BBC запустила подкаст для изучения корнского языка в рамках возрождения культурного наследия

Cornish is part of the Celtic family of languages, traditionally spoken in Cornwall in the south-west of Great Britain. From the medieval period onwards, speakers in the region gradually shifted to English, leaving only a handful with knowledge of Cornish in the far west of Cornwall by the 18th and 19th centuries. The 20th century saw a resurgence, and today, Cornish speakers are thought to number from around 400 to 4,000. Many are still based in Cornwall, although there is an active diaspora in mining areas of the US and Australia as a result of 19th-century migration. In May, the BBC launched a new podcast, Learn Cornish. It’s the latest in a series of signs of growing interest in the Cornish language and culture in the 2020s. Artists such as singer-songwriter Gwenno and filmmaker Mark Jenkin (Rose of Nevada) have been credited for attracting learners to the language with their use of Cornish phrases and songs. Recent recognition under part III of the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages commits the UK government to promoting Cornish at an official level. Cornish phrases are now regularly used in the House of Commons by MPs representing constituencies in Cornwall. But with so few Cornish speakers and such little representation in education or the media, what will this podcast actually do for the language? Lessons from Breton We can look across the Channel for some insight into the relationship between media visibility and linguistic vitality. In Brittany, Cornish’s closest language neighbour, Breton, is in a much stronger position on both fronts. Local public radio regularly broadcasts in Breton, alongside a network of five independent stations that make Breton-language content the centre of their programming. The newest of these, Radio Naoned, was established in 2019, demonstrating the growing success of Breton-language media. Immersion education is also increasingly popular, with more parents choosing to send their children to bilingual schools. Yet overall, the number of Breton speakers is declining rapidly: from an estimated 214,000 speakers in 2018 to 107,000 in 2024. Media presence may not be a way of growing speaker numbers, but it can have other important functions. Minoritised languages face pressures to adapt their linguistic features, particularly vocabulary, in order to deal with rapid technological change and the new words this requires. Speakers often face a stark choice: should they bring in words from a dominant language like English and risk losing some of their language’s distinctiveness, or should they create new words based on the language’s existing resources – words that may be criticised for their artificial nature? Researching for my book Breton in Contemporary Media: Speakers, Language, Community, I found that users of the language in the media make use of several strategies to promote inclusion. On the radio, a common strategy is the use of “doublets” – pairs of words with the same meaning but different origins, which may appeal to different groups of speakers. A presenter may use a borrowing such as telefon but follow this up with the more official, Celtic-based term pellgomzer. This means that speakers who are accustomed to either of the two options will understand the discussion and feel included. An inclusive environment For Cornish, despite the small number of speakers, it’s just as important to respect the different kinds of language they may choose to use. Those who decide to learn the language will do so for different reasons. They may be inspired by local place names and dialect words. They may wish to express a wider Celtic identity. Or they may be interested in reading medieval Cornish texts. But, if the forms of Cornish they encounter don’t appear to fit the purpose for which they are learning it, they may abandon the language altogether. My research on Cornish has shown that more official contexts such as dictionaries have struggled with this need for inclusion. These publications tend to favour certain linguistic choices over others, despite deliberate efforts to standardise the spelling of Cornish in a way that accounts for speakers’ different preferences. But, as in the Breton case, radio programmes are a context where these issues can be minimised. Not only is it unnecessary to agree on a standard spelling – historically contentious in the case of Cornish – but speakers with varying backgrounds, accents and levels of expertise can enjoy learning and practising key phrases in an inclusive environment. The episodes of Learn Cornish certainly promote this inclusivity. Presenter Danni Diston, starting her own journey with the Cornish language, enthusiastically tests out a variety of phrases, and uses simple games to learn and practise vocabulary. There’s an emphasis on the link between language and local identity, a key factor in attracting speakers to minoritised languages. The first episode focuses on place names, explaining vocabulary that local listeners will know intimately. In the words of guest Edward Rowe, this topic “makes Cornwall make a bit more sense”. We may not hear Cornish conversations on the streets of Truro as a result of the Learn Cornish podcast, but it’s likely we’ll find listeners becoming familiar with some key words and phrases, gaining an understanding of their significance and the role they play in making Cornwall distinctive. In terms of heritage, visibility and identity, this inclusive introduction to Cornish could be crucial.