Edgar Retanas recent post of someone speaking Latin, touches on something pertinent for Cornish (for me at least). Cornish pronounciation varies widely, some stick to what is understood to be the spoken Cornish of its literary high point (c1350-1550), others aim later historically, some blend in their own current accent (whether this is a Cornish English one or not). Matthi ab Dewi produces a weekly podcast radio show in Cornish. The latest edition contains a good range of different ways Cornish is pronounced. For those interested in how we go about tackling the pronounciation of an undead language, heres a sample, with timings: 9:25 - Nicholas Williams is well known for his strict adherence to the evidence of surviving Cornish texts. His pronounciation aims at at point (I believe) c1550, halfway between Middle Cornish and Late Cornish. 17:12 - Tony Hak, doing a quick advert for the recent first Tintin book in Cornish (available in all good lyverjiow). Tony is a Cornish teacher and translator and really knows his grammar. His pronounciation, is a careful (but fluent) earlier one. 22:05 - Tim Saunders, fellow Cardiffian and phenomenonlly fluent and knowlegable speaker and poet. You may detect another accent here... 34:30 - Me, doing my first contribution to the show, a report from a recent all-Cornish weekend. My pronounciation (or intention at least) changes all the time, and Im pretty sure I dont sound like this in conversation, but you know how it is when you hear you own voice :-/. 37:45 - in the same report, a range of voices, including one with a very strong (contemporary) Cornish accent. And, many other speakers, with very different accents/pronunciations are heard throughout. With the majority of living languages, there is core of native speakers to act as a control/measure/authority of pronounciation, even if that varies by area. Cornish doesnt have that control, the traditional community language was lost a little while before the first recording mechanisms were available. The way Cornish is spoken depends on who taught you, your language learning aptitudes, your underlying accent, and your personal taste, the weather, etc etc.. Although youll find a lot of discussion and argument over exactly how to say the word for fish offal and baby goat, (I *kid* you not...), whats interesting is that at gatherings this is surprisingly unimportant, everyone communicates fine, in their own way. Somewhere in this process a new standard is slowly working itself out, likely to be quite different from anything that came before 1850. What Im very interested in finding out, is what these examples sound like to the ear of those unfamiliar with Cornish, particularly those who arent native English speakers. Sorry, bit wordy... favorite subject... :-D
Posted on: Mon, 24 Nov 2014 13:33:01 +0000
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