[Spellyans] UC/UCR

[Ray Chubb]

On 12 Du 2012, at 21:59, Herbie Blackburn wrote:

> I know this might be a stupid thing to say, and may be a daft and  
> simplistic opinion, but….
>
> How did Cornish ever get into the mess it appears to be in!
>
> When I first started studying Cornish in 1980 and obtained a copy of  
> Nance’s English-Cornish / Cornish-English dictionary there seemed to  
> be one truth. The language held within it seemed mostly self  
> consistent and since then I have found it to be very much rooted  
> naturally in the progression of Cornish from its earliest writing,  
> through texts like the Ordinalia, BK, Jordan, etc. but also to have  
> picked up and corrected / normalised things from Lhuyd, Rev.  
> Williams, Pryce etc.
>
> Then when I first saw Nicholas Williams’s UCR Dictionary, I thought  
> the future of Cornish was secure and resolved.

Absolutely correct.  If only the language movement had been happy to  
incorporate the kind of adjustments to Unified in the 1980's that  
UC(r) proposes we would not be in the mess that we are in today.   
Members of the yet to be reformed Agan Tavas did try to get agreement  
to a compromise of that sort but without success.

>
> So, I cannot believe how the legacy of Nance, and the fantastic  
> effort of Nicholas are still being argued against, and the amount of  
> negative effort that has been wasted.

Some of us still think that Unified/UC(r) is the best option for  
Cornish.  Perhaps one day I will write a scholarly paper explaining  
why although I have set out the various reasons from time to time on  
this forum and, briefly, in issue 43 of An Gowsva.

>
> As I say, I know this is a simplistic view, and I’m not close enough  
> really to judge, but…..is anyone able to sum up where they believe  
> the Cornish language debate has got to, and the likely outcome?

No Herbie it's not simplistic it's an example of Occam's Razor, e.g.  
"It is possible to describe the other planets in the Solar System as  
revolving around the Earth, but that explanation is unnecessarily  
complex compared to the contemporary consensus that all planets in the  
Solar System revolve around the Sun."

Those of us who think that the planets revolve around the Sun have got  
to stick together and hold our ground.

>
> Regards
>
> An interested (very interested) outsider
> eMail: kevin.blackburn1 at ntlworld.com
> P Please consider the environment before printing this eMail - thanks
>
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Ray Chubb

Portreth
Kernow

Agan Tavas web site:  www.agantavas.com


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