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Breton language

This page is about the Breton language. For the author, see André Breton.

Breton (Brezhoneg) is a Celtic language spoken by some of the inhabitants of Brittany in France.


Breton (Brezhoneg)
Spoken in: France
Region: Brittany
Total speakers: 500,000
Ranking: Not in top 100
Genetic
classification:
Indo-European

 Celtic
  Insular
   Brythonic
    Breton

Official status
Official language of: -
Regulated by: -
Language codes
ISO 639-1 br
ISO 639-2 bre
SIL BRT


Contents

History

Breton is not thought to be a modern-day descendant of any continental Celtic language such as Gaulish, though evidently it has borrowed some features from it, but it is rather descended from insular Brythonic. The other regional language (Gallo) derives from Latin.

Breton is traditionally spoken in Lower Brittany, roughly to the west of a line linking Plouha and Vannes. It comes from a language community between Britain and Armorica, present day Brittany. It was the language of the elite until the 12th Century. However, afterward it was only the language of the people of West Brittany (Breizh Izel), and the nobility, then successively the bourgeoisie adopted French. As a written language, the Duchy of Brittany used Latin, switching to French in the 15th Century. It should be noted that Old Breton has left some vocabulary which has served in the present day to produce philosophical and scientific terms in Modern Breton.

The French Monarchy never really concerned itself with the minority languages of France. The revolutionary period really started policies favoring French over the "regional" languages, more pejoritively called "patois". According to the defenders of the Breton language, humiliating practices geared toward stamping out Breton lingered in schools and churches until the 1960s.

Today, despite the political centralization of France and the important influence of the media, Breton is still spoken and understood by about 300,000 people. This is, however, down from 1.3 million in 1930. At the beginning of the 20th Century, half the population of Lower Brittany only knew Breton, the other half being bilingual. By 1950, there were only 100,000 monolingual Bretons.

In 1925, thanks to professor Roparz Hemon , the review Gwalam came to light. During its 19 year run, it tried to raise the language to the level of other great "international" languages by creating original works covering all genres and by proposing Breton translations of internationally recognized foreign works.

In 1946, Al Liamm took up the role of Gwalam. Other reviews came into existence and gave Breton a fairly large body of literature for a minority language.

In 1977, Diwan schools were founded in order to teach Breton by immersion. They taught thousands of young people from elementary school to high school. Another teaching method proposed was a bilingual approach, Div Yezh (two languages).

Some poets, linguists, and writers who wrote in Breton are now known internationally, such as Yann-Ber Kalloc'h , Roparz Hemon , Anjela Duval and Per-Jakez Hélias .

Today, Breton is the only Celtic language which is not recognized legally. The French state has refused to change the second article of the Constitution added in 1994 which declares "The language of the Republic is French." Each year more protesters demand the repeal of this law, which is unique in Europe.

The first Breton dictionary, the Catholicon, was also the first French dictionary. Edited by Jehan Lagedec in 1464, it was a trilingual work containing Breton, French and Latin. Today bilingual dictionaries directly from Breton into languages such as English, German and Spanish show the will of a new generation to gain international recognition of Breton. A monolingual dictionary also exists, defining Breton words in Breton.

Classification

Breton, along with Cornish and Welsh, is a member of the Brythonic languages, a subgroup of the Insular subgroup of the Celtic branch of the Indo-European language family.

Geographic distribution

Breton is spoken mainly in Western Brittany, but also dispersed in Eastern Brittany, and in areas around the world where there are Breton emigrants.

Official status

Breton is not an official language of France, although there is a strong nationalistic movement and others demanding recognition, a place in the schools, media, and public life.

An attempt by the French government to incorporate the independent Breton-language immersion schools (called Diwan) into the state education system was blocked by the French Constitutional Council on the grounds that, as the Constitution of the 5th Republic states that French is the language of the Republic, no other language may be used as a language of instruction in state schools.

However, the regional and departmental authorities, in as far as they feel able, use Breton to a limited extent in signage (especially for tourism reasons). Some bilingual signage may be seen - for example one station of the Rennes metro system has signage in French and Breton.

Dialects

The dialects of Breton identified by the Ethnologue are Leonais, Tregorrois, Vannetais, and Cornouaillais.

Sounds

Grammar

Verbal Aspect

As in English and Gaelic, there are grammatical aspects for verbs in a particular tense, detailing whether or not an action is habitual. As in English, there is a distinction between the habitual form and progressive aspect:

  • Me zo o komz gant ma amezeg ("I am talking with my neighbor") ;
  • Me a gomz gant ma amezeg [bep mintin] ("I talk with my neighbor [every morning]") ;

"Conjugated" Prepositions

As in other modern Celtic languages, Breton pronouns are fused into preceding prepositions to produce a sort of "conjugated" preposition. Below are some examples in both Breton (Léon dialect) and Irish Gaelic.


Breton Irish English Literal Translation
ur levr zo ganin tá leabhar agam I have a book A book is to-me
ur banne zo ganit tá deoch agat you have a drink a drink is to to-you
un urzhiataer zo ganti tá ríomhaire aige he has a computer a computer is to-him
ur bugel zo gantañ tá páiste aici she has a child a child is to-her
ur c'harr zo ganeomp tá carr againn we have a car a car is to-us
ur stilo zo ganeoc'h tá teach agaibh you [pl] have a house a house is to-you [pl]
arc'hant zo ganto tá airgead acu they have money money is to-them


Vocabulary

The English words dolmen and menhir have been borrowed from Breton (menhir has come via French, in Breton peulvan is used).

Writing system

Breton is written using the Latin alphabet.

Examples

Visitors to Brittany may encounter words and phrases (especially on signs and posters) such as the following:

BRETON ENGLISH
deut mad oc'h welcome
Breizh Brittany
brezhoneg Breton
ti house
ti-kêr town hall
kreizkêr town centre
da bep tu all directions
skol school
skol-veur university
bagad pipe band
fest-noz ceilidh, traditional concert/dance
kenavo goodbye

About the word "Welcome", in many places one can see signs with "Degemer mat", but actually it's a completely wrong phrase in this context, for it means "good reception". When a Breton speaker needs to say "Welcome!" to someone, he says "deut mad oc'h" ("come well you-are").

See also

External links

  • Ethnologue report for Breton http://www.ethnologue.org/show_language.asp?code=BRT
  • Breton site including online lessons http://www.kervarker.org/
  • Breton - English Dictionary http://www.websters-online-dictionary.org/definition/Breton-english/ : from Webster's Online Dictionary http://www.websters-online-dictionary.org - the Rosetta Edition.
  • Breton Wikipedia http://br.wikipedia.org/wiki/Main_Page




Last updated: 02-06-2005 12:42:21
Last updated: 02-11-2005 17:47:38