Syracuse University SURFACE Dissertations - ALL SURFACE 12-2013 In Search of a Single Voice: The Politics of Form, Use and Belief in the Kernewek Language Jesse Owen Harasta Follow this and additional works at: https://surface.syr.edu/etd Part of the Anthropology Commons, and the European Languages and Societies Commons Recommended Citation Harasta, Jesse Owen, "In Search of a Single Voice: The Politics of Form, Use and Belief in the Kernewek Language" (2013). Dissertations - ALL. 22. https://surface.syr.edu/etd/22 This Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access by the SURFACE at SURFACE. It has been accepted for inclusion in Dissertations - ALL by an authorized administrator of SURFACE. For more information, please contact
[email protected]. Abstract This dissertation is based upon fieldwork performed between 2007 and 2011 in Cornwall, a region of Southwestern Britain notable for its ambiguous ethnic identity – caught between England and the Celtic nations – and its unique, revived Celtic language, Kernewek. During the course of the research, work focused upon the role of the language revival movement as a tool for ethnic identification: hardening boundaries, shoring up faltering communities and nationalist purification. However, the language movement is divided into three primary factions, which take differing approaches to the language, and to their corresponding language ideology based upon their relationship to Cornish identity. These relationships are based upon speakers’ sense of ethnic self as formed through class, kinship, linguistic self-perception, religious and political affiliations and place of birth and childhood. However, since the 2006 recognition of the language by the British states, all of these debates have become intensified due to pressure to standardize.