外国语言学专业备考英美文学经验（仅几百人使用的欧语）

整理翻译：兰桂姬语言文化

文中引用部分是中国英语教学中很少涉及的语法部分，就是说，即便我们在中学学习许多语法但是语法在实际英语世界经常是变幻莫测，这也是我一直强调语法无用论的原因，尽管它有些用处，但是几乎没什么用处，因为语言更偏向于一种社会心理学范畴的易变和从众改变的发音系统。

What’s it like to speak a minority language?说少数民族语言是什么感觉？

康沃尔的Polperro的岸

There are 79 minority languages recognised by The European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. The charter covers many majority languages spoken in other countries, for example Polish speakers in Ukraine.《欧洲区域或少数民族语言宪章》承认了 79 种少数民族语言。该宪章涵盖了其他国家使用的许多主流语言，例如乌克兰的波兰语使用者。

But it also covers some languages spoken by no more than a few hundred people.但它也涵盖了不超过几百人使用的一些语言。

This week, it’s the Cornish language. A member of the Celtic language family, Cornish or Kernewek originates in Cornwall, at the southwestern tip of England.本周，它是康沃尔语。作为凯尔特语系的一员，康沃尔语或克纽维克起源于英格兰西南端的康沃尔

A descendant of Common Brittonic - the language spoken in Britain before Roman rule or Saxon invasion - Cornish pre-dates English as a language of the British Isles.普通布里顿语的后裔——在罗马统治或撒克逊人入侵之前在英国使用的语言——康沃尔语早于英语作为不列颠群岛的语言。

圣皮兰旗帜是康沃尔的旗帜

Cornish was most popular between 1200 and 1600 AD, when nearly 40,000 people spoke it. It's also a sister language of Welsh and Breton and shares a lot of the same vocabulary.康沃尔语在公元 1200 年至 1600 年间最为流行，当时有近 40,000 人使用它。它也是威尔士语和布列塔尼语的姐妹语言，并且有很多相同的词汇。

The language almost became extinct in the 19th century, but was revived in the early 20th century.该语言在 19 世纪几乎绝迹，但在 20 世纪初又恢复了活力。

The near extinction of the language is covered in Matthi ab Dewi’s book, ‘Like a Buried City’, which follows a family in the late 18th century who are dealing with the prospect of their language dying out.马蒂·阿布·德维 (Matthi ab Dewi) 的书《像一座被埋葬的城市》(Like a Buried City) 讲述了这种语言几乎灭绝的情况，该书讲述了 18 世纪后期的一个家庭，他们正在应对他们的语言即将消亡的前景。

“It was very much on the brink, in that the last people with traditional knowledge were just dying off as the revival began,” Matthi says.“它几乎濒临灭绝，因为随着复兴的开始，最后一批拥有传统知识的人正在消亡，”马蒂说。

While other minority languages like Welsh are represented by their own country in the UK, Cornwall’s lack of independence means its often been forgotten in language education legislation.虽然威尔士语等其他少数民族语言在英国由他们自己的国家代表，但康沃尔缺乏独立性意味着它经常被语言教育立法所遗忘。

“Wales, as it is treated as a separate country from England, comes under separate governments and laws, which means that it has a Welsh Language Act," explains Matthi.“威尔士被视为与英格兰不同的国家，受不同的政府和法律管辖，这意味着它有威尔士语言法，”马蒂解释道。

Truro cathedral on the shore in CornwallCanva Truro cathedral on the shore in CornwallCanva

"In Cornwall, we are treated as part of England, which means that we don't have any Cornish Language Act, or any separate legislation to mean that we can acces funding to any degree, and support things like education, support for teachers, or support for broadcasting.”“在康沃尔，我们被视为英格兰的一部分，这意味着我们没有任何康沃尔语言法案或任何单独的立法，这意味着我们可以获得任何学位的资助，并支持教育、支持教师、或支持广播。”

According to a survey in 2011, there are around 600 Cornish speakers in the UK today, with 500 of them living in Cornwall.根据 2011 年的一项调查，今天英国约有 600 名说康沃尔语的人，其中 500 人居住在康沃尔。

With so few speakers, it was somewhat difficult to find someone to speak to about the language. After reaching out, one person told me that many Cornish speakers were reluctant to be interviewed.由于发言者如此之少，要找到可以谈论该语言的人有点困难。联系后，一个人告诉我，许多讲康沃尔语的人都不愿意接受采访。

“We either get portrayed completely wrongly or have our time wasted and end up on the cutting room floor,” she explained.“我们要么被完全错误地描绘出来，要么浪费了我们的时间，最终被扔到了剪辑室的地板上，”她解释道。

“There’s been some good articles,” Matthi ab Dewi says. “But very often there’s a jokey aspect to it.”“有一些很好的文章，”Matthi ab Dewi 说。 “但经常只是开玩笑。”

Matthi grew up in Liskeard in Cornwall and he has a familial link to the area through his great grandmother and great aunts.马蒂在康沃尔郡的利斯卡德长大，通过他的曾祖母和曾姑姑与该地区有着家族联系。

