Breton is a Celtic language spoken mainly in Brittany (Breizh) by about 365,000 people, about 240,000 of whom speak it fluently.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Here is an illustration of some of the differences and similarities between the Celtic languages using the phrase 'I live in Brittany:
Celtic connections - words that are similar in the Celtic languages
| 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 | c'he | de | e | ef | ge | ach | i | ji | ka | 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 | daou- ve |
ye | zed |
* disappears before w or ou, e.g. e wele (his bed), but e c'harzh (his garden).
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)
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)
Longer sample text (Tower of Babel)
Breton language courses, dictionaries, etc
Breizh.net - a non-profit association dedicated to the promotion of Brittany and the Breton language on the internet (in Breton, French and English) http://www.breizh.net
Information about Brittany and the Breton language
http://www.bretagnenet.com/scb/frame.html
http://www.gwalarn.org
Online Breton lessons
http://www.kervarker.org
http://www.skolober.com
Online Breton dictionaries
http://www.geriadur.com/
http://www.geobreizh.com/breizh/bre/geriadur.asp
http://perso.wanadoo.fr/heinecke/dict/brezhoneg/
http://www.dicts.info/2/index.php?l=Breton
http://www.wordgumbo.com/ie/cel/bre/breton.htm
Online Breton radio
http://www.antourtan.org/radio_fr.html
http://www.ramsisle.com/celtic/webradioblog/?p=6
http://www.radio-bro-gwened.com
Bremañ, a Breton language magazine
http://www.breman.org/
Breton language book store
http://www.alliamm.com
Ofis ar Brezhoneg (l'Office de la langue bretonne)
http://www.ofis-bzh.org/
Breton, Cornish, Irish, Manx, Scottish Gaelic, Welsh
Other languages written with the Latin alphabet
We offer 100% guarantee success in MB2-632 exam with help of certified 642-533 practice questions and 642-691 test demos.]