Ken George

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Kenneth John George, known as Ken George, is a British oceanographer, poet, and linguist from Cornwall. He founded Kernewek Kemmyn, an orthography for the revived Cornish language that he argues is closer to Middle Cornish pronunciation than the earlier Unified Cornish. He has published more than eighty works on Celtic linguistics, including several Cornish dictionaries. In 2006, his edition of the newly discovered Middle Cornish play Bewnans Ke was published by the Cornish Language Board, and he received a Commendation in the 2007 Holyer an Gof awards for this work. He has translated many hymns and songs into Cornish and even the lyrics of Mozart’s The Magic Flute. He has written a substantial amount of Cornish poetry and drama, including the full-length play Flogholeth Krist, in the style of the Ordinalia.

George lives in Cornwall and speaks English, Cornish, Breton, and French. He was formerly Principal Lecturer in Ocean Science at the Institute of Marine Studies at the University of Plymouth. In 1979 he was made a Bard of Gorsedh Kernow with the Bardic name Profus an Mortyd, meaning “Tide Predictor,” reflecting his oceanography work and his interest in numerical modelling. He has over fifty oceanographic publications, including the textbook Tides for Marine Studies, which has sold over a thousand copies. He chairs Kesva An Taves Kernewek, the Cornish Language Board. He retired in 2006 and has since learned Japanese to have simple conversations in Japan and is now learning Spanish.