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Written evidence submitted by Kowethas an Yeth Kernewek

 

Formal Response to DCMS (Digital, Culture, Media and Sport) Committee Inquiry into Minority Languages from Kowethas an Yeth Kernewek (Cornish in the Community) March 2023

1.0  Respondee details

Kowethas an Yeth Kernewek is the only registered charity dedicated to the promotion of the use of Cornish for all in everyday life. We are in the process of transitioning to a C.I.O as our activity increases. We work closely with other voluntary language organisations through the Rosweyth network and operate as the accountable body for joint projects as well as providing an umbrella and support for a number of local language groups. We have members across Cornwall, UK and the World who are native speakers including second and third generation native speakers as well as those who have learnt the language at school or as an adult. Members of Kowethas an Yeth provide most of the volunteer effort for virtually all of the language activities happening in Cornwall. We have a volunteer run shop, store and meeting place (Kowsva) at a heritage site in West Cornwall and run activities throughout Cornwall as well as supporting schools and teachers with resources and materials for the language. We produce the longest running monthly magazine in the Cornish language (An Gannas) and run online and physical activities and events for our members to use Cornish in every-day settings. Along with the Cornish Language Board we publish most of the books in and about the language used by speakers, learners and children. We currently employ a part-time (12hours) support officer and on behalf of the Rosweyth have bid for some small grants for specific projects. More information on our activities can be found at www.cornish-language.org or on Facebook Kowethas: The Cornish Language Fellowship and Twitter @Kowethas1

 

2.0  Our response

Kowethas an Yeth welcomes the decision of the Digital, Culture, Media and Sport Committee to undertake a review into the future of indigenous minority languages in the United Kingdom. We also welcome that this has a focus which includes the Cornish language. We don’t wish to duplicate evidence provided by official bodies such as Cornwall Council but wish to address the impact of the lack of official support for our language and its users within the UK framework. We wish to draw your attention to our previous submission to the European Council Committee of Experts in 2018 in respect of the UK responsibilities under Part 2 of the European Charter on Regional and Minority languages which describes the state of the language and the lack of official support for education and promotion and the increased demands on voluntary sector organisations to fill the gap. (Appendix 1). Since that time and with the impact of Covid there has been an increased demand for Cornish language learning and activities across Britain (and internationally) both physically and online which has not been met by the State or Council but by more volunteer activity within communities.

 

 

3.0  International and UK context

The Government acknowledged that Cornish was covered by the by the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages in 2002. We can confirm that over the last two decades, Cornish has not achieved language parity with the other Celtic languages of the UK and that our language has been significantly disadvantaged compared to other indigenous languages.

 

 

 

 

 

 

The opportunity for language exchanges with other minority language areas has also been significantly curtailed by the implementation of ‘Brexit’ and lack of access to European funding regimes that previously enabled us to organise a youth exchange with Brittany. Community twinning arrangements are run purely by volunteer effort and school exchanges have virtually dried up.

 

 

4.0  Responses to specific questions from the Committee

4.1  Key Factors determining whether an indigenous minority language thrives

The Kowethas would like to draw the attention of the Committee to the key issues that provide barriers for Kernewek to thrive. Many of them are structural and political rather than linguistic and relate to lack of knowledge and understanding of the language as an indigenous language by decision makers and their advisers and the subsequent devaluing of the status of Kernewek within the UK. Also lack of community access to the language and the small number of fluent speakers available create further vulnerabilities.

 

Status:

On 24th April 2014, the UK Government announced that the Cornish would be recognised as a national minority through the above Framework Convention for the Protection of National Minorities. The official government press release stated: “The decision to recognise the unique identity of the Cornish, now affords them the same status … as the UK’s other Celtic people, the Scots, the Welsh and the Irish.” This was a significant commitment from the UK state towards the Cornish national minority, covering language, culture, heritage, education, territorial integrity and public life. But in our view the UK Government has failed to meet its obligations with regard to the Framework Convention and Cornwall has not achieved the promised parity with the other Celtic parts of the UK.

