Breton language

Breton(/ˈbrɛtən/,BRET-ən,French:[bʁətɔ̃];endonym:brezhoneg[bʁeˈzɔ̃ːnɛk]or[bɾəhɔ̃ˈnek]inMorbihan) is aSouthwestern Brittonic languageof theCeltic language groupspoken inBrittany, part of modern-day France. It is the only Celtic language still widely in use on the European mainland, albeit as a member of theinsularbranch instead of thecontinentalgrouping.
Breton was brought fromGreat BritaintoArmorica(the ancient name for the coastal region that includes the Brittany peninsula) by migratingBritonsduring theEarly Middle Ages, making it anInsular Celtic language. Breton is most closely related toCornish, another Southwestern Brittonic language.Welshand the extinctCumbric, bothWestern Brittonic languages, are more distantly related, and theGoidelic languages(Irish,Manx,Scottish Gaelic) have a slight connection due to both of their origins being from Insular Celtic.
Having declined from more than one million speakers around 1950 to about 200,000 in the first decade of the 21st century, Breton is classified as "severely endangered" by the UNESCOAtlas of the World's Languages in Danger.However, the number of children attending bilingual classes rose 33% between 2006 and 2012 to 14,709.
Breton is spoken inLower Brittany(Breton:Breizh-Izel), roughly to the west of a line linkingPlouha(west ofSaint-Brieuc) andLa Roche-Bernard(east ofVannes). It comes from a Brittonic language community that once extended from Great Britain toArmorica(present-day Brittany) and had even established a toehold inGalicia(in present-day Spain). Old Breton is attested from the 9th century.It was the language of the upper classes until the 12th century, after which it became the language of commoners in Lower Brittany. The nobility, followed by thebourgeoisie, adoptedFrench. The written language of theDuchy of BrittanywasLatin, switching to French in the 15th century. There exists a limited tradition ofBreton literature. Somephilosophicaland scientific terms in Modern Breton come from Old Breton. The recognized stages of the Breton language are:Old Breton–c.800toc.1100,Middle Breton–c.1100toc.1650,Modern Breton–c.1650to present.
The French monarchy was not concerned with theminoritylanguages of France, spoken by the lower classes, and required the use of French for government business as part of its policy of national unity. During theFrench Revolution, the government introduced policies favouring French over the regional languages, which it pejoratively referred to aspatois. The revolutionaries assumed thatreactionaryandmonarchistforces preferredregional languagesto try to keep the peasant masses under-informed. In 1794,Bertrand Barèresubmitted his "report on thepatois" to theCommittee of Public Safetyin which he said that "federalism and superstition speak Breton".
Since the 19th century, under theThird,Fourthand nowFifth Republics, the French government has attempted to stamp out minority languages—including Breton—in state schools, in an effort to build a national culture. Teachers humiliated students for using their regional languages, and such practices prevailed until the late 1960s.
In the early 21st century, due to the political centralization of France, the influence of the media, and the increasing mobility of people, only about 200,000 people are active speakers of Breton, a dramatic decline from more than 1 million in 1950. The majority of today's speakers are more than 60 years old, and Breton is now classified as anendangered language.
At the beginning of the 20th century, half of the population of Lower Brittany knew only Breton; the other half were bilingual. By 1950, there were only 100,000monolingualBretons, and this rapid decline has continued, with likely no monolingual speakers left today. A statistical survey in 1997 found around 300,000 speakers in Lower Brittany, of whom about 190,000 were aged 60 or older. Few 15- to 19-year-olds spoke Breton.In 1993, parents were finally legally allowed to give their children Breton names.
In 1925, ProfessorRoparz Hemonfounded the Breton-language reviewGwalarn. During its 19-year run,Gwalarntried to raise the language to the level of a great international language.Its publication encouraged the creation of original literature in all genres, and proposed Breton translations of internationally recognized foreign works. In 1946,Al LiammreplacedGwalarn. Other Breton-language periodicals have been published, which established a fairly large body of literature for a minority language.
In 1977,Diwan schoolswere founded to teach Breton byimmersion. Since their establishment, Diwan schools have provided fully immersive primary school and partially immersive secondary school instruction in Breton for thousands of students across Brittany. This has directly contributed to the growing numbers of school-age speakers of Breton.
TheAsterixcomic series has been translated into Breton. According to the comic, theGaulishvillage where Asterix lives is in theArmorica peninsula, which is now Brittany. Some other popular comics have also been translated into Breton, includingThe Adventures of Tintin,Spirou,Titeuf,Hägar the Horrible,PeanutsandYakari.
