Commentary and Recommendations

In undertaking this survey early in 2000, I was very conscious of ‘following in the footsteps’ of Edward Lhuyd, who had undertaken his survey of Cornish, three hundred years earlier in 1700. Celtic Studies owe a geat deal to Lhuyd, including their very name and identity. (5) In particular, Lhuyd’s recording of Cornish language when it was last a spoken vernacular, and collecting what was available of Cornish writings have enabled subsequent scholars to attempt the revival of the language as a spoken medium once again. (6) Little specific attention was drawn to this tercentenary in Cornwall in 2000, although I was prefaced my address to the second New Directions in Celtic Studies Conference (7) with this matter, as an acknowledgement of what we owe to Lhuyd. This article takes up the themes of that address, one of which was that we shall have a further opportunity to do justice to his memory on the tercentenary of his Archaelogica Britannica, which was published in 1707. (8) We shall also have a further commemorative opportunity to celebrate the centenary of the Cornish Revival in 2004, one hundred years on from Jenner’s Handbook (9) and his ‘Caernarfon Telegram’. The efforts of Lhuyd, and of Jenner enabled the traditional transmission of Cornish in each of their generations to become available as a general resource for the language revival, and to ensure for it what Charles Thomas has termed ‘apostolic succession’. (10)

The overall impression stemming from this survey is how much has been achieved with so little by so few. Most of the organizations were reported as subsisting on the slenderest of budgets, but actively maintained by quite remarkable personal efforts. The survey team conveyed this verbally to the commissioning agency at the reporting meeting of representatives of English regions and administrations of other U.K. countries on 24^th. March 2000 at Eland House, Victoria, headquarters of the Department of the Environment, Transport and the Regions (DEFR) By this time the U.K. Government had signed the European Charter without inclusion of Cornish on 2^nd. March 2000, and a year later on 27^th. March 2001 ratified the Charter, again without inclusion of Cornish. Additions to the Charter can be made at any time, but the round of consultations of other departments by Government Office for the South West have considerably exceeded the time taken for consultations on the other languages included. Subsequent to the 2000 survey, a study by Wella Brown (11) found that thirty-eight of the Charter’s paragraphs for language use can be attested. Thirty-five need to be in place to enable signature. A first priority and recommendation would be to sign and ratify the European Charter on behalf of Cornish. As this article goes to press, the UK Government has given assurances that it will sign and ratify Part II of the charter for Cornish (as it has done for Scots and Ulster Scots). Priority thus focuses signature and ratification in Part III (as for Welsh, Gaelic in Scotland, and Irish in Northern Ireland). (12)

The survey, in reviewing the historical development of Cornish, could have noted the needs not only for status planning, but of corpus and acquisition planning also, linked to appropriate research. Languages in contact decline when their speakers experience the lack of presence in the social environment – especially linked to political and economic pressures to shift to another. The languages under pressure then experience a shift in community and family usage. The survey has outlined these processes at work over the course of time. Cornish might have been buttressed by religious institutions – but unlike Welsh was accorded no translation of scripture or prayer book – and Methodism came a century too late. (13) The language might have been buttressed by education, but it had ceased as a vernacular before the introduction of modern universal education. In reviving Cornish there are three centuries of leeway to make up.

Corpus planning for Cornish is complicated by the three revived forms currently extant. The survey reported on the history and reasons for the three present language-varieties. It made no value judgment concerning them, except to say that they had arisen to serve the needs and preferences of learners. The survey accepted these on the same basis as the presence of language-varieties and dialects in other languages, such as the other Celtic languages and English. Revived Cornish is based on its literature at various historic periods. What is very much needed is the collation, editing and academic review of the whole corpus of the literature. A strongly worded plea for this – and for full diplomatic editions of all the mystery plays and historic Cornish literature - was made by Charles Thomas in 1963 (op. cit.) Forty years later this work still remains to be done. I echo his views for the necessity of this as an inescapable basis for further corpus planning. This corpus has however recently been augmented by two newly-discovered Middle Cornish texts. Initiatives to edit and prepare these for publication should kick-start the process of scholarly editing and publication of the whole corpus. This should be capable of funding from academic sources and the newly initiated Language Heritage policy line of the Language Heritage Fund.

Language authorities for Cornish are essentially non-official and non-academic, although they are assisted by scholars and specialists. There is a quantum leap from this level of development compared with the provisions established for Welsh, e.g. the Welsh Language Board, and the University of Wales Board of Celtic Studies. The ‘Good Friday Agreement’ set up quite generously-funded cross-border language authorities for Irish and Ulster Scots – the latter virtually ab initio. Even in the case of Gaelic, government funding supports the language development agency Comunn na Gàidhlig – and a language development authority on the Welsh model is currently in course of being established. Yet Cornish subsists within the same political state as these other languages, and there is an argument for comparability of treatment all round – which may well be being met in the case of Gaelic.

