LL-L "Orthography" 2005.07.24 (01) [E]

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L O W L A N D S - L * 24.JUL.2005 (01) * ISSN 189-5582 * LCSN 96-4226
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From:  "Roger Thijs, Euro-Support, Inc." <roger.thijs at euro-support.be>
Subject:  spelling wars (Cornish)


Read today on the website of the Guardian.

Regards, Roger

quoting from url: 
http://www.guardian.co.uk/britain/article/0,2763,1534623,00.html#article_continue

Spelling row could see Cornish go west

Fight between rival camps threatens cash to fund revival

Steven Morris Saturday July 23, 2005 The Guardian

The government money is on the table and the political will in Whitehall and 
Europe is apparently growing to help Cornish speakers turn their native 
tongue into a viable, living language. But there is one stumbling block: 
Cornish speakers cannot agree on how their language should be spelt.

Three main groups who have driven forward the revival of Cornish are at 
loggerheads over how the language should be written.

The issue has become so divisive that yesterday two of the groups called for 
an independent panel of linguists to be appointed to referee the row.

A conference is being organised in September at which the warring factions 
will again try to agree on how Cornish - or, depending on your fancy, 
Kernewek, Kernowek, Kernuak or Curnoack - should be spelt. Until a single 
system is agreed, it will be difficult to launch a credible language 
programme across Cornwall. Disputes over issues such as road signs and place 
names will also continue to slow the spread of the language.

Last month the government announced that it would fund the language by up to 
£80,000 a year for three years - but the worry is that the cash flow will 
dry up if agreement over spelling cannot be found.

Paul Dunbar, a director of a Cornish bookshop in Liskeard which stocks 
dictionaries, Bibles and children's books in one version of Cornish, said 
the development of the language was important at a time when many local 
people argue that they should have more independence from England.

"The language has tremendous importance for Cornwall," Mr Dunbar said. "It's 
an icon of identity. It's the one thing that is uniquely, undeniably 
Cornish."

He expressed frustration that the spelling problem was holding the language 
back: "There's certainly more heat than light in the debate."

His feelings about the champions of rival systems? "It varies from murderous 
to totally pissed off."

The revival of Cornish began to gather pace in the 1920s when a version 
which came to be known as Unified Cornish was reconstructed using language 
found in medieval miracle plays and borrowing from related Celtic tongues 
such as Welsh and Breton.

Forty years ago, as interest grew, the Cornish Language Board was formed. 
Some members felt Unified Cornish was inaccurate and came up with a new 
system, with different spellings, Common Cornish.

In the mid 1980s, another splinter group set up the Cornish Language Council 
and championed a third system, Modern Cornish, based not on medieval 
manuscripts but the way the language was last spoken in the 1700s.

The row over whose system was best began in earnest. It has not yet come to 
blows, but the quality of debate has not always been scholarly.

The factions understand each other when they speak Cornish, but do not seem 
to comprehend why their rival groups insist that their spelling system is 
correct.

Ray Chubb, secretary of Agan Tavas (Our Language) which supports Unified 
Cornish and an updated version of it called Unified Cornish Revised, accused 
the supporters of Modern Cornish of "mucking around with historical sources" 
and claimed that Common Cornish speakers had the arrogant attitude that 
their system was perfect.

George Ansell, a supporter of Common Cornish, said that version was easiest 
to teach. "If people can't agree, it will become a Darwinian situation - the 
survival of the fittest."

Mr Ansell, who chairs a language strategy group set up by Cornwall county 
council, said the debate often became overly personal. "People have invested 
a lot of time and effort in the various forms and do not like to see their 
work challenged."

It is nigh on impossible to judge which group is best placed to survive, as 
nobody agrees on how many people use each version. In all, it is thought 
that several hundred people speak Cornish reasonably fluently and a few 
thousand have some knowledge of it. Two secondary schools and a handful of 
primary schools have begun to teach Cornish.

Neil Kennedy, who is in the Modern Cornish camp, said: "It may sound absurd 
that a language which not many people speak has several different spellings, 
but that is what we face. We have to find a way of working together to sort 
it out."

The groups supporting Modern and Unified Cornish issued a statement 
yesterday saying that there was a "historic" opportunity for the movement to 
build a "thriving Cornish language", and called for an independent advisory 
panel.

Professor Philip Payton, director of the Institute of Cornish Studies, said 
the dispute threatened long-term support from Westminster. "Some sort of 
agreement is necessary. Otherwise it gets confusing at best and at worst 
faintly ridiculous."

Origins in history of Celtic Britain

In 1935, listeners to the BBC were puzzled but interested by a music 
programme from Plymouth. When the BBC explained that the St Austell choir 
was singing in Cornish, it was bombarded by requests to know more. Even the 
Cornish seemed to have forgotten about their historic tongue.

Cornish is a direct descendent of the language spoken by Celts who settled 
in Britain before the Roman conquest.

As Anglo-Saxon, Norse and Norman invaders confined the Celts to Cornwall (as 
well as Wales, Scotland and Ireland), the language developed regional 
dialects.

By the 9th century, certainly, there is concrete evidence of a distinctive 
language in Cornwall, and it is believed that by 1200 it was spoken by most 
of its people.

But simultaneously, use of English was spreading into the east of Cornwall; 
the Reformation sped up the decline when Edward VI decreed that the Book of 
Common Prayer be used in Cornish churches; rebellions by the Cornish were 
put down.

By the start of the 17th century there were few monoglot speakers left, 
mostly in the far west. The reputed last one, Dolly Pentreath, died in 1777.

Bilingual speakers could be found until the late 19th century, but the 
region's sinking economic fortunes were mirrored by its language's continued 
decline.

Asked why the Cornish should learn Kernewek, the father of the revival 
movement, Henry Jenner (1848-1934), had a simple answer: "Because they are 
Cornish."

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