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CNN: Bretons fight to save language | ||
Tags: Breton | Endangered Language | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Specific Languages |  | |
 magister Pro Member United States Joined 6604 days ago 346 posts - 421 votes  Speaks: English* Studies: Turkish, Irish Personal Language Map | Message 1 of 3 13 December 2010 at 6:32pm | IP Logged |
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| BartoG Diglot Senior Member United States confession Joined 5448 days ago 292 posts - 818 votes Speaks: English*, French Studies: Italian, Spanish, Latin, Uzbek | Message 2 of 3 13 December 2010 at 8:35pm | IP Logged |
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The article notes that Brittany has a history independent of France and had a great deal of independence from France up to the Revolution. Part of that history includes the Bretons' expansion of their territory into Haute Bretagne (Upper Brittany) to include territories where a Romance language separate from French is spoken, namely Gallo. Gallo still exists, but its survival is even more precarious than that of Breton. First, there are fewer speakers. And second, its similarities to French make it easier for speakers to assimilate into French culture and lose their home language.
In recent years, Breton and Gallo supporters have made common cause in standing up for regional languages, and some activists have made a point of knowing both, in order to sustain Brittany's linguistic patrimony. The Regional Council of Brittany recognized both as essential to Breton heritage a while back. For more about Gallo, the place to start is probably the article in the French wikipedia: http://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gallo For those who want to learn Breton, by the way, Assimil offers a course. And you can often find an older course consisting of an Initiation and two following volumes that preceded the current course through online sellers. Or you can visit Kervarker.org for a free course with audio: http://www.kervarker.org/ I have not found good resources for Gallo. Edited by BartoG on 13 December 2010 at 8:37pm 5 persons have voted this message useful | |
| Préposition Diglot Senior Member France aspectualpairs.wordp Joined 5115 days ago 186 posts - 283 votes Speaks: French*, EnglishC1 Studies: Russian, Arabic (Written), Swedish, Arabic (Levantine) | Message 3 of 3 18 December 2010 at 4:49pm | IP Logged |
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There are also radio channels available, notably France Bleu Breizh Izel, Arvorig FM, Radio Kerne, and on TV, TV
Breizh and FR3 (the local edition only) will provide you with good material for Breton. Colloquial Breton exist as well, and if you can handle learning in French, there are many, many textbooks (some all in Breton) available, and even a Breton for Dummies. Cities are starting to replace their monolingual French signs with bilingual French and Breton signs, and sommes, like Vannes are even replacing their bilingual signs by monolingual Breton signs. Brittany has done a lot to save its language, there are schools in Breton, there's a Breton option for the French Bac, there are regular cultural events in Breton, and I wish France would give it even more recognition. Many Bretons will consider themselves to be Breton before being French, and are really proud of their region, their heritage and culture, but even if a lot is being done, there is still a long way to go. But the problem also comes from families, I'm angry that my Mum didn't make an effort to teach me some Breton, or put me in a Breton school as my aunt did with my cousins, and the rare lessons I had at school were just not enough for me. I discovered too late it was possible to do Breton in lycées, and now I'm stuck having to learn it by myself away from home when I could have had access to a lot of resources when I was still living with my parents. 1 person has voted this message useful |
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