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Breton: eight weeks to self-confidence | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Language Learning Log |  | |
| eyðimörk Triglot Senior Member France goo.gl/aT4FY7 Joined 3901 days ago 490 posts - 1158 votes  Speaks: Swedish*, English, French Studies: Breton, Italian | Message 1 of 14 22 March 2015 at 9:33am | IP Logged | ||||||||
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Some of you may be familiar with my other log, Italian the lazy way. This will be nothing like that.
The problem Here's the deal: I was a pretty solid B1 in Breton, based on self-assessment criteria. Then I bought a new book to read and instead of needing to look up a few words per page to follow the story, like the last book I read, there were only two or three words per sentence that I actually understood. I was initially crushed, but then I put the book aside and decided to spend the year working my way up to understanding it. I got excited about that. But the more time that passes the more it seems as if though opening that book did something to me. I feel as if though I lost my ability to understand media, and half of my vocabulary just vanished overnight. It's as if though someone deleted the language out of my head. My confidence is simply down to zero. The goal Now, I just joined an association in which speaking Breton isn't a requirement, but it's very beneficial. There is a meeting and some workshops in eight weeks, all of which will be in French, but for my own peace of mind I'd like to be on top of my Breton game — not so much to impress, necessarily, as to feel more confident over all. I get anxious about new situations as it is, and here I risk being the weird foreigner who speaks French with an accent and has nothing to contribute except for enthusiasm. I want to be at B1, of course, since I don't expect to get to B2 in a few weeks with a job, other languages, a garden to tend to, a house to renovate, a half-marathon to train for, and visiting in-laws, but mostly my goal is to get the feeling of "heck yeah, I can do this" back. I want to make a log to feel accountable, but also to better reflect upon my progress since feeling great is more important at this very instant than being great. What the heck is Beton? Breton is a Brittonic (P-Celtic) language, brought to Brittany (France) from Great Britain with late 4th century migrants. It's very closely related to Cornish (Cornwall); less so to Cymric (Wales). It's not an officially recognised language, and it's quite antagonised by politicians across the board. It's spoken in Brittany, though traditionally mostly in the western parts. There are roughly 300,000 speakers left. This is what it sounds like sung. (a traditional lamenting song) Or this, if you prefer rock. This is what it sounds like spoken. (my local dialect, even) This is what it looks like. (in the most common, but far from only, orthography) 4 persons have voted this message useful | |||||||||
| solocricket Tetraglot Groupie United StatesRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 3478 days ago 68 posts - 106 votes Speaks: English*, French, Italian, Spanish Studies: Dutch, Icelandic, Korean, Polish | Message 2 of 14 22 March 2015 at 3:05pm | IP Logged | ||||||||
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Good luck-- this sounds like a cool project. Breton is really intriguing to me, but I
haven´t put much into learning a bit yet. I find it really neat how Celtic languages have influenced the languages of the larger culture-- To me, Breton always sounds like someone is speaking incomprehensible French (of which I can understand zero words) and Cornish sounds like garbled, heavily accented English that I could understand if I just listened a little harder haha. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||||||||
| Stelle Bilingual Triglot Senior Member Canada tobefluent.com Joined 3946 days ago 949 posts - 1686 votes Speaks: French*, English*, Spanish Studies: Tagalog | Message 3 of 14 22 March 2015 at 4:15pm | IP Logged | ||||||||
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Bonne chance! This is an interesting personal challenge...I look forward to following along!