Some key headlines of the issues include:

 

 

 

 

 

These status confusions lead to problems with promoting the teaching of Cornish in Cornish schools. The imposition and inspection of the ‘English National Curriculum’ framework across Cornish schools does not provide space for the teaching of Kernewek as a modern language and only defines an obligation at primary level to introduce a ‘modern foreign language’ leading to the ridiculous situation where the Kowethas has helped schools in England to teach Cornish to their pupils in their modern foreign languages slot but schools in Cornwall (where Cornish is not considered a foreign language) do not feel able to use that slot. A simple redefinition of the slot in the curriculum to be to “teach a modern language” such as Cornish would give schools in Cornwall the freedom to do so and influence attitudes about the language being a fringe, token local studies or after-school subject. The rights of children in Cornwall to have access to Cornish language learning on the timetable in Cornish schools should be acknowledged and the means to enable those language learning opportunities should be supported within the education funding structures for Cornwall. This inevitably would require funding for teacher training and resource development but the Kowethas believe that this is essential to enable the language to thrive as a community language.

 

Organisations providing grants for community activities are often administered on an ‘England-wide’ basis and do not specifically recognise the identity of Cornwall or the additional needs in Cornwall relating to promoting a minority language. Often Cornish is seen as only of historical interest and not as a thriving community language which should be supported in and of itself. Most grants that have supported Cornish language activity (eg Heritage Lottery, Arts Council) have to demonstrate engaging volunteers in the community with heritage and the language is seen as a tangential benefit.

 

Community Use:

The Kowethas exists to promote the use of Kernewek in community life and it is clear that the statutory bodies such as Cornwall Council, as well as businesses and community organisations, use our volunteer effort to enable the language to become more visible within communities by using volunteers for translation, signage research, developing new terminology and expanding the corpus. None of these official functions could happen without many, many thousands of hours of voluntary effort every year to support them. However, if the language is never seen or heard it will be lost so volunteers go over and above to ensure that Cornish people have access to their language. The Kowethas organise many community activities and events, attend festivals and support local organisations to use the language. This community use has led to an increased awareness of the language and an increased demand to learn and use the language within community settings. As this demand increases many volunteers are increasingly burnt out by the soaring need alongside the lack of recognition of their work and little support from official and governmental organisations. There is a lack of continuing funding to provide the support structures necessary for such community and volunteer support so many activities are run as short term projects and then discontinued when the funding runs out. Rather than just naturally enjoying using their language in their every day life Cornish speakers feel they are in a constant battle to ensure that the language continues and thrives.

 

The increased use of the language by businesses, film-makers, singers, and others in the creative sector is a positive sign but more support is required to ensure that those using Cornish in this way have access to reliable and accurate support and advice so that inadequate Cornish is not promulgated by those with little knowledge of the language.

 

Vulnerability:

There are quite a few fluent language speakers (around 200) but many are getting older and many of the younger speakers including native second and third generation speakers have had to move out of Cornwall to find jobs or housing in other places. The lack of permanent paid jobs using Cornish has made it difficult to support language speakers to remain in, or return to, Cornwall and the economic situation in Cornwall has made it difficult to enable people to take time out of their day jobs to learn their language as an adult. There are no regular intensive courses available and although demand for taster courses has increased dramatically the drop out rate for weekly adult courses is significant. There is little support for families who wish to bring their children up bilingually although one self-funded Ofsted registered pre-school is hoping to start in September 2023. The Kowethas organise family get togethers to support informal learning but they are only a small amount of the support needed (trained and registered nursery leaders and teachers and appropriate resources for children). Everything is produced on a voluntary basis and people cannot always afford the teaching resources needed although there are a lot more free online resources being made available. Because living in Cornwall is already hard for ordinary people, living in Cornwall and using Cornish is doubly hard so it takes great determination and dedication to speak and use the language. If the language is not visible within communities nor used in the media, culture and business life not only will it not thrive, it will die out within a generation.