Some original media are created in Breton. The sitcom,Ken Tuch, is in Breton.Radio Kerne, broadcasting fromFinistère, has exclusively Breton programming. Some movies (Lancelot du Lac,Shakespeare in Love,Marion du Faouet,Sezneg) and TV series (Columbo,Perry Mason) have also been translated and broadcast in Breton. Poets, singers, linguists, and writers who have written in Breton, includingYann-Ber Kallocʼh,Roparz Hemon,Añjela Duval,Xavier de Langlais,Pêr-Jakez Helias,Youenn Gwernig,Glenmor,Vefa de Saint-PierreandAlan Stivellare now known internationally.
Today, Breton is the only livingCeltic languagethat is not recognized by a national government as an official or regional language.
The first Breton dictionary, theCatholicon, was also the first French dictionary. Edited by Jehan Lagadec in 1464,it was a trilingual work containing Breton, French and Latin. Today bilingual dictionaries have been published for Breton and languages including English, Dutch, German, Spanish and Welsh. A monolingual dictionary,Geriadur Brezhoneg an Herewas published in 1995. The first edition contained about 10,000 words, and the second edition of 2001 contains 20,000 words.
In the early 21st century, theOfis Publik ar Brezhoneg("Public Office for the Breton language") began a campaign to encourage daily use of Breton in the region by both businesses and local communes. Efforts include installing bilingual signs and posters for regional events, as well as encouraging the use of theSpilhennigto let speakers identify each other. The office also started anInternationalization and localizationpolicy askingGoogle,FirefoxandSPIPto develop their interfaces in Breton. In 2004, theBreton Wikipediastarted, which counts more than 85,000 articles as of August 2024. In March 2007, theOfis ar Brezhonegsigned atripartite agreementwithRegional Council of BrittanyandMicrosoftfor the consideration of the Breton language in Microsoft products. In October 2014,Facebookadded Breton as one of its 121 languagesafter three years of talks between theOfisand Facebook.
Francehas twice chosen to enter theEurovision Song Contestwith songs in Breton; once in1996in Oslo with "Diwanit bugale" byDan Ar Brazand the fifty piece bandHéritage des Celtes, and most recently in2022in Turin with "Fulenn" byAlvan Morvan Rosiusand vocal trioAhez. These are two of five times France has chosen songs in one of itsminority languagesfor the contest, the others being in1992(bilingual French andAntillean Creole),1993(bilingual French andCorsican), and2011(Corsican).
Breton is spoken mainly in Lower Brittany, but also in a more dispersed way in Upper Brittany (where it is spoken alongsideGalloand French), and in areas around the world that have Breton emigrants.
The four traditional dialects of Breton correspond to medieval bishoprics rather than to linguistic divisions. They areleoneg(léonard, of thecounty of Léon),tregerieg(trégorrois, ofTrégor),kerneveg(cornouaillais, ofCornouaille), andgwenedeg(vannetais, ofVannes).Guérandaiswas spoken up to the beginning of the 20th century in the region ofGuérandeandBatz-sur-Mer. There are no clear boundaries between the dialects because they form adialect continuum, varying only slightly from one village to the next.Gwenedeg, however, requires a little study to be intelligible with most of the other dialects.
French is the soleofficial languageofFrance. Supporters of Breton and other minority languages continue to argue for their recognition, and for their place in education, public schools, and public life.
In July 2008, the legislature amended theFrench Constitution, adding article 75-1:les langues régionales appartiennent au patrimoine de la France(theregional languagesbelong to the heritage ofFrance).
TheEuropean Charter for Regional or Minority Languages, which obliges signatory states to recognize minority and regional languages, was signed by France in 1999 but has not been ratified. On 27 October 2015, theSenaterejected a draft constitutional law ratifying the charter.
Regional and departmental authorities use Breton to a very limited extent. Some bilingual signage has also been installed, such as street name signs in Breton towns.
Under the French law known asToubon, it is illegal for commercial signage to be in Breton alone. Signs must be bilingual or French only. Since commercial signage usually has limited physical space, most businesses have signs only in French.
Ofis Publik ar Brezhoneg, the Breton language agency, was set up in 1999 by the Brittany region to promote and develop the daily use of Breton.It helped to create theYa d'ar brezhonegcampaign, to encourage enterprises, organisations and communes to promote the use of Breton, for example by installing bilingual signage or translating their websites into Breton.
In the late 20th century, the French government considered incorporating the independent Breton-language immersion schools (calledDiwan) into the state education system. This action was blocked by the FrenchConstitutional Councilbased on the 1994 amendment to the Constitution that establishes French as the language of the republic. Therefore, no other language may be used as a language of instruction in state schools. TheToubon Lawimplemented the amendment, asserting that French is the language of public education.
