Breton (Part 4, The Celtic Languages)

Breton, spoken in Brittany (the northeastern peninsula of France), is the only surviving Celtic language in a country with a majority language other than English. It is probably the least known, and possibly the most endangered, of all the modern Celtic languages, despite being spoken by many people.

History of Breton

Breton is interesting because it is the only modern Celtic language not based in Britain or Ireland. However, that does not make it a continental Celtic language. It is still considered Insular, because actually came to the Brittany area with people from Cornwall, perhaps fleeing the Anglo-Saxons, in the middle of the first millennium (1: “History”). So it is most closely related to Welsh and Cornish. There may be a bit of a Gaulish influence on Breton, however (4: 2.3). Breton had emerged as a distinct language during the early medieval period (4: 2.3).

There are four main dialects of Breton, based in the regions Leon, Treger, Kernev and Gwened (4: 2.3). The Leon dialect is considered the main standard, while the dialect in Gwened is very distinct from the others because there was a stronger influence of Gaulish here (4: 2.3).

Breton Outside Brittany

Like people from the other Celtic countries, Breton speakers emigrated to the US and Canada starting during the 18th century. But there do not seem to be any communities where the language or culture survived as particularly strong. However, there are Breton speakers all over the world: in 1970 there were about 32,000 speakers in the US (5 “Status today”).

Current Status of Breton

UNESCO lists Breton as seriously endangered (3). It is not known exactly how many Breton speakers there are, because there have been no good surveys. There are over a million people who claim they can speak some Breton, but only about 500,000 are regular users of the language, though the regular users are usually very competent speakers (3). French is often mixed in with the speech of regular Breton users, though there are some who claim to be monoglots (2, 3). Regular Breton users are concentrated in Western Brittany, though there are some speakers in Eastern Brittany (2). Even in the west, Breton is not the dominant language in any towns, though in many cases a majority of the residents can at least understand it (4: “Geographical and language background”).

Probably the biggest problem for Breton is the lack of interest on the part of the French government. France is rather hostile towards minority languages, and there are no concessions in favor of Breton whatsoever (4: 2.4). Instead, there are several laws still in place which favor French, stating for example that it is the only language allowed in the courts and government. A 1992 Constitutional reform states that French is the only language of France (4: 2.4). There is a growing nationalist movement in Brittany, however, which may be able to drive change (2).

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