Lowena dhewgh, Afsheen,
Courtenay already answered your questions, but i’d like to give you my perspective, too. I’ll try to answer your questions, which I repeat in quotes below, one by one.
Afsheen wrote:
“A train of personal-curiosity-turned-burning-questions for my dear Cornish language counterparts: does there exist a purist conscientiousness or desire among speakers today to reproduce the presumed [native] pronunciation, prosody, phraseology of the pre-revival language in the absence of L1 speakers?”
Yes, there does, though what constitutes a purism or purist consci(enti)ousness differs among revivalists. Throughout the revival there have always been people who have closely followed the traditional texts, trying to import the least amount of reconstructions and loans. Since traditional Cornish (i.e. pre-Revival Cornish) was heavily influenced by Latin, then Old English, then Norman French and possibly Breton, as well as Middle and Early Modern English through the ages, there was a lot of “foreign” influence in traditional Cornish to begin with. Some revivalists have shown some lexical purism in reviving words and roots found in Old Cornish (ca. 1000-1300), as well as the other Brythonic languages, that had most likely become obsolete by the Middle Cornish period in favour of the Middle and Early English borrowings. This mainly affected the written Revived language. Since the 1970s when the spoken word became more and more important to the Revivalists, there were many attempts to try and reconstruct an “authentic” phonology, some leaning more towards an early Middle Cornish phonology which relies heavily on comparison with Breton and Welsh, but also some who looked to the phonetic transcriptions Edward Lhuyd made of Cornish in the early 18th century. We are talking about a gap of 400 years with some significant changes on all linguistic levels. Suffice it to say that while the linguists and Cornish speakers that reconstructed these phonologies are largely capable of using their own recommendations, Revived Cornish today is heavily influenced by Modern English, on most linguistic levels, usually pronunciation (usually sound substitution from native English repertoires), prosody, as well as phraseology. In that it is similar to the way Ivrit (Modern Hebrew) has been influenced by the Yiddish of Ashkenazi Jews.
Afsheen wrote:
“What resources have been tapped and what efforts have been made in this vein?”
Basically, all resources that are available. From the traditional pronunciation of English speaking Cornishmen and Cornishwomen from West Penwith, where the Cornish language survived longest, down to all the available texts in the Cornish language throughout the ages. Of course rhyme schemes were analysed and compared with Breton and Welsh. Computer programs have been used to analyse spelling patterns in the traditional texts etc. to show the graphemes which may correspond to contrasting phonemes in the language. There is large consensus on the general phonological development of Cornish, though a few problematic areas remain, and they do have repercussions on preferred varieties in Revived Cornish.
Afsheen wrote:
“To what degree is modern Welsh considered an appropriate model?”
Within the Cornish Revival Welsh has of long been a “fall-back” option, especially in terms of coining new words, sometimes phrases, as of the 1980s Breton has served this purpose, too. The pronunciation has not played a huge part, except for some Cornish speaking individuals who have strong ties to Wales and are also Welsh speakers. Generally, however, a Welsh based pronunciation is felt to be unusual in Revived Cornish, with the exception of the word ‹unn› “one” (when used before a noun). In Revived Cornish one often hears [iːn] which would be a pronunciation that is heard in South Wales, but which is unlikely for traditional Cornish of any age.
Afsheen wrote:
“And is there a general consciousness/concern about widespread English substrate becoming canonical in the revived language (due to second language acquisition by L1 English speakers in adulthood), thus departing significantly from the original character of historical Cornish? (Think Yiddish substrate in Modern Hebrew). Any insight or further information is much appreciated”
Concern is uttered by a few, but most Revivalists don’t bother about it and feel it is important to speak as much Cornish as possible, be it with a Standard/Modern English influenced pronunciation, a Anglo-Cornish dialect influenced pronunciation, or a reconstructed “authentic” traditional Cornish pronunciation (as far as it is reconstructable).
Personally, I follow the approach of basing my Cornish pronunciation on the phonological reconstruction of the language in the later stages of its development, a rough time period of about 1550 to 1800. For examples, feel free to browse my website (http://kernowekbew.com) with links to my audio course.
