'Dydh da!' – MPs to learn Cornish
Have you ever felt that MPs speak a different language from the rest of us? Well, now some of them are.
A number of politicians have signed up for free lessons in Cornish – or, as they say west of the Tamar, Kernowek.
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Dan Rogerson
At the moment MPs are practising basic greetings such as 'Hello' (Dydh da!), 'How are you?' (Fatla genes?) and 'What's your name?' (Pyth yw dha hanow?)
But soon they could be mastering such essential Westminster phrases as 'Send me an expenses form' (Danvon dhymm furvlen rag gorholeth spenyansow) or 'That's another political fudge' (Gohel politek aral yw henna).
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Or, to be truly Cornish, 'Kyfeyth a-woles, dehen molys a-ugh' – that's the cream-tea ritual of "jam first, clotted cream on top".
The lessons have been arranged by North Cornwall Lib Dem MP Dan Rogerson, who recently failed in an attempt to have Commons leaflets for tourists printed in the ancient Celtic tongue.
Those taking the classes include three MPs with Cornish constituencies, plus one Scottish Nationalist and a member of Plaid Cymru.
Mr Rogerson said: "MPs are allowed to swear the oath of allegiance in Cornish so I thought it would be a good idea to do more to welcome Cornish-speakers to Parliament.
"I also think MPs should help boost the revival of Cornish and to protect the language for future generations."
The number of fluent Cornish speakers has increased from 300 in 2000 to an estimated 3,000 now.
Comments
by Kerneweger
Thursday, December 13 2012, 9:47PM
“"What is the Cornish for, "I will learn Swahili if I get a few more votes at the end of it"?"
"My a wra dyski Swahili mar kallav kavoes nebes moy raglevow wosa y wul"”
by Slimslad
Wednesday, December 12 2012, 9:39PM
“What is the Cornish for, "I will learn Swahili if I get a few more votes at the end of it"?”
by Slimslad
Wednesday, December 12 2012, 9:37PM
“I think it is a great thing to learn another language.
Anything that exercises the mind and broadens outlooks and opinions.
Not sure about the cynical use of language in extreme politics, on the other hand.”
by caroclemens
Wednesday, December 12 2012, 5:58PM
“Yes, a slight error in the figures. Should be 300 fluent speakers - no great change since 2000 - and 3, 000 more with at least basic phrases. Many more with words and a phrase or two. That means that the number of fluent speakers could grow very quickly. Yth ero vy ow teski. I'm learning and refuse to be put off by Con-Dem MPs learning as well. Perhaps they'll mend their ways in other respects.”
by Carvath
Wednesday, December 12 2012, 10:51AM
“You can even get lessons in Saltash and Callington these days!”
by PaddyTrembath
Tuesday, December 11 2012, 11:25PM
“JJLee, further to my point about myth, these may help to explain:-
http://tinyurl.com/3eyymxs
http://tinyurl.com/aeypbu2
Simple logic would also point out that she could not have been the last fluent/native speaker of Cornish. As she steadfastly refused to speak English, "Me ne vidn cewsel Sawznek", unless there were others who shared her fluency, at least to a greater extent, how did she communicate.
To add to the problem, my own Grandparents told stories of people from their youth who spoke Cornish regularly, conversationally, in and around the Pendeen area. My Father used to tell of the old fishermen, who when at sea, would talk together in Cornish, as recently as the early '30s. How much Cornish they knew, how close it was to the language of a few hundred years earlier, no-one now knows, but they must have been fairly fluent in the what they had of language amongst themselves.
It is clear that no-one knows who the last "fluent" Cornish speaker was, who the last "native" Cornish speaker was, nor who the last monoglot Cornish speaker was, hence my pointing out your "fact" as myth.
As for being fluent in a language, there are many monoglot "English" speakers who could be argued to be considerably less than fluent. Fluency is relative.”
by Carvath
Tuesday, December 11 2012, 12:54PM
“"whats the cornish for a useless T***"
Stret lorek”
by manicstreet
Tuesday, December 11 2012, 12:11PM
“whats the cornish for a useless T***”
by roger_angove
Tuesday, December 11 2012, 10:45AM
“I would be rather more interested to know where Mr Rogerson stands on austerity for the UK whilst increasing UK 'contributions' to Brussels and the proposed redefinition of marriage, than whether or not he can mumble a few words of a language that is spoken by less that 0.5% of the Cornish population.”
by Den_a_Gernow
Tuesday, December 11 2012, 10:27AM
“"I've yet to see where this "3000" speakers figure comes from, anyone know?" @bigGer
Well there are ten in my immediate close family and others in my extended family. My kids even learn some at school these days, though they know more than the teachers do. 3,000 is a rough estimate there's never been a language census but I reckon it would be a lot higher. Back in the tudor period only about 33,000 people spoke cornish but then Cornwall only had a population of about 40,000.”