Why I tried this

I do not get many opportunities to practise speaking Cornish with other people, so I wanted a way to work independently on pronunciation, rhythm and fluency.

One technique I find useful is shadowing: listening closely to a fluent speaker and then trying to reproduce the speech as accurately as possible. I often use Cornish-language BBC news reports for this because they provide short examples of natural, fluent speech.

My workflow is to save a short section of audio and its transcript, place both in Obsidian, listen repeatedly, and then record my own version for comparison.

Demonstration

I first listen to a short section of the original recording while following the transcript. I then repeat or shadow the speaker and record my own version in Obsidian.

I often make several attempts, listening carefully for:

• individual sounds;
• word stress;
• rhythm and pitch;
• linking between words;
• the overall pace of the sentence.

When the original is too fast, I slow it down in Audacity using Change Tempo, which reduces the speed without changing the pitch.

What this shows

This gives me a form of speaking practice even when no conversation partner is available. It encourages very close listening and makes pronunciation differences easier to notice.

It is also useful because the material comes from fluent speakers using Cornish naturally, rather than from isolated textbook sentences. The same approach could work well for learners of other minority languages wherever short recordings and transcripts are available.

Technical notes

Tools used

• A web browser to access the BBC Cornish news and copy the transcript
• Audio Hijack to capture the audio
• Audacity to divide the recording into short, manageable sections
• Obsidian to store the transcript and audio
• Obsidian’s recording function to record my own attempt