A-dro dhe'n keskussulyans
About the conference
The third research conference for the Cornish language took place on Saturday 13 October 2018 at the Penryn Campus, Tremough with thanks to the Institute of Cornish Studies for hosting the event.
An towlen 2018
The 2018 programme
- Barnaby CARVER: A Methodist Minister among Cornish speakers in the 1860s
- Piotr SZCZEPANKIEWICZ: Authenticity of Cornish as seen in forum posts – 2005-2013
- Ken GEORGE: Middle and Late bases for Revived Cornish
- Pol HODGE: Registers in Revived Cornish
- Jon MILLS: Interlingual Diversity: how Cornish and other languages differ in the ways they structure their vocabularies
- Philippa MILLS: Links across Cornish speaking families pre 1900 AD: A study
- Siarl FERDINAND: Attitudes towards the Implementation of Cornish among the Population of Cornwall and Scilly
- Garry TREGIDGA: The 1877 Pentreath Commemorations and the Proto-Kernewek Revival
- Nicholas WILLIAMS: The Cornish Perfect and Pluperfect
Barnaby CARVER
A Methodist Minister among Cornish speakers in the 1860s
Investigating an account of a Methodist Minister’s experience of the Cornish language in the mid-19th century, and how it may corroborate evidence of the late survival of the language given by R. T. Lyon in his paper Cornish – The Struggle for Survival (Taves an Werin 2001). Two other similar, although apparently contradictory, contemporary accounts will also be presented for comparison. Suggestions will be offered as to why these three versions of the then existing state of the language differ, even though they emerged at much the same time.
Download: abstract [pdf]
A Methodist Minister among Cornish speakers in the 1860s
Investigating an account of a Methodist Minister’s experience of the Cornish language in the mid-19th century, and how it may corroborate evidence of the late survival of the language given by R. T. Lyon in his paper Cornish – The Struggle for Survival (Taves an Werin 2001). Two other similar, although apparently contradictory, contemporary accounts will also be presented for comparison. Suggestions will be offered as to why these three versions of the then existing state of the language differ, even though they emerged at much the same time.
Download: abstract [pdf]
Piotr SZCEPANKIEWICZ
Authenticity of Cornish as seen in forum posts – 2005-2013
One of the most demanding aspects of the Cornish language revival has been the establishment of a standard orthography. The process of corpus planning for Cornish began with Henry Jenner in 1901 and was further developed by Robert Morton Nance in 1929. Facing academic criticism the community felt that a new orthographic convention was needed – this led to the creation of Modern/Late Cornish (Richard Gendall, 1972; Rod Lyon in 1980s), Kernewek Kemmyn (Ken George, 1986), and Unified Cornish Revised (Nicholas Williams, 1996). The governmentally commissioned and supported Standard Written Form was created in 2008 and reviewed in 2013 based upon input from existing Cornish varieties as well as two compromise varieties – Kernowek Standard (UdnFormScrefys, 2007) and Kernewek Dasunys (Benjamin Bruch and Albert Bock, 2007).
This paper aims to address the notions of authenticity regarding three varieties of Cornish: Kernewek Kemmyn, Kernwek Standard and Standard Written Form. Based upon forum posts from the www.cornwall24.co.uk message board written between 2005 and 2013 the paper, rooted in Coupland’s authenticity framework (2003, 2010), presents the incompatible nature of these three varieties and how even a long-desired and governmentally supported orthography can still detract its target language user base. Qualitative and quantitative discourse analyses of posts written by various members of the Cornish language community elicit the points of contention regarding the historicity, consensus and systemic coherence aspects of language authenticity. It also discusses the need for more sociolinguistic research into the Cornish language community of 2018 and the distribution of language users and their use of language varieties.