TheDiwan schoolswere founded in Brittany in 1977 to teach Breton byimmersion. Since their establishment, Diwan schools have provided fully immersive primary school and partially immersive secondary school instruction in Breton for thousands of students across Brittany. This has directly contributed to the growing numbers of school-age speakers of Breton. The schools have also gained fame from their high level of results in school exams, including those on French language and literature.Breton-language schools do not receive funding from the national government, though the Brittany Region may fund them.
Another teaching method is a bilingual approach byDiv Yezh("Two Languages") in the State schools, created in 1979.Dihun("Awakening") was created in 1990 for bilingual education in the Catholic schools.
In 2018, 18,337pupils (about 2% of all students in Brittany) attendedDiwan,Div YezhandDihunschools, and their number has increased yearly. This was short of the goal ofJean-Yves Le Drian(president of theRegional Council), who aimed to have 20,000 students in bilingual schools by 2010, and of "their recognition" for "their place in education, public schools, and public life"; nevertheless he describes being encouraged by the growth of the movement.
In 2007, some 4,500 to 5,000 adults followed an evening or correspondence one Breton-language course.The transmissionof Breton in 1999 was estimated to be 3 percent.
In addition to bilingual education (including Breton-medium education) the region has introduced the Breton language in primary education, mainly in the department of Finistère. These "initiation" sessions are generally one to three hours per week, and consist of songs and games.
Schools in secondary education (collègesandlycées) offer some courses in Breton. In 2010, nearly 5,000 students in Brittany were reported to be taking this option.Additionally, the University of Rennes 2 has a Breton language department offering courses in the language along with a master's degree in Breton and Celtic Studies.
Vowels in Breton may beshort or long. All unstressed vowels are short; stressed vowels can be short or long (vowel lengths are not noted in usual orthographies as they are implicit in the phonology of particular dialects, and not all dialects pronounce stressed vowels as long). An emergence of a schwa sound occurs as a result of vowel neutralization in post-tonic position, among different dialects.
All vowels can also benasalized,which is noted by appending an 'n' letter after the base vowel, or by adding a combining tilde above the vowel (most commonly and easily done foraandodue to thePortuguese letters), or more commonly by non-ambiguously appending an⟨ñ⟩letter after the base vowel (this depends on the orthographic variant).
Diphthongs are/ai,ei,ou/.
Breton nouns are marked for gender and number. While Breton gender is fairly typical of gender systems across western Europe (with the exception of Basque and modern English), Breton number markers demonstrate rarer behaviors.
Breton has two genders: masculine (gourel) and feminine (gwregel), having largely lost its historic neuter (nepreizh) as has also occurred in the other Celtic languages as well as across the Romance languages. Certain suffixes (-ach/-aj,-(a)dur,-er, -lecʼh, -our, -ti, -va) are masculine, while others (-enti, -er, -ez, -ezh, -ezon, -i,-eg,-ell, and the singulative-enn) are feminine.The suffix-egcan be masculine or feminine.
There are certain non-determinant factors that influence gender assignment. Biological sex is applied for animate referents. Metals, time divisions (except foreur"hour",noz"night" andsizhun"week") and mountains tend to be masculine, while rivers, cities and countries tend to be feminine.
However, gender assignment to certain words often varies between dialects.
Number in Breton is primarily based on an opposition between singular and plural.However, the system is full of complexitiesin how this distinction is realized.
Although modern Breton has lost its ancestral dual number marker, relics of its use are preserved in various nouns pertaining to body parts, including the words for eyes, ears, cheeks, legs, armpits, arms, hands, knees, thighs, and wings. This is seen in a prefix (formed indaou,diordiv) that is etymologically derived from the prefixation of the number two.The dual is no longer productive, and has merely been lexicalized in these cases rather than remaining a part of Breton grammar. The (etymologically) already dual words for eyes (daoulagad) and ears (divskouarn) can be pluralized "again" to formdaoulagadoùanddiskouarnoù.
Like other Brythonic languages, Breton has asingulativesuffix that is used to form singulars out ofcollective nouns, for which the morphologically less complex form is the plural. Thus, the singulative of the collectivelogod"mice" islogodenn"mouse".However, Breton goes beyond Welsh in the complications of this system. Collectives can be pluralized to make forms which are different in meaning from the normal collective--pesk"fish" (singular) is pluralized topesked, singulativized topeskedenn, referring to a single fish out of a school of fish, and this singulative of the plural can then be pluralized again to makepeskedennoù"fishes".
