THE BRETON LANGUAGEBrezhoneg

Bevet Breizh?

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• In Marcus Tanner’s words, ‘the Breton language has almost vanished over the last half –century. From one of the most vigorous and widely spoken Celtic languages, it has become one of the weakest, its very survival for the next 25 years is now looking questionable’.

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• As Tanner says in his chapter on Brittany, ‘a time traveller from a century ago would be amazed at the speed with which the Breton language has contracted and seemingly committed suicide.

• The mass abondonment of breton in the course of a few decades resembles the flight from Irish after the Famine of the 1840s…

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• In Tanner’s words ‘in both cases the community turned its back on the ancestral tongue: for them it had become contaminated with poverty and backwardness’.

• However we should be careful not to see the decline of Breton (any more than Irish) as purely economic issues, where X-language is associated with poverty and lead to adaptation of Y-language.

Ar brezhoneg• The main factors behind the resilience of Breton language

and culture were the strength of rural society and the close adherence of the people to the church.

• Poverty was not an abiding issue however. The rural community was flourishing.

• One of the main reasons for the strength of Breton in the late 1800s was the fact that many children did not attend school.

Ar brezhoneg• Only half of the children attended school in the 1870s

which was in French, consequently the Breton language remained the language of community, church and families.

• At the end of the century there were some one million Breton speakers.

• The towns became more French-speaking but the rural population rarely settled in the urban areas (Brest).

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• France was seen by the catholic clergy as an anti-clerical state.

• The Breton-speaking priests were the only educators for much of the Breton population, and they emphasized the Christian roots of Breton culture, and encouraged the Breton language as a means of creating a wall between the Breton-speaking masses and French-speaking France with its anti-clerical ideology.

Ar brezhoneg- and military service

• One element that began to have an impact on this state of affairs was the question of compulsory military service.

• All Breton men were required to spend some time in the French army. As many of these men were monolingual Breton-speakers, some basic French was necessary.

• But the army was promoted the State ideology.

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• One result was to eradicate the local loyalties of many of those from France’s non-French speaking regions.

• The army was beginning to offer the freedoms implied in republicanism, quite unlike the obedience required by the rural clergy of Breizh-Izel (Lower Brittany).

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• Republicanism of course didn’t speak Breton, but rather French only, it also rejected the church.

• It was the First World War which really impacted Breton society and its culture the most. (Buez ar Zent)

• Young men were immersed in a new culture, and often returned transformed in many ways.

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• Brittany embarked on a huge cultural revolution. We can see the changes taking place in Breton-speaking society by examining some of the many paintings made between c1870 and c1935.

• French painters had frequently come to Brittany for an ‘exotic’ setting- as un-French as could be imagined yet still in France.

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• By the post WWI period Breton-speaking children were now attending schools where French was the norm.

• Also the WWI had had devastating effects on the numbers of Breton-speakers: about 200,000 Breton men died in that war.

• In addition, a large exodus of Bretons towards the towns, and to Paris took place.

Ar brezhoneg- the impact of emigration

• Between 1920-30, approximately 300, 000 men left the rural environment of western Brittany for the towns and Paris. Breton did not develop as an urban language.

• There was a real change in rural areas, where the old bastion of Breton culture had been.

• This was bound to bring about a reduction in the numbers of Breton-speakers.

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• With the growth of nationalism in the 1920s and 1930s in Brittany, one of the complaints made was that despite Brittany’s losses in WWI, no autonomy had been given to Brittany, and no recognition to Brittany’s language.

• This was seen in the context of the Treaty of Versailles which redrew Europe. Assimilation was the name of the game.

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• For many Bretons the two words ‘yezh’ and ‘feiz’ (language and faith) were not just two words which rhymed, but an actual reality. ‘le breton et la foi etaient frere et soeur’.

• There was also an element of ‘shame’ increasingly associated with speaking Breton.

• The school system attempted to eradicate the language-

The ‘simbol’ or ‘buoc’h’• This was usually a clog (wooden shoe) hung around the

neck of a child caught speaking breton at school (19th century).

• At the end of the day the child with the ‘simbol’ would be punished. Compare the WN (Welsh Not) in Wales for the same period.

