|
U.S. English Foundation Research UNITED KINGDOM
Language Research2. Background: Background notesBritain, the dominant industrial and maritime power of the 19th century, played a leading role in developing Parliamentary Democracy and in advancing literature and science. The British Empire covered approximately one-fourth of the earth's surface at its zenith. In the first half of the twentieth century its strength was seriously depleted by two World Wars. Since the end of World War II, the British Empire has been dismantled, and Britain has rebuilt itself into a prosperous, modern European nation with significant international political, cultural, and economic influence. At the close of the Twentieth Century, Britain is debating the degree of its integration with continental Europe. While a member of the EU, for the time being it is staying out of the Euro System introduced in January 1999. Constitutional reform, including of the House of Lords and the devolution of power to Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland, is an ongoing issue in Great Britain. Independence: England has existed as a unified entity since the 10th century. The Union between England and Wales was enacted under the Statute of Rhuddlan in 1284. In the Act of Union of 1707, England and Scotland agreed to a permanent Union as Great Britain. The legislative Union of Great Britain and Ireland was implemented in 1801, with the adoption of the name the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland The Anglo-Irish treaty of 1921 formalized a partition of Ireland With six northern Irish counties remaining part of the United Kingdom as Northern Ireland. The current name of the country, the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, was adopted in 1927 Constitution: unwritten; partly statutes, partly common law and practice
Updated (June 2003) WELSH Welsh is a Celtic language, closely related to Cornish and Breton. Its distant cousins are the Irish, Manx and Gaelic languages. The language, as spoken today, is descended directly from Early Welsh, which emerged in the 6th Century when it was used not only in Wales, but also in large parts of Southern Scotland and Northern England. Since the 11th Century it has been largely confined to the area corresponding to that of present-day Wales. Up to the 16th Century, Welsh was the only language of most people living in Wales, and it remained the first language of the majority until the end of the 19th Century. The single most important event that saved the Welsh language from extinction was the publication of the Bible in Welsh, in 1588. As a result of the 1536 and 1542 Acts of Union, English became the language of law, administration and education in Wales. Between the middle of the 16th and the 19th Century, Wales was almost indistinguishable from any other part of England, except two important respects: 1) Welsh, not the English language, was the only means of communication for most of the people of Wales 2) In the public sphere, Welsh was also the predominant language of religious worship In 1872, the first university in Wales opened at Aberystwyth. In 1890, following the 1870 Education Act which introduced compulsory education in Wales, the Government made a concession and paid capitation grants to schools which taught Welsh. This by no means obliged any school to teach Welsh; however, it did mean that the Welsh language gained a toehold in the education system. Attitudes to the language within education were often profoundly hostile. The decline experienced in the 20th Century can be attributed to the following:
General secularization of the society, causing a decline in chapel attendance, on which many traditional Welsh-medium activities were centered
During the last thirty years a revival of interest in the language and “Welshness” has been reflected in the growth and development of Welsh medium education that has provided an opportunity for new generations to become Welsh speakers. Source: Mercator Education, Regional Dossiers, The Welsh language in education in the United Kingdom, 2001, http://www1.fa.knaw.nl/mercator/regionale_dossiers/regional_dossier_welsh_in_uk.htm
Updated (February 2006) THE HISTORY OF THE LANGUAGE, ITS RELATIONSHIP WITH THE EMERGING ENGLISH AND THE BRITISH STATE
THE GROWTH OF CORNISH
Throughout the seventh century, the English kingdom of Wessex expanded ever further westwards. Eventually, after a series of battles, some won by the Britons and some by the English, the independent state of Britain was reduced to the territory of Cornwall, when by 936 they had been expelled from Exeter and the rest of Devon. Place-names indicate, however, a long established and distinct toponymic boundary between the English and the British running along the Tamar River, at present the border between Cornwall and England.
During the Middle Ages Cornwall was recognized as a separate province, with its own subordinate status and title under the English crown. Hence, the first-born son and heir of the English monarch was (and is still) entitled the Duke of Cornwall. In the later medieval period, when Norman French replaced English at the highest official levels, Cornish flourished as a language. This is witnessed by the extant literature, such as the miracle plays and plays about saints' lives, which utilized Biblical themes and were often used to comment on the politics then current. At this time, the language functioned as the majority speech for all economic and social purposes in Cornwall. At the same time it was renewed and strengthened by intensive trade and commerce with the still independent Brittany: Breton is essentially the same language. Many Bretons settled in Cornwall and were gradually assimilated into the Cornish community.
