A-dro dhe'n keskussulyans
About the conference
The third research conference for the Cornish language took place on Friday 30 September and Saturday 1 October 2016 at the Board Room, Penryn Campus, Tremough with thanks to the Institute of Cornish Studies for hosting the event.
An towlen 2016
The 2016 programme
Friday 30 September
- John GILLINGHAM: Is there a demand for Cornish to be taught in primary schools?
- Ken MacKINNON: Summercourt: location, land and language
- Alan KENT: Tregear awakens - the Recusants fight back
- David TRETHEWEY: Creating software tools for Cornish with Python
- Esther JOHNS: Cornish Language Teaching: Qualifications or practical application?
- Stephen HORSCROFT: The Economic Impact of Cornish Culture and Language
- Siarl FERDINAND: Current status of Cornish according to UNESCO’s LVE framework
- Jon MILLS: Cornish prepositional colligations
- Nicholas WILLIAMS: ‘When’ in Cornish
- Linus BAND: Charter 146 in the Cartulary of Redon: The Oldest Cornish?
- Ken GEORGE: Piw yw a lew war tu ha’n bluw?
- Elena BIRMANI: Cornish/English self-translation
- Deborah ARBES: Nowodhow orth perghennogeth
- Julyan HOLMES: Better understanding, better appreciation
- Gregor BENTON: Sustainability in the context of language loss
Ken MacKINNON
University of Aberdeen
The Cornish Spiritual Landscape in Place-names
Place-names furnish a unique perspective on landscape, its people and their language. In the case of Cornwall the continuity of its historic language from the dawn of history until a couple of centuries ago has left an abiding heritage of the way in which its speakers named the features of the landscape, the manner in which they used it, and the settlements which they established. In particular Cornish place-names bear witness to Cornwall’s changing spiritual life.
The spiritual or religious life of the Cornish people has left a record in place-names, and as the practices and beliefs of the people have changed over the centuries, distinctive toponymy continues to bear witness of this. The paper summarises some of the distinctive place-name elements of successive eras, and demonstrates how changing place-name elements in the toponymy of specific places, especially parish names, indicate successive changes in religious life and affiliation. In this respect Cornwall presents a distinctive and unique toponymic area which continues to bear witness to the salience of religious practice in the history of Cornwall, and to changing affiliations over time.
Download: abstract [pdf]
University of Aberdeen
The Cornish Spiritual Landscape in Place-names
Place-names furnish a unique perspective on landscape, its people and their language. In the case of Cornwall the continuity of its historic language from the dawn of history until a couple of centuries ago has left an abiding heritage of the way in which its speakers named the features of the landscape, the manner in which they used it, and the settlements which they established. In particular Cornish place-names bear witness to Cornwall’s changing spiritual life.
The spiritual or religious life of the Cornish people has left a record in place-names, and as the practices and beliefs of the people have changed over the centuries, distinctive toponymy continues to bear witness of this. The paper summarises some of the distinctive place-name elements of successive eras, and demonstrates how changing place-name elements in the toponymy of specific places, especially parish names, indicate successive changes in religious life and affiliation. In this respect Cornwall presents a distinctive and unique toponymic area which continues to bear witness to the salience of religious practice in the history of Cornwall, and to changing affiliations over time.
Download: abstract [pdf]
Alan KENT
Open University
Tregear Awakens: The Recusants fight Back
This paper will examine the naming and placing of Tregear in a Cornish language context and also consider the relationship between the language and Catholicism. In studies of Cornish, the Tregear Homilies are under-represented, and this paper
attempts to redress that imbalance. It also provides a new literary analysis of the twelve homilies and Sacrament an Altar.
Download: abstract [pdf]
Open University
Tregear Awakens: The Recusants fight Back
This paper will examine the naming and placing of Tregear in a Cornish language context and also consider the relationship between the language and Catholicism. In studies of Cornish, the Tregear Homilies are under-represented, and this paper
attempts to redress that imbalance. It also provides a new literary analysis of the twelve homilies and Sacrament an Altar.
Download: abstract [pdf]
David TRETHEWEY
Creating Software Tools for Cornish with Python
In this presentation, I explain my work creating software for Cornish in Python. The Natural Language Processing Toolkit www.nltk.org in Python is used to calculate corpus statistics, and Python programs have been written to do mutation in Cornish, write out Cornish numbers, divide Cornish text into syllables, in ect Cornish verbs and transliterate Kernewek Kemmyn text to the Standard Written Form. The source code of this work is open, and available from my Bitbucket repository (bitbucket.org/davidtreth/taklow-kernewek). Potential future development will be discussed and your ideas invited.