 

It is welcome that Cornwall Council has done considerable work to support the development of the language, for example, through the production of a Cornish Language Strategy 2015-2025 and working with partner organisations such as Go Cornish to take the language into a number of schools. But this is all constrained and even undermined by a lack of government investment within the local authority sector. Central government began investing £150,000 per annum into the language in 2010, but this was brought to an end in 2016. The one-off grant in 2019 of £200,000 was for a range of cultural interventions and only a small part went towards the language. The sum of money promised in the so-called “devolution deal” is for both culture and language and would be another one-off payment when what is needed is the year-on-year guaranteed funding so that Kernewek can thrive into the future. For example, in our view, the next step to enable Kernewek to grow and thrive is to deliver a mainstream provision in Cornish schools eventually leading on to bilingual and immersion teaching being available within the formal educational sector.

 

We hope that the Committee will investigate the level of investment across government departments that the Cornish language receives per head of population compared to the other Celtic languages across the UK and whether Cornish could also parallel other initiatives such as the Investment Fund agreed for the Irish language in Northern Ireland and Northern Ireland Screen’s Irish Language and Ulster Scots Broadcast Funds.

 

4.2  What lessons can be learned from countries whose populations achieve widespread fluency in both a majority and indigenous minority language?

The Kowethas has close links with our fellow Brythonek language organisations in Wales and Brittany and to a lesser extent with Scotland, Ireland and the Isle of Man Gaelic as well as the indigenous language offices in the other Crown protectorates of Jersey and Guernsey. We are a member of ELEN (The European Languages Equality Network) ELEN | European Language Equality Network and endeavour to work with other language groups across Europe to deliver best practice to the best of our abilities.

Many areas such as Wales and Brittany began introducing language education through preschool and nursery school organisations prior to primary and secondary school education. But with poor statutory provision of preschools and a scattered population in Cornwall we tend to look to the smaller population of the Isle of Man and the government’s appointment of a peripatetic Manx language Education Officer who taught Manx and supported several schools to introduce Manx language learning to a primarily English speaking population. This led on to the creation of formal Primary and Secondary education through the medium of Manx. In order for the language to thrive in Cornwall in a predominantly English-speaking population we need to be aiming for formal education in and through the language to become available to all. Token language learning and after-school clubs raise awareness but do not enable the language to embed and thrive within a community. At the very least there should be an expectation from Ofsted and the Regional Schools Commissioner that all schools in Cornwall would receive support to develop their ability to deliver formal Cornish language lessons as an essential part of the curriculum for all ages.

To enable this to happen, six-month intensive language courses leading to a recognised qualification also need to be available for those wishing to use the language in their work who are not already fluent speakers (eg Teachers and local government officials).

The absence of visibility of the language in media, social media and everyday life needs to be addressed and a Public Sector Media for Cornwall needs to be enabled as in Wales and Scotland.

However, the key need to address is that statutory government funding should be automatically available year on year to enable long-term language strategies and support structures to be developed. A Cornish Language Act with associated governmental commitment should be enacted as soon as possible, setting up a formal governance structure for the delivery of the UK government commitments within Cornwall. This formal governance structure should place a responsibility on all government departments to deliver the strategy.

 

4.3  What should be the criteria for judging whether a minority language should receive official status?

It is not clear to us what is meant by “official status,” we would expect that all Celtic languages should be protected within their historic territories and acknowledged within the UK, simply on the basis that the indigenous languages still exist and are an intrinsic element of those individual nations and of the UK as a whole. All people should have the right to learn and use their own language whenever and wherever they wish within the territory in which it is mainly spoken and to have it respected across the UK.

