BRETON LANGUAGE

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

History

Breton is descended from the Brythonic branch of Insular Celtic languages brought by Romano-British settlers to Brittany, perhaps from the end of the 3rd century onwards. The modern-day language most closely related to Breton is Cornish, followed by Welsh. (The other regional language of Brittany, Gallo, is a Langue d'oïl derived from Latin).
Breton is traditionally spoken in Lower Brittany, roughly to the west of a line linking Plouha and La Roche Bernard (east of Vannes). It comes from a language community between Great Britain and Armorica (present-day Brittany). It was the language of the elite until the 12th century. However, afterwards 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. There exists a limited tradition of Breton literature. 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 favouring French over the "regional" languages, more pejoratively called ''patois''. It was assumed that reactionary and monarchist forces preferred regional languages in an attempt to keep the peasant masses under-informed. Under the Third, Fourth and Fifth republics, humiliating practices geared towards stamping out Breton language and culture prevailed in state schools until the late 1960s. Even the Catholic Church finally turned against the Breton language after the Second Vatican Council.
Today, despite the political centralization of France and the important influence of the media, Breton is still spoken as an everyday language by about 500,000 people. This is, however, down from 1.3 million in 1930. At the beginning of the 20th century, half the population of Lower Brittany knew only Breton, the other half being bilingual. By 1950, there were only 100,000 monolingual Bretons, with even fewer nowadays.^[1] A statistical survey^[2] performed in 1997 found around 300,000 speakers in Breizh izel, of which about 190,000 were aged 60 or over. Probably less than 2% of 15-19 year-olds spoke Breton.
In 1925, thanks to Professor Roparz Hemon, the first issue appeared of the review ''Gwalarn''. During its 19-year run, ''Gwalarn'' 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'' replaced ''Gwalarn''. Other periodicals appeared and began to give Breton a fairly large body of literature for a minority language.

In 1977, Diwan schools were founded to teach Breton by immersion. They taught thousands of young people from elementary school to high school. They gained more and more fame due to their high level of results in school exams. Another proposed teaching method was a bilingual approach, promoted by ''Div Yezh'' ("Two Languages") in the State schools and ''Dihun'' ("Awakening") in the Catholic schools.
The Asterix comic series has been translated into Breton. This is notable because, according to the comic, the Gaulish village where Asterix lives is in the Armoric peninsula, which is now Brittany. Some other comics have also been translated into Breton: Tintin, Spirou, Titeuf, Hägar the Horrible, Peanuts, Yakari and so on.
Some movies (Lancelot, Shakespeare in Love, Marion du Faouet, Sezneg) and TV series (Columbo, Perry Mason) are also broadcast in Breton.
Some poets, linguists, and writers who wrote in Breton, for example Yann-Ber Kalloc'h, Roparz Hemon, Anjela Duval, Pêr-Jakez Helias, Youenn Gwernig are now known internationally.
Today, Breton is the only living Celtic language which is not recognized as an official language. The French State refuses to change the second article of the Constitution (added in 1994), which states that "the language of the Republic is French".
The first Breton dictionary, the ''Catholicon'', was also the first French dictionary. Edited by Jehan Lagadec in 1464, it was a trilingual work containing Breton, French and Latin. Today the existence of bilingual dictionaries directly from Breton into languages such as English, Dutch, German, Spanish and Welsh demonstrates the determination of a new generation to gain international recognition for Breton. There also exists a monolingual dictionary, defining Breton words in Breton.

Geographic distribution

Breton is spoken mainly in Western Brittany, but also in a more dispersed way in Eastern Brittany (where Gallo is spoken alongside Breton and French), and in areas around the world which have received Breton emigrants.

Official status

''Ofis ar Brezhoneg'', the Breton language agency, was set up in 1999 by the Bretagne region to promote and develop the use of Breton^[3]

Breton is not an official language of France, despite pleas from autonomists and others for official recognition and for the language to be guaranteed a place in schools, the media, and other aspects of 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 1992 amendment to 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. The Toubon Law states that French is the language of public education, which means that Breton-language schools do not receive funding from the state.
Nevertheless, the regional and departmental authorities do use Breton to a very limited extent insofar as they feel able, for example in signage. Some bilingual signage may also be seen, such as street name signs in Breton towns, and one station of the Rennes metro system has signs in both French and Breton.