Download: abstract [pdf]
Creating Software Tools for Cornish with Python
In this presentation, I explain my work creating software for Cornish in Python. The Natural Language Processing Toolkit www.nltk.org in Python is used to calculate corpus statistics, and Python programs have been written to do mutation in Cornish, write out Cornish numbers, divide Cornish text into syllables, in ect Cornish verbs and transliterate Kernewek Kemmyn text to the Standard Written Form. The source code of this work is open, and available from my Bitbucket repository (bitbucket.org/davidtreth/taklow-kernewek). Potential future development will be discussed and your ideas invited.
Download: abstract [pdf]
Esther JOHNS
Cornish Language Teaching: Qualifications or practical application?
This research project was carried out using the Mullion Cornish Language class as a group to find out whether the classes are fulfilling learners’ expectations and desires. Using questionnaires and an informal recorded interview, strength of opinion was obtained about whether the learners themselves wanted to take external assessments (exams) or not, and what kind. Another purpose was to obtain information about the importance in students’ minds of being able to use their language skills in practical settings.
The results showed that what learners wanted most was to be able to speak at a Yeth an Werin social event. This was followed by the desire to achieve a nationally recognised qualification. Not so important to them was taking the existing Kesva exams or attending a Tregedna language immersion event. The findings of the research will be used in future classes, splitting into groups those who have the same learning goals in mind and tailoring planning to suit the different groups through a more effective use of differentiation.
Download: abstract [pdf]
Cornish Language Teaching: Qualifications or practical application?
This research project was carried out using the Mullion Cornish Language class as a group to find out whether the classes are fulfilling learners’ expectations and desires. Using questionnaires and an informal recorded interview, strength of opinion was obtained about whether the learners themselves wanted to take external assessments (exams) or not, and what kind. Another purpose was to obtain information about the importance in students’ minds of being able to use their language skills in practical settings.
The results showed that what learners wanted most was to be able to speak at a Yeth an Werin social event. This was followed by the desire to achieve a nationally recognised qualification. Not so important to them was taking the existing Kesva exams or attending a Tregedna language immersion event. The findings of the research will be used in future classes, splitting into groups those who have the same learning goals in mind and tailoring planning to suit the different groups through a more effective use of differentiation.
Download: abstract [pdf]
Stephen HORSCROFT
Cornwall Council
The Economic Impact of Cornish Culture and Language
Culture and language are integrated into our everyday lives and we may not always realise it. The social glue of the interactions between us is not often consciously realised; is the economic impact of what is recognised and special about Cornwall fully appreciated and (indeed) widely understood? This presentation and discussion will look at the role of ‘culture’ on the economy of Cornwall and the economic opportunities of Kernewek that are being/yet to be explored.
Download: abstract [pdf]
Cornwall Council
The Economic Impact of Cornish Culture and Language
Culture and language are integrated into our everyday lives and we may not always realise it. The social glue of the interactions between us is not often consciously realised; is the economic impact of what is recognised and special about Cornwall fully appreciated and (indeed) widely understood? This presentation and discussion will look at the role of ‘culture’ on the economy of Cornwall and the economic opportunities of Kernewek that are being/yet to be explored.
Download: abstract [pdf]
Siarl FERDINAND
Current Status of Cornish According to UNESCO’s LVE Framework
Until 2010, the Red Book of Endangered Languages by UNESCO listed Cornish among the extinct languages. It was not after numerous messages of protest by Cornish speakers that its status was revised and changed to that of a ‘revived language’. Although the label is obviously accurate, it is not enough for describing the state of any tongue since all revived languages are also living languages with its own sociolinguistic characteristics. The Language Vitality and Endangerment (LVE) framework created by UNESCO employs nine factors to assess the degree of vitality of languages which can also be used to check the state of Cornish. This conference shows the results of an analysis of the vitality of Cornish according to the LVE framework. It proves that the state of Cornish has improved during the last few decades. Nevertheless, the results also point out a number of weaknesses that must be considered and overcome in order to implement both the natural use of Cornish amongst the speakers and its knowledge amongst the non-Cornish speakers in Cornwall and Scilly.