On top of this, the formation of plurals is complicated by two different pluralizing functions. The "default" plural formation is contrasted with another formation which is said to "emphasize variety or diversity" – thus two semantically different plurals can be formed out ofpark:parkoù"parks" andparkeier"various different parks".Ball reports that the latter pluralizer is used only for inanimate nouns.Certain formations have been lexicalized to have meanings other than that which might be predicted solely from the morphology:dour"water" pluralized formsdourioùwhich means not "waters" but instead "rivers", whiledoureiernow has come to mean "running waters after a storm". Certain forms have lost the singular from their paradigm:keloùmeans "news" and*kelis not used, whilekeleierhas become the regular plural,'different news items'.
Meanwhile, certain nouns can form doubly marked plurals with lexicalized meanings –bugel"child" is pluralized once intobugale"children" and then pluralized a second time to makebugaleoù"groups of children".
The diminutive suffix-igalso has the somewhat unusual property of triggering double marking of the plural:bugeligmeans "little child", but the doubly pluralizedbugaleigoùmeans "little children";bagboat has a singular diminutivebagigand a simple pluralbagoù, thus its diminutive plural is the doubly pluralizedbagoùigoù.
As seen elsewhere in many Celtic languages, the formation of the plural can be hard to predict, being determined by a mix of semantic, morphological and lexical factors.
The most common plural marker is-où, with its variant-ioù;most nouns that use this marker are inanimates but collectives of both inanimate and animate nouns always use it as well.
Most animate nouns, including trees, take a plural in-ed.However, in some dialects the use of this affix has become rare. Various masculine nouns including occupations as well as the wordSaoz("Englishman", pluralSaozon) take the suffix-ien, with a range of variants including-on,-ion,-anand-ian.
The rare pluralizing suffixes-er/-ierand-iare used for a few nouns. When they are appended, they also trigger a change in the vowel of the root:-itriggers avowel harmonyeffect whereby some or all preceding vowels are changed toi(kenderv"cousin" →kindirvi"cousins";bran"crow" →brini"crows";klujur"partridge" →klujiri"partridges"); the changes associated with-er/-ierare less predictable.
Various nouns instead form their plural merely withablaut:aoroin thestembeing changed toe:askell"wing" →eskell"wings";dant"tooth" →dent"teeth";kordenn"rope" →kerdenn"ropes".
Another set of nouns have lexicalized plurals that bear little if any resemblance to their singulars. These includeplacʼh"girl" →mercʼhed,porcʼhell"pig" →mocʼh,buocʼh"cow" →saout, andki"dog" →chas.
In compound nouns, the head noun, which usually comes first, is pluralized.
As in other Celtic languages as well asEnglish, a variety of verbal constructions is available to expressgrammatical aspect, for example: showing a distinction betweenprogressiveand habitual actions:
As in other modernCeltic languages, Breton pronouns are fused into preceding prepositions to produce a sort ofinflected preposition. Below are some examples in Breton,Cornish,Welsh,Irish,Scottish Gaelic, andManx, along with English translations.
In the examples above theGoidelic languages(Irish, Scottish Gaelic, and Manx) use the preposition meaningatto show possession, whereas theBrittonic languagesusewith. The Goidelic languages, however, do use the prepositionwithto express "belong to" (Irishis liom an leabhar, Scottishis leam an leabhar, Manxs'lhiams yn lioar, The book belongs to me).
The Welsh examples are inliterary Welsh. The order and preposition may differ slightly incolloquial Welsh(Formalmae car gennym, North Walesmae gynnon ni gar, South Walesmae car gyda ni).
Breton has four initialconsonant mutations: though modern Breton lost the nasal mutation ofWelsh(but for rare words such the word "door": "dor" "an nor"), 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.
Normal word order, like the otherInsular Celtic languages, is at its coreVSO(verb-subject-object), which is most apparent in embedded clauses. However, Breton finite verbs inmain clausesare additionally subject toV2 word orderin which the finite main clause verb is typically the second element in the sentence.That makes it perfectly possible to put the subject or the object at the beginning of the sentence, largely depending on the focus of the speaker. The following options are possible (all with a little difference in meaning):
Breton uses much more borrowed vocabulary than its relatives further north; by some estimates a full 40% of its core vocabulary consists of loans from French.