Cornwall's wealth, especially her tin, strengthened her political autonomy. Tin was regulated by the Stannary Parliament, which had an independent legislative role in Cornwall. This engendered some stability for Cornwall, and for its language. Throughout this time Cornwall and England were regarded by most of Europe as separate nations, as is evidenced both by the name Cornwall being represented in most European languages and by comments from various ambassadors and emissaries of the period.
However, the situation changed with the far-reaching political and economic changes of the succeeding periods.
In 1497, there was a major uprising on the issues of central control of the tin trade, confiscation of the Stannary charters and suspension of the Stannary government. This was essentially successful, in that it led, in 1508, to the Charter of Pardon, which constituted a treaty indicating that England's rulers would accommodate the Cornish. The Charter expanded the power of the Cornish Stannary Parliament by granting it the authority to block royal acts coming into force in Cornwall. They had the power to veto any laws from the Westminster Parliament and the charter ensured that Westminster was unable to dissolve the Cornish Parliament. This early success, however, was unable to be sustained.
THE PERIODS OF DECLINE
A. THE 16thC: THE REFORMATION
The Reformation signaled the beginning of decline for Cornish, marked the end of an era, in which the Cornish language had been thriving. Six main factors have been identified as initiating decline:
1. The Prayer Book War of 1549
This had disastrous consequences for the Cornish language and led to the first substantial decline in the number of Cornish speakers.
Cornwall, with its separate language, institutions and adherence to Roman Catholicism, refused Anglican Catholicism and to accept the new Book of Common Prayer in the English language. They started the uprising immediately after the desecration of the churches in Cornwall. In the subsequent battles, nearly 6,000 Cornish people, a third of the Cornish-speaking male population, were massacred or put in prison. Moreover, the repression continued and Cornwall was placed under English martial law. Cornish became stigmatized as a "backward" language, and the language of Catholics potentially loyal to enemies of England.
2. Breton Relations
Through the Middle Ages there had been large numbers of Bretons living in Cornwall, many being attracted by higher wages. From the taxation records of 1522-1524, they constituted a sizeable minority within Cornwall: 10% in some areas. Furthermore, trading figures from that time show an enormous economic interaction with Brittany that suggests that the trade could have been conducted in what was then a mutually intelligible Cornish and Breton. This may explain why the Cornish language survived for so long. But after the 1549 Prayer Book War and Brittany's loss of independence, the traditional ties were reduced and Bretons as Catholic and French subjects were potential enemies of the new English Protestant state.
3. Closure of seats of learning
Glasney College, which was one of the engine houses of the Cornish literature, together with other colleges and monasteries, were closed and stripped of their moveable wealth during the rule of Henry VIII. It is likely that extant Cornish literature was destroyed at this time.
4. The introduction of the English language into religious services after 1549
Despite the Prayer Book War, English was forced into use in religious services and Anglican Catholicism into the Cornish state. The importance of the church in community life ensured the spread of the language.
5. The Bible was not translated into Cornish
The newly independent Church of England recommended that the teaching of the catechism in Welsh and Cornish be made lawful. From 1560 catechism and sermons were allowed in Cornish where English was not understood, but these measures were insufficient to give a literary and religious base for the language. While the Cornish versions of the Lord's Prayer, the Ten Commandments and the Apostle's Creed were available, the Bible and the Book of Common Prayer were not translated into Cornish. This could have been a crucial factor in the demise of the language.
6. The growth of towns and commerce
The growth of mining in west Cornwall and the growth of an urban lifestyle strengthened the status of English and enabled its usage to extend beyond the gentry class.
B. THE 1640s: THE ENGLISH CIVIL WAR
In the War of the Five Nations, Cornish troops excelled against the Parliamentarians, remaining unbeaten until the end. Although Cornwall fought on the Royalist side, no Crown troops were permitted into Cornwall. The Cornish leader was imprisoned for attempting to secure a separate Cornish state. Cornish was used as a 'secret' language during the war.
C. 1650-1750: THE NEWLYN SCHOOL
A group of educated men, living in and around Newlyn, saw Cornish declining and worked to record its last stages. They collected songs and stories, wrote poems, translated portions of scripture and corresponded with one another in Cornish.
