Kernewek Kemmyn
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Kernewek Kemmyn (Common Cornish) is the largest variety of the revived Cornish language.
Chiefly engineered by Ken George from Unified Cornish in 1986, Kernewek Kemmyn has taken much of its inspiration from medieval sources, particularly Cornish passion plays, as well as Breton and to a lesser extent Welsh. It was subsequently adopted by the Cornish Language Board as their preferred system. It retained a Middle Cornish base but made the spelling more systematic by applying phonemic orthographic theory, and for the first time set out clear rules relating spelling to pronunciation. The revised system is claimed to have been taken up enthusiastically by the majority of Cornish speakers and learners, and advocates of this orthography claim that it was especially welcomed by teachers. Nevertheless, many Cornish speakers chose to continue using Unified Cornish.
It is reportedly the largest, and so arguably most successful, variety of Cornish, and a large number of speakers are outside Cornwall itself, as far afield as United States of America and Australia. Despite this, it has drawn heavy criticism from some areas, particularly its rival forms, Unified Cornish (Unyes) and Modern Cornish. Despite later criticism by Nicholas Williams, Kernewek Kemmyn has retained the support of perhaps 80% of active Cornish speakers, according to the McKinnon Report, 2000, Table 3.2. The accuracy of this report is disputed by those who do not prefer Kernewek Kemmyn orthography.
While the various varieties of revived Cornish have had a rocky relationship with one another, this has had the positive effect of creating a publishing and writing boom in Cornish. All of them have been used in constructing the Cornish language wikipedia.
In 1987 Kesva an Taves Kernewek (Cornish Language Board) voted to adopt the Kernewek Kemmyn form of Cornish as its standard.
