The BBC has launched a new podcast aimed at teaching the Cornish language, with Radio 1 host Danni Diston at the helm. The programme, titled Learn Cornish, arrives just months after Kernewek was granted enhanced protected status under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages.
Podcast Details
Listeners tuning in on Friday will hear Diston, who hails from north Cornwall, alongside co-presenter Sarah Buck, a fluent Kernewek speaker. The weekly episodes are designed to introduce basic phrases in the Cornish language, with guests including Bafta-winning director Mark Jenkin.
Diston admitted she initially knew little Cornish beyond small words learned growing up, mainly dialect. She said: "The idea would be to learn alongside other people." She credits her student days in Cardiff for discovering the "Celtic connection" between Kernewek and Welsh, citing similar terms like hireth (hiraeth in Welsh) that evoke emotions difficult to capture in English.
Cultural Resurgence
The podcast launch follows Kernewek achieving Part III status under the European charter, placing it on a par with Welsh, Irish, and Scottish Gaelic. This status requires the government to actively promote the language in education and media. Currently, public service broadcasting in Kernewek is limited to weekly news bulletins on BBC Radio Cornwall, which is producing the podcast from its Truro studios.
Steph Marshall, head of the BBC's West and South West region, acknowledged there is "a long way to go" before enough Cornish speakers justify a separate division like BBC Radio Cymru or BBC Alba, but hopes the podcast is a start. She described it as "a sort of poetry to Cornwall."
Cornwall recently celebrated St Piran's Day amid a cultural revival, with filmmakers often at the forefront of promoting the language. A Cornish national cinema movement, pioneered by works like Jenkin's Bait and Rose of Nevada, has emerged alongside singers such as Gwenno Saunders. At the annual Lorient festival in Brittany, the world's largest celebration of Celtic cultures, Cornwall will be honored as this year's featured nation.
Community Engagement
Beyond the studio, Learn Cornish will see Diston venture out to meet surfers and visit one of the first primary schools to advance the use of Kernewek among pupils. Diston said: "I think people forget that Cornwall feels like its own family and its own community. So if you can actually speak the language as well, just a little bit like throwing in a dydh da (hello) or meur ras (thank you) it just makes you a bit closer. I've felt closer to Cornwall since doing it."