Download: abstract [pdf]
Authenticity of Cornish as seen in forum posts – 2005-2013
One of the most demanding aspects of the Cornish language revival has been the establishment of a standard orthography. The process of corpus planning for Cornish began with Henry Jenner in 1901 and was further developed by Robert Morton Nance in 1929. Facing academic criticism the community felt that a new orthographic convention was needed – this led to the creation of Modern/Late Cornish (Richard Gendall, 1972; Rod Lyon in 1980s), Kernewek Kemmyn (Ken George, 1986), and Unified Cornish Revised (Nicholas Williams, 1996). The governmentally commissioned and supported Standard Written Form was created in 2008 and reviewed in 2013 based upon input from existing Cornish varieties as well as two compromise varieties – Kernowek Standard (UdnFormScrefys, 2007) and Kernewek Dasunys (Benjamin Bruch and Albert Bock, 2007).
This paper aims to address the notions of authenticity regarding three varieties of Cornish: Kernewek Kemmyn, Kernwek Standard and Standard Written Form. Based upon forum posts from the www.cornwall24.co.uk message board written between 2005 and 2013 the paper, rooted in Coupland’s authenticity framework (2003, 2010), presents the incompatible nature of these three varieties and how even a long-desired and governmentally supported orthography can still detract its target language user base. Qualitative and quantitative discourse analyses of posts written by various members of the Cornish language community elicit the points of contention regarding the historicity, consensus and systemic coherence aspects of language authenticity. It also discusses the need for more sociolinguistic research into the Cornish language community of 2018 and the distribution of language users and their use of language varieties.
- Coupland, Nicholas. 2003. “Sociolinguistic authenticities”, Journal of Sociolinguistics 7, 3: 417:431.
- Coupland, Nicholas. 2010. “The authentic speaker and the speech community”, in: Carmen Llamas and Dominic Watt (eds.), Language and Identities. Edinburgh University Press
Download: abstract [pdf]
Ken GEORGE
Cornish Language Board
Middle and Late bases for Revived Cornish
Following the call for papers on the meta-linguistics of the Cornish revival, I address the difficulty of catering both for speakers who use a Middle base and those who prefer a Late base. Whereas most orthographies of revived Cornish have been aimed exclusively at one or other of these bases, SWF attempts to deal with both. The original desideratum was to devise a “single written form”, being a compromise between the wishes of the two groups of speakers; but when this proved impossible, the fall-back position was to have a system which includes both Middle and Late variants. In effect the two “Main Forms” of SWF amount to two different orthographies. Some speakers have therefore called for the number of variants to be reduced, if possible to zero. In this paper I show that this wish cannot be realized, owing to the unpredictable forms in Late Cornish. I also suggest a solution to the problem.
Download: abstract [pdf]
Cornish Language Board
Middle and Late bases for Revived Cornish
Following the call for papers on the meta-linguistics of the Cornish revival, I address the difficulty of catering both for speakers who use a Middle base and those who prefer a Late base. Whereas most orthographies of revived Cornish have been aimed exclusively at one or other of these bases, SWF attempts to deal with both. The original desideratum was to devise a “single written form”, being a compromise between the wishes of the two groups of speakers; but when this proved impossible, the fall-back position was to have a system which includes both Middle and Late variants. In effect the two “Main Forms” of SWF amount to two different orthographies. Some speakers have therefore called for the number of variants to be reduced, if possible to zero. In this paper I show that this wish cannot be realized, owing to the unpredictable forms in Late Cornish. I also suggest a solution to the problem.
Download: abstract [pdf]
Pol HODGE
Akademi Kernewek
Registers in Revived Cornish
This paper aims to put forward the idea that as Cornish is a living language, with speakers using it informally and in unplanned occasions, it has developed registers. After more than a century since the publication of Henry Jenner’s Handbook of the Cornish Language (1904), this paper notes the recent increase in artistic activity as well as wide-spread intense scrutiny of the texts.
Download: abstract [pdf]
Akademi Kernewek
Registers in Revived Cornish
This paper aims to put forward the idea that as Cornish is a living language, with speakers using it informally and in unplanned occasions, it has developed registers. After more than a century since the publication of Henry Jenner’s Handbook of the Cornish Language (1904), this paper notes the recent increase in artistic activity as well as wide-spread intense scrutiny of the texts.
