The effects of translation on the Revived Cornish literary system

Abstract After reviewing the role played by translation for minority languages beyond its basic communicative function, the paper provides an overview of the Cornish language revival and the ensuing spelling conflict together with its body of modern literature. This constitutes the backdrop for the detailed analysis of the key role played by translation in the evolution of modern Cornish literature and by extension the revitalisation process as a whole, covering such aspects as the adult and children’s genres and the source languages as well as the important bearing translation has on the orthographies used. The paper concludes that the reduced scale of Cornish literature, in turn reflecting its low number of speakers, and its heavy reliance on translation render it highly vulnerable to major distortions caused by a very small number of players (translators and publishers) guided by their own personal preferences. This spontaneous dynamic may detract from the potential for translation to reinvigorate the literature available to would-be speakers. A more concerted and coherent translation policy would help boost language planning efforts as a whole.