Stone 04 Independent notes
Celtic Brittany: language, identity and what the name means
Brittany is called Celtic because of its language and its early medieval settlers from Britain, not because it is the only Celtic corner of France. The label is useful, but it needs some care.
Is Brittany considered Celtic?
Yes, in a cultural and linguistic sense. Breton is a Celtic language, and the region has been linked to Wales and Cornwall since the early Middle Ages. Brittany is often counted among the six Celtic nations, together with Ireland, Scotland, Wales, Cornwall and the Isle of Man, and the Celtic League includes it. That is a cultural definition used by those who work on Celtic languages and traditions, not a legal status.
Are Bretons French or Celtic?
The question sets up a false choice. Brittany has been part of France since the early sixteenth century, after the Duchess Anne of Brittany married two French kings and the union was confirmed in 1532. Bretons are French citizens, and many are proud of both identities. Celtic describes a language family and a cultural heritage, not a nationality. Most people in Brittany today speak French as their first language.
What does Brittany mean, and why is it called that?
Brittany simply means little Britain, a name that reflects the migration from Britain in late antiquity. Before that the area was called Armorica, a Gaulish name usually explained as the land by the sea. In Breton the name is Breizh, and the two halves of the country are still named Armor, the coast, and Argoat, the wooded interior. This site takes its name from that pair.
Does anyone still speak Brittonic?
Brittonic is the family of Celtic languages once spoken across much of Britain. Three of its languages survive: Welsh, Cornish, which was revived after dying out as a community language, and Breton. See the Breton language guide for the details, including dialects and schools.
Saints, pilgrimages and music
Early Breton Christianity is known through saints associated with the arrival from Britain. The Tro Breizh, a long pilgrimage route around the tombs of seven founding saints, visits Saint-Pol-de-Léon, Tréguier, Saint-Brieuc, Saint-Malo, Dol, Vannes and Quimper. Brittany also has a living musical culture: the bagad, a pipe band with bombards, bagpipes and drums, and the fest-noz, a night dance festival, which UNESCO inscribed on its list of intangible cultural heritage in 2012.
The black and white Gwenn ha du flag was designed in the twentieth century, and the tune of the Breton song Bro Gozh ma Zadou is the same as the Welsh national anthem. A large summer festival in Lorient, the Festival Interceltique, brings Celtic musicians together every year.
Where the Celtic label needs care
The label is easy to over-use. The megaliths of Carnac were raised thousands of years before any Celtic language reached Brittany, so they are pre-Celtic, as the Carnac stones guide explains. Similarly, Celtic does not mean unchanged: modern Breton culture is a product of the last two centuries as much as of the early Middle Ages, and good sources keep the periods apart.