Download: abstract [pdf]
Jon MILLS
University of Kent
Interlingual Diversity: how Cornish and other languages differ in the ways they structure their vocabularies
Different languages vary in the ways in which they systemically structure their respective lexicons. Interlingual lexical relations exist between the lexical systems of Cornish and other languages. Every language is a unique conceptual system. The lexicon of any language is not a mere list of words; it is a system of signs, which are not defined independently of others in the system, but relative to them. In this manner, individual languages differ in the way they classify our experience of the world. A typical example is the semantics of colour words. The colour spectrum is a continuum with no discrete boundaries between one gradation of hue and another. However, languages categorise these colours systemically. Thus, lexical anisomorphism exists between pairs of languages. In other words, there is a relative absence of one-to-one translation equivalents. Most commonly, there is partial equivalence, whereby two or more words in one language are translated by a single word in another language. The equivalence relation may be posited between a lexeme and its equivalents or between the individual senses of a lexical item and the particular meaning of its equivalent word. This leads to very different results from a user perspective.
Download: abstract [pdf]
University of Kent
Interlingual Diversity: how Cornish and other languages differ in the ways they structure their vocabularies
Different languages vary in the ways in which they systemically structure their respective lexicons. Interlingual lexical relations exist between the lexical systems of Cornish and other languages. Every language is a unique conceptual system. The lexicon of any language is not a mere list of words; it is a system of signs, which are not defined independently of others in the system, but relative to them. In this manner, individual languages differ in the way they classify our experience of the world. A typical example is the semantics of colour words. The colour spectrum is a continuum with no discrete boundaries between one gradation of hue and another. However, languages categorise these colours systemically. Thus, lexical anisomorphism exists between pairs of languages. In other words, there is a relative absence of one-to-one translation equivalents. Most commonly, there is partial equivalence, whereby two or more words in one language are translated by a single word in another language. The equivalence relation may be posited between a lexeme and its equivalents or between the individual senses of a lexical item and the particular meaning of its equivalent word. This leads to very different results from a user perspective.
Download: abstract [pdf]
Phillipa MILLS
Links across Cornish speaking families pre 1900 AD: A study
Much has been written of specific Cornish language speakers pre 1900 and some study has been given to a few named families or a parish; however, the links between families are woven through time and space by marriage, connections and circumstance.
It is those links by marriage across Cornish speaking families pre 1900 AD I am concerned with in this study. By using examples of families with known Cornish Speakers, we can build a better picture of the larger Cornish speaking community and the connections between them.
Download: abstract [pdf]
Links across Cornish speaking families pre 1900 AD: A study
Much has been written of specific Cornish language speakers pre 1900 and some study has been given to a few named families or a parish; however, the links between families are woven through time and space by marriage, connections and circumstance.
It is those links by marriage across Cornish speaking families pre 1900 AD I am concerned with in this study. By using examples of families with known Cornish Speakers, we can build a better picture of the larger Cornish speaking community and the connections between them.
Download: abstract [pdf]
Siarl FERDINAND
Attitudes towards the Implementation of Cornish among the Population of Cornwall and Scilly
During the last years, the implementation of Cornish in Cornwall has become more evident. However, since Cornish speakers constitute no much more than one percent of the total population, it is important to take into account the attitudes of the non-Cornish speakers in order to achieve some success. The attitudes of the general population towards the implementation of Cornish were analysed by PDA Research in 2007, which showed general apathy and rather weak opposition to the implementation of Cornish. This presentation, based on a survey responded by 430 people, provides a more detailed and updated vision on the people’s views. It shows a very different panorama from the one described in 2007 and attitudes radically opposed between Cornish and non-Cornish nationals. It is expected that these results may serve to implement a more people’s friendly language policy which may benefit Cornish and its speakers without encouraging opposition from the rest of the population.