The first extant Breton texts, contained in the Leyde manuscript, were written at the end of the 8th century: 50 years prior to theStrasbourg Oaths, considered to be the earliest example ofFrench. Like many medievalorthographies, Old- and Middle Breton orthography was at first not standardised, and the spelling of a particular word varied at authors' discretion. In 1499, however, theCatholicon, was published; as the first dictionary written for both French and Breton, it became a point of reference on how to transcribe the language. The orthography presented in theCatholiconwas largely similar to that of French, in particular with respect to the representation of vowels, as well as the use of both the Latinatedigraph⟨qu⟩—a remnant of the sound change/kʷ/>/k/in Latin—and Brittonic⟨cou-⟩or⟨cu-⟩to represent/k/before front vowels.
As phonetic and phonological differences between the dialects began to magnify, many regions, particularly the Vannes country, began to devise their own orthographies. Many of these orthographies were more closely related to the French model, albeit with some modifications. Examples of these modifications include the replacement of Old Breton -⟨z⟩with -⟨h⟩to denote word-final/x~h/(an evolution of Old Breton/θ/in the Vannes dialect) and use of -⟨h⟩to denote the initial mutation of/k/(today this mutation is written⟨cʼh⟩).and thus needed another transcription.
In the 1830sJean-François Le Gonideccreated a modern phonetic system for the language.
During the early years of the 20th century, a group of writers known asEmglev ar Skrivanerienelaborated and reformed Le Gonidec's system. They made it more suitable as a super-dialectal representation of the dialects ofCornouaille, Leon and Trégor (known as fromKernev,LeonandTregerin Breton). ThisKLTorthography was established in 1911. At the same time writers of the more divergent Vannetais dialect developed a phonetic system also based on that of Le Gonidec.
Following proposals made during the 1920s, the KLT and Vannetais orthographies were merged in 1941 to create an orthographic system to represent all four dialects. ThisPeurunvan("wholly unified") orthography was significant for the inclusion of the digraph⟨zh⟩, which represents a/h/in Vannetais and corresponds to a/z/in the KLT dialects.
In 1955François Falcʼhunand the groupEmgleo Breizproposed a new orthography. It was designed to use a set ofgraphemescloser to the conventions of French. ThisOrthographe universitaire("University Orthography", known in Breton asSkolveurieg) was given official recognition by the French authorities as the "official orthography of Breton in French education." It was opposed in the region and today is used only by the magazineBrud Nevezand the publishing house Emgléo Breiz.
In the 1970s, a new standard orthography was devised – theetrerannyezhelorinterdialectale. This system is based on the derivation of the words.
Today the majority of writers continue to use thePeurunvan orthography, and it is the version taught in most Breton-language schools.
Breton is written in theLatin script.Peurunvan, the most commonly used orthography, consists of the following letters:
Thecircumflex,grave accent,tremaandtildeappear on some letters. Thesediacriticsare used in the following way:
Both orthographies use the above alphabet, although⟨é⟩is used only inSkolveurieg.
Differences between the two systems are particularly noticeable in word endings. In Peurunvan, finalobstruents, which are devoiced in absolute final position and voiced insandhibefore voiced sounds, are represented by a grapheme that indicates a voiceless sound. In OU they are written as voiced but represented as voiceless before suffixes:braz"big",brasocʼh"bigger".
In addition, Peurunvan maintains the KLT convention, which distinguishes noun/adjective pairs by nouns written with a final voiced consonant and adjectives with a voiceless one. No distinction is made in pronunciation, e.g.brezhoneg"Breton language" vs.brezhonek"Breton (adj)".
Notes:
Article 1 of theUniversal Declaration of Human Rights
Visitors to Brittany may encounter words and phrases (especially on signs and posters) such as the following:
The English wordsdolmenandmenhirhave been borrowed from French, which took them from Breton. However, this is uncertain: for instance,menhirispeulvanormaen hir("long stone"),maen sav("straight stone") (two words: noun + adjective) in Breton.Dolmenis a misconstructed word (it should betaol-vaen). Some studies statethat these words were borrowed fromCornish.Maen hircan be directly translated from Welsh as "long stone" (which is exactly what amenhirormaen hiris). The Cornish surnames Mennear, Minear and Manhire all derive from the Cornishmenhyr("long stone"), as doesTremenheere"settlement by the long stone".
The French wordbaragouiner("to jabber in a foreign language") is derived from Bretonbara("bread") andgwin("wine"). The French wordgoéland("large seagull") is derived from Bretongwelan, which shares the same root as English "gull" (Welshgwylan, Cornishgoelann).
.bzhis an approved Internetgeneric top-level domainsintended for Brittany and the Breton culture and languages.In 2023, the Breton internet extension .bzh had more than 12,000 registrations. Alongside the promotion of the .bzh internet extension, the www.bzh association promotes other services to develop Brittany's image on the web: campaign for a Breton flag emoji (),and email service.
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