Breton language

Breton
brezhoneg
Bilingual sign in Huelgoat, Brittany
Pronunciation	[bʁeˈzõːnɛk], [brəhõˈnek]
Native to	France
Region	Brittany (including Loire-Atlantique)
Ethnicity	Bretons
Native speakers	210,000 in Brittany (2018) 16,000 in Île-de-France (Number includes students in bilingual education)
Language family	Indo-European Celtic Insular Celtic Brittonic Southwestern Breton
Dialects	Gwenedeg Kerneveg Leoneg Tregerieg
Writing system	Latin script
Official status
Recognised minority language in	France ( Brittany)
Regulated by	Ofis Publik ar Brezhoneg
Language codes
ISO 639-1	br
ISO 639-2	bre
ISO 639-3	Variously: bre – Modern Breton xbm – Middle Breton obt – Old Breton
Linguist List	xbm Middle Breton
	obt Old Breton
Glottolog	bret1244
Linguasphere	50-ABB-b (varieties: 50-ABB-ba to -be)
Regional distribution of Breton speakers (2004)

Breton (/ˈbrɛtən/, French: [bʁətɔ̃]; brezhoneg [bʁeˈzõːnɛk] (listen) or [brəhõˈnek] in Morbihan) is a Southwestern Brittonic language of the Celtic language family, spoken in Brittany.

Breton was brought from Great Britain to Armorica (the ancient name for the coastal region that includes the Brittany peninsula) by migrating Britons during the Early Middle Ages; it is thus an Insular Celtic language, though closely related to the Continental Celtic Gaulish language which had been spoken in pre-Roman Gaul. Breton is most closely related to Cornish, both being Southwestern Brittonic languages. Welsh and the extinct Cumbric are the more distantly related Western Brittonic languages.

The other regional language of Brittany, Gallo, is a Romance language descended from Latin (unlike the similarly named Gaulish). As a langue d'oïl, Gallo is a close relative of standard French.

Having declined from more than a million speakers around 1950 to about 200,000 in the first decade of the 21st century, Breton is classified as "severely endangered" by the UNESCO Atlas of the World's Languages in Danger. However, the number of children attending bilingual classes has risen 33% between 2006 and 2012 to 14,709.

History and status

See also: Linguistic boundary of Brittany

Breton is spoken in Lower Brittany (Breton: Breizh-Izel), roughly to the west of a line linking Plouha (west of Saint-Brieuc) and La Roche-Bernard (east of Vannes). It comes from a Brittonic language community that once extended from Great Britain to Armorica (present-day Brittany) and had even established a toehold in Galicia (in present-day Spain). Old Breton is attested from the 9th century. It was the language of the upper classes until the 12th century, after which it became the language of commoners in Lower Brittany. The nobility, followed by the bourgeoisie, adopted French. The written language of the Duchy of Brittany was Latin, switching to French in the 15th century. There exists a limited tradition of Breton literature. Some Old Breton vocabulary remains in the present day as philosophical and scientific terms in Modern Breton. The recognized stages of the Breton language are: Old Breton - c.800 to c.1100, Middle Breton - c.1100 to c.1650, Modern Breton - c.1650 to present.

The French monarchy was not concerned with the minority languages of France spoken by the lower classes, and required the use of French for government business as part of its policy of national unity. During the French Revolution, the government introduced policies favouring French over the regional languages, which it pejoratively referred to as patois. The revolutionaries assumed that reactionary and monarchist forces preferred regional languages to try to keep the peasant masses underinformed. In 1794, Bertrand Barère submitted his "report on the patois" to the Committee of Public Safety in which he said that "federalism and superstition speak Breton".

Since the 19th century, under the Third, Fourth and Fifth Republics, the government has attempted to stamp out minority languages, including Breton, in state schools, in an effort to build a national culture. Teachers humiliated students for using their regional languages, and such practices prevailed until the late 1960s.

Poster with Breton slogan, Burzudus eo! ("It's miraculous!")

In the early 21st century, due to the political centralization of France, the influence of the media, and the increasing mobility of people, only about 200 thousand people can speak Breton, a dramatic decline from more than a million in 1950. The majority of today's speakers are more than 60 years old, and Breton is now classified as an endangered language.

At the beginning of the 20th century, half of the population of Lower Brittany knew only Breton; the other half were bilingual. By 1950, there were only 100,000 monolingual Bretons, and this rapid decline has continued, with likely no monolingual speakers left today. A statistical survey in 1997 found around 300 thousand speakers in Lower Brittany, of whom about 190 thousand were aged 60 or older. Few 15- to 19-year-olds spoke Breton.

Revival efforts

In 1925, Professor Roparz Hemon founded the Breton-language review Gwalarn. During its 19-year run, Gwalarn tried to raise the language to the level of a great international language. Its publication encouraged the creation of original literature in all genres, and proposed Breton translations of internationally recognized foreign works. In 1946, Al Liamm replaced Gwalarn. Other Breton-language periodicals have been published, which established a fairly large body of literature for a minority language.

In 1977, Diwan schools were founded to teach Breton by immersion. They taught a few thousand young people from elementary school to high school. See the education section for more information.

The Asterix comic series has been translated into Breton. According to the comic, the Gaulish village where Asterix lives is in the Armorica peninsula, which is now Brittany. Some other popular comics have also been translated into Breton, including The Adventures of Tintin, Spirou, Titeuf, Hägar the Horrible, Peanuts and Yakari.

