The subject of dead languages ​​has come up a lot lately. In a recent conversation, I mentioned my desire to learn Cornish, a Celtic language closely related to Welsh, and the response I got was “Oh yeah, that’s a dead language, right?” I quickly came to the defense of Cornish, a language alive and kicking by my standards, but what started was a lively debate about what exactly constituted a dead language and whether or not Cornish fit the bill (yes, that was a Johnny reference). Bravo) .

I won’t get into all of that particular debate now (articles on that topic are fast following on the heels of this one), but I’d like to explain my take on Cornish, why she never died and why she’s alive and well when there is, at best In most cases, a few thousand people understand it and a few hundred actually speak it fluently.

By most accounts, the last monoglot native speaker of Cornish was Dolly Pentreath, who died in 1777. So if we assume that the death of the last monoglot native speaker is a reasonable requirement for a language to be considered dead, then that’s it. all. Cornish is a dead language, right? Not so fast.

Firstly, by some accounts, Dolly Pentreath was not a Cornish monoglot speaker. She could speak English, but she simply refused to, or so the legend went. Regards Dolly. Second, there is plenty of evidence that there were other polyglot (bilingual with English) speakers of Cornwall at the time, and of living use of the language between 1777 and the present. Cornish people may never have completely let it go.

There are accounts of Cornish fishermen counting in Cornwall up to the 20th century. I doubt that the fishermen of Dolly’s time stopped counting when Dolly died, nor did they start counting in Cornish later in her honour. She had been using it the whole time. Sure, it’s not fluent, but bear with me on this.

There was also a Cornish ‘revival’ which began almost as soon as Dolly died. A small community of non-native Cornish enthusiasts (many of whom may have learned from native speakers) held onto the language until more popular revival movements took over. Kept alive by fans, it appears Cornish never died.

Although it is not necessary to establish a direct ‘lineage’ from the native speakers of before 1777 to modern times, I think it helps to provide a real connection between the Cornish speakers of then and those of today. A small group of non-native-speaking enthusiasts have held the language “in confidence” until a larger community of native speakers was prepared to take it up, as they appear to be doing now.

There are official government recognized bodies with budgets in tax dollars, local church services and road signs in Cornish. There are festivals, public meetings and contests to promote the language. There is a recent and official recognition as a European language. Cornish people are acting as if Cornish is neither a dead language nor a dying language, but a living and growing one.

It is exactly this attitude that makes Cornish a living language, now that it has been picked up by the wider community. There are thousands of languages ​​around the world that are dying and really will be dead because the indifferent communities around them don’t care, and the people who speak them can’t see the cultural treasure they hold. Cornish people are realizing what they have, and if Cornish is a living language for them, it will be a living ‘native’ language for their children.