On-line Lessons

I'd like to try and learn Breton using the on-line lessons. The problem is, however, you have to be online to access them. I'd like to be able to download them to my PC so I could work on them off-line without the internet costs. Is this possible? I can't download the present site because of all the frames.
Incidentally, there is are Cornish lessons on-line which can be downloaded in acrobat format. Is there any way the Breton lessons could be available in the same format?

Thanks,

Nigel

The breton lessons are not yet available in printable format (PDF) since the corresponding book is sold by another organization -- ours could not afford the publishing and diffusion costs of a book, so we gave our rights on the paper version to TES (Ti Embann ar Skolioù).

You can download a zip archive from our FTP site : ftp://kervarker.org/pub

Sincerely,

Kervarker Team.

Please let me know where this Cornish course is available from.

Thanks,

Capt. M.

The on-line Cornish lessons (that I am aware of) are at http://www.clas.demon.co.uk/.

David

Thanks. I'm rushing there!
Capt. M.

While I don't want to criticise people who are probably doing their best, I must warn you that the Cornish material referred to unfortunatly contains a number of very basic grammatical mistakes. This is separate from the issue of spelling. Agan Tavas are a splinter group that cling to an obsolete spelling system that 90% of Cornish teachers and fluent speakers abandoned more than ten years ago. Not all the sounds of the language are properly distinguished and vowel length can only be shown by adding diacritics. Unfortunately Cornish seems to be mainly represented on the web by fringe groups at the moment. I'm trying to get some mainstream material put up but it may take a while. I'm sorry if this post is a bit negative, but it's probably better to know the bad news now rather than later.

Kyn na vynnav vy krodhvolaz erbynn tuz ow kul gwella gyllyn, rez yw dhymm agas gwarnya boz an stuz Kernewek kyns-kampoellyz gans fowtow, hag ynni nebez kammow gramazek sempel. Diberthyz yw hemma a-dhiworth an mater a lytherennans. Bagaz skethrenn yw 'Agan Tavas', hag ow talghenn yn lytherennans gezyz nans yw moy ez deg blydhen gans brassa rann a dhyskadoryon ha tuz freth. Nyns yw pub son y'n yeth diberthyz yn ewn, ha ny hyllir displetya hirder bogalennow heb merkennow kewerryz. Gwetha pryz, y'n eur-ma an brassa rann a Gernewek war an gwiaz yw diworth bagazow ordirek a'n par-ma. Yth ezov vy owth assaya kavoez stuz ewn gorryz y'n gwias mez rez gortos pols. Drog yw genev an post-ma dhe voz tamm digolonnek, mez gwell klywez an fell-nowodhow dhe gynsa agez a-woza.

Markonatrix

Where should I turn to then?

The best I can find at present is :

http://www.kernewek.currantbun.com/lessons1.html

Unfortunately it doesn't go very far, but what's there is OK. There used to be at least one other site with lessons but it seems to have disappeared. Another site you might find useful, since it has texts, music, translations and sound files is :

http://www.liv.ac.uk/~evansjon/cornish/intro.html

I'm asking friends who teach Cornish to let me put their material on the web and if necessary I'm use my own material, but this will take a little time.

There is a well established correspondence course available from :

Kernewek dre Lyther, 6 Halton Road, Sutton Colefield B73 6NP, Great Britain.

Finally, I'd be happy to try and answer any questions you may have, either on this board (if the Bretons will indulge us) or by e-mail to carrot@clara.net. If I don't know the answer I can always ask an duz moy skentel agesov vy.

The best I can find at present is :

http://www.kernewek.currantbun.com/lessons1.html

Unfortunately it doesn't go very far, but what's there is OK. There used to be at least one other site with lessons but it seems to have disappeared. Another site you might find useful, since it has texts, music, translations and sound files is :

http://www.liv.ac.uk/~evansjon/cornish/intro.html

I'm asking friends who teach Cornish to let me put their material on the web and if necessary I'll use my own material, but this will take a little time.