Some original media are created in Breton. The sitcom, Ken Tuch, is in Breton. Radio Kerne, broadcasting from Finistère, has exclusively Breton programming. Some movies (Lancelot du Lac, Shakespeare in Love, Marion du Faouet, Sezneg) and TV series (Columbo, Perry Mason) have also been translated and broadcast in Breton. Poets, singers, linguists, and writers who have written in Breton, including Yann-Ber Kalloc'h, Roparz Hemon, Anjela Duval, Xavier de Langlais, Pêr-Jakez Helias, Youenn Gwernig, Glenmor, Vefa de Saint-Pierre and Alan Stivell are now known internationally.

Today, Breton is the only living Celtic language that is not recognized by a national government as an official or regional language.

The first Breton dictionary, the Catholicon, was also the first French dictionary. Edited by Jehan Lagadec in 1464, it was a trilingual work containing Breton, French and Latin. Today bilingual dictionaries have been published for Breton and languages including English, Dutch, German, Spanish and Welsh. A new generation is determined to gain international recognition for Breton. The monolingual dictionary, Geriadur Brezhoneg an Here (1995), defines Breton words in Breton. The first edition contained about 10 thousand words, and the second edition of 2001 contains 20 thousand words.

Electronic information sign in Breton, Carhaix

In the early 21st century, the Ofis ar Brezhoneg ("Office of the Breton language") began a campaign to encourage daily use of Breton in the region by both businesses and local communes. Efforts include installing bilingual signs and posters for regional events, as well as encouraging the use of the Spilhennig to let speakers identify each other. The office also started an Internationalization and localization policy asking Google, Firefox and SPIP to develop their interfaces in Breton. In 2004, the Breton Wikipedia started, which now counts more than 65 thousand articles. In March 2007, the Ofis ar Brezhoneg signed a tripartite agreement with Regional Council of Brittany and Microsoft for the consideration of the Breton language in Microsoft products. In October 2014, Facebook added Breton as one of its 121 languages after three years of talks between the Ofis and Facebook.

Geographic distribution and dialects

Dialects of Breton

Breton is spoken mainly in Lower Brittany, but also in a more dispersed way in Upper Brittany (where Gallo is spoken alongside Breton and French), and in areas around the world that have Breton emigrants.

The four traditional dialects of Breton correspond to medieval bishoprics rather than to linguistic divisions. They are leoneg (léonard, of the county of Léon), tregerieg (trégorrois, of Trégor), kerneveg (cornouaillais, of Cornouaille), and gwenedeg (vannetais, of Vannes). Guérandais was spoken up to the beginning of the 20th century in the region of Guérande and Batz-sur-Mer. There are no clear boundaries between the dialects because they form a dialect continuum, varying only slightly from one village to the next. Gwenedeg, however, requires a little study to be intelligible with most of the other dialects.

Distribution of Breton dialects by region

Region	Population	Number of speakers	Percentage of speakers
Basse Bretagne	1.3 m	185,000	14.2%
Centre Ouest Bretagne	112,000	20,000	20%
Trégor-Goelo	127,000	25,000	20%
Pays de Brest	370,000	40,000	11%
Pays de Cornouaille	320,000	35,000	11.5%
Pays de Lorient	212,000	15,000	7.3%
Pays de Vannes	195,000	11,000	5.5%
Pays de Guingamp	76,000	12,000	17%
Pays de Morlaix	126,000	15,000	12%
Pays de St Brieuc	191,000	5,000	3%
Pays de Pontivy	85,000	6,500	8%
Pays d'Auray	85,000	6,500	7.6%
Haute Bretagne	1.9 m	20,000	2%
Pays de Rennes	450,000	7,000
Loire-Atlantique	1.3 m
Pays de Nantes	580,000	4,000	0.8%
TOTAL	4.56 m	216,000	4.6%

Official status

See also: Language policy of France

Ofis Publik ar Brezhoneg, the Breton language agency, was set up in 1999 by the Brittany region to promote and develop the use of Breton.

Nation

As noted, only French is an official language of France. Supporters of Breton and other minority languages continue to argue for their recognition, and for their place in education, public schools, and public life.

Constitution

In July 2008, the legislature amended the French Constitution, adding article 75-1: les langues régionales appartiennent au patrimoine de la France (the regional languages belong to the heritage of France).

The European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages, which obliges signatory states to recognize minority and regional languages, was signed by France in 1999 but has not been ratified. On 27 October 2015, the Senate rejected a draft constitutional law ratifying the charter.

Region

Regional and departmental authorities use Breton to a very limited extent, for example in signage. Some bilingual signage has also been installed, such as street name signs in Breton towns. One station of the Rennes metro system has signs in both French and Breton.

Under the French law known as Toubon, it is illegal for commercial signage to be in Breton alone. Signs must be bilingual or French only. Since commercial signage usually has limited physical space, most businesses have signs only in French.

Ofis Publik ar Brezhoneg, the Breton language agency, was set up in 1999 by the Brittany region to promote and develop the daily use of Breton. It created the Ya d'ar brezhoneg campaign, to encourage enterprises, organisations and communes to promote the use of Breton, for example by installing bilingual signage or translating their websites into Breton.

Education

Sign in French and partly in Breton in Rennes, outside a school with bilingual classes

In the late 20th century, the French government considered incorporating the independent Breton-language immersion schools (called Diwan) into the state education system. This action was blocked by the French Constitutional Council based on the 1994 amendment to the Constitution that establishes French as the language of the republic. Therefore, no other language may be used as a language of instruction in state schools. The Toubon Law implemented the amendment, asserting that French is the language of public education.

