The Breton Language 2

Today, despite the political centralization of France and the important influence of the media, Breton is still spoken as an everyday language by about 200,000 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. A statistical survey performed in 1997 found around 300,000 speakers in Breizh izel, of which about 190,000 were aged 60 or over. Few of those of the 15-19 year-old age-group spoke Breton. Breton is now considered to be an endangered language.

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 a few thousand young people from elementary school to high school. See the education section for more information.

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, including Tintin, Spirou, Titeuf, Hägar the Horrible, Peanuts and Yakari.

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 have written in Breton, for example Yann-Ber Kalloc'h, Roparz Hemon, Anjela Duval, Pêr-Jakez Helias and Youenn Gwernig, are now known internationally.

The Breton Language

Breton is a Brythonic language, descended from the Celtic British language brought from Great Britain to Armorica by migrating Britons during the Early Middle Ages. Like the other Brythonic languages, Welsh and Cornish, it is classified as an Insular Celtic language. Breton is most closely related to Cornish, as both are thought to have evolved from a Southwestern Brythonic protolanguage. The other regional language of Brittany, Gallo, is a Langue d'oïl derived from Latin.

Breton is spoken in Lower Brittany, roughly to the west of a line linking Plouha and La Roche-Bernard (east of Vannes). It comes from a Celtic language community between Great Britain and Armorica (present-day Brittany), and even Galicia. 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 did not concern itself with the minority languages of France. The revolutionary period saw the introduction of policies favouring French over the regional languages, pejoratively referred to as patois. It was assumed by the revolutionaries 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.

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A Little more History

The civilization of the megaliths
The very first traces of human presence on armorican ground date back to the Paleolithic age, but it's the Neolithic that is considered the golden age of the megalith civilization from 5000 to 2000 B.C. Older than the Egyptian pyramids, dolmens are probably collective burial places. There are still great mysteries about this period of Brittany's history that archeologists are trying to see through.

The Roman conquest
From the VIIIth century on, the celts, coming from the Central European plains, settle down in the region. The Armorican peninsula is composed by five cities probably dominated by the Veneti. From 58 to 52, Caesar conquers Gaul. The Veneti fleet is struck down in 56. From 52 on, the Gallo-Roman civilization is set up.

The great invasions
The Roman domination sets up until the Germanic invasions in the Vth century. Between the IVth and the VIth century, breton populations settle down in Armoric, that then becomes the small Brittany. The Bretons adopt an original social organization based on parishes, the “plou”, “plé” or “plu” followed by a common noun or a proper noun. Monasteries are created, the “lan” (like Lannion). Nouns ending on “ac” name those villages that were already lived-in when the Bretons arrived, but that have been subject to their influence.

History of the Breton Language

History of the Breton Language

The history of the Breton language began with the appearance of the Bretons in Britain in the 6th century BC. These Celtic people thus came after the Goidels (or Gaels) and the Picts. After the fruitless attempt of the invasion of Britain by Caesar in 56 BC, it was a century later (in 60 AD) before the Romans established a foothold on the isle and subdued the Bretons. Unlike the Celts on the continent (the Gauls), the Bretons were careful to conserve their language.

From Britain to Armor

After the fall of the Roman Empire, successive waves of Bretons immigrated to Armor (the coastal region of Brittany) and there founded kingdoms that soon unified under Nominoe against the Frank enemy (the Battle of Ballon in 845 AD).

In Britain the Breton kingdoms slowly collapsed under the pressure of the Saxons, and their battles gave birth to the Arthurian legend.

This ancient Breton language (Brythonic), which is spoken from the south of Scotland to the mouth of the Loire (from Dumbarton to St. Nazaire), is thus divided into three branches: Welsh and Cornish on the isle of Britain, and Breton on the Continent (where Gallic has disappeared).

