I've just watched "Never Mind the Full Stops" on BBC Four and was really p*ssed of by the round in which the contestants had to guess the dialects of different individuals.
The first clip showed a Cornish man speaking, the second showed a man with a Romany dialect.
At the end of the round the host gave a potted history of the origins of the Romany language but failed to mention the fact that many of the dialect terms used in the Cornish speech were derived not from the English language, as implied, but from Kernewek, in fact Kernewek was not mentioned at any time during this part of the show.
The contestants even made a big show of saying "It's English isn't it rather than Scottish or Welsh?"
So why has an otherwise well researched programme omitted a crucial linguistic fact that should have been integral to the answers in one of it's rounds? :shock: :shock: :shock:
(and this was all quite apart from the seemingly ubiquitous "lets laugh at the silly people with silly accents" attitude)
I saw that as well and the english bit irked me but he wasn't speaking kernewek. I went to school with that bloke and he didn't used to speak like that then. He's a farmer from buryan so maybe it's grown on him
It sparked off a debate with me and my husband about louster. We've always used it tomean something big as in geet louster but in the show last night it meant hard work as in he who cain't schemey must louster.
Can it mean different things in dfferent places? :?
'That bloke' was me although as yet I have not seen the show as we don't get bbc 4 at St.Just . I was promised a recording but ....... If you have a copy I would be pleased to see it and also find out who 'cledry maid' is in person(pm me) as you are obviously one up on me
Then I can tell you how I came to be standing on the cliff at Cot Valley, in the cold, talking to a screen and wondering how many times I would have to go over the same schpeel before I got it right!!!!!ROFL
Tim Hosken
I always assumed Louster and Louster (!) were Cornish derived words with the same PHONETIC sound but different meanings depending on the context, a bit like "to BOW" and "BOUGH of a tree" are in English.
Can we concentrate on the language first please? Let's get that out of the way, then start on the dialect! However the dialect changes so much around the Duchy that one single set of rules and pronounciations will not be enough...
That's uncharacteristically high brow of you Flamm
I'd say that the dialect is just as important as the language.
One of the best things about dialect is that it is intrinsic to a Cornish upbringing and heritage, it cannot be "learned" by all comers as the language can but it is something that you have to have grown up with. It is much more widely used than Kernewek by many more Cornish people and for many is much more recognisable as "Proper Cornish".
I found reading the K. C. Phillipps book quite enlightening as there are so many words I use and remember from childhood that I hadn't even realised were dialect!
Maybe so, but the problem with a SWF for dialect is that people's pronounciation probably varies far more than in Kernewek! I personally can't bear Les Merton's spelling but I know it's popular with other people.
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for dialect now?