The existence of three language varieties might complicate the establishment of language-planning and development arrangements. These must obviously grow from acceptable principles within the language-movement itself. There were indications during the research of some coming together after the ‘tripartite split’. Keskerdh Kernow produced a three-variety ‘Prayers for Cornwall’ in 1999. The following year Gorseth Kernow accepted entries for its literary competitions in any of the varieties. Each of the varieties is represented on the Cornish Sub-committee of EBLUL. Amongst the three language movements there are various mutual recognitions, albeit partial at present but with every hope that they might become complete and all-round. The principal problem at the moment is in public signage – especially over the spellings of Cornish place-names. If Cornish is to have a public face, some form of consensus would need to develop. In the case of English place-names they have not necessarily been revised as the language has changed – and they preserve a variety of older forms. It might be that some form of agreement on such lines for Cornish place-names may be possible. It is an especially sensitive area, since name forms have been mostly what has survived of Cornish in current everyday speech and writing. The text of public signage presents a further problem, which perhaps only time can solve.

Together with corpus research, another research priority is in the sociology of the language. There has been no general survey of speakers, learners and users of Cornish in terms of numbers, abilities, usage and attitudes. Neither has there been any substantial assessment of general public attitudes towards the language. The three decennial CLAR surveys of Irish and the Welsh Housing Survey are good models of practice in this regard. I have myself undertaken similar – albeit smaller-scale - surveys of Gaelic speakers, and a recent survey of Manx (14) has provided an example for a language-group of similar size to Cornish. These surveys have been conducted on similar methodologies and contain many similar questions. Comparisons of the case of Cornish with its neighbouring lesser-used languages would be feasible. Such a study would provide a foundation for language-planning initiatives, and would in itself be a consciousness-raising initiative.

The problem of consciousness-raising is crucial for the future development of Cornish. Its present body of speakers, learners and users is tiny. In the early twentieth century Nance was able to say of his and Jenner’s efforts that his generation had put Cornish back in its feet but it would take another generation to get it to walk. (Reference ?) In the later twentieth century Cornish was step-by-step making that transition. Considering that every development was practically a pulling of itself up by its own bootstraps, the achievements have been considerable. The next steps are not really feasible without a greater critical mass involving considerably more people, thus justifying a claim upon their own share of public funds for the development of language and cultural infrastructure. The problem is in creating greater public awareness of the language, securing a greater place for it in the social environment of Cornwall, and attracting a greater number of people effectively to learn it. The following suggestions are in no way prescriptive. As an outsider – however sympathetic – I may not be in the best position to assess how practical or successful they might be. But the Cornish language movement at the outset of a new millennium, and the Cornish Revival coming up to its centenary in 2004 needs to assess its position and discuss its options and possibilities. The following suggestions may serve then as a preliminary agenda – or indeed as points of departure.

One possibility might be a thorough look at the educational system and to look at the ways in which the National Curriculum can and should carry a distinctive Cornish component in history, culture and language. There has been a Cornish Studies document – but I failed to come by one. It is time perhaps for a new look at this and a fresh initiative. Language acquisition planning deserves to be taken seriously. Increasing numbers seeking to acquire Cornish can also be the basis for encouraging the media to provide for their needs. The other Celtic languages can all provide good examples of popular language-learning series

A second possibility might be in a renewed effort for critical mass to establish an effective form of Cornish-language pre-school education as a first stage, no matter how small and limited this might initially be. If it were well done, it would comprise a basis upon which school level Cornish-medium education could be developed. Successful models for this can be found in Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland. In the last case, parents came together in West Belfast, established their own community, founded and ran their own school in the teeth of active opposition from the then regime. The story is well documented by Gabrielle Maguire. (15) The Isle of Man presents a similar language-situation to Cornwall’s – and both Manx-medium preschool and school-level education have recently been successfully established.

Gabrielle Maguire’s account is a challenge to other language communities in revival. Attempts had been made in the Republic to establish urban neo-Gaeltacht communities but the efforts had not succeeded. In the North however, Gabrielle Maguire’s group of young couples and parents created an Irish-speaking area with its own school, and from that beginning other community initiatives grew: a cultural centre, a secondary school, shops using Irish on facades and at the till, and a daily Irish-language newspaper. In Scotland, we are asking ourselves could something similar be done in urban Gaeldom? Could such a thing be done in the Isle of Man – or in Cornwall?

