Agan Tavas

Agan Tavas (Our Language)^[1] is a society which exists to promote the Cornish language^[2] and is represented on Rosweyth^{[clarification needed]}. It was formed in 1987 to promote the use of Cornish as a spoken language in the Cornish revival (Cornish: Dasserghyans Kernowek). At that time only those observed to be using the language fluently could become members by invitation. In 1990 Agan Tavas was reformed by its members into an open society^{[citation needed]} with the aim of ensuring continued support for the Unified form of revived Cornish^[3] first put forward in 1929 by Robert Morton Nance.

Orthographic Standards

Agan Tavas recognises the validity of any form of Revived Cornish based on orthography used by Cornish people at any time in the history of the language. It deprecates excessive invention in Revived Cornish.

At present, Agan Tavas supports the amendments made to Unified Cornish by Nicholas Williams of University College Dublin but respects the rights of its members to use either Unified Cornish or Unified Cornish Revised. It maintains a list of classes using historical Cornish, organises events for its members and publishes books in both Unified and Unified Cornish Revised. It produces for its members the four monthly bilingual magazine, An Gowsva "The Talking Shop".

Looking to the Future

Both previous Chairmen, Andrew Climo and the late Craig Weatherhill, have been advocates of bringing the language community together by means of a Standard Written Form based on traditional forms of Cornish. At an extraordinary general meeting in September 2008, the membership of the Society overwhelmingly voted to support the Standard Written Form (albeit in such a manner that would protect the teaching of the traditional language), as well as the orthography known as Kernowek Standard.^{[citation needed]}

Agan Tavas is attracting a few new members who have learned Cornish in the Standard Written Form. The house magazine, An Gowsva, publishes articles in the Standard Written Form and Kernowek Standard but in their forms which allow for the use of the 'traditional graphs'.

References

^ Spolsky, Bernard (2 April 2009). Language Management. Cambridge University Press. p. 238. ISBN 978-0-521-51609-9.
^ Smith, Steven (23 July 2020). "Community in mourning for 'truly great Cornishman' from Falmouth who has passed away". Falmouth Packet. Retrieved 10 August 2024.
^ Judge, Anne (7 February 2007). Linguistic Policies and the Survival of Regional Languages in France and Britain. Palgrave Macmillan. p. 181. ISBN 978-0-230-28617-7.