Download: abstract [pdf]
Current Status of Cornish According to UNESCO’s LVE Framework
Until 2010, the Red Book of Endangered Languages by UNESCO listed Cornish among the extinct languages. It was not after numerous messages of protest by Cornish speakers that its status was revised and changed to that of a ‘revived language’. Although the label is obviously accurate, it is not enough for describing the state of any tongue since all revived languages are also living languages with its own sociolinguistic characteristics. The Language Vitality and Endangerment (LVE) framework created by UNESCO employs nine factors to assess the degree of vitality of languages which can also be used to check the state of Cornish. This conference shows the results of an analysis of the vitality of Cornish according to the LVE framework. It proves that the state of Cornish has improved during the last few decades. Nevertheless, the results also point out a number of weaknesses that must be considered and overcome in order to implement both the natural use of Cornish amongst the speakers and its knowledge amongst the non-Cornish speakers in Cornwall and Scilly.
Download: abstract [pdf]
Jon MILLS
University of Kent
Cornish prepositional colligations
The core meaning of Cornish prepositions is locative. In other words, they locate something in space or time. However this is not their only function. Prepositions also colligate with other parts-of-speech to form multi-word lexical units in which location may not be denoted. Instead the preposition has two functions: a syntactic function and semantic restriction. The syntactic function concerns both the structure of the prepositional phrase and the function of the prepositional phrase within the clause. Semantic restriction of prepositional colligations is exemplified in these prepositional verbs: mires dhe ‘take care of’, mires orth ‘consider’, mires rag ‘seek’, and mires war ‘observe’. These prepositional colligations at first present a difficulty to the learner, since they do not translate word for word with their English equivalents. Instead the learner must learn the colligation as a single lexical unit. Prepositional colligations include the following types: noun+prep., prep.+noun, adj.+prep., prepositional verb, phrasal verb, and phrasal preposition verb.
Download: abstract [pdf]
University of Kent
Cornish prepositional colligations
The core meaning of Cornish prepositions is locative. In other words, they locate something in space or time. However this is not their only function. Prepositions also colligate with other parts-of-speech to form multi-word lexical units in which location may not be denoted. Instead the preposition has two functions: a syntactic function and semantic restriction. The syntactic function concerns both the structure of the prepositional phrase and the function of the prepositional phrase within the clause. Semantic restriction of prepositional colligations is exemplified in these prepositional verbs: mires dhe ‘take care of’, mires orth ‘consider’, mires rag ‘seek’, and mires war ‘observe’. These prepositional colligations at first present a difficulty to the learner, since they do not translate word for word with their English equivalents. Instead the learner must learn the colligation as a single lexical unit. Prepositional colligations include the following types: noun+prep., prep.+noun, adj.+prep., prepositional verb, phrasal verb, and phrasal preposition verb.
Download: abstract [pdf]
Nicholas WILLIAMS
‘When’ in Cornish
In English ‘when’ has two functions. The first is as an interrogative adverb used in
direct questions, ‘When did he come?’ and in indirect questions, ‘I know when he
came’. In such cases ‘when’ is rendered in Cornish by py eur, p’eur and punna termin
(*pana dermyn). The paper will give examples of this usage from the texts. ‘When’ in
English is also, and indeed more often, a temporal conjunction: ‘I spoke to him when
he came’, ‘I’ll speak to him when he comes’. The Cornish word pàn is the equivalent
of the English conjunction. Examination of the texts shows that pàn is apparently
never followed by the future or present-future, the subjunctive being necessary when
referring to future time. The paper will also seek to elucidate those cases in which
Cornish pàn is best rendered ‘since, because’ rather than ‘when’.
Download: abstract [pdf]
‘When’ in Cornish
In English ‘when’ has two functions. The first is as an interrogative adverb used in
direct questions, ‘When did he come?’ and in indirect questions, ‘I know when he
came’. In such cases ‘when’ is rendered in Cornish by py eur, p’eur and punna termin
(*pana dermyn). The paper will give examples of this usage from the texts. ‘When’ in
English is also, and indeed more often, a temporal conjunction: ‘I spoke to him when
he came’, ‘I’ll speak to him when he comes’. The Cornish word pàn is the equivalent
of the English conjunction. Examination of the texts shows that pàn is apparently
never followed by the future or present-future, the subjunctive being necessary when
referring to future time. The paper will also seek to elucidate those cases in which
Cornish pàn is best rendered ‘since, because’ rather than ‘when’.
Download: abstract [pdf]
Linus BAND
University of Wales Centre for Advanced Welsh and Celtic Studies
The rhymes in Pascon agan Arluth
The traditional Cornish language is well-known for its confusing spelling. An example of this is provided by Henry Lewis, who wrote that “the diphthongs ew, ow and yw intermix. One finds, for example, duv ‘God’ rhyming with lyfryow ‘books’ and gv ‘spear’. Guv is a variant form of gv, which rhymes with tu ‘side’, ihesu ‘Jesus’ and tru ‘miserable’, and there is also a variant gev.” Hence it is no surprise that much debate in Cornish studies has focused on interpreting the phonology underlying the
traditional writings.
