mōdgethanc wrote:Ciarán12 wrote:I don't see how you get from a completely impressionistic assessment that Cornish sounds like English from the people you've heard to "Cornish is relexified English". You can't possibly make that kind of assessment without having studied the language, and those that have seem to have a very different opinion.
Well, to be fair, linguists do make statements about languages without having studied them all the time.
I just think that that specifically is a statement you can't really make without having some knowledge about it. Also, it seems to be contrary to what I've been told by people who have studied it, so I'm wondering why someone who hasn't studied it would insist that that was the case when others who have are saying the opposite.
mōdgethanc wrote:Your pessimism is more worrying. Anyway, I don't see how he is being complacent, he has every reason to be confident in the progress Cornish has made, it's the others that are on the way to the grave.
Even Irish and Welsh?
Even Irish and Welsh are on their way to the grave or even Irish and Welsh are making good progress?
mōdgethanc wrote:morlader wrote:What worries me is when people who have no first-hand experience of the situation make pronouncements of the imminent death of a language based on statistics of number of speakers and what little they can find on the internet.
What do you want us to do? Make a quick trip to Cornwall and then get back to you?
No, but like I said, Morlader has studied the language and does live in Cornwall and he says Revived Cornish is anything but relexified English, so I was wondering why Saim was so sure that's what it was/would become.
linguoboy wrote:Statistics can't capture everything about a situation and, when it comes to linguistic competency, they're particularly suspect. If you believe the official statistics, there are nearly three times as many "speakers" of Irish as of Welsh. But you don't have to spend much time in the two countries to say which has the more vibrant linguistic culture.
I agree, and I don't think anyone really takes the statistics on Irish speakers (particularly the ridiculously optimistic ones) seriously. I also think there is somthing to be said for being involved in the community, living in the country and getting a first-hand feel for the kinds of situations people are in and the ideas they express, both the people who form part of the linguistic community and everyone else in the country. I mean, you obviously have to recognise the importance of the role played by the anlgophone majorities in these countries in the future of the languages, and Molader and I form part of those majorities, so naturally we would have an insight that you wouldn't. That's not to say your research isn't valid, but we can actually see what the societies are like around us as well as read the statistics.