The Diwan schools were founded in Brittany in 1977 to teach Breton by immersion. A few thousand young people have been taught in Diwan schools from elementary school to high school over the years. The schools have gained fame owing to their high level of results in school exams. Breton-language schools do not receive funding from the national government, though the Brittany Region may fund them.

Another teaching method is a bilingual approach by Div Yezh ("Two Languages") in the State schools, created in 1979. Dihun ("Awakening") was created in 1990 for bilingual education in the Catholic schools.

Statistics

In 2018, 18,337 pupils (about 2.00% of all pupils in Brittany) attended Diwan, Div Yezh and Dihun schools, and their number has increased yearly. The goal of Jean-Yves Le Drian (president of the Regional Council) of 20 thousand, and of “their recognition” for “their place in education, public schools, and public life”, by 2010, was not achieved, but he describes being encouraged by their progress.

In 2007, some 4500 to 5 thousand adults followed such a Breton language course as an evening or correspondence one.The transmission{{vague| reason = within families? of Breton in 1999 is estimated to be 3 percent.

Growth of the percentage of pupils in bilingual education.

Year	Number	Percentage of all pupils in Brittany
2005	10,397	1.24%
2006	11,092	1.30%
2007	11,732	1.38%
2008	12,333	± 1.4%
2009	13,077	1.45%
2010	13,493	1.48%
2011	14,174	1.55%
2012	14,709	1.63%
2013	15,338	1.70%
2014	15,840	. %
2015	16,345	. %
2016	17,024	. %
2017	17,748	. %
2018	18,337	2.00 %

Percentage of pupils in bilingual education per department.

Department	Primary education (2018)
Finistère	8.1%
Morbihan	5.9%
Côtes-d'Armor	3.8%
Ille-et-Vilaine	1.2%
Loire-Atlantique	0.5%

Municipalities

The 10 communes with the highest percentage of pupils in bilingual primary education, listed with their total population.

Commune	Percentage (2008)	Population (2007)
Saint-Rivoal (Finistère)	100%	177
Plounévez-Moëdec (Côtes-d'Armor)	82.4%	1,461
Bulat-Pestivien (Côtes-d'Armor)	53.7%	493
Commana (Finistère)	49.7%	1,061
Cavan (Côtes-d'Armor)	39.6%	1,425
Rostrenen (Côtes-d'Armor)	39.3%	3,655
Guégon (Morbihan)	35.5%	2,432
Lannilis (Finistère)	35.1%	5,121
Pabu (Côtes-d'Armor)	32.46%	2,923
Melrand (Morbihan)	31.4%	1,558

The 10 communes of historic Brittany with the highest total population, listed with their percentages of pupils in bilingual primary education.

Commune	Percentage (2008)	Population (2007)
Nantes (Loire-Atlantique)	1.4%	290,943
Rennes (Ille-et-Vilaine)	2.87%	213,096
Brest (Finistère)	1.94%	146,519
Saint-Nazaire (Loire-Atlantique)	0.41%	71,046
Quimper (Finistère)	3.17%	67,255
Lorient (Morbihan)	2.71%	59,805
Vannes (Morbihan)	7.71%	55,383
Saint-Malo (Ille-et-Vilaine)	0.55%	50,206
Saint-Brieuc (Côtes-d'Armor)	3.98%	48,178
Saint-Herblain (Loire-Atlantique)	?	44,364

Other forms of education

In addition to bilingual education (including Breton-medium education) the region has introduced the Breton language in primary education, mainly in the department of Finistère. These "initiation" sessions are generally one to three hours per week, and consist of songs and games.

Schools in secondary education (collèges and lycées) offer some courses in Breton. In 2010, nearly 5,000 students in Brittany were reported to be taking this option. Additionally, the University of Rennes 2 has a Breton language department offering courses in the language along with a master's degree in Breton and Celtic Studies.

Phonology

Vowels

Vowels in Breton may be short or long. All unstressed vowels are short; stressed vowels can be short or long (vowel lengths are not noted in usual orthographies as they are implicit in the phonology of particular dialects, and not all dialects pronounce stressed vowels as long). An emergence of a schwa sound occurs as a result of vowel neutralization in post-tonic position, among different dialects.

All vowels can also be nasalized, which is noted by appending an 'n' letter after the base vowel, or by adding a combining tilde above the vowel (most commonly and easily done for a and o due to the Portuguese letters), or more commonly by non-ambiguously appending an ⟨ñ⟩ letter after the base vowel (this depends on the orthographic variant).

	Front		Back
	unrounded	rounded	unrounded	rounded
Close	i /i/	u /y/		ou /u/
Close-mid	e /e/	eu /ø/		o /o/
Open-mid	e /ɛ/	eu /œ/		o /ɔ/
Open	a /a/		a /ɑ/

Diphthongs are /ai, ei, ou/.

