cornish itself under the bardic name of "Gelvinak".

Gendall founded Teere ha Tavaz, an organisation which seeks to promote the Cornish language in its Modern Cornish or Curnoack Nowedga variety. It is also a small publisher on, and in, the Cornish language.