Language Regulation: Authoritarianism vs. Democracy

Henry Fowler was a noted lexicographer of English in the early 20th century; he was editor of the first Concise Oxford English Dictionary and author of Modern English Usage, both of which have been continuously in print and updated ever since. Despite his expertise, he was under no illusions that he could dictate to English speakers what they must say and write. Language, he said, is a demodratic affair and everyone gets their say (including himself, of course). Influence not authority was his watchword, and in that he has succeeded for almost a century, and has guided several generations of English speakers around the world.

In France, they do things a little differently, at least on the surface. The Académie Française issues authoritative pronouncements on the language, and the government passes laws restricting the use of anglicismes, but the public blithely ignores all this and does more or less what it pleases. A good example is the fate of that wonder of British inventiveness, the hovercraft. When first introduced into France, the public were delighted with Le Hovercraft, while the Académie was appalled at this racially inferior bit of vocab. After profound cogitation, they came out with La Machine à Coussin d'Air (The Machine with a Cushion of Air), which the proles were strangely reluctant to have tripping off their tongues. Faced with this linguistic 'lead balloon', the Académie finally came up with Aéroglisseur (Aeroslider) which was much more acceptable (and is arguably even better than the original English word!)

Similarly, there are a number of international bodies which try to coordinate and regulate the development of the German language in Germany, Austria and Switzerland. I'm not sure, but I don't think even the Germans are prepared to put up with too much in the way of high-handed diktats from these people. Certainly, the recent spelling reforms have met with sustained and bitter opposition from many members of the German-speaking public (even though they were much less extreme than those introduced by George and Co. with Kernowek Kemyn

The Welsh seem to take a more enlightened attitude to all this. The definitive Welsh dictionary (Geiriadur Prifysgol Cymru) is full of loan-words (mostly from English, of course), and there's a continuing series of booklets of specialised vocabulary from the Terminology Committee (Pwyllgor y Termau). All these make recommendations rather than try to lay down the law. For the Welsh, it seems to be less a matter of Linguistic Correctness, and more one of using an appropriate style in what you write and say. The attempt to offer a compromise form of the language in the 1960s and '70s (Cymraeg Byw - Living Welsh) was largely a failure; the Welsh-speaking population ignored it, and learners were the only ones who used it. The movement was successful in encouraging the creation of copious new learning materials, but it's now just a footnote in the history of the language.

By contrast, here in Cornish, we have the KK Kommissars of the Kesva (the so-called Kesvapo) laying down the law to those who use Kemyn (the 'Perfect Cornish' as they've called it), and using every underhand trick in the book to try and traduce and destroy all the other forms of Cornish. They have indeed done damage to the Revival, despite their repeated denials to the contrary, but they have—unsurprisingly—failed to suppress growing dissent, even amongst their own followers. One has to wonder if the KK experiment will end up like that of Cymraeg Byw; could it be that in time it'll be looked back on not as 'Kemyn Bew'—but as Kemyn Marow? :)

"Tremblez! Vos projets parricides / Vont enfin recevoir leurs prix!"
as it says grandiloquently in the Marseillaise.
(Tremble! Your parricidal projects / Will gain at last their just rewards!)

Interestingly enough, a browse through the archives of CornishOrthography (http://groups.yahoo.com/group/cornishorthography/messages) shows how fixated many of the KKists are with 'authority'; it seems as if their world-view centres on this concept, as if they have a collective dose of folie de puissance. This partly explains why the KK apparatchiki are so relentlessly opposed to all the other forms of Cornish. They don't have any 'authority' over them, real or imagined. Of course, any 'authority' they believe they have over the KK faithful is only illusory (in the Buddhist/Hindu sense of maya), as is the whole top-down, authoritarian structure that is the World of Kenewek, but they are quite blind to that reality.

There's a cautionary note to this tale that should be considered by those who are currently advocating orthographic change for the Cornish language. Unified Cornish Revised and the forthcoming Single Written Form can only be paradigms or examples for people to follow—their advocates will have no authority whatsoever to dictate what will be, although they may well be influential and persuasive if their ideas are good. The Kemyn Kabal made this mistake, and still make it to this day; others must not repeat it!