Cornish (Part 6, The Celtic Languages)

Not surprisingly, Cornish has no legal status, though the County Council of Cornwall does give some financial support to it (4: 2.4). It has a small presence in education, with a few schools offering it as a subject, and evening classes available for adults (4: 3.1). Its position in the media is also relatively weak, with only a few minutes every week of radio time, and only two print magazines, although a few books are published in Cornish every year (4: 3.4, 3.5).

Cornish faces other linguistic challenges. Many people believe that the language spoken today is a manufactured or artificial language “based on Cornish”, which is sometimes called “Cornic” (3: Cornish: Remarks). This is an understandable stance, since the language was not spoken for so many years. Furthermore, although all of the Celtic languages have problems due to serious dialectical differences and a general lack of standardization, Cornish seems to be in the worst situation of the six. There are three main versions of Cornish being spoken and learned: Kemmyn (Common), Modern and Unified, which are often radically difference in both written and spoken form (1: Geography). Many learners do not know which to learn, and there is no solid drive to choose one over the other.

How Does Cornish Compare to Other Celtic Languages?

Cornish is similar to both Welsh and Breton, but it has more in common with Breton. Supposedly speakers of the two languages could understand each other until the 17th century (1: Close Contacts).

Sources

1. The Cornish page on http://www.geocities.com/indoeurop/atree... (select Celtic and then Cornish)

2. http://www.ethnologue.com/show_language....

3. http://www.helsinki.fi/~tasalmin/europe_...

4. http://www.uoc.es/euromosaic/web/documen...

5. http://www.biscoe.org.uk/contents.htm

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