Consonants

		Labial	Dental	Alveolar	Post- alveolar	Palatal		Velar		Uvular	Glottal
						plain	lab.	plain	lab.
Nasal		m /m/		n /n/		gn /ɲ/
Plosive	voiced	b /b/		d /d/				g /ɡ/	gw, gou /ɡʷ/
	voiceless	p /p/		t /t/				k /k/	kw, kou /kʷ/
Fricative	voiced	v /v/	(z, d /ð/)	z, zh /z/	j /ʒ/			c'h /ɣ/
	voiceless	f /f/		s /s/	ch /ʃ/			c'h /x/			h, zh /h/
Trill				r /r/						(r /ʁ/)
Approximant	central				(r /ɹ/)	y /j/	u /ɥ/		w /w/
	lateral			l /l/		lh /ʎ/

• The pronunciation of the letter ⟨r⟩ varies nowadays: [ʁ] is used in the French-influenced standard language and, generally speaking, in the central parts of Lower Brittany (including the south of Trégor, the west of Vannetais and virtually all parts of Cornouaille) whereas [r] is the common realisation in Léon and often in the Haut-Vannetais dialect of central Morbihan (in and around the city of Vannes and the Pays de Pontivy), though in rapid speech mostly a tapped [ɾ] occurs. In the other regions of Trégor [ɾ] or even [ɹ] may be found.
• The voiced dental fricative (/ð/) is a conservative realisation of the lenition (or the "spirant mutation" in cases where the phenomenon originates from the mutation of /t~θ/, respectively) of the consonants /d/ and /t/ which is to be found in certain varieties of Haut-Vannetais. Most of the Breton dialects do not inherit the sound and thus it is mostly not orthographically fixed. The Peurunvan, for instance, uses ⟨z⟩ for both mutations, which are regularly and more prominently pronounced [z] in Léonais, Cornouaillais, Trégorrois and Bas-Vannetais. In traditional literature written in the Vannetais dialect, two different graphemes are employed for representing the dental fricative, depending on the scripture's historical period. There once was a time when ⟨d⟩ was used to transcribe the sound, but today mostly the regular ⟨z⟩ is instead used, and this practice can be traced back to at least the end of the 17th century. The area this phenomenon has been found to be evident in encompasses the towns of Pontivy and Baud and surrounding smaller villages like Cléguérec, Noyal-Pontivy, Pluméliau, St. Allouestre, St. Barthélemy, Pluvigner and also parts of Belle-Île. The only known place where the mutation occurs outside of the Vannes country is the Île de Sein, an island located off Finistère's coast. Some scholars also used [ẓ] as the symbol for the sound to indicate that it was rather an "infra-dental" consonant than a clear interdental, which is the sound the symbol /ð/ is usually describes. Other linguists, however, did not draw that distinction, either because they identified the sound to actually be an interdental fricative (such as Roparz Hemon in his phonetic transcription of the dialect used in Pluméliau or Joseph Loth in his material about the dialect of Sauzon in Belle-Île) or due to the fact that they attached no importance to it and ascertained that their descriptions were not in need of a further clarification of the sound's phonetic realisation as it was a clearly distinguishable phoneme.

Grammar

Main article: Breton grammar

Verbal aspect

Like in other Celtic languages as well as English, a variety of verbal constructions are available to express grammatical aspect, for example: showing a distinction between progressive and habitual actions:

Breton	English	Irish	Welsh	Cornish
Me zo o komz gant ma amezeg	I am talking to my neighbour	Táim ag labhairt le mo chomharsana	Dw i'n siarad â fy nghymydog	Yth eso'vy ow kewsel orth ow hentrevek
Me a gomz gant ma amezeg (bep mintin)	I talk to my neighbour (every morning)	Labhraím le mo chomharsana (gach maidin)	Siaradaf â fy nghymydog (bob bore)	My a gews orth ow hentrevek (pub myttin)

Inflected prepositions

As in other modern Celtic languages, Breton pronouns are fused into preceding prepositions to produce a sort of inflected preposition. Below are some examples in Breton, Cornish, Welsh, Irish, Scottish Gaelic, and Manx, along with English translations.

Breton	Cornish	Welsh	Irish	Scottish Gaelic	Manx	English
ul levr zo ganin a book is with-me	yma lyver genev	mae llyfr gennyf	tá leabhar agam	tha leabhar agam	ta lioar aym	I have a book
un died zo ganit a drink is with-you (sing.)	yma diwes genes	mae diod gennyt	tá deoch agat	tha deoch agad	ta jough ayd	you have a drink
un urzhiataer zo gantañ a computer is with-him	yma jynn-amontya ganso	mae cyfrifiadur ganddo	tá ríomhaire aige	tha coimpiutair aige	ta co-earrooder echey	he has a computer
ur bugel zo ganti a child is with-her	yma flogh gensi	mae plentyn ganddi	tá leanbh aici	tha leanabh aice	ta lhiannoo eck	she has a child
ur c'harr zo ganimp (or 'ganeomp') a car is with-us	yma karr genen	mae car gennym	tá gluaisteán / carr againn	tha càr againn	ta gleashtan / carr ain	we have a car
un ti zo ganeoc'h a house is with-you (pl.)	yma chi genowgh	mae tŷ gennych	tá teach agaibh	tha taigh agaibh	ta thie eu	you have a house
arc'hant zo ganto (or 'gante') money is with-them	yma mona gansa	mae arian ganddynt	tá airgead acu	tha airgead aca	ta argid oc	they have money

Note that in the examples above the Goidelic languages (Irish, Scottish Gaelic, and Manx) use the preposition meaning at to show possession, whereas the Brittonic languages use with. The Goidelic languages, however, do use the preposition with to express "belong to" (Irish is liom an leabhar, Scottish is leam an leabhar, Manx s'lhiams yn lioar, The book belongs to me).

The Welsh examples are in literary Welsh. The order and preposition may differ slightly in colloquial Welsh (Formal mae car gennym, North Wales mae gynnon ni gar, South Wales mae car gyda ni).

Initial consonant mutations

Main article: Breton 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.

