Yes, I think that Gwenno’s album is going to be a bit of a seminal moment in the revitalisation of Cornish. Great article, thanks for sharing Rob.
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I particularly liked this:
And for minority languages to thrive, they need to be more than an academic concern, or seen as purely historical. Nostalgia for a specific culture can be deadening. “People can be dismissive of place within people’s cultural identity because they think it can be sentimental,” points out Saunders. “I’m not interested in sentimentality at all – I’m interested in the exploration of your cultural heritage being really forward-thinking.”
and (without wanting to get too political), this:
At a time when Britain is having something of an existential identity crisis, Cornish is also a reminder that the notion of ‘Britishness’ is less stable than we might think: with its similarity to Breton, it is the “missing link” between Britain and Brittany, she suggests, a reminder of how we’ve always been subject to migration and movement of people.
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Absolutly right robbruce. Fantastic Article! But what does it mean with Breton “once the language of Brittany”? It still is innet? (In a somewhat smaller way than it was obviously, but still)
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Yes. Bit of a journalistic or maybe editing slip-up.
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Really enjoyed reading that, thanks, Rob.
Here’s another very interesting interview with Gwenno Saunders from an Australian music website: Gwenno Explains Why She Wrote An Entire Album In A Minority Language
(And read the comments at the end for a sharp rebuttal to the argument that Cornish was ever an “extinct” language!)
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