As noted elsewhere in this representation, the Cornish language has already been recognised by the UK Government through the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages, albeit at Level II and not the more comprehensive Level III. Likewise, the Cornish were recognised by the UK Government as a national minority in 2014 through the Framework Convention for the Protection of National Minorities. Cornish is the only Celtic language in the British Isles that has the weaker Part II recognition after Manx was upgraded to Part III in 2020. Cornish language should be treated the same as other Celtic languages and would be likely to benefit most because of its current vulnerable status.

 

The principle of recognition has therefore already been established for both the Cornish language and the Cornish people, but the issue for the Kowethas is that the much-delayed and often recommended interventions from the UK Government have not happened. We would reiterate the point that UK Government needs to ensure Cornish is covered by Part III of the European Charter and to bring forward a wide-ranging Cornish Language Act.

 

4.4 What should be the role of the UK Government in supporting and developing indigenous minority languages?

The UK’s recognition of the Cornish language through the European Charter should be applied by all government departments and other public bodies and a Cornish Language Act with associated governmental commitment should be enacted as soon as possible, setting up a formal governance structure for the delivery of the UK government commitments within Cornwall. This formal governance structure should place a responsibility on all government departments to deliver the strategy.

An ongoing education settlement specifically to address the additional needs in providing support for Cornish language and bilingual education should be committed and ideally devolved to a Cornwall wide body for delivery to meet the government commitment. The alternative would require significant devolution of powers and funding to a Cornish Education authority under local control of a Cornish Assembly to deliver all education and curriculum within Cornwall as in Wales.

A community and economic funding settlement that acknowledges the need to support vulnerable language users and communities and the ability of language users to reside and work in their home areas. Ensuring that grant applications are required to make reference to how the Cornish language and its speakers and users will be supported (or not disadvantaged) as part of the funding bid.

Cornish must be included and considered alongside other indigenous minority languages in legislation. Cornish should be used and acknowledged at both local and UK government levels in all legislation and public activities

5       Concluding Statement

Kowethas an Yeth Kernewek (Cornish in the Community) is pleased to submit this response to the Inquiry into Minority languages in Britain. We thank you for ensuring that our voice is heard. We trust that the language rights and expectations of speakers of Britain’s smallest and most endangered indigenous language will be of great importance to members of the Inquiry and we are happy to add any additional evidence if required.

 

6       Availability for the Inquiry

Members of Kowethas an Yeth Kernewek would be pleased to attend the DCMS Inquiry to answer questions and expand upon points made within this representation.


Appendix 1

Kowethas an Yeth Kernewek representation to Council of Europe Committee of experts in respect of the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages 2018.

About us:

Kowethas an Yeth Kernewek is the only registered charity dedicated to the promotion of the use of Cornish in everyday life. We work closely with other language organisations through the Rosweyth network and operate as the accountable body for joint projects as well as providing an umbrella for a number of local language groups. Members of Kowethas an Yeth provide most of the volunteer effort for virtually all of the language activities happening in Cornwall. We have a volunteer run shop, store and meeting place (Kowsva) at a heritage site in West Cornwall and run activities throughout Cornwall as well as supporting schools and teachers with resources and materials for the language. Along with the Cornish Language Board we publish most of the books in and about the language used by learners and children. We currently employ a part-time (12hours) support officer and on behalf of the Rosweyth have bid for some small grants for specific projects. More information on our activities can be found at www.cornish-language.org or on Facebook Kowethas: The Cornish Language Fellowship and Twitter @Kowethas1

 

Impact of loss of Government Funding in 2016:

In 2015 the UK Government was asked to include 5 year funding of £150,000 a year as part of a Devolution Deal to Cornwall Council. This was needed to ensure stability of Government funding for language delivery on the same level as previously without the continued need to bid on a yearly basis with no certainty of funds. This was less funding than that recommended within the Iaith Report in 2014 which advised that an increase in funding to at least £250,00 a year was needed to satisfy demand and ensure that the language could become embedded in school and pre-school programmes. The discussions around the deal indicated that the Government had accepted that £150,000 a year for 5 years was needed from them and that Cornwall Council would supply some match. At the last minute this Government agreement was withdrawn from the Devolution Deal and in spite of some Freedom of Information requests by individuals in Cornwall the Government have refused to explain why they no longer wished to fund the language through a Devolution deal with Cornwall Council or even at all. In the meantime a single year payment of £150,00 for 2015/16 was provided and the Council was asked to bid again specifically for the Cornish language funding. The Council submitted a bid for £150,000 per annum for 5 years and indicated that this would lever in match funding from Cornwall to meet the recommendations within the Iaith Report. This bid was rejected in April 2016 and since then no money has been forthcoming from Government for the language or to meet their Charter obligations. Following a critical experts visit in respect of the European Framework Convention for Regional and National minorities in February 2017 the Government granted £100,000 over 2 years towards the support of culture and heritage in Cornwall. This is the ONLY funding from the UK Government and has a much wider remit in relation to the Government meeting its obligations to Cornwall under Framework convention. It is NOT additional to any other funding and it is NOT a fund for the language. The Council are using it to help the Government meet its obligations to the Cornish as a National Minority and it does not support language planning and development in Cornwall. Even if it did the amount provided does not fulfil the obligations of the UK government to the language community.

Since 2016 the Cornish Language Office has been unable to provide the same level of support to the Cornish language community and has refocused its efforts on delivering purely to the Council priorities. The work to meet the increased community demand for language engendered during previous funding rounds to the Language Office has now fallen on volunteers eg

Running stalls and attending promotional events – previously administered and funded through the Office administrator and supported by the office team.

Co-ordinating and promoting classes and supporting teachers – previously administered and supported by the Office Education team

Responding to requests for school visits and tasters – previously run by the Office Education team

Press and promotion and requests for media interviews – previously co-ordinated by the Office Language Development officer

Bidding for project funding and management of projects – previously supported by the Office Language Projects Officer

Production of subject specific educational packs for schools – previously undertaken by the Office Education team and Project officer

Printing of common teaching materials – previously undertaken in house by the Cornish Language Office.

Production of general promotional materials – previously undertaken in house by the Cornish Language Office.

Promotion and co-ordination of Speak Cornish Week – previously co-ordinated and promoted by the Cornish Language Office.

Co-ordination of the Cornish Language Groups – previously via the Cornish Language Partnership

The Language Development Officer is the only member of Council staff employed fully on the language and all delivery is via project commissions which means that there is no central co-ordination of volunteer activity – this is now partially addressed by the Language groups themselves creating the Rosweyth which is however entirely administered by volunteers.

The risk of volunteer burn-out and loss of activity in this new regime is severe. Many fluent volunteers are over retirement age and several are in their 80s with one over 100. Meanwhile younger people and families are prevented from engaging in volunteering because of the economic and housing situation in Cornwall whereby two incomes are needed in order to rent or buy a family home.

As demand and awareness increases there is a need to ensure that adequate education is available for pre-school, school and adult education. This is not the case. The only Council funded school activity has been a commission to Golden Tree CIC to gather and make available resources and provide short term teachers and community support in two small areas. The Iaith Report recommended that significant support for Pre-schools should be a priority but this has not been possible within the current funding. The Kowethas have been running family activity afternoons on a regular basis to support parents and families who wish to use Cornish. There is no funding for these and they are run by volunteers but they are vital to encourage younger people to use the language and to enable children to access it as it is not available in school.

 

Observations on the Charter obligations:

1a) recognition of the regional or minority language as an expression of cultural wealth.

We have seen no evidence that the UK Government is meeting its commitment to recognise the importance of Cornish as one of the indigenous languages of Britain or is supporting the continued development of the language. The only strategy in existence is that of Cornwall Council which is confined to Cornwall Council priorities and commitments.

1b) Respecting the geographic area.