Initial consonant mutations in Breton

Unmutated consonant	Mutations
	Hard	Mixed	Soft	Aspirant
m [m]		v [v]	v [v]
b [b]	p [p̎]	v [v]	v [v]
p [p]			b [b̥]	f [v̥]
g [ɡ]	k [k͈]	c'h [ɣ]	c'h [ɣ]
k [k]			g [ɡ̊]	c'h [x]
d [d]	t [t͈]	t [t͈]	z [z]
t [t]			d [d̥]	z [h]
gw [ɡʷ]	kw [kʷ]	w [w]	w [w]

Word order

Normal word order, like the other Insular Celtic languages, is VSO (Verb, Subject Object). It is however perfectly possible to put the Subject or the Object at the beginning of the sentence. This largely depends on the focus of the speaker. The following options are possible (all with a little difference in meaning):

• the first places the verbal infinitive in initial position (as in (1)), followed by the auxiliary ober 'to do'.
• the second places the Auxiliary verb bezañ 'to be' in initial position (as in (2)), followed the Subject, and the construction o(c'h) + infinitive. At the end comes the Object.
• the third places the construction o(c'h) + infinitive in the initial position (as in (3)), followed by the Auxiliary verb bezañ, the Subject, and the Object.
• the fourth option places the Object in initial position (as in (4)), followed by an inflected verb, followed by the Subject.
• the fifth, and originally least common, places the Subject in initial position (as in (5)), followed by an inflected verb, followed by the Object, just like in English (SVO).

	(1)	Lenn	a	ra	brezhoneg
		read	PRT	do.3SINGULAR	Breton
		'He/she reads Breton.'
	(2)	Ema	Yann	o lenn	brezhoneg
		be.3SINGULAR	Yann	reading	Breton
	'Yann is reading Breton.'
	(3)	O lenn	ema	Yann	brezhoneg
		reading	be.3SINGULAR	Yann	Breton
	'Yann is reading Breton.'
	(4)	Mad	eo	an istor
		good	be.3SINGULAR	the story
	'The story is good.'
	(5)	An istor	zo	mad
		the story	be.3SINGULAR	good
	'The story is good.'

Vocabulary

Words that passed into French and into English

The English words dolmen and menhir have been borrowed from French, which took them from Breton. However, this is uncertain: for instance, menhir is peulvan or maen hir ("long stone"), maen sav ("straight stone") (two words: noun + adjective) in Breton. Dolmen is a misconstructed word (it should be taol-vaen). Some studies state that these words were borrowed from Cornish. Maen hir can be directly translated from Welsh as "long stone" (which is exactly what a menhir or maen hir is). The Cornish surnames Mennear, Minear and Manhire all derive from the Cornish men hyr ("long stone"), as does Tremenheere "settlement by the long stone".

The French word baragouiner ("to jabber in a foreign language") is derived from Breton bara ("bread") and gwin ("wine"). The French word goéland ("large seagull") is derived from Breton gwelan, which shares the same root as English "gull" (Welsh gwylan, Cornish goelann).

Orthography

The first extant Breton texts, contained in the Leyde manuscript, were written at the end of the 8th century: 50 years prior to the Strasbourg Oaths, considered to be the earliest example of French. Like many medieval orthographies, Old- and Middle Breton orthography was at first not standardised, and the spelling of a particular word varied at authors' discretion. In 1499, however, the Catholicon, was published; as the first dictionary written for both French and Breton, it became a point of reference on how to transcribe the language. The orthography presented in the Catholicon was largely similar to that of French, in particular with respect to the representation of vowels, as well as the use of both the Latinate digraph ⟨qu⟩—a remnant of the sound change /kʷ/ > /k/ in Latin—and Brittonic ⟨cou-⟩or ⟨cu-⟩ to represent /k/ before front vowels.

As phonetic and phonological differences between the dialects began to magnify, many regions, particularly the Vannes country, began to devise their own orthographies. Many of these orthographies were more closely related to the French model, albeit with some modifications. Examples of these modifications include the replacement of Old Breton ⟨-z⟩ with ⟨-h⟩ to denote word-final /x~h/ (an evolution of Old Breton /θ/ in the Vannes dialect) and use of ⟨-h⟩ to denote the initial mutation of /k/ (today this mutation is written ⟨c'h⟩). and thus needed another transcription.

In the 1830s Jean-François Le Gonidec created a modern phonetic system for the language.

During the early years of the 20th century, a group of writers known as Emglev ar Skrivanerien elaborated and reformed Le Gonidec's system. They made it more suitable as a super-dialectal representation of the dialects of Cornouaille, Leon and Trégor (known as from Kernev, Leon and Treger in Breton). This KLT orthography was established in 1911. At the same time writers of the more divergent Vannetais dialect developed a phonetic system also based on that of Le Gonidec.

Following proposals made during the 1920s, the KLT and Vannetais orthographies were merged in 1941 to create an orthographic system to represent all four dialects. This Peurunvan ("wholly unified") orthography was significant for the inclusion of the zh digraph, which represents a /h/ in Vannetais and corresponds to a /z/ in the KLT dialects.

In 1955 François Falc'hun and the group Emgleo Breiz proposed a new orthography. It was designed to use a set of graphemes closer to the conventions of French. This Orthographie Universitaire ("University Orthography", known in Breton as Skolveurieg) was given official recognition by the French authorities as the "official orthography of Breton in French education." It was opposed in the region and today is used only by the magazine Brud Nevez and the publishing house Emgléo Breiz.

In the 1970s, a new standard orthography was devised — the etrerannyezhel or interdialectale. This system is based on the derivation of the words.

Today the majority of writers continue to use the Peurunvan orthography, and it is the version taught in most Breton-language schools.