Help is provided to the poor modern-day interpreter of Cornish phonology by the fact that the majority of the Cornish texts is in verse. So, even though it is not immediately clear what sounds each word represents, hints are provided through rhyme. In my presentation I will highlight some of the interesting things that the rhymes in Pascon agan Arluth, one of the earliest longer Cornish texts, show us. They present to us a twofold image of Cornish: on the one hand a language still close to its Welsh and Breton cousins, and on the other a language already firmly on its own path.
Download: abstract [pdf]
University of Wales Centre for Advanced Welsh and Celtic Studies
The rhymes in Pascon agan Arluth
The traditional Cornish language is well-known for its confusing spelling. An example of this is provided by Henry Lewis, who wrote that “the diphthongs ew, ow and yw intermix. One finds, for example, duv ‘God’ rhyming with lyfryow ‘books’ and gv ‘spear’. Guv is a variant form of gv, which rhymes with tu ‘side’, ihesu ‘Jesus’ and tru ‘miserable’, and there is also a variant gev.” Hence it is no surprise that much debate in Cornish studies has focused on interpreting the phonology underlying the
traditional writings.
Help is provided to the poor modern-day interpreter of Cornish phonology by the fact that the majority of the Cornish texts is in verse. So, even though it is not immediately clear what sounds each word represents, hints are provided through rhyme. In my presentation I will highlight some of the interesting things that the rhymes in Pascon agan Arluth, one of the earliest longer Cornish texts, show us. They present to us a twofold image of Cornish: on the one hand a language still close to its Welsh and Breton cousins, and on the other a language already firmly on its own path.
Download: abstract [pdf]
Ken GEORGE
Cornish Language Board
Disentangling five cornish diphthongal phonemes
Piw yw a lew war-tu ha’n bluw? The developments of four Old Cornish w-diphthongs: /iʊ/, /ɪʊ/, /εʊ/ and /uiʊ/, plus /y/, which was diphthongized to [yʊ] at an early stage, are considered. All words containing these phonemes in final open syllables, both stressed and unstressed, are examined. Evidence from spellings and from the statistics of rhymes suggests that although all five sounds were rhymed with one another in Middle Cornish, they were still distinct. In Late Cornish, however, the five phonemes had been reduced to just two. The diphthong in several words has been misidentified, in both Kernewek Kemmyn and SWF; these errors need to be corrected.
Download: abstract [pdf]
Cornish Language Board
Disentangling five cornish diphthongal phonemes
Piw yw a lew war-tu ha’n bluw? The developments of four Old Cornish w-diphthongs: /iʊ/, /ɪʊ/, /εʊ/ and /uiʊ/, plus /y/, which was diphthongized to [yʊ] at an early stage, are considered. All words containing these phonemes in final open syllables, both stressed and unstressed, are examined. Evidence from spellings and from the statistics of rhymes suggests that although all five sounds were rhymed with one another in Middle Cornish, they were still distinct. In Late Cornish, however, the five phonemes had been reduced to just two. The diphthong in several words has been misidentified, in both Kernewek Kemmyn and SWF; these errors need to be corrected.
Download: abstract [pdf]
Elena BIRMANI
Cornish-English Self-translation
The practice of self-translation, that is the translation of an original source text into a target text carried out by the same author in a different language, is a phenomenon of recent interest in translation studies, yet it is quite a usual procedure, especially in literature. Self-translation can be carried out for a number of reasons –e.g. editorial, commercial, ideological. Studying the activity of self-translation of works written in a minority language into a major national language can be of particular interest. This paper is going to deal with some self-translated work by Cornish poet Pol Hodge from Cornish into English.
Download: abstract [pdf]
Cornish-English Self-translation
The practice of self-translation, that is the translation of an original source text into a target text carried out by the same author in a different language, is a phenomenon of recent interest in translation studies, yet it is quite a usual procedure, especially in literature. Self-translation can be carried out for a number of reasons –e.g. editorial, commercial, ideological. Studying the activity of self-translation of works written in a minority language into a major national language can be of particular interest. This paper is going to deal with some self-translated work by Cornish poet Pol Hodge from Cornish into English.
Download: abstract [pdf]
Deborah ARBES
Bremen University
Nowodhow orth perghennogeth
In my presentation I would like to share some results of my Master’s thesis “Predicative possession in revived Cornish“. In order to investigate HAVE- and BELONG-constructions, a corpus consisting of four books translated into Cornish within the last six years was analysed and interviews with 25 speakers of revived Cornish were carried out. The focus is put on current varieties of Cornish rather than the history of the language as revived Cornish is developing in a unique way which has not been studied much before.