• Parents were not necessarily scandalized by such behaviour.

Ar Brezhoneg- the attitude of the Bretons• We can gauge the attitude of the Bretons themselves to

the beginnings of language-shift.• Tanner quotes Jean Bothorel who wrote Un Terroriste

breton (Paris 2001).• He mentions how the clergy had been forced to use

French in churches in place of Breton in an attempt to keep young people.

• Bothorel talks of how many Bretons saw the language –shift as a ‘liberation’:

Ar Brezhoneg• ‘cette volunte d’eradication de la language bretonne leur

semblait des plus legitimes, et ils ne la percevaient pas comme une agression’.

• It was also a way to be modern, and the road to a better life.

• The schools ignored Brittany and its long history; this only changed in 2000. (too little too late?)

Ar Brezhoneg- the major language shift

• This can be dated to the period 1950-1970. Within this period parents made the decision not to transmit the Breton language to their children.

• The last generation of native speakers belong largely to the 1950s (ie born between c1950 abd 1970).

• The events during the WWII only go so far in explaining this.

• Societal change was clearly a far greater element in this decision. Education (in French); the decline of the Church, secularization, economic reforms that undermined tradition ways of life.

Ar Brezhoneg- the numbers • 1886- approx 2 million speakers• 1920s- approx 1.15 million speakers• 1952- approx 700,000 speakers• 1960s- approx 600,000 speakers• 1997- approx 240,000• 2002-7- approx. 268,000 speakers• 2012- approx 130,000 speakers ??

• However it is the profile of these speakers which is most revealing:

Ar Brezhoneg• Of the 268,000 in 2002, three-quarters are over 60.• Less than 1 per cent are under the age of 30.• There are second-language speakers of Breton as well.• As Tanner notes, the post-WW2 period saw a ‘cessation

in language transmission’ (parents not teaching the language to their children).

Ar Brezhoneg• This process was taking place in the post WW2 years (c

1944-1950), and means of course that the generation born during that period would not obviously be able to teach Breton to their children (c 1970-80s).

• Clearly then, Breton has reached the point where it is no longer a community language.

• Today less than 10% of the Breton population speaks the language.

Ar Brezhoneg• Unfortunately those remaining speakers are widely

dispersed. As Tanner points out, there is no longer one specific area or small town where the language predominates.

• The lack of any legislation to protect and promote Breton isalso an issue.

• Such an idea goes diametrically against the centralist ideology of the French State. Socialist governments are less centrist.

Ar Brezhoneg• Pride in speaking the language is sometime absent.

Tanner mentions how little Breton is heard on the streets or in the stores in the small Breton villages of the west.

• Those who have learned the language are not always appreciated.

• ‘my mother didn’t like it and wouldn’t answer me when I spoke in Breton’.

• ‘At school we were punished for talking that!’• For that grandfather, the use of Breton brought back

memories of pain, and a sense that Breton was useless.

New Pride in the Language• However, old attitudes are tending to recede. Many

Bretons today are in favour of seeing Breton flourish and survive.

• If there are still some 200,000 speakers (albeit mainly over the age of 60), it can be argued that it is not too late to reinvigorate Breton.

• But it will never be as before.• The main difference is that within 20 years probably most

Breton speakers will speak it as a second language.

Regional Council for Brittany

And the Breton language

Regional Council for Brittany• There are in fact 22 administrative regions in France, of

which Brittany Region is one.• It is a local council divided into two ‘assemblies’:• The Regional Council- which decides on regional policy

and• Regional Social and economic Council, which acts as a

kind of ‘thinktank’ for the Council.

Regional Council for Brittany• The Council has 83 councillors.• The areas of responsibility are:

High school managementProfessional trainingEconomic developmentTransporttourism

EnvironmentCulture (includes language)sport

Co-operation with

Saxony (Germany)Wales (since 2004)Voivodia (Poland)

Later:

Basque Country (Spain).

Ofis ar BrezhonegOfis ar Brezhoneg

Ofis ar Brezhoneg• www.ofis-bzh.org• Founded in 1999 by the Regional Council of Brittany.• Funded by the Council, the Ministry of Culture,the five

Breton departements , and the main cities of Brittany.• In 2006 it had 20 full-time employees, and 100 volunteers.

