One cirent idea states that this word is from a postulated "mogow" - except that mogow is utterly unattested in Cornish (just lifted from Breton and announced as Cornish when it isn't) Originally it was fogo - pronounced (as near as dammit) foo-goo, with emphasis on the first syllable. My favouite places ( apart from Carn Galva).
Sennen used to be a treat when talking to the old people. Locals there had words and pronunciations for things that I never heard anywhere else in Cornwall.
I suppose as West Penwith and Lizard were probably the last places where native Cornish was regularly spoken widely, theirs would have had the most up-to-date version, and the words, and forms of speech most recent in memory.
FlammNew hesitates to open a linguistic argument cos he doesn't know for sure, but isn't the "fogo" which you quote actually just the 2nd mutation of "mogo(w)"? We might not have with word unmutated but if we have it mutated we can extrapolate to where it came from, surely?
'Ogo' is used in place names to mean 'cave' as in several places on The Lizard eg. Pistil Ogo. There is likely to be a difference between Early, Middle and Late Cornish.
Foo-goo is particularly a west penwith pronunciation, when I was growing up I also heard fug-ow used outside of west penwith or from people originally from outside west penwith.
As far as I can see none of the KK dictionaries specifically reference fougou but suggest there maybe a link to the word(s) for caves. gogo, mogow etc.
Although mogow doesn't appear in text Late Cornish 'vooga' does showing that the original word would have ended in 'ow' and having also been permenantly softened e.g. m > v giving us something like mogow or moogow the Breton is mougev.
Just to confuse things there is also fow+gogo - which could also have influenced fougou and the frequent use of lenitised gogo - ogo in placenames.
It's the same word, or have their origins from the same word. Ogof is the modern Welsh world, but Gogof was aslo used. It can be seen in Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwyll-llandyssiliogogogoch for example!
As a Welsh speaker, I find Kernewek and it's many similarities with Cymraeg fascinating. I would really like to learn. I'm not cornish, but I was born in Truro and lived in Crowlas for my first year, if that counts for anything!
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