Edward Lhuyd, the renowned Celtic scholar, collected material and published some of his findings in 1707 (e.g. the folk story John of Chyannor). Cornish had become marginalized; in the late seventeenth century it was even abandoned in church services for the Lord's Prayer, the Creed and the sermon. Furthermore, the number of Cornish speakers rapidly decreased: where in the middle of the century there were 14,000 people speaking Cornish, by the end only 5,000 did so.
D. THE MODERN AGE
In the modern age, the Cornish language greatly contributed to the terminology of metal and hard rock mining, as this was the leading world area for their development.
1750 - early 1800's
In this period, Cornish speakers became so few in number that Borlase, English antiquary and naturalist, wrote in 1758 that the language had 'altogether ceased, so as not to be used anywhere in conversation'. Further, William Bodinar wrote in 1776: "There are no more than four or five in our village who can speak Cornish now, old folk of four score years, Cornish is forgotten by young people". Nevertheless, some Cornish words or phrases were collected from those who could speak the language. By the end of the 18th century, Cornish was not the normal everyday language, but the Creed and the Lord's Prayer could still be heard in Cornish and it was also used for counting, especially for fish, in places such as Mousehole, Newlyn and St Ives, with examples being attested well into the twentieth century.
Late 1800's
Despite the industrial revolution in Cornwall, increasing centralization and the instability of copper and tin prices resulted in impoverishment for Cornwall. The Stannaries had lost their power and the Stannary Parliament had been suspended in 1752. In 1888, Cornwall was made a county of England and its 'County' Council was established; there had been no consultation and no Act of Union. Through the late 1800s and into the 20th century the Cornish economy declined. Cornish people emigrated throughout the world, to America, to South Africa and Australia. There was a Great Emigration of 1860, where more people left Cornwall than from England and Wales put together. Many Australians, for example, can trace their roots to Cornwall, where there are today thriving Cornish societies.
Regarding the survival of Cornish, MacKinnon comments: "Knowledge of Cornish did not cease with the passing of the last native speakers. Its knowledge and cultivation were, however, maintained for over a century by other means. Cornish words, phrases, and formularies were passed on orally by ordinary Cornish working folk, and Cornish language studies were progressed by a number of academic scholars."
TWENTIETH CENTURY REVIVAL AND REGENERATION
As Cornish came into the twentieth century, the first successful attempts to revive the language resulted from the work of Henry Jenner and Robert M. Nance. Their system was called Unified Cornish and was based on Middle Cornish with standardized spelling and an extended vocabulary based on Breton and Welsh. The language corpus had been largely reassembled, in some cases from speakers themselves as well as from the early modern texts. During the century other initiatives were taken to revise the Cornish language, especially in the means of its orthography and phonology. In 1986, Ken George developed a system that was adapted also by the Cornish Language Board. The system retained a middle Cornish base but made the spelling more systematic by applying phonemic orthographic theory and, for the first time, set out clear rules relating spelling to pronunciation. The revised system was taken up enthusiastically by the majority of Cornish speakers and learners, and was especially welcomed by teachers. Dr. Williams introduced his new orthographic alternative in 1995 and even though he published an English-Cornish dictionary in it, it has not become the standard for all users of Cornish. In practice, these different written forms do not prevent Cornish-speakers from communicating with each other effectively. Cornish has been successfully revived as a viable language for communication. Nevertheless, there is still much scope for improving the standard and accuracy of the language.
It is estimated that there are now approximately 3,500 speakers of Cornish (about 0.7% of the Cornish population) and 300-400 fluent speakers (about 0.07%). Another 5,000 people have some knowledge of basic phrases or could understand basic sentences. Few people under the age of 30 have been brought up speaking it. The take-up of the language is now becoming so widespread that language organizations are finding it difficult to keep up with demand.
Source: Mercator Working Paper No. 21: Cornish - Language and Legislation, January 2006, http://www.ciemen.org/mercator/pdf/wp21-def-ang.pdf and |
Issues Publications Many Languages Official Language ResearchFoundation Newsletters
Looking for the most current happenings at the Foundation? Read all about our exciting news, most recent developments and latest stories here. You can also access a "Free English Language Learning Resources on the Internet" brochure here.
Learn English for FREE
US English Foundation is excited to announce a new partnership with Mingoville, a site for learning English on the web! Create an account with MingoVille for Free!