Alphabet

Breton is written in the Latin script. Peurunvan, the most commonly used orthography, consists of the following letters:

a, b, ch, c'h, d, e, f, g, h, i, j, k, l, m, n, o, p, r, s, t, u, v, w, y, z

The circumflex, grave accent, trema and tilde appear on some letters. These diacritics are used in the following way:

â, ê, î, ô, û, ù, ü, ñ

See v:Introduction to Breton/Breton pronunciation for an introduction to the Breton alphabet and pronunciation.

Differences between Skolveurieg and Peurunvan

Both orthographies use the above alphabet, although é is used only in Skolveurieg.

Differences between the two systems are particularly noticeable in word endings. In Peurunvan, final obstruents, which are devoiced in absolute final position and voiced in sandhi before voiced sounds, are represented by a grapheme that indicates a voiceless sound. In OU they are written as voiced but represented as voiceless before suffixes: braz (big), brasoc'h (bigger).

In addition, Peurunvan maintains the KLT convention, which distinguishes noun/adjective pairs by nouns written with a final voiced consonant and adjectives with a voiceless one. No distinction is made in pronunciation, e.g. brezhoneg Breton language vs. brezhonek Breton (adj).

Some examples of words in the different orthographies:

Etrerannyezhel (1975)	Peurunvan (1941)	Skolveurieg (1956)
glaw	glav	glao
piw	piv	piou
levr	levr	leor
ewid	evit	evid
gant	gant	gand
anezhi	anezhi	anezi
ouzhpenn	ouzhpenn	ouspenn
brawañ	bravañ	brava
pelec'h	pelec'h	peleh

Pronunciation of the Breton alphabet

Letter	Kerneveg	Leoneg	Tregiereg	Gwenedeg
A a	a, ɑː
â	ɑː
ae	ae̯/aj	ɛa	ɛː
an	ɑ̃n
añ	ɑ̃
ao	ao̯/aw		ɔː	ao̯/aw
aou	ɔʊ̯/ɔw
B b	b, p
Ch ch	ʃ, ʒ
C'h c'h	h, x	h, ɣ/ɦ, x	h, x	h, x
c'hw	xw/f	xw		hw (hɥ)
D d	d, t
E e	ɛ, ɛ̞, e, eː		ɛ, ɛ̞, e, eː, ə
ê	ɛː
ei	ɛi̯/ɛj
eeu	eø̯/ew
eo	eː	eɔ	eː	eː, ə
eu	œ, œ̞, ø, øː
eü	ɛɥ, e(v)y
eue	ø̯e/ɥe
F f	f, v
'f	v/ɸ
G g	ɡ, k			ɡ, k (ɟ, c)
gn	ɲ
gw	ɡw			ɡw (ɟɥ)
H h	h
I i	i, iː, j
ilh	(i)ʎ
J j	ʒ, ʃ
K k	k			k (c);
L l	l, ɬ
M m	m
N n	n, ŋ
ñ	(not pronounced, causes nasalization of a preceding vowel)
ñv	v (with a nasalization of a preceding vowel)
O o	ɔ, ɔ̞, o, oː;
oa	ɔ̯a/wa, ɔ̯ɑː/wɑː	ɔ̯a/wa, ɔ̯ɑː/wɑː, ɔa, oːa	ɔ̯a/wa, ɔ̯ɑː/wɑː	ɔ̯ɛ/wɛ, ɔ̯eː/weː
ôa	oːa
oe	ɔ̯ɛ(ː)/wɛ(ː)
on	ɔ̃n
oñ	ɔ̃
ou	u, uː, w			u, uː, w (ɥ);
où		u	o	ø, ow, aw, aɥ, ɔɥ
oü	oy̆, oːy
P p	p
R r	ʀ/ʁ/r/ɾ/ɹ; , χ/r̥/ɾ̥/ɹ̥
S s	s, z
sh	s			h
sk	sk			sk (sc/ʃc)
st	st			ʃt
T t	t
U u	y, yː, ɥ
ui	ɥi, ɥiː
ur, un, ul	ɔʀ/ɔn/ɔl	œr/œn/œl	œɾ/œn/œl	yʁ/yn/yl
V v	v
vh	f
W w	w			w (ɥ)
Y y	j
Z z	z, Ø ;, s	z, ʒ/ʃ ;	z, Ø ;	z, Ø , ð
zh	z			h

Notes:

