Agan Tavas (''Our Language'') is a society which exists to promote the

Cornish language Cornish (Standard Written Form: or ) , is a Southwestern Brittonic language of the Celtic language family. It is a revived language, having become extinct as a living community language in Cornwall at the end of the 18th century. However, ...

and is represented on the

Cornish Language Partnership The Cornish Language Partnership ( kw, Keskowethyans an Taves Kernewek , ) is a representative body that was set up in Cornwall, England, UK in 2005 to promote and develop the use of the Cornish language. It is a public and voluntary sector par ...

. It was formed in 1987 to promote the use of Cornish as a spoken language in the

Cornish revival The Cornish language revival ( kw, dasserghyans Kernowek, lit='resurrection of Cornish') is an ongoing process to revive the use of the Cornish language of Cornwall, England. The Cornish language's disappearance began to hasten during the 13th cent ...

( kw, 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 with the aim of ensuring continued support for the Unified form of revived Cornish first put forward in 1929 by

Robert Morton Nance Robert Morton Nance (1873–1959) was a British writer and leading authority on the Cornish language, a nautical archaeologist, and joint founder of the Old Cornwall Society. Nance wrote many books and pamphlets on the Cornish language, inclu ...

Orthographic Standards

Agan Tavas recognises the validity of any form of Revived Cornish based on

orthography An orthography is a set of conventions for writing a language, including norms of spelling, hyphenation, capitalization, word breaks, emphasis, and punctuation. Most transnational languages in the modern period have a writing system, and ...

used by

Cornish people The Cornish people or Cornish ( kw, Kernowyon, ang, Cornƿīelisċ) are an ethnic group native to, or associated with Cornwall: and a recognised national minority in the United Kingdom, which can trace its roots to the ancient Britons ...

at any time in the history of the language. It opposes the use of what it sees as invented forms of the language which lack any historical authenticity. Agan Tavas received a boost in its membership after 1995 when Nicholas Williams of

University College Dublin University College Dublin (commonly referred to as UCD) ( ga, Coláiste na hOllscoile, Baile Átha Cliath) is a public research university in Dublin, Ireland, and a member institution of the National University of Ireland. With 33,284 student ...

claimed in his book ''Cornish Today'' that the form of Cornish known as

Kernewek Kemmyn Kernewek Kemmyn (Common Cornish or "KK") is a variety of the revived Cornish language. Kernewek Kemmyn was developed, mainly by Ken George in 1986, based upon George's earlier doctoral thesis on the phonological history of Cornish. It takes muc ...

"Common Cornish", devised by

Ken George Kenneth John George is a British oceanographer, poet, and linguist. He is noted as being the originator of Kernewek Kemmyn, an orthography for the revived Cornish language which he claims is more faithful to Middle Cornish phonology than its prec ...

and favoured by the

Kesva an Taves Kernewek Kesva an Taves Kernewek ( Cornish for ''Cornish Language Board'') is an organisation that promotes the Cornish language. It was founded in 1967 by Gorseth Kernow and the Federation of Old Cornwall Societies. It is represented on the official lan ...

"Cornish Language Board", was badly flawed. At present, Agan Tavas supports the amendments made to Unified Cornish 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". Both previous Chairmen,

Andrew Climo Andrew Climo (born 1961) is a Cornwall-based, Cornish author and community activist. He is chief executive and founder of Community Leaders CIC, a community development agency, a Director of the Community Sector Coalition, a network for communit ...

and

Craig Weatherhill Craig Weatherhill (1950 or 1951 – 18 or 19 July 2020) was a Cornish antiquarian, novelist and writer on the history, archaeology, place names and mythology of Cornwall. Weatherhill attended school in Falmouth, where his parents ran a sports ...

, have been advocates of bringing the language community together by means of a

Standard Written Form The Standard Written Form or SWF ( kw, Furv Skrifys Savonek) of the Cornish language is an orthography standard that is designed to "provide public bodies and the educational system with a universally acceptable, inclusive, and neutral orthograph ...

based on traditional forms of Cornish. At an

extraordinary general meeting An extraordinary general meeting, commonly abbreviated as EGM, is a meeting of members of an organisation, shareholders of a company, or employees of an official body that occurs at an irregular time.' The term is usually used where the group wou ...

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 Kernowek Standard (KS, ''Standard Cornish''), its initial version spelt Kernowak Standard, is a variety of the spelling of revived Cornish. It has two specifications, the first of which was published as a draft proposal in March 2007, and the s ...

External links

Agan Tavas - website
{{Cornish language Cornish language Celtic language advocacy organizations 1987 establishments in the United Kingdom

Orthographic Standards

See also

External links