Dialects

The dialects of Breton as identified by ethnologists are Leoneg, Tregerieg, Gwenedeg, and Kerneveg (in French, respectively: ''léonard'', ''trégorrois'', ''vannetais'', and ''cornouaillais''). There are no clear borders between those dialect areas because the language varies slightly from one village to the next. Compared to the other dialects, the Gwenedeg dialect is somewhat more distinct due several pronunciation specificities.

Sounds

	Bilabial	Labiodental	Alveolar	Postalveolar	Palatal	Velar	Labiovelar	Glottal
'Plosive'
'Nasal'
'Trill'
'Fricative'
'Approximant'
'Lateral'

Grammar

Verbal aspect

As in English and Irish, 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 neighbour") ;

★ Me 'a gomz' gant ma amezeg [bep mintin] ("I talk with my neighbour [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 Breton, Welsh, and Irish. In Literary Welsh this prepositional form is often at the end of the sentence as in other Celtic languages. Interestingly, French exhibits a similar construction to indicate possession: ''Ce livre est 'à moi''' ("This book is mine"); ''à moi'', literally, "to me".

Breton	Welsh (Northern)	Irish	Scottish Gaelic	English	Literal Translation
ul levr zo 'ganin'	mae 'gen i' lyfr	tá leabhar 'agam'	tha leabhar 'agam'	I have a book	A book is 'with-me'
ur banne zo 'ganit'	mae 'gennyt ti' ddiod	tá deoch 'agat'	tha deoch 'agad'	you have a drink	a drink is 'with-you' [sg]
un urzhiataer zo 'gantañ'	mae 'ganddo fo' gyfrifiadur	tá ríomhaire 'aige'	tha coimpiutair 'aige'	he has a computer	a computer is 'with-him'
ur bugel zo 'ganti'	mae 'ganddi hi' blentyn	tá páiste 'aici'	tha pàisde 'aice'	she has a child	a child is 'with-her'
ur c'harr zo 'ganimp' (or 'ganeomp')	mae 'gennym ni' gar	tá carr 'againn'	tha càr 'againn'	we have a car	a car is 'with-us'
un ti zo 'ganeoc'h'	mae 'gennych chi' dŷ	tá teach 'agaibh'	tha taigh 'agaibh'	you [pl] have a house	a house is 'with-you' [pl]
arc'hant zo 'ganto' (or 'gante')	mae 'ganddyn nhw' arian	tá airgead 'acu'	tha airgead 'aca'	they have money	money is 'with-them'

Initial consonant mutations

Breton has four initial consonant mutations: though modern Breton lost the nasal mutation of Welsh, it also has a 'hard' mutation, in which voiced stops become voiceless, and a 'mixed' mutation, which is a mixture of hard and soft mutations.

Consonant Mutation in Breton
Unmutated Consonant	Soft Mutation	Aspirant Mutation	Hard Mutation	Mixed Mutation
p	b	f
t	d	z
k	g	c'h
b	v		p	v
d	z		t	t
g	c'h		k	c'h
gw	w		kw	w
m	v			v

Vocabulary

★ 'Some words passed in French and in English'
The English words ''dolmen'' and ''menhir'' have been borrowed from French, which supposedly took them from Breton. However, this is uncertain: for instance, ''menhir'' is ''peulvan'' or ''maen hir'' ("long stone"), ''maen sav'' ("straight stone") (two words : noun + adjective) in Breton. ''Dolmen'' is a misconstructed word (it should be ''taol-'''v'''aen''). Some studies state that these words were borrowed from Cornish. ''Maen hir'' can be directly translated from Welsh as "long stone" (which is exactly what a Menhir / maen hir, is: a long stone).