Ofis ar Brezhoneg

Ofis ar Brezhoneg• The work of the office for the Breton Language covers a

wide range of linguistic activities.• Its major roles are the promotion of Breton in Breton

communities, as well as research and proposals for language planning to be discussed by the Regional Council.

Ofis ar Brezhoneg-tasks• The Breton language ‘observatory’: studying the use of

Breton in society, and producing scientific socio-linguistic data.

• Translation service: assistance in promoting Breton in public life, bilingualism in signs etc, editing of translations by other organisations. Translation service.

Ofis ar Brezhoneg- tasks• The management of TermBret, the Breton language

terminology bank. This service exists to produce Breton terminology in a wide range of spheres: education, business, media, signage, computer science).

• The ‘heritage service’ (service patrimoine). The collecting and dissemination of oral and written materials especially with regard to place-names. Normalisation of Breton names (eg first road map of Brittany in Breton)

Ofis ar Brezhoneg• The OAB development agency. Their work is to promote

the use of Breton in all sections of society, encourages businesses, and organisations to put in place a bilingual policy.

• Their most important campaign was Ya d’ar Brezhoneg! (Yes to Breton!)

• This very visual and mediatized campaign brought the question of the language back to many Bretons.

YA D’AR BREZHONEG!

Ofis ar Brezhoneg• One of the major results of work of the Ofis ar Brezhoneg

was the publishing of an extensive report and creation of a strategic plan for the revitalisation of Breton.

• www.ofis-bzh.org/fr/services/index• This their second report was called in French ‘La langue

bretonne à la croisée des chemins’.

Ofis ar Brezhoneg• This wide-ranging report and proposed language

revitalisation strategy is the most detailed study to date of the state of the Breton language.

• The study examined between 2002-7 the state of Breton in the following fields:

• Education, social and private life, publishing in Breton, media (tv and radio), new technologies, Breton in the workplace.

Ofis ar Brezhoneg• Although accepting that Breton was truly at a crossroads,

the report did see some positive changes in attitude, and some optimism.

• There was greater support for Breton (92% of Bretons thought it should be ‘kept’,and 82% recognized it as their ‘regional language’.

• This was a major change since the early 1990s.

Ofis ar Brezhoneg• Bilingual education in Breton was on the increase.

(Diwan).• Adult classes in Breton (DAO: Deskin d’ar Oadurien).

Oulpan courses.• Publications in Breton were at a constant 80-100 per year.• Television and radio still provided a small number of

programmes in the language, but the internet provided greater diffusion.

• An Taol Lagad http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lo0KwFC08Sc

•

Ofis ar Brezhoneg• An important element in the report was the sense that

much would be improved if the regional languages of France were given legal status.

• The report estimated that between 6000-6500 Breton speakers will die each year, a number it will not be easy to replace.

Facebook e brezhoneg!• A campaign run by Fulup Jakez successfully obtained in

March 2012 over 5000 names of those who want facebook to have a Breton version.

• http://www.ofis-bzh.org/bzh/actualite/zoom/index.php?actualite_id=408

• Suppotred by Ofis ar Brezhoneg

Diwan

Diwan• The Breton-medium education movement began in 1977

in a place called Lampaul-Ploudalmegean (near Brest). Based on similar schools in ireland, Wales and the Basque Country, the first Diwan schools were kintergartens, and primary schools (1980).

• .

Diwan• By 1988 they had established a Breton-medium college,

and then a lycee in Lorient in 1994.• The teachers and the curriculum of the Breton-medium

schools follow closely that of the State schools (French is introduced from the age of seven).

Official recognition for France’s regional languages.• Clearly, a legal status for France’s regional languages

would go a long way towards ensuring a future for such languages.

• For constitutional reasons, France has not been able to ratify the EU’s European Charter for Regional and Minority Languages.

• A major political demonstrations are planned to take place in France on the 31st March. 2012 to demand official status for such languages in France.

• Quimper\ Kemper. (Toulouse, Perpignan. Bayonne, Ajaccio, Strasbourg, New York,…)