1 person has voted this message useful | |||||||||
| eyðimörk Triglot Senior Member France goo.gl/aT4FY7 Joined 3901 days ago 490 posts - 1158 votes Speaks: Swedish*, English, French Studies: Breton, Italian | Message 4 of 14 22 March 2015 at 6:28pm | IP Logged | ||||||||
Trugarez deoc'h ! :)
When compared to each other Breton certainly sounds more French and Cornish and Cymric sound more English, since they each have phonemes that are close to the majority language. But I'd never go as far as to say that Breton sounds like French. When you turn on the radio you can easily tell which language is being spoken before the volume is even high enough to distinguish words because the prosody is nothing alike. This is about as similar to each other as the two languages get, both being a bit stiff and unnaturally enunciated since they're political speeches being read aloud, rather than natural speech. The speaker normally has a slightly more distinctive prosody: Lena Louarn in French for Unvaniezh Demokratel Breizh Lena Louarn in Breton for Unvaniezh Demokratel Breizh 3 persons have voted this message useful | |||||||||
| eyðimörk Triglot Senior Member France goo.gl/aT4FY7 Joined 3901 days ago 490 posts - 1158 votes Speaks: Swedish*, English, French Studies: Breton, Italian | Message 5 of 14 23 March 2015 at 7:51pm | IP Logged | ||||||||
 I started this challenge with something of a diagnostic test: I went through the exercises for levels A1, A2 and B1 on the Deskiñ brezhoneg d'an oadourien website. These exercises are quite varied. There are multiple choice (translation, fill in the word, reading comprehension, word definitions) exercises, fill in the word (mutations) exercises, crosswords, matching picture with text exercises, listening exercises, exercises where you follow directions on a map, etc. I actually started doing these exercises once a week a few weeks ago, otherwise there is no way I would have finished them so soon. Just for A1-A2 there were 90 exercises, with about ten questions each. While doing these exercises, I kept a list of the problems that I encountered. I found that my largest problem with these exercises was vocabulary. When it comes to vocabulary, I specifically need to work on:
The grammar did not pose any real trouble for the A1-B1 levels, but there are still a number of things I know from experience that I feel insecure about. While I feel bad about doing poorly on the B1 exercises because of lacking vocabulary (I went from almost all 100% to a lot of "I have no clue what this means" the second I moved up a level), learning lots of new words feels like quite a doable initial goal. I think I might actually start by working with Alc'hwez ar brezhoneg eeun (Key to Easy Breton) by Roparz Hemon, which I already own. It's basically a thematic frequency glossary for people wanting to read Breton. Edited by eyðimörk on 23 March 2015 at 7:55pm 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||||||||
| eyðimörk Triglot Senior Member France goo.gl/aT4FY7 Joined 3901 days ago 490 posts - 1158 votes Speaks: Swedish*, English, French Studies: Breton, Italian | Message 6 of 14 24 March 2015 at 8:29pm | IP Logged | ||||||||
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I'll probably update on a weekly basis with a general summary, but I thought that I might share translations of songs or poems and the like as I do them. Today, I translated a gwerzh, a traditional lamenting song:
Plac'hig Eusa (YouTube link). Original: En enez Eusa, ur plac'hig yaouank, fur, koant 'vel un aelig. He anv e oa Kaourintinig. Siwazh, ne oa ket pemzek vloaz ar plac'hig a zouge he c'hroaz. Ar plac'hig a zouge he c'hroaz. E-c'harz ar mor war ur karreg, Kaourintinig 'wele dourek Kaourintinig 'wele dourek E-kreiz he c'halon, he fedenn 'zavas d'an eñv evel-hen, 'zavas d'an eñv evel-hen: O stourm ouzh listri ar Saozon, Ma zad zo beuz' 'kreiz ar mor don. Ma zad 'kreiz ar mor don. Kalon ma mamm baour a rannas, gant ar c'heloù-se, pa glevas. Gant ar c'heloù-se, pa glevas. Me n'em eus den, allaz, bremañ, petra rin-me war ar bed-mañ? Petra rin-me war ar bed-mañ? Me n'am eus mui war an douar na tad, na mamm, na kar, na par. Ma buhez a vo kañv ha glac'har. Ar paour en eñv deus un tad, hag e Rumengol ur vamm vad. E Rumengol ur vamm vad. Translation: In Ushant, [there was] a little girl young, wise, lovely like a little angel. Her name was Kaourintinig ("Little Corentine") Alas, she was not [yet] fifteen the little girl who carried her cross. The little girl who carried her cross. By the sea, on a cliff Little Corentine watched tearful. Little Corentine watched tearful. In the middle of her heart, her prayer finished like this. [It] finished like this: While fighting against the Englishmen's ships, my father drowned in the middle of the deep sea. My father in the middle of the deep sea. My poor mother's heart broke, from this news, when she heard [it]. From this news, when she heard [it]. I have no one, alas, now, what will I do in this world? What will I do in this world? I have nothing more on this Earth, neither father, mother, relative, nor equal. My life will be sorrow and pain. The poor he had a father, and in Rumengol a good mother. In Rumengol a good mother. Edited by eyðimörk on 27 March 2015 at 8:57pm 2 persons have voted this message useful | |||||||||
| Mohave Senior Member United States justpaste.it/Mohave1 Joined 3809 days ago 291 posts - 444 votes Speaks: English* Studies: French | Message 7 of 14 24 March 2015 at 9:27pm | IP Logged | ||||||||
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What an interesting log and journey! I appreciate all the links as I was not familiar with Breton, other than to
know it was a minor language spoken in France. I plan to follow along in your journey. Good Luck! 1 person has voted this message useful | |||||||||
| Arnaud25 Diglot Senior Member France Joined 3644 days ago 129 posts - 235 votes Speaks: French*, English Studies: Russian | Message 8 of 14 25 March 2015 at 8:09am | IP Logged | ||||||||
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I'm also following your log with interest, I like Breton and learned it a little with Assimil (the old version by Fanch Morvannou) but I've almost all forgotten.
I really feel like starting again when I read your log :) 1 person has voted this message useful |
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