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Is there any Breton literature? | ||
 Language Learning Forum : Books, Literature & Reading |  | |
| vermillon Triglot Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 4489 days ago 602 posts - 1042 votes  Speaks: French*, EnglishC2, Mandarin Studies: Japanese, German | Message 1 of 5 20 June 2012 at 6:58pm | IP Logged |
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Hi everyone,
I'm possibly interested in taking up Breton (partly because of heritage). However, I don't live in Britanny and I don't even live in France. The problem with Breton is that, as an endangered language, it doesn't really produce any cinema, the amount of music is limited (to traditional music, which is fine but I may want to listen to something different). What worries me most is that there doesn't seem to be a lot of things to read in Breton, but I may simply have missed it. So my questions are: -is there enough traditional literature to make learning Breton worthwhile? -if so, how does the language in that medieval/pre-modern literature compare with the modern language? Will I be able to read it while learning the modern language? -is there an interesting modern scene? Thanks in advance 2 persons have voted this message useful | |
| maydayayday Pentaglot Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 5030 days ago 564 posts - 839 votes Speaks: English*, German, Italian, SpanishB2, FrenchB2 Studies: Arabic (Egyptian), Russian, Swedish, Turkish, Polish, Persian, Vietnamese Studies: Urdu | Message 2 of 5 20 June 2012 at 8:04pm | IP Logged |
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I became quite interested in Breton when I was in my teens (donkey's years ago) on extended summer exchanges as the Bretons I spoke to often used Breton phrases when talking to each other.
There are translations of some films into Breton and I understand some schools give lessons in Breton so there must be some beginner level reading materials. Sadly, as you know, the Government will not accept any other language than French in the republic. 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| vermillon Triglot Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 4489 days ago 602 posts - 1042 votes Speaks: French*, EnglishC2, Mandarin Studies: Japanese, German | Message 3 of 5 20 June 2012 at 8:18pm | IP Logged |
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Thanks, but that's not really the question. I'm not trying to have yet another topic about the evil governments of France, the UK or wherever there are endangered languages. That wouldn't change the amount of existing classical literature anyway, I guess. :)
My question is rather to know if Breton has produced any literature that is worth reading, or not. I'm also not asking about beginner level reading materials, though that would indeed be useful if I were to start learning the language. I believe that Irish has quite a lot of literature, but if I were to pick up a Celtic language some day, I'd rather take the one that I'm culturally the most related to. I've bought the book "The Turn of the Ermine: An Anthology of Breton Literature", which perhaps answers my question, but I wanted to know the point of view of the people who either speak the language natively or have learnt it enough to be able to enjoy native books in the language (I don't learn a language to read translated works!). 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| maydayayday Pentaglot Senior Member United Kingdom Joined 5030 days ago 564 posts - 839 votes Speaks: English*, German, Italian, SpanishB2, FrenchB2 Studies: Arabic (Egyptian), Russian, Swedish, Turkish, Polish, Persian, Vietnamese Studies: Urdu | Message 4 of 5 20 June 2012 at 8:40pm | IP Logged |
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No problem :-)
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| jolback Bilingual Diglot Newbie France Joined 4328 days ago 2 posts - 7 votes Speaks: French* Studies: English*, Breton | Message 5 of 5 13 July 2012 at 11:51pm | IP Logged |
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Hi.
I talk Breton and I can tell you that there is a literature in the Breton language quite varied. But there is one problem though : much of Breton literature is written by people who don't really mastered the language, and yet are taken as reference, this is increasingly true today. Unfortunately, it's quite difficult for a beginner to distinguish between what is genuine and what is not really, and should not rely on teachers to sort through this mishmash. But still there are good writers who are struggling to write a good language, understandable by the population. For me the most interesting literature is oral literature, and the work that is urgently needed, in my opinion, is to record as many speakers as possible and to transcribe all this literature before it will lost forever I hope I answered your question (sorry for my English,I speak very badly) 1 person has voted this message useful |
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