One way in which the language could effectively enter the social environment would be through cultural tourism. Its benefits would be shared with the home population. Tokenistic Cornish is to be seen sporadically in all sorts of places. Were this to be systematized into an itinerary of Cornish language heritage, featuring all situations of significance to the language historically and contemporarily, it would enlighten both the visitor and the resident. Promotional literature, itineraries and guides, interpretation and information on site, ‘blue plaques’, etc. would greatly increase the visibility of the language and its place in the social environment. Forth an Yeth – the Cornish Language Trail is just the sort of initiative to get funding from the Language Heritage Fund.

There has been a great deal of ‘new thinking’ for Cornish at the recent turn of the century. Initiatives such as Keskerdh Kernow – Cornwall Marches On!, millennium events, the petition for a Cornish Assembly – Senedh Kernow, EU Objective 1 status, and the Eden Project have all bred a spirit of turning a new page. The South Crofty closure in 1999 was the end of a traditional industry, and the foot and mouth crisis in the countryside in 2001 was the threat to another, and to the more recent Cornish staple of tourism. These crises remind us that Cornwall is at the bottom of the U.K. league table for all economic indicators. Cornwall can demand special treatment.

In the preface to his Handbook, Jenner asked, ‘Why should Cornishmen learn Cornish? (15) His answer was that although ‘There was no money in it, it serves no practical purpose, and the literature is scanty…the answer is simple: Because they are Cornishmen’. Jenner went on to note that the Cornwall of his day despite ‘the few survivals of Duchy jurisdictions’ was ‘legally and practically a county of England…as if it were no better than a mere Essex or Herts.’

Conventional wisdom has changed since his day, and now the Cornish might assert the right to their own assembly, over and above the assertions of English counties such as Kent, simply because the elements of a distinctive local culture and identity can be demonstrated. The possession of a language is the key to status as one of the United Kingdom’s distinctive and continuing nations. There is no doubt about it, there is now practical value - and there is money in it. The Cornish National Committee and the meetings for a Cornish Assembly have an agenda, and the role of the language and its enhancement in everyday life, in the Cornish economy, and in its politics deserves to be on that agenda. New ideas are called for on how this language can now not only walk (in Nance’s phrase) - but live.

At the core of Jenner’s ideas on reasons for learning Cornish was the kernel of identity, ‘the outward and audible sign of his separate nationality’. He saw this as ‘sentimental, and not in the last practical’. (ibid. p. xii) In revising his ideas to be inclusive by modern standards, we would also see real social and economic benefits in language revival. Identity also strengthens the case for greater autonomy. The County Council’s Framework Policy for Cornish has been adopted by all Cornwall’s district councils. This provides a groundwork for greater recognition: Cornish is at least officially recognized by all Cornish local authorities. Its place fully within the European Charter at both Part II and Part III levels should be the next stage. Status can be important in strengthening the place of language within the social environment. Without it, attempts to advance the presence of the language in commercial life, public services, civic life and local civil society can always be countered with the objection that Cornish is not an ‘official language’.

The struggle to reverse the process of language-shift for Cornish is important not only within Cornwall but internationally. Recent studies of world language (17) have drawn to popular attention the precarious state of the 6,000 or so remaining spoken languages of the world. Every fortnight or so the last speaker of one of them dies and takes with him or her the history, traditions and cultural memory embedded in the language. Those working with endangered languages may well see this as the utter end for the languages in question. However, there may be real prospects of revival in some cases at least. Today great efforts are being made for Manx and for Cornish, whose last native speakers left behind spoken and written records from which the language can be learned.

We live in a globalising, anglicising world in which the prospects for the littlest languages are not accorded much by way of prospects. Today even the smaller nation-state languages in Europe, such as Danish and Dutch regard themselves as under threat. The French have always seen theirs as threatened – so now do the Germans. These peoples are not prepared to see their languages in contact with English go the way of earlier contacts: Irish, Welsh, Gaelic, Manx and Cornish. They will all certainly develop increasing demand for English – but this will not mean that their own must be sacrificed.

In the 19^th. Century there was no place for non-English languages in the education systems of the United Kingdom. The other languages were seen as impediments to effective English acquisition. Bilingualism was not seen as a ‘natural’ state – and ordinary people were not thought to be fully capable of using two languages effectively. The average mind did not have sufficient space for two. Such notions still underlie much popular and press thinking about language in the modern world. In actual fact we are not proceeding into an altogether anglicized world so much as into a bilingual one. Humanity sees the need for at least two languages: one as a means of wider communication, and their own language as the medium of identity, expression and shared fellow-feeling. In this process the monoglot-English societies may end up without a language of their own in Gabrielle Maguire’s sense.

Without Cornish, Cornwall is just another English county, in Jenner’s sense – part of just another typical English-speaking society. With a language of its own which truly lives within its social and cultural life, Cornwall can be an effective example to the world of being able to take everything that knowledge and use of English can impart – but that it can retain and develop everything that a language of its own can do as well.