Although he didn’t grow up speaking Cornish, he was driven by an interest in his personal history, and decide to study the language at the City Literary Institute in Holborn, London.尽管他从小就不会说康沃尔语，但出于对个人历史的兴趣，他决定在伦敦霍尔本的城市文学学院学习这种语言。

A map of Cornwall in the south west of EnglandCanva A map of Cornwall in the south west of EnglandCanva

While some schools in Cornwall are teaching the language, it’s still uncommon. The Go Cornish programme was created in 2021 to give primary school teachers the resources to start introducing young children to Cornish.虽然康沃尔的一些学校正在教授这种语言，但这种情况仍然不常见。 Go Cornish 计划创建于 2021 年，旨在为小学教师提供资源，让他们开始将幼儿介绍给 Cornish。

Matthi believes the best way to grow the language is for children to be immersed in it. That would mean learning it at school and speaking it at home.Matthi 认为，让孩子们沉浸在语言中是发展语言的最佳方式。那将意味着在学校学习它并在家里说它。

Some kids cartoons like Peppa Pig have been translated into Cornish, but often it’s just one or two episodes which isn’t enough to provide an immersive experience.一些像小猪佩奇这样的儿童卡通片已经被翻译成康沃尔语，但通常只有一两集不足以提供身临其境的体验。

It’s partly why Matthi started his Cornish language radio show. His weekly show is entirely in Cornish with music and interviews.这也是马蒂开始他的康沃尔语广播节目的部分原因。他的每周节目完全在康沃尔语中进行，有音乐和采访。

“The idea is that if you are fluent, it's something to have on for an hour,” Matthi explains.“我们的想法是，如果你能流利，那就可以坚持一个小时，”Matthi 解释道。

“But I say to people to treat it like a normal radio, you don't actually listen to everything on the radio, it's on in the background. So you pick up on things.”“但我告诉人们要把它当作普通的收音机来对待，你实际上并没有听收音机里的所有东西，它是在后台播放的。所以你要收拾东西。”

Matthi wants as many people as possible to be able to appreciate and enjoy the language. And while more people are taking an interest, there’s still a shortage of fluent speakers to chat to.马蒂希望尽可能多的人能够欣赏和享受这种语言。虽然越来越多的人对此感兴趣，但仍然缺乏可以与之交谈的流利演讲者。

“I can bump into people in my local town who speak Cornish, but I think there's still a level of people who aren't confident in their Cornish to be able to suddenly launch into something on any topic,” he says.“我可以在我当地的城镇碰到说康沃尔语的人，但我认为仍然有一定程度的人对他们的康沃尔语没有信心，无法突然就任何话题展开讨论，”他说。

In Camborne, where Matthi lives, there’s a Cornish language shop that he likes to go to for a cup of tea and a chat.在马蒂居住的坎伯恩，有一家康沃尔语商店，他喜欢去那里喝杯茶聊天。

“It's great to be able to take something so old into the modern age, and give it continued life. And when you go around Cornwall, you see all the Cornish language in place names and realise that you can understand what the hell they were talking about when they named the place.”“能够将如此古老的东西带入现代，并使之重生，真是太好了。当你环游康沃尔时，你会在地名中看到所有的康沃尔语，并意识到你可以理解他们在给这个地方命名时到底在说什么。”

Matthi has fully embraced his Cornish identity, a strong identity which is separate from the majority English nationality. Born Matthew Clarke, he adopted a Cornish form of his first name while learning the language. He changed his surname to follow the Cornish patronymic tradition after his father died 10 years ago.马蒂完全接受了他的康沃尔身份，这是一种与大多数英国国籍不同的强烈身份。他出生于马修克拉克，在学习语言时采用了康沃尔语形式的名字。 10年前父亲去世后，他改姓以遵循康沃尔父系传统。

When asked why people should bother with a language that current estimates suggest only 500 to 600 people actually speak, he’s emphatic of its cultural importance.当被问及为什么人们应该为目前估计只有 500 到 600 人实际使用的语言而烦恼时，他强调了它的文化重要性。

“If there's one interesting building, which shouldn't be knocked down, you get a big campaign in the paper. Save this building! Put all the money into saving this piece of built heritage,” he says.“如果有一座有趣的建筑，不应该被推倒，你就会在报纸上大肆宣传。拯救这座建筑！把所有的钱都花在拯救这片建筑遗产上，”他说。

“But when it's oral heritage, or something which is intangible heritage, people seem to think intangible heritage is unimportant. If it's made out of bricks and stuff that you can drop it on your foot or run into it, then they think we'll save that.“但当它是口头遗产或非物质遗产时，人们似乎认为非物质遗产并不重要。如果它是用砖头和东西制成的，你可以把它扔在脚上或撞到它，那么他们认为我们会保存它。

"But the oral and the intangible culture is just as important, if not more important, so why not spend the same amount of money on building that up?”“但是口头文化和非物质文化同样重要，甚至更重要，所以为什么不花同样多的钱来建立它呢？”

来源：European Minority Languages: Meet the radio host trying to keep Cornish alive | Euronews

采访人：欧洲新闻

被采访人：马蒂