Breton is an insular Celtic language, most closely related to
Welsh and Cornish, the Brythonic branch of the languages, in contrast to the Goidelic branch of Irish, Scottish Gaelic and Manx. While there was a continental Celtic language in the North
of France it died out under pressure from Latin by about 500 CE. Breton was taken
to Brittany by speakers from Cornwall and later from Wales between about 450 and
650 CE. It has many features in common with the other Celtic languages,
especially those that it is most closely related to, but has also adopted some
features and vocabulary from the French language.
Breton is a language under threat and is classified as “severely
endangered” by UNESCO. The French language is the only language of instruction
that is legal in schools in France, so attempts at Breton language education
have come up against considerable difficulties.
While half the population was monolingual in 1900, by 1950
only a tenth of the population of 1 million speakers was monolingual. By 1997 there
were only about 300,000 speakers, the vast majority of whom were over 60. Very
few 15-19 year olds spoke Breton. By the first decade of the 21st C
there were only some 200,000 speakers of Breton left. There is very little
transmission of the languages within families, but in 2007 there were some 4 or
5 thousand adults studying Breton at evening class or via a correspondence
course. There is very little official use of the language.
There are four dialects of Breton, but there are no clear
boundaries between them, rather there is a dialect continuum. The dialects
correspond to medieval bishoprics. Gwenedeg (from the Vannes region) is less mutually
intelligible to speakers of the other dialects.
It seems very likely that Breton will effectively die out as
a functioning language fairly soon.
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