Matter do ut?

A symbolic shift occurred in the status of the Cornish language, Kernowek, on 27th November 2025. This symbolic shift saw Kernowek move technically from Part II to Part III of the Council of Europe’s Framework Convention for the Protection of National Minorities. What I now look to see is how Cornwall Council intends to translate this symbolic shift into meaningful action which will result in positive change to specifically support established members of the Cornish National Minority.

In view of our unique language ecology, which of course includes both Cornu-English (our Cornish dialect) and Kernowek (our Cornish language), I have three questions for Cornwall Council, the body accountable for translating this symbolic change in status into reparative justice for Kernow.

What is the coherent, cohesive, costed and Kernow-specific language model that Cornwall Council will be working with in order to translate the shift in status of 2025 into a shift into practise, to support the Cornish National Minority, going forward?
What actions is Cornwall Council taking to link this culturally and historically located language model with contextualised reparative education for Kernow through a Kernow-centric educational curriculum?
What strategy does Cornwall Council have in place to support social justice across the board in Kernow following the shift to Part III status for the language – and in relation to devolution and decolonial praxis?

This chance will never come again. It is now that Cornwall needs to respond with a thoroughly researched, costed and culturally specific model for the future protections of the Cornish language and for the distinct identity of the Cornish National Minority. In practical terms, this model needs to consider the level of buy-in by Cornwall Council, together with good public consultation across Cornwall to ensure that the voices of members of the Cornish National Minority are properly heard. We need to be consulted on what we want, and on what we are prepared to pay for. The process of model building and model evaluation for Kernow is required to be transparent – with full adherence to the law.

The onus is on Cornwall Council to work closely with members of the Cornish National Minority in establishing and sharing a language model for Kernow that is coherent, contextually and historically appropriate, and tailor-made for our unique circumstances. This model must be linked to Kernow-centric curricula that demonstrate decolonial practice.

Alan Kent, Cornish academic, writer and cultural theorist, argues that ‘In Cornwall…it has… been remarkably difficult to make people aware of the delicate and important interaction between Cornish-speaking and English-speaking language groups, not to mention Cornish and English literatures, without even considering the extra complexity of Cornu-English dialect’.

Alan Kent further notes that ‘Cornish language scholars deal with Cornish language and Cornish literature; dialectologists, ‘English’ literary scholars and others deal with the English language. This reluctance to deal with them in tandem needs to change’. The change, he suggests, comes from ‘moving towards a system of ‘green’ socio-linguistics‘: one where, he comments, ‘we should be sceptical about lamenting a loss of Cornish cultural identity, when we are actually witnessing dynamic language evolution’.

It needs to be recognised that Cornish identity did not cease at the point of the 1549 Prayer Book Rebellion. Not did it cease with the growth of industrialisation. Nor did it cease with the increase in exploitation of Cornish resources and the long, grinding attempts at ongoing assimilation by the English – now not helped by the additional incursions and distortions of AI.

Cornish identity survived through our adaptive linguistic ecology, which features both Kernowek and Cornu-English: equally important and complementary planks of our unique history, context, identity and nationhood.

As a member of the Cornish National Minority, I am well aware of the long-standing lack of social justice for members of the indigenous population here. The action, or failure to act, by Cornwall Council in respect of this unique opportunity will, for me, be a litmus test of humanity’s willingness to stand up to the processes of soft colonisation, colonisation, and assimilation which do constitute a form of genocide. Kernow’s language ecology as a whole needs to be accounted for here, as all of this relates to the unique identity of the Cornish National Minority. Let’s see the critical moral challenge responded to with integrity in a way that is holistic, historically, ecologically and socio-linguistically aware, culturally safe and truly congruent with our unique linguistic and national identity – accounting for our Cornu- English as well as our Kernowek.