Breton is a Celtic language spoken mainly in Brittany (Breizh)
by about 210,000 people, about 35,000 of whom speak use it as an everyday language. It is
spoken mainly in western parts of Brittany, and is also spoken, to some
extent, in parts of eastern Brittany, and by Breton immigrants in other
parts of France, and in other countries.
History
The area known to the Romans as Armorica was renamed Brittany
("Little Britain") after the people who migrated there
from Britain, particularly from Cornwall, in the 6th century AD.
Breton at a glance
- Native name: brezhoneg [bʀe.ˈzõː.nɛk]
- Linguistic affliation: Indo-European, Celtic, Insular Celtic, Brittonic, Southwestern
- Number of speakers: c. 210,000
- Spoken in: Brittany, France
- First written: 9th century
- Writing system: Latin alphabet
- Status: recognised as a minority language in Brittany
Between 1880 to the middle of the 20th century, Breton was banned
from schools and children were punished for speaking it. This changed
in 1951 with the promulgation of the Deixonne law, which allowed for
the Breton language and culture to be taught for one to three hours
a week in public education if the teacher is willing and able to do so.
Since then a number of schools and colleges have been set up providing
either education through the medium of Breton or bilingual Breton/French
education.
Breton first appeared in writing in 790 AD in a manuscript entitled
le
manuscrit de Leyde, a botanical treatise in Breton and Latin.
The first printed text in Breton, a passion play, made its appearance
in 1530. In the 19th century there was a revival of Breton literature
and it continues to flourish today.
Dialects
There are four traditional dialects of Breton which correspond to
medieval bishoprics rather than to linguistic divisions. They are
Leoneg in the county of Léon, Tregerieg in the county of
Trégor, Kerneveg in Cornouaille, and Gwenedeg
in Vannes. The dialects form a dialect continuum varying only slightly
from one village to the next.
Orthography
For most of its history there was considerable variation in the
spelling of Breton. Then in 1908 the orthography of three Breton dialects,
Kerneveg (Cornouaille), Leoneg (Leon) and Tregerieg
(Tregor), was unified. The other dialect, Gwenedeg (Vannetais),
was not included in this reform, but was included in the orthographic reform
of 1941.
Current usage
Breton can be heard on a number of radio stations for a few hours
a week and there is a weekly one-hour TV programme in Breton. There
are also a number of Breton language weekly and monthly magazines.
Relationship to other languages
Breton is closely related to Cornish and less
closely related to Welsh, though these languages
are not mutually intelligible. Breton has also absorbed quite a lot
of vocabulary from French, Latin, and probably from Gaulish languages,
which are now extinct.
Breton is also distantly related to Irish,
Manx and Scottish Gaelic.
A comparison of the six modern Celtic languages
Celtic connections - words that are similar in the Celtic languages
The Breton alphabet (lizherenneg ar brezhoneg)
| A a |
B b |
Ch ch |
C'h c'h |
D d |
E e |
F f |
G g |
H h |
I i |
J j |
K k |
L l |
| a |
be |
che |
ec'h |
de |
e |
ef |
ge |
hach |
i |
je |
ke |
el |
| M m |
N n |
O o |
P p |
R r |
S s |
T t |
U u |
V v |
W w |
Y y |
Z z |
|
| em |
en |
o |
pe |
er |
es |
te |
u |
ve |
we |
ye |
zed |
|
Pronunciation
Notes
- Vowels can be long or short
- Vowels are nasalized when written with a tilde (ã), or followed by a n or a ñ
- Stress usually falls on the penultimate syllable.
- v - is normally pronounced [v], but after a noun such as o it is
pronounced [ɒ], at the end of a verb stem it is pronounced [f],
while after ñ it is silent.
- Before a vowel, i is pronounced [j]
Many letters have different pronunciations in different dialects of Breton. You can find out more on:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Breton_language#Pronunciation_of_the_Breton_alphabet
Mutations (Ar c'hemmadurioù)
* g disappears before w or ou, e.g. e wele (his bed), but
e c'harzh (his garden).
Sample text in Breton
Dieub ha par en o dellezegezh hag o gwirioù eo ganet an holl
dud. Poell ha skiant zo dezho ha dleout a reont bevañ an eil
gant egile en ur spered a genvreudeuriezh.
(Article 1 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights)
Translation
All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. They
are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another
in a spirit of brotherhood.
(Article 1 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights)
Sample of spoken Breton
Information about Breton |
Phrases |
Numbers |
Kinship terms |
Telling the time |
Tower of Babel |
Learning materials
Links
Information about Brittany and the Breton language
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Breton_language
http://www.bretagnenet.com/scb/frame.html
http://www.breizh.net/icdbl/saozg/endangered.htm
http://www.kervarker.org/en/whatisbreton_02_noid.html
http://www.gwalarn.org
Online Breton lessons
http://www.kervarker.org
http://www.skolober.com
http://www.loecsen.com/travel/0-fr-0-0-9-cours-gratuit-breton.html
http://www.edubreizh.com
http://hizivandeiz.free.fr/loadnevez/240.htm
http://brezhoneg.gwalarn.org/yezh/kinnig.html
More Breton links
Celtic languages
Breton,
Celtiberian,
Cornish,
Gaulish,
Irish,
Lepontic,
Lusitanian,
Manx,
Scottish Gaelic,
Tartessian,
Welsh
Other languages written with the Latin alphabet
Shipping time world-
wide is typically 6 days.