Orthography

The first Breton texts, contained in the Leyde manuscript, were written at the end of the 8th century: fifty years prior to the Strasbourg Oaths, considered to be the earliest example of French. After centuries of orthography calqued on the French model, in the 1830s Le Gonidec created a modern phonetic system.
During the early years of the 20th century, a group of writers known as ''Emglev ar Skrivanerien'' elaborated and reformed Le Gonidec's system, making it more suitable as a super-dialectal representation of the dialects of Cornouaille, Leon and Trégor. This 'KLT' (from '''K'ernev'', '''L'eon'' and '''T'reger'', the Breton names for Cornouaille, Leon and Trégor) orthography was established in 1911. At the same time writers using the more divergent Vannetais dialect developed a system also based on that of Le Gonidec to represent their dialect.
Following proposals made during the 1920s, the KLT and Vannetais orthographies were merged in 1941 to create an orthographic system which could represent all four dialects. One of the most salient features of this 'Peurunvan' ''wholly unified'' orthography was the inclusion of the digraph, which represents a /h/ in Vannetais which corresponds to a /z/ in the KLT dialects. This digraph also provides an alternate name for the orthography: 'Zedacheg' i.e. ''ZH-ish''.
In 1955 a new orthography was proposed by François Falc'hun and the group Emgleo Breiz, which had the aim of using a set of graphemes closer to the conventions of French. This ''Orthographie Universitaire'' ("University Orthography", known in Breton as ''Skolveurieg'') was given official recognition by the French authorities as the "official orthography of Breton in French education". This orthography was met with strong opposition and is largely only used by the magazine ''Brud Nevez'' and the publishing house Emgléo Breiz.
Between 1971 and 1974 a new standard orthography has been devised - the ''etrerannyezhel'' or ''interdialectale''. This system is based on derivation of the words.
Today the majority of writers continue to use the Peurunvan orthography, including most Breton-language schools.

Differences between ''Skolveurieg'' and ''Peurunvan''

Both orthographies make use of the Latin alphabet, with the supplemental signs ''â, ê, î, ñ, ô, û, ù, ü'', and ''é'' which is used only in Skolveurieg.
Differences between the two systems are particularly noticeable in word endings. In Peurunvan final obstruents which are devoiced in absolute final position and voiced in sandhi before voiced sounds are represented by a grapheme indicating a voiceless sound. In OU they are written as voiced but represented as voiceless before suffixes: 'braz' ''big'', 'brasoh' ''bigger''.
In addition, Peurunvan maintains the KLT convention which distinguishes noun/adjective pairs with nouns written with a final voiced consonant and adjectives with a voiceless one. There is, however, no distinction in pronunciation, e.g. 'brezhoneg' ''Breton language'' vs. 'brezhonek' ''Breton (adj)''.
Some examples of words in both orthographies:
(1956)'

''glaw''	''glav''	''glao''
''piw''	''piv''	''piou''
''levr''	''levr''	''leor''
''ewid''	''evit''	''evid''
''gant''	''gant''	''gand''
''anezhi''	''anezhi''	''anezi''
''ouzhpenn''	''ouzhpenn''	''ouspenn''
''brawañ''	''bravañ''	''brava''
''pelec'h''	''pelec'h''	''peleh''

Examples

Bilingual signage in Quimper/Kemper. Note the use of the word ''ti'' in the Breton for ''police station'' and ''tourist office'', plus the variant ''da bep lec'h'' for ''all directions''.

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

'BRETON'	'ENGLISH'
degemer mat	welcome
deuet mat oc'h	you're welcome
Breizh	Brittany
brezhoneg	Breton ''(language)''
ti, "ty"	house
ti-kêr	town hall
kreiz-kêr	town centre
da bep lec'h	all directions
skol	school
skol-veur	university
bagad	pipe band ''(nearly)''
fest-noz	lit. "night fete", a "day fete" also exists, known as : fest deiz
kenavo	goodbye
krampouezh	pancakes (''a'' pancake = ur grampouezh''enn'')
chistr	cider
chouchen	special Breton hydromel
war vor atao	always at sea

External links

★ Breton site including online lessons

★ Breton site with learners' forum and lessons (mostly in French with some English)

★ 100 Words relating to the internet in Breton

★ Amsez Wask Breizh News in breton language from agence bretagne presse

★ Bretagne Réunie

★ BLOG BREIZH - Blog of information about Brittany with some very interesting articles about Breton language

★ A Taste of Breton Verse

★ Irish and Breton language with Japanese translation incl.pronunciation sound files

References

1. [2]
2. Fañch Broudic, ''Qui parle breton aujourd'hui? Qui le parlera demain?'' Brest: Brud Nevez, 1999
3. Ofis ar Brezhoneg

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