1. ^ Vocative particle: â Vreizh O Brittany!
2. ^ Word-initially.
3. ^ Word-finally.
4. ^ Unwritten lenition of ch, c'h, f, s and spirantization of p > f [v].
5. ^ Unstressed vowels e, eu, o are pronounced [ɛ, œ, ɔ] in Leoneg but [e, ø, o] in the other dialects. The pronunciation [ɛ̞, œ̞, ɔ̞] appears mainly in front of clusters lc'h, rc'h (less often also before c'h), before semivowels [j, w], before other clusters beginning with r, l and before rr. Stressed long e, eu, o are realized as [eː, øː, oː].
6. ^ In Gwenedeg velars or labialized velars are palatalized when followed by e and i: k, g, kw/kou, c'hw/c'hou, gw/gou, w/ou, sk to [c, ɟ, cɥ, hɥ, ɟɥ, ɥ, sc/ʃc]. Instead of [c, ɟ] also [tʃ, dʒ] may appear.
7. ^ In Gwenedeg word-final g and k is palatalized to [c] after preceding i.
8. ^ But before a vowel other than i the digraph ni is written instead of gn, e.g. bleniañ to drive', radical blegn, 1PS preterite blegnis, 3PS preterite blenias.
9. ^ But mute in words such as ha(g), he(c'h), ho(c'h), holl, hon/hor/hol. Silent in Gwenedeg and Leoneg.
10. ^ I is realized as [j] when it precedes or follows a vowel (or when between vowels), but in words such as lien, liorzh, rakdiazezañ the letter i is pronounced as [iː] (in orthography ï may be used:lïen, lïorzh, rakdïazezañ).
11. ^ Group ilh is pronounced [ʎ] when it follows a vowel, following a consonant the group is pronounced [iʎ]. But before a vowel other than i li is written instead of ilh, e.g. heuliañ to follow, radical heuilh, 1PS preterite heuilhis, 3PS preterite heulias. In some regions instead of [ʎ] may appear pronunciation [j].
12. ^ Word-finally following a cluster of unvoiced consonants.
13. ^ In front of k, g.
14. ^ The digraph ou is realized same as the letter w when preceded or followed by a vowel (or when between vowels), but in words such as Doue, douar, gouarn the digraph ou is pronounced [uː].
15. ^ The digraph où marks plural ending. Its pronunciation varies throughout Brittany: [u, o, ø, ow, aw, aɥ, ɔɥ] rating geographically from Northwest Leon to Southeast Gwened.
16. ^ The letter v is usually pronounced [v], but word-finally (except word-final ñv) is pronounced usually as [w] or in KLT, as [ɥ] in Gwenedeg and as [f] in Goëlo. The pronunciation [v] is retained word-finally in verbs. In words bliv, Gwiskriv, gwiv, liv, piv, riv are v is pronounced [u] in KLT, [ɥ] in Gwenedeg and [f] in Goëlo. Word-finally following r, l, n, z it is pronounced [o].
17. ^ But mute in words such as gouez, bloaz, goaz, ruziañ, kleiz, rakdïazezañ, bezañ, Roazhon, dezhañ, kouezhañ, 'z, az, ez, da'z, gwirionez, enep(g)wirionez, moneiz, falsvoneiz, karantez, kengarantez, nevez, nevezc'hanet, nadozioù, abardaez, gwez, bemdez, kriz, bleiz, morvleiz, dezhi . Z is generally mute in Kerneweg, Tregerieg and Gwenedeg, but in Leoneg z(h) is always pronounced.
18. ^ Used to distinguish words stêr river, hêr heir, kêr town (written also kaer) from ster sense, her bold, ker dear.
19. ^ Used to distinguish trôad circuit/tour from troad foot.
20. ^ In northern dialects (mainly in Leoneg), there is a tendency to voice c'h between vowels. Pronunciation [ɣ] appears also in forms of lenition of g, c'h and mixed mutation of g.
21. ^ The lenition of d and the spirantization of t is also transcribed as z and is most prominently pronounced [z] although in certain regions also [s] (for t, particularly in Cornouaille) and [ð] (in some Haut-Vannetais varieties, see note 31) occur.
22. ^ Pronunciation of r varies in Brittany, nowadays uvular [ʀ] (or [ʁ]) is a standard; in Leoneg r is pronounced [r], in Tregerieg [ɾ] or [ɹ], in Kerneveg [ʀ] and [ʁ] are most common, in Gwenedeg [ʀ], [ʁ], [r], [ɾ] occur.
23. ^ In Gwenedeg unstressed e often [ə].
24. ^ Lenited varieties of r, l, n may appear word-initially in case of soft mutation.
25. ^ In Leoneg [u(ː)] in front of a nasal.
26. ^ In Leoneg w in front of e, i [v].
27. ^ In Leoneg z(h) in front of i [ʃ] or [ʒ].
28. ^ In Leoneg gwr [ɡr].
29. ^ Before a vowel.
30. ^ Forms of the indefinite article.
31. ^ A conservative realisation of the initial mutation of d and t, used in certain parts of the Vannes country.

Examples

Lord's Prayer

Hon Tad,

c'hwi hag a zo en Neñv,

ra vo santelaet hoc'h anv.

Ra zeuio ho Rouantelezh.

Ra vo graet ho youl war an douar evel en neñv.

Roit dimp hiziv bara hor bevañs.

Distaolit dimp hon dleoù

evel m'hor bo ivez distaolet d'hon dleourion.

Ha n'hon lezit ket da vont gant an temptadur,

met hon dieubit eus an Droug.

Words and phrases in Breton

Bilingual signage in Quimper/Kemper. Note the use of the word ti in the Breton for police station and tourist office, plus da bep lec'h for all directions.

Visitors to Brittany may encounter words and phrases (especially on signs and posters) such as the following:

Breton	English
deuet mat	welcome
deuet mat oc'h	you're welcome
Breizh	Brittany
brezhoneg	Breton (language)
ti, "ty"	house
ti-kêr	town hall
kreiz-kêr	town centre
da bep lec'h	all directions
skol	school
skol-veur	university
bagad	pipe band (nearly)
fest-noz	lit. "night festival", a fest deiz or "day festival" also exists
kenavo	goodbye
krampouezh	pancakes (a pancake = ur grampouezhenn)
sistr	cider
chouchenn	Breton mead
yec'hed mat	Cheers!
war vor atav	always at sea
kouign amann	rich butter and sugar cake

