Next:
New Year Cornish Phrases
Kalan Genver
New Year is called "Kalan Genver" in Cornish. The phrase to know first is "Bledhen Nowydh Da!" (Happy New Year!).
The Cornish New Year greeting is Bledhen Nowydh Da, "a good new year". New Year's Day is Kalan Genver. Here is the greeting, with two everyday greetings for one person and for several, a toast, and the words for talking about the year ahead.
Greetings
Bledhen Nowydh Da!
Happy New Year!
Literally "year new good": bledhen "year", nowydh "new", da "good".
Lowena dhis!
Greetings! (to one person)
An everyday greeting used all year, literally "happiness to you"; not a seasonal wish.
Lowena dhywgh!
Greetings! (to more than one person)
The same everyday greeting for a group or a family.
Yeghes da!
Cheers!
The toast at midnight. Revived Late Cornish writes 'Eghes da!
Useful words
Kalan Genver
New Year's Day
Literally "the first day of January".
nessa bledhen
next year
Nessa means "next".
kyns penn bledhen
before the year is out
Revived Late Cornish writes kens pedn bledhen.
The history of Kalan Genver
Cornish Kalan Genver, New Year's Day, means "the first day of January"; kalan is the same word as Welsh calan, the first day of a month, found in Dydd Calan. The greeting matches its Welsh cousin word for word: bledhen and blwyddyn both mean "year", nowydh and newydd both mean "new", and da and dda both mean "good". Cornish and Welsh both descend from Proto-Brythonic.
Common questions
How do you say Happy New Year in Cornish?
Bledhen Nowydh Da. New Year's Day itself is Kalan Genver.
New Year in the other Celtic languages
Further reading
Cornish is on blas. now
Grammar, mutations, vocabulary, and reading with spaced repetition. The Cornish course is in the blas. app now.
Start learning CornishCornish phrases for the year ahead
Cornish phrases for everyday occasions
Sources
Every phrase and fact on this page was checked against the sources below. Last checked 2026-10-20.
- Wiktionary, via Kaikki.org
- Wiktionary, via Kaikki.org
- Wiktionary, via Kaikki.org
- Wiktionary, via Kaikki.org
- Akademi Kernewek, Gerlyver Kernewek (Standard Written Form): good da adj
- Akademi Kernewek, Gerlyver Kernewek (Standard Written Form): lowena n.f happiness, bliss
- blas. course data
- Tatoeba: Tatoeba #6044593 by Kevre, CC BY 2.0 FR
- Akademi Kernewek, Gerlyver Kernewek (Standard Written Form): greetings! (to one person) lowena dhis! idiom
- Akademi Kernewek, Gerlyver Kernewek (Standard Written Form): greetings! (using 2p.pl.) lowena dhywgh! idiom
- Akademi Kernewek, Gerlyver Kernewek (Standard Written Form): cheers! 'eghes da! L idiom, yeghes da! M idiom
- Akademi Kernewek, Gerlyver Kernewek (Standard Written Form): New Year's Day Kalan Genver n.m
- Akademi Kernewek, Gerlyver Kernewek (Standard Written Form): next year nessa bledhen idiom
- Akademi Kernewek, Gerlyver Kernewek (Standard Written Form): nessa adj nearest, next, second
- Akademi Kernewek, Gerlyver Kernewek (Standard Written Form): before the year is out kens pedn bledhen L idiom, kyns penn bledhen M idiom
Credit: Wiktionary contributors, CC BY-SA 4.0.