Breton (Ar Brezhoneg) Made Easy

Jean-Michel is a Sgitheanach and I am Bretonne, two parts of the greater Celtic civilization, a civilization that by 2000BC had travelled across Europe, the Balkans and Asia Minor. A civilization, which in its many forms, is only linked by language, the Druidic religion and a deep love of art. So we are proud to support this language, possibly a struggling language, one that Jean-Michel has grown to love as it reminds him of his childhood days on an t-Eilean Sgitheanach.

It was said by one of the early Greek philosophers: "Whilst we (the Greeks) are struggling to come to terms with the complexities of democracy, the Gaels are plotting the course of the stars and the influence of the moon in relation to the seasons of the year".

The Background & History

In days gone by there was a unifying language spoken by the Celts, called not surprisingly, old Celtic. Philogists have shown the descendence of Celtic from the original Ur-language and from the Indo-European language tradition. In fact, the form of old Celtic was the closest cousin to Italic, the precursor of Latin.

The original wave of Celtic immigrants to the western seaboard of Europe are called the q-Celts and spoke Goidelic. It is not known exactly when this immigration occurred but it may be placed sometime in the window of 2000 to 1200 BC. The label q-Celtic stems from the differences between this early Celtic tongue and Italic. Some of the differences between Italic and Celtic included that lack of a p in Celtic and an a in place of an the Italic o.

At a later date, a second wave of immigrants took to this area, a wave of Celts referred to as the p-Celts speaking Brythonic. Goidelic led to the formation of the three Gaelic languages spoken in Ireland, Man and later Scotland. Brythonic gave rise to two British Isles languages, Welsh and Cornish, as well as surviving on the Continent in the form of Breton, spoken in Breizh.

The label q-Celtic stems from the differences between this early Celtic tongue and the latter formed p-Celtic. The differences between the two Celtic branches are simple in theoretical form. Take for example the word ekvos in Indo-European, meaning horse. In q-Celtic this was rendered as equos while in p-Celtic it became epos, the q sound being replaced with a p sound. Another example is the Latin qui who. In q-Celtic this rendered as cia while in p-Celtic it rendered as pwy. It should also be noted that there are still words common to the two Celtic subgroups.

Breton is not thought to be a modern-day descendant of any Continental Celtic language such as Gaulish, though it may have borrowed some features from it, but it is rather descended from insular Brythonic. Whilst the other regional language (Gallo) derives 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 Britain and Amorica, present day Brittany. A 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, and then successively the bourgeoisie adopted French. As a written language, the Duchy of Brittany used Latin, switching to French in the 15th century. There still exists a limited tradition of Breton Literature. It should be noted that 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. It was at the time of the revolutionary period that policies favouring French over the "regional" languages, more pejoratively called patios. It was assumed that reactionary and monarchist forces favoured regional languages in an attempt to keep the peasant masses under informed. According to the defenders of the Breton language, humiliating practices geared toward 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 and understood 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.

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. Another proposed teaching method was a bilingual approach, Div Yezh (two languages).

In 2004, the Asterix comic series were translated into Breton, and into Gallo. This is notable because, according to the comic, the village where Asterix lives is in Brittany.

Today, Breton is the only Celtic language, which is not recognized as an official language. The French state has refused to change the second article of the Constitution added in 1994, which states, "The language of the Republic is French". The number of protesters demanding the repeal of this article is growing year by year.

Breton – English Dictionary

Breton Grammar

Distagadur / Pronunciation

The stress is important in Breton and generally falls on the second last syllable of words, thus giving the language a rhythm unlike anything you would find in French. However, there are many exceptions and one of the dialects the stress falls on the last syllable. It is worth remembering that all French sounds, apart from x, can be found in Breton. But the aspirations in the language are decidedly Breton.

"c'h", like ch in German.
h, as h in English or German (sometimes silent).
th (in certain regions), as in English.
th (elsewhere) has changed to z or tz

e is never silent and never has an accent

g and s are hard consonants as in “grain” and “crass”

"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 both Breton (Léon dialect) and Irish.

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.

Unmuted Consonents	Soft Mutantion	Spirant Mutation	Soft 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

Breton Placenames

Almost all the Breton place names around today are evidence of Celtifcation.

The majority of towns and villages have either suffixes or prefixes and below are a few examples:

Ploue, from the Latin plebs (people) came to mean "church" in the Middle Ages and by extension "parish". PLOU, PLO, PLEU, PLE are all derived from ploue, and combined with suffixes, give rise to names such as Plogoff, Pluebian, Pleumeur.

Tré, Trèv or Tref meannig a subdivision of a parish, gives you Trégastel (hamlet near the Gallo-Roman castellum [KASTELL]) , Trémeur.

Loc (holy place) gives rise to Locmaris, Locronan

Lann, Ian (Sanctuary or church) Lannion, Lampaul
Ker, Kear, Car, Cré, Quer (all unique to Breton), means house or dwelling-place - Kermaria, Kermeur.

Over the past few years, friends that have come to stay have been somewhat confused by the roadsigns and some of the placenames. So we have produced a short list showing the Breton and the French name for some of the main towns in Brittany.

Towns & Villages

Frantsesez French	Bretoieraz Breton	Frantsesez French	Bretoieraz Breton
Carhaix-Plouguer Châteaubriant Dinard Guingamp La Baule-Escoublac Lanester Loriant Nantes Quimper Rennes Saint-Brieuc Saint-Nazaire Vannes Vitre	Karaez-Plouger Kastell-Briant Dinarzh Gewngamp Ar Baol-Skoubleg Lannarster An Oriant Naoned Kemper Roazhan Sant-Brieg Sant-Nazer Gwened Gwitreg	Carnac Concarneau Fougères Hennebont Landerneau Lannion Morlaix Pontivy Quimperlé Rezé Saint-Malo Saint-Pol-de-Léon Vertou	Karnag Konk-Kernev Felger Henbont Landerne Lannoun Montroulez Pondivi Kemperle Reudied Sant-Malou Kastell Paol Gwerzhav

Départements

Frantsesez French	Bretoieraz Breton
Côtes d'Armor Finistère Îlle-et-Villaine Loire-Atlantique Morbihan	Aodou-an-Arvor Penn-ar-Bed Il-ha-Gwilen Liger-Atlantel Mor-Bihan