Breton language
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Breton Brezhoneg |
||
|---|---|---|
| Pronunciation: | IPA: /bɾɛ.ˈzõː.nɛk/ | |
| Spoken in: | France | |
| Region: | Brittany | |
| Total speakers: | 500,000 - 1,200,000 [1] | |
| Language family: | Indo-European Celtic Insular Celtic Brythonic Breton |
|
| Language codes | ||
| ISO 639-1: | br | |
| ISO 639-2: | bre | |
| ISO 639-3: | bre | |
| Note: This page may contain IPA phonetic symbols in Unicode. See IPA chart for English for an English-based pronunciation key. | ||
Breton (Breton: Brezhoneg) is a Celtic language spoken by some of the inhabitants of Brittany (Breizh) in France.
Contents |
[edit] 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 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. According to the defenders of the Breton language, humiliating practices geared towards 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 as an every day 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.[2]
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 gain more and more notoriety 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 is 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 comic's characters are also translated in Breton : Tintin, Spirou, Titeuf, Hägard the Viking, Peanuts, and so on.
Some poets, linguists, and writers who wrote in Breton, for example Yann-Ber Kalloc'h, Roparz Hemon, Anjela Duval, Per-Jakez Hélias, 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.
[edit] 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.
[edit] Official status
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 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. On the other hand, few shops or other private entities in Rennes have any Breton-language signs.
[edit] 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.
[edit] Sounds
| Bilabial | Labiodental | Alveolar | Postalveolar | Palatal | Velar | Labiovelar | Glottal | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Plosive | pʰ b | tʰ d | cʰ ɟ | kʰ ɡ | ||||
| Nasal | m | n | ɲ | ŋ | ||||
| Trill | r | |||||||
| Fricative | f v | s z | ʃ ʒ | x | h | |||
| Approximant | j ɥ | w | ||||||
| Lateral | l | ʎ |
[edit] Grammar
[edit] 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]") ;
[edit] "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. 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 at-me |
| ur banne zo ganit | mae gennyt ti ddiod | tá deoch agat | tha deoch agad | you have a drink | a drink is at-you [sg] |
| un urzhiataer zo gantañ | mae ganddo fo gyfrifiadur | tá ríomhaire aige | tha coimpiutair aige | he has a computer | a computer is at-him |
| ur bugel zo ganti | mae ganddi hi blentyn | tá páiste aici | tha pàisde aice | she has a child | a child is at-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 at-us |
| un ti zo ganeoc'h | mae gennych chi dŷ | tá teach agaibh | tha taigh agaibh | you [pl] have a house | a house is at-you [pl] |
| arc'hant zo ganto (or gante) | mae ganddyn nhw arian | tá airgead acu | tha airgead aca | they have money | money is at-them |
[edit] 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.
| 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 |
[edit] 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-vaen). Some studies state[citation needed] 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).
[edit] 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 Kernev, Leon and Treger, 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 <zh> 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 has been fixed a new standard orthography. 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.
[edit] 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 |
[edit] Examples
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 grampouezhenn) |
| chistr | cider |
| chouchen | special Breton hydromel |
| war vor atao | always at sea |
[edit] See also
- Swadesh list of Breton words
- Armorica
- Armoricani
[edit] External links
- Breton site including online lessons
- Breton site with learners' forum and lessons (mostly in French with some English)
- The Breton Language
- 100 Words relating to the internet in Breton
- 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
| Celtic languages | |||
| Continental Celtic | Gaulish †| Lepontic † | Galatian † | Celtiberian † | Noric † | ||
| Goidelic | Irish | Galwegian † | Manx | Scottish Gaelic (Scotland • Canada) | ||
| Brythonic | Breton | Cornish | British † | Cumbric † | Ivernic † | Pictish † | Welsh | ||
| Mixed languages | Shelta | Bungee † | ||
| † Extinct | |||