We have seen no evidence of UK Government respecting the geographic entity of Cornwall and in fact the government has refused to identify Cornwall as a special case requiring its geographic boundary to be retained in their review of Parliamentary Constituencies. The current proposal is for a Constituency in North Cornwall to cross the border and be dominated by North Devon.

The BBC Charter made no provision for broadcasting on a Cornwall only basis and neither is there provision for Party Political broadcasts for Cornish Political Parties to be broadcast just to Cornwall.

Education is a Government responsibility and there is no provision for a National Curriculum for Cornwall separate to that for England and respecting Cornwall’s language, culture and heritage.

1c) Resolute action to promote the language.

We have seen no evidence of the UK Government taking any action to promote or safeguard the language or supporting Cornwall Council or others to deliver on their behalf.

The Casey report in 2016 cited UK financial support for the Cornish language as being greater than that for the English language. The quotes appeared to be trying to highlight that there was insufficient provision of English Language education for new immigrants, but some national newspapers published articles suggesting substantial Governmental support for the Cornish language when in reality at that time there was £0. This was not robustly denied by UK Government

1d) Facilitation and/or encouragement of the use of Cornish in speech and writing, in public and private.

We have seen no evidence of the UK Government taking any action on this measure. As already described, the 2 years of £50,000 Culture Fund money is not part of an agreed language development plan for Cornish and has a wide remit laid down by Government. It is not adequate to support the language and its development and is being used by Cornwall Council to support wider Government commitments under the Framework Convention for the Protection of National Minorities. We support that approach and ask the UK Government to adequately fund language development in Cornwall. We were instrumental in promoting an online campaign in 2016 which garnered over 10,000 signatures asking the Government to re-instate funding for the language. (which was ignored)

1e) Maintenance and development of links between groups.

We have seen no evidence that the UK Government is meeting these obligations. The Kowethas maintains links with other language organisations in the UK and Crown Protectorates but at our own costs. Cornwall Council is only allowed observer status on the language element of the British Irish Council and there is no Minister for Cornwall to provide that link between the Nations.

1f) The provision of appropriate forms and means for the teaching and study of Cornish at all appropriate levels.

We have seen no evidence that the UK Government is meeting these obligations. Within the school sector there is no derogation for Cornwall from the English National Curriculum which means that there is little space with a school day for teaching Cornish in any concerted fashion.

A small number of primary schools are being supported by a contractor for a small amount of time with the use of local volunteers. There is no funding for experienced language teachers to provide support to schools and no training of teachers except within the contracted areas. All pre-school, family and adult classes are run by volunteers with no funding or support for learners from UK government.

The only complete examination system is run through the Cornish Language Board by volunteers.

1g) Provision of facilities enabling non-speakers to learn

We have seen no evidence that the UK Government is assisting with this. A small amount of money is provided by Cornwall Council to support volunteer community based teachers. There are no facilities for non-speakers to learn in the formal education system.

Para 1h) Study and Research on the language

All socio linguistic research is undertaken by volunteers outside the University system. Some postgraduates undertake research on the history of the language via the University of Exeter.

 

1i) Transnational exchanges

The UK Government have not facilitated or promoted transnational exchanges. The Kowethas along with partners in Brittany organised a summer camp in Cornwall in 2016 for Cornish and Breton teenagers. This was funded via EU Leonardo funds from the Breton partners. A similar application from Cornwall to return to Brittany was not supported by the British office.

 

2. Eliminate unjustified exclusion and adopt special measures to promote equality.

There is no equality for Cornish youngsters who wish to learn their language in a school setting or for Adults who wish to be funded to learn their own language.

 

3. Promote by appropriate measures understanding and tolerance between linguistic groups.

By denying any support for the Cornish language and offering a short term token amount for culture and heritage the UK Government is promoting intolerance and lack of respect for the Cornish language and the Cornish people.

Volunteers within the Cornish speaking community do more to promote the existence of an important one of Britain’s indigenous languages to other language groups and cultures than the UK Government do.