From Brythonic to Breton

The history of the Breton language is divided into three periods:

1. That of Old Breton before the year 1000 AD. The oldest surviving manuscript in the Breton language (dating to the end of the 8th Century) comes from that epoch. It is kept in Leyden (The Netherlands) and predates by more than a century the oldest text referenced in French;
2. That of Middle Breton, from 1000 AD to the 17th century, which saw the edition of the Catholicon of Jehan Lagadeuc (the first Breton-French-Latin lexicon in 1499;
3. That of Modern Breton, illustrated in the 19th century by the publication of the Barzaz Breiz of Barzaz Breiz of La Villemarque (1849).

At the beginning of the 20th century, Breton literature was honored with the names of Malmanche in theater and of Kalloc'h in poetry. Then the GWALARN movement, founded by Roparz Hemon, became the origin of a modern Breton literature, with the story writer Jakez Riou and the novelists Abeozen and Youenn Drezen.

After the Second World War the literary revue Al Liamm took up the torch from Gwalarn and continued, with others, the publication of works by new writers.

Modern Breton

In 1908 took place the first orthographic unification, that of the three dialects of Cornouaille, Leon and Tregor (KLT), whereas Vannetais kept its way of writing.

In 1941 took place the second orthographic unification with the Vannetais (KLTG). This unified spelling is used today by the great majority of publications and teachers of Breton. It is characterized by the use of zh, in Breizh and brezhoneg for example.

Regulations for Breton in Education

In 1951, the Deixonne law authorized the teaching of Breton, which was prohibited until then.

In 1976 the first preschool was created, with a half dozen students. In 1994 DIWAN enrolled more than 1500 students from preschool through high school and foreshadowed the opening of new schools and colleges by preparing to open a high school. By 2000, the association included a high school and three colleges.

In 1978 the teaching of Breton was authorized as LV2, then as LV3 in 1982.

In 1981 the Breton degree was created, and in 1986 the CAPES, but it was not until 1989 that the creation of the DEUG was obtained.

In 1993 successive French governments, left and right, refused to sign the European Charter of Minority Languages and to recognize the linguistic rights of the Bretons.

In addition to Diwan, the students of the bilingual program of the college Charles Le Goffic de Lannion saw themselves refused the right of taking history and geography examinations for the college certificate in Breton.

A little more history

From the 7th century, the Franks tried to force the Bretons to submit to their power. The Bretons refused to bend under the yoke and to become the vassals of their powerful neighbours : they regularly overcame the domination of the Franks. In order to put a stop to these rebellions. Louis-le-Pieux, the king of France, appointed Nominoë as the first Duke of Brittany and the Chief of the Vannetais (824). Although Nominoë had been a loyal liege of Louis-le-Pieux during hid reign, he acted as an independent king as soon as the throne was acceded to Charles-le-Chauve. The armies of the Frank king were defeated at Ballon, near Redon (845), and the ambitious Nominoë, not settling for only one victory, went on to boldly conquer Rennes, Nantes, as well as the provinces of Maine and Anjou.

A little more history

A strong Celtic background distinguishes Brittany from other parts of France. The Celts were the first historically identifiable inhabitants of Brittany, but they probably intermingled with the earlier peoples who built the great stone monuments, the menhirs and dolmens, that still stand. Conquered by Julius Caesar in 56 bc, the region became part of the Roman Empire as Armorica, a Romanization of the Celtic words for “seaside.” The Celts of Armorica never were more than superficially Romanized. After the Romans withdrew, Celts from Britain moved into the area to seek refuge from the Anglo-Saxon invaders of the 5th and 6th centuries. It is from this event that Brittany derives its name. Over the next 300 years the Celts were converted to Christianity by missionaries from the British Isles.

During the Middle Ages, Brittany fought to become and remain an independent duchy. It was first united in the 9th century under the rule of Nomenoe Brittany’s national hero, who revolted against the Carolingians. By repelling the Norse invaders, his successors were able to keep the independence he had won. In the 10th century the ruler of Brittany took the title of duke and located his capital at Rennes. In the following centuries the dukes not only had to assert their power over rebellious vassals but also faced a threat to their existence from their neighbours, the powerful Norman dukes. In the late 12th century the duchy was brought into the Angeovin Empire but eventually came under the control of the Capetians, the ruling French dynasty.