Download: abstract [pdf]
Attitudes towards the Implementation of Cornish among the Population of Cornwall and Scilly
During the last years, the implementation of Cornish in Cornwall has become more evident. However, since Cornish speakers constitute no much more than one percent of the total population, it is important to take into account the attitudes of the non-Cornish speakers in order to achieve some success. The attitudes of the general population towards the implementation of Cornish were analysed by PDA Research in 2007, which showed general apathy and rather weak opposition to the implementation of Cornish. This presentation, based on a survey responded by 430 people, provides a more detailed and updated vision on the people’s views. It shows a very different panorama from the one described in 2007 and attitudes radically opposed between Cornish and non-Cornish nationals. It is expected that these results may serve to implement a more people’s friendly language policy which may benefit Cornish and its speakers without encouraging opposition from the rest of the population.
Download: abstract [pdf]
Garry TREGIDGA
Institute of Cornish Studies
The 1877 Pentreath Commemorations and the Proto-Kernewek Revival
The revival of the Cornish language in the early twentieth century tends to be associated with such key events as the creation of Kowethas Kelto-Kernuack in 1901 and Henry Jenner’s Handbook of the Cornish Language in 1904. But as with many historical processes there is a need to adopt a longer time frame and consider the foundations of the so-called Revival (or Reawakening as Jenner referred to). This preliminary paper on the subject attempts to extend the discussion over Cornish language history by putting the spotlight on the commemoration of the centenary of Dolly Pentreath’s death in 1877. It uses newspaper accounts of the time to highlight the significance of this event in relation to perspectives on the Cornish language at the time and the attempt by early pioneers like the Rev. W.S. Lach-Szyrma to ensure that Cornish survived and remained a ‘living language’ in the subsequent century.
Download: abstract [pdf]
Institute of Cornish Studies
The 1877 Pentreath Commemorations and the Proto-Kernewek Revival
The revival of the Cornish language in the early twentieth century tends to be associated with such key events as the creation of Kowethas Kelto-Kernuack in 1901 and Henry Jenner’s Handbook of the Cornish Language in 1904. But as with many historical processes there is a need to adopt a longer time frame and consider the foundations of the so-called Revival (or Reawakening as Jenner referred to). This preliminary paper on the subject attempts to extend the discussion over Cornish language history by putting the spotlight on the commemoration of the centenary of Dolly Pentreath’s death in 1877. It uses newspaper accounts of the time to highlight the significance of this event in relation to perspectives on the Cornish language at the time and the attempt by early pioneers like the Rev. W.S. Lach-Szyrma to ensure that Cornish survived and remained a ‘living language’ in the subsequent century.
Download: abstract [pdf]
Nicholas WILLIAMS
University College Dublin
The Cornish Perfect and Pluperfect
In his handbook Cornish for All Nance teaches that Cornish has a separate pluperfect tense and further that the perfect in Cornish is expressed by prefixing the preterite with the leniting particle re. While neither of these assertions is untrue, they give a false impression of Middle Cornish. First, the pluperfect is confined to the earliest Middle Cornish. Second, the perfective particle re is obsolete by the sixteenth century. Moreover at all periods the perfect of intransitive verbs in particular is most commonly expressed not with re + preterite but with bos ‘to be’ followed by the verbal adjective. My talk will attempt by giving examples to elucidate these points for revivalists.
Download: abstract [pdf]
University College Dublin
The Cornish Perfect and Pluperfect
In his handbook Cornish for All Nance teaches that Cornish has a separate pluperfect tense and further that the perfect in Cornish is expressed by prefixing the preterite with the leniting particle re. While neither of these assertions is untrue, they give a false impression of Middle Cornish. First, the pluperfect is confined to the earliest Middle Cornish. Second, the perfective particle re is obsolete by the sixteenth century. Moreover at all periods the perfect of intransitive verbs in particular is most commonly expressed not with re + preterite but with bos ‘to be’ followed by the verbal adjective. My talk will attempt by giving examples to elucidate these points for revivalists.
Download: abstract [pdf]