There is a well established correspondence course available from :

Kernewek dre Lyther, 6 Halton Road, Sutton Colefield B73 6NP, Great Britain.

Finally, I'd be happy to try and answer any questions you may have, either on this board (if the Bretons will indulge us) or by e-mail to carrot@clara.net. If I don't know the answer I can always ask an duz moy skentel agesov vy.

I'm somewaht sceptic to the views expressed here, since they seem to be quite one-sided. Agan Tavas represent the Revised Unified Cornish, which is considered by professional Celticists to be the most original form of Cornish. The other kind of Cornish, Kemmyn, has been developed by persons without any expert knowledge of the Celtic languages, and is considered by Celticists to be a bogus form of Cornish.

Unfortunately, most Cornish groups seem to be more interested in fighting each other than promoting the language, which is quite off-putting.

Please understand that I myself do not take either's part, I just want to point out a view that hasn't been expressed here.

Markonatrix wrote:
-------------------------------
The best I can find at present is :

http://www.kernewek.currantbun.com/lessons1.html

Unfortunately it doesn't go very far, but what's there is OK. There used to be at least one other site with lessons but it seems to have disappeared. Another site you might find useful, since it has texts, music, translations and sound files is :

http://www.liv.ac.uk/~evansjon/cornish/intro.html

I'm asking friends who teach Cornish to let me put their material on the web and if necessary I'll use my own material, but this will take a little time.

There is a well established correspondence course available from :

Kernewek dre Lyther, 6 Halton Road, Sutton Colefield B73 6NP, Great Britain.

Finally, I'd be happy to try and answer any questions you may have, either on this board (if the Bretons will indulge us) or by e-mail to carrot@clara.net. If I don't know the answer I can always ask an duz moy skentel agesov vy.

Thanks for your (repeatedly echoed) answer -- some problem with your server, I guess!
The probem of spelling seems to be a real problem to all endangered languages. I have no opinion (of course!) of what the situation is for Cornish. But on the whole, I am not sure that reforming the spelling is a great help for their survival. At least, it resulted into a real disaster in the case of Occitan(ic ?), although the reform (in the first half of 19th cent.) was backed by a strong literary movement.

Sorry about the repeats, I've asked the webmaster to delete them.

I don't really want to wast my time arguing the pros and cons of the different forms of Cornish, the speakers and teachers of the language have already made their choice, but there remain a number of small fringe groups that have a high profile on the web, out of all proportion to their support in the real world.

The spelling of Cornish was first standardised in the late 1920's in a rather ad hoc way. It was revised about 12 years ago on the basis of a thorough study of the underlying phonology (this research earned a Doctorat du Troisieme Cycle from the UWB Brest). Kernewek Kemmyn is a modern, largely phonemic orthography, equivalent to that of modern Breton or Welsh. If Agan Tavas had an equivalent in Breizh they'd be trying to get everyone to go back to writing "quentaff", "eux", "quet" etc because these are authentic, traditional forms, whereas the modern systems are 'artificial' and 'invented' and the work of just one or two people.

However as I said before, regardless of the spelling system you use, the Agan Tavas lessons have a lot of mistakes in basic grammer -- incorrect mutations, wrong genders, that sort of thing.

Despite what you might be led to believe, there is only one Cornish Language (however you choose to write it). As for "celtic scholars" they'd rather it was dead that alive because that way their job is much easier. The realisation that it's becoming a living, growing, changing, spoken language beyond their control, fills them with terror.

Don't get me wrong, I support the Cornish language in whatever form it is spoken, and would certainly wish that it continues to grow. The remark that Celtic scholars would want Cornish to be dead is both false and insulting. Most Celtic Scholars I know support the Cornish Language. Having said this, I would propose that we return to the subject of this message board, the Breton language.

Abaoe 1995	Brezhoneg · Français · English · Español · Deutsch

learning

On-line Lessons