Language comparison

English	Breton	Cornish	Welsh	Scottish Gaelic	Irish Gaelic
earth	douar	dor	daear	talamh	talamh
sky	oabl (older oabr)	ebron	wybren	speur/spiar	spéir
heaven	neñv	nev	nef	nèamh	neamh
food	boued	boos (older boes)	bwyd	biadh	bia
house	ti	chi	tŷ	taigh	teach (south tigh)
church	iliz	eglos	eglwys	eaglais	eaglais
person, man	den, gour	den, gour	dyn, gŵr	duine, fear	duine, fear
dog	ki	ki	ci	cù	gadhar, madra (cú hound)
sell	gwerzhañ	gwertha	gwerthu	reic	díol, reic trade, íoc pay
eat	debriñ	dybri	bwyta	ith (biadhaich feed)	ith (cothaigh feed)
drink	evañ	eva	yfed	òl (archaic ibh)	ól (archaic ibh)
see	gwelet	gweles	gweld	faic (fut. chì)	feic, (south chí)
black	du	du	du	dubh	dubh
white	gwenn	gwynn	gwyn	bàn, geal (fionn 'fair')	fionn, bán, geal
green	gwer, glas	gwer, gwyrdh, glas	gwyrdd, glas	uaine, glas	uaine, glas
red	ruz	rudh	coch (also: rhudd)	dearg (hair, etc. ruadh)	dearg (hair, etc. rua)
yellow	melen	melyn	melyn	buidhe	buí
book	levr	lyver	llyfr	leabhar	leabhar
day	deiz	dydh	dydd	latha	lá (also dé in names of weekdays)
year	bloaz	bloodh	blwyddyn	bliadhna	blian/bliain
beer	korev (bier)	korev	cwrw	leann (cuirm)	leann, beoir, coirm ale
go	mont	mones (mos)	mynd	dol	téigh (participle, ag dul)
come	dont	dones	dod	thig (participle, tighinn)	tar (participle, ag teacht)
cat	kazh	kath	cath	cat	cat
live	bevañ	bewa	byw	beò	beo
dead	marv	marow	marw	marbh	marbh
name	anv	hanow	enw	ainm	ainm
water	dour	dowr	dŵr	uisge (dobhair)	uisce, dobhar
true	gwir	gwir	gwir	fìor	fíor
wife	gwreg	gwreg	gwraig	bean	bean
sheep	dañvad	davas	dafad	caora 'sheep' (damh 'stag', 'ox'; )	damh stag, ox; caora sheep
better	gwell, gwelloc'h	gwell	gwell	feàrr	níos fearr
say	lavarout	leverel	siarad	can (labhair speak)	deir (labhair speak)
night	noz	nos	nôs	a-nochd 'tonight'; oidhche 'night'	anocht tonight; oíche night
root	gwrizienn	gwreydhen	gwreiddyn	freumh	fréamh, (south préamh)
iron	houarn	horn	haearn	iarann	iarann
summer	hañv	hav	haf	samhradh	samhradh
winter	goañv	gwav	gaeaf	geamhradh	geimhreadh

See also

• Armoricani
• Gaelic revival, Irish language revival
• Julian Maunoir, 17th-century Breton language orthographer
• List of Celtic-language media
• Stourm ar Brezhoneg an association promoting the language

Further reading

• Jackson, Kenneth H. (1967). A historical phonology of Breton. Dublin: Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies. ISBN 978-0-901282-53-8.
• Stephens, Janig (1993). "Breton". In Ball, Martin J.; Fife, James (eds.). The Celtic languages. Routledge language family descriptions. Abingdon; New York: Routledge. pp. 349–409. ISBN 978-0415280808.
• Schrijver, Peter (2011). "Middle and early modern Breton". In Ternes, Elmar (ed.). Brythonic Celtic – Britannisches Keltisch: From medieval British to modern Breton. Bremen: Hempen Verlag. pp. 359–430. ISBN 9783934106802.
• Schrijver, Peter (2011). "Old British". In Ternes, Elmar (ed.). Brythonic Celtic – Britannisches Keltisch: From medieval British to modern Breton. Bremen: Hempen Verlag. pp. 1–84. ISBN 9783934106802.
• Ternes, Elmar (2011). "Neubretonisch". In Ternes, Elmar (ed.). Brythonic Celtic – Britannisches Keltisch: From medieval British to modern Breton. Bremen: Hempen Verlag. pp. 431–530. ISBN 9783934106802.
• Ternes, Elmar (1992). "The Breton language". In MacAulay, Donald (ed.). The Celtic languages. Cambridge language surveys. Cambridge; New York; Oakleigh: Cambridge University Press. pp. 371–452. ISBN 978-0521231275.

External links

• Ofis Publik ar Brezhoneg official website.
• France 3 breizh, the public Breton TV channel.
• Endangered, Breizh net: an essay about the situation of the Breton language.
• 100 Breton Internet-related words, Breizh
• Amsez Wask Breizh, Agence bretagne presse: news in Breton.
• Breizh, archived from the original (blog) on 2011-06-12, retrieved 2006-07-07: Brittany information, articles about Breton.
• A Taste of Breton Verse, Summerlands.
• Breton, Omniglot.

Dictionaries

• English online dictionary and grammar for Breton
• A multilingual dictionary containing many Breton words alongside those of other languages

Learning

• Breton site including online lessons
• Audio CD, workbooks, software in English to learn Breton
• Breton site with learners' forum and lessons (mostly in French with some English)
• Jouitteau, M. Grammaire du breton, (extensive Breton grammar in French, with glossed examples and typological comparisons), IKER, CNRS, 2009 > 2017].

Bible

• Ar Bibl Santel (Jenkins) 1897 (JEN1897). History of Bible translation in Breton and Breton Bible