Breton language

Breton
brezhoneg
Side of a stone building next to a stream; low stone wall in the foreground has a sign reading Mill of Chaos in both Breton and French; Meilh ar Cʼhlegr and Moulin du Chaos
Bilingual sign in Huelgoat in Brittany
Pronunciation[bʁeˈzɔ̃ːnɛk], [brəhɔ̃ˈnek]
Native toBrittany (France)
RegionLower Brittany
EthnicityBretons
Native speakers
210,000 in Brittany (2018)[1]
16,000 in Île-de-France[2]
(Number includes students in bilingual education)[3]
Early forms
Old Breton
  • Middle Breton
DialectsGwenedeg
Kerneveg
Leoneg
Tregerieg
Latin script (Breton alphabet)
Official status
Recognised minority
language in
Regulated byOfis Publik ar Brezhoneg
Language codes
ISO 639-1br
ISO 639-2bre
ISO 639-3Variously:
bre – Modern Breton
xbm
obt
xbm Middle Breton
 obt Old Breton
Glottologbret1244
ELPBreton
Linguasphere50-ABB-b (varieties: 50-ABB-ba to -be)
Map showing the percentage of Breton speakers in each country of Brittany, 2018
Percentage of Breton speakers in each country of Brittany, 2018
Breton is classified as Severely Endangered by the UNESCO Atlas of the World's Languages in Danger[4]
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Breton (/ˈbrɛtən/, BRET-ən, French: [bʁətɔ̃]; endonym: brezhoneg [bʁeˈzɔ̃ːnɛk] ⓘ[5] or [bɾəhɔ̃ˈnek] in Morbihan) is a Southwestern Brittonic language of the Celtic language group spoken in Brittany, part of modern-day France. It is the only Celtic language still widely in use on the European mainland, albeit as a member of the insular branch instead of the continental grouping.[6]

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, making it an Insular Celtic language. Breton is most closely related to Cornish, another Southwestern Brittonic language.[7] Welsh and the extinct Cumbric, both Western Brittonic languages, are more distantly related, and the Goidelic languages (Irish, Manx, Scottish Gaelic) have a slight connection due to both of their origins being from Insular Celtic. [citation needed]

Having declined from more than one 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.[4] However, the number of children attending bilingual classes rose 33% between 2006 and 2012 to 14,709.[3][1]

  1. ^ a b "Enquête socio-linguistique : qui parle les langues de bretagne aujourd'hui ?". Région Bretagne. 8 October 2018. Retrieved 9 October 2018.
  2. ^ Diagnostic de la langue bretonne en Île-de-France. Ofis Publik ar Brezhoneg.
  3. ^ a b Broudic, Fañch (2009). Parler breton au XXIe siècle : Le nouveau sondage de TMO Régions (in French). Emgleo Breiz.
  4. ^ a b Moseley, Christopher; Nicolas, Alexander, eds. (2010). Atlas of the World's Languages in Danger (PDF) (3rd ed.). Paris: UNESCO. ISBN 978-92-3-104096-2. Archived from the original on 23 July 2022.
  5. ^ Bauer, Laurie (2007). The Linguistic Student's Handbook. Edinburgh University Press.
  6. ^ Diamond, Jared (2012) The World Until Yesterday New York: Viking. p.399. ISBN 978-0-670-02481-0
  7. ^ "Breton language". Encyclopædia Britannica. Retrieved 18 September 2017.