Breton Language: History, Dialects, Revival and First Words

Is Breton a Celtic language?

Yes. Breton belongs to the Brittonic branch of the Celtic languages, together with Welsh and Cornish. The other living branch, the Goidelic one, contains Irish, Scottish Gaelic and Manx, so Breton is not a close relative of Gaelic. Of the Brittonic languages, Breton and Cornish are usually described as the nearest pair, and a Welsh speaker will recognise many Breton words without being able to follow a conversation.

This answers a common question about what language Breton is closest to. In short, it is closest to Cornish, then Welsh, and it is a different language from French. Breton is also different from Gallo, the other traditional language of Brittany, which is a Romance language of the same family as French and is spoken mainly in the eastern part of the region.

Breton language history in short

The usual account is that Breton came to the Armorican peninsula with settlers who crossed from Britain during late antiquity and the early Middle Ages, which is also how the region got the name Brittany. Scholars speak of Old, Middle and Modern Breton. Short glosses and names survive from the early period, and a fuller written tradition appears in the later Middle Ages.

One landmark is the Catholicon, a dictionary of Breton, French and Latin that was printed in the late fifteenth century. Religious plays and devotional texts in Middle Breton followed. For several centuries Breton was the everyday language of most people in the western part of Brittany, while the elite and the towns increasingly used French.

In the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries French became the only language of state schools, and accounts of pupils being punished for speaking Breton are well documented. A law of 1951 for the first time allowed some teaching of regional languages in schools, but only in a limited way.

Four dialects and one standard

Traditional Breton is usually divided into four dialect areas: Léon in the north west, Trégor in the north, Cornouaille in the south west and Gwened around Vannes in the south east. Gwened differs most from the others. A shared written standard is therefore important for teaching and publishing.

Several spelling systems competed in the twentieth century. The one known as peurunvan, agreed in 1941, is now the most widely used, and it is the base of most courses and dictionaries you will find today.

Is Breton a dead language? The revival

No, but it is endangered. UNESCO's atlas of endangered languages lists Breton as severely endangered, and most fluent speakers of the traditional kind are older. At the same time a new generation learns Breton at school.

The best known network is Diwan, a movement of immersion schools whose first nursery school opened in 1977. Diwan means seed in Breton. Bilingual streams also exist in public and Catholic schools, and adult courses, radio, television programmes, books and music in Breton add to the picture. For the language revival the key question is not the number of schools but whether young speakers keep using Breton outside the classroom.

Breton language words to start with

These are well known, everyday words. Spelling follows the standard orthography.

Demat: hello, good morning.
Kenavo: goodbye.
Trugarez: thank you.
Degemer mat: welcome.
Yec'hed mat: cheers, good health.
Breizh: Brittany.
Mor: sea. Ti: house. Ker: town or fortified place.

Place names are the easiest way to see Breton at work. Many begin with Ker, Plou or Lan, and a map reads differently once you know that ker is a settlement, plou a parish and lan a monastic enclosure.

How to learn Breton

Start with a standard course in peurunvan spelling, add audio from radio or recorded courses, and use a dictionary that marks dialect words. Online courses and apps exist, and several Celtic cultural centres run classes. Be careful with websites that mix dialect spellings without saying so, because a beginner cannot tell the difference. For books and dictionaries, see how to research Breton books and archives.