According to Heine (1997) and Stolz et al. (2008), the various ways of expressing predicative possession can be summarised by certain schemas, as introduced in the table below:
Bremen University
Nowodhow orth perghennogeth
In my presentation I would like to share some results of my Master’s thesis “Predicative possession in revived Cornish“. In order to investigate HAVE- and BELONG-constructions, a corpus consisting of four books translated into Cornish within the last six years was analysed and interviews with 25 speakers of revived Cornish were carried out. The focus is put on current varieties of Cornish rather than the history of the language as revived Cornish is developing in a unique way which has not been studied much before.
According to Heine (1997) and Stolz et al. (2008), the various ways of expressing predicative possession can be summarised by certain schemas, as introduced in the table below:
Schema |
Form |
Goal |
bos (long form) + dhe |
Goal → Action |
a’m beus |
Companion |
bos (long form) + gans |
Location |
bos + war |
Goal |
bos (short form) + gans |
Companion |
bos (short form) + gans |
Action |
kavoes |
Action |
piwa |
Which way to express HAVING is used most frequently in spoken and in written Cornish? How exactly can one be thirsty, in a hurry, surprised or ill in the Cornish language? These questions will be addressed in my presentation.
Download: abstract [pdf]
Download: abstract [pdf]
Julyan HOLMES
Cornish Language Board
Better understanding, better appreciation Corrections and additions to Vocabulary and Syntax
These recommendations mostly derive from comparing two published texts of Bewnans Ke, NLW MS 23849D, by Kesva an Taves (2006), and the University of Exeter Press (2007). Variations in identification and interpretation of vocabulary can often be due to variant readings of a text replete with scribal errors. Reference to Middle Welsh not only helps to identify some etyma but elucidates previously unattested grammmatical constructions.
Comparison of the published editions of Cornish texts with original manuscripts can reveal errors. Concentrating on the two published editions of Bywnans Ke, I suggest some different identifications and interpretations of words. To achieve this, I have approached every doubtful word by analysing the context and making full use of analogies in both Medieval Welsh and Breton.
In some cases, suggested interpretations have been written on the manuscript, some centuries ago, but this antiquity of authority should not always receive too much respect.
This review of the vocabulary, combined with clarification of some well-known grammatical structures and the addition of two previously unknown points of syntax, will, I believe, help us to appreciate better what was, when first written, a masterpiece of Cornish drama, a play which approaches both the grandeur of Shakespeare and the subtle character development of a modern novel.
Download: abstract [pdf]
Cornish Language Board
Better understanding, better appreciation Corrections and additions to Vocabulary and Syntax
These recommendations mostly derive from comparing two published texts of Bewnans Ke, NLW MS 23849D, by Kesva an Taves (2006), and the University of Exeter Press (2007). Variations in identification and interpretation of vocabulary can often be due to variant readings of a text replete with scribal errors. Reference to Middle Welsh not only helps to identify some etyma but elucidates previously unattested grammmatical constructions.
Comparison of the published editions of Cornish texts with original manuscripts can reveal errors. Concentrating on the two published editions of Bywnans Ke, I suggest some different identifications and interpretations of words. To achieve this, I have approached every doubtful word by analysing the context and making full use of analogies in both Medieval Welsh and Breton.
In some cases, suggested interpretations have been written on the manuscript, some centuries ago, but this antiquity of authority should not always receive too much respect.
This review of the vocabulary, combined with clarification of some well-known grammatical structures and the addition of two previously unknown points of syntax, will, I believe, help us to appreciate better what was, when first written, a masterpiece of Cornish drama, a play which approaches both the grandeur of Shakespeare and the subtle character development of a modern novel.
Download: abstract [pdf]
Gregor BENTON
Nanyang Technological University
Sustainability in the context of language loss
This paper looks at the issue of sustainability in the context of language loss or the danger of it. It concludes that despite some analogies between the threat to species and the threat to lesser used languages, the two are essentially different and equating them can lead to a neglect of available measures and strategies to mitigate the latter.
Download: abstract [pdf]
Nanyang Technological University
Sustainability in the context of language loss
This paper looks at the issue of sustainability in the context of language loss or the danger of it. It concludes that despite some analogies between the threat to species and the threat to lesser used languages, the two are essentially different and equating them can lead to a neglect of available measures and strategies to mitigate the latter.
Download: abstract [pdf]