The Breton Language - A Language In Danger

[Beorn]

Concerning Arawn's article:

Despite being mocked by the Parisian press for "staying out in the sun too long", he is said to have no regrets about his emotive words.

That's the problem with the greater state which governs the smaller nation attempting independence. They are very brutal in mocking and deriding the plight of the nation either in the hope to destroy the movement, or through simple ignorance and arrogance. The Cornish are the exact same amongst even the English nationalist movement. I can't recall having really met another who agrees that Cornwall should have independence, or at least the right for governmental autonomy.

After 1945, French goverment profited of the fact of the collaboration of Breton nationalists with Germany

I recall watching a programme on the History channel which mentioned that. Apparently a few Breton nationalists threw their lot in with the occupying Germans in the hope of appeasing the route to independence, and after the war were systematically rounded up and murdered by, unfortunately it seems, their own Breton brothers.

Have you any articles worthy of mention about this, Ankoù?

[Ankoù]

Have you any articles worthy of mention about this, Ankoù?

Bezen Perrot: The Breton nationalist unit of the SS, 1943-5

The Breton movement and the German occupation 1940-44 - Alan Heusaff and Bezen Perrot : A case-study

[Mesrine]

Yeah! It's astounding that a liberal country like France, accepting millions of immigrants, does not recognise Breton.

I don't see the connection between these two things.

[Treffie]

I don't want to sound like an Evangelist but even after reading about the negative situation that Breton is in, I'm quite optimistic about the future of the Breton language. From what I can see, the DIWAN schools are becoming increasingly popular (even though there are a lack of teachers) not only because the standard of education and results are higher, but also because there is a growing Breton consciousness. There's has been a very similar scenario in Ireland, Wales and the Basque Country where native language immersion has become very popular and has also proven to be beneficial. Also, in these regions we have seen a gap where a whole generation has been deprived of education through the native medium but now this has changed and this type of education is available to almost everyone.

I think the number of Breton speakers will drop to a very low level, mainly due to the dying population but I'm quite sure that it will bottom out and start to grow again, albeit slowly.

Interesting article I found on the benefits of bilingual education (of which the Constitutional Council does not want to fund)

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Learning the real local lingo can be child's play

By Sarah Monaghan


Published: 12:00AM BST 14 Jun 2006


Give it a 'tri?: Naomi Gray reads a school textbook written in Breton


Naomi Gray is like many British children in that when she gets home from school, she loves to lose herself in a Harry Potter book. What makes her different is that she will have chatted to her school friends in French on the bus home, and have spent her day with them learning her lessons in Breton.

She's the daughter of Jane and Dug Gray, a translator and stone-mason who live in Finistère, the heart of Celtic Brittany. They have opted not to bring up their three children bilingually in French and English, but trilingually, by enrolling them in Brittany's educational system, Diwan, whereby all lessons, bar English and French, are taught in Breton.

Around 3,000 children in Brittany are educated via this immersion method that has played an important role in the revival of the Breton language. Similar teaching techniques are also used in Wales, parts of Canada, and Spain's Basque and Catalonian regions.

Jane admits that the decision was controversial: "Other British parents said: 'How dare you do that? Don't your children have enough to take on?' " But she had seen how quickly the girls absorbed French: "I felt sure they could take in another language."

So was it tough? Naomi, 9, says not: "Breton just soaked in. The only hard thing was not knowing anyone when I first went to school."

The girls' father, Dug, admits to being envious of their abilities. "After 16 years in France, I'm comfortable with the language, but the kids still pick me up on my pronunciation and grammar mistakes," he says.

It was once thought that forcing a child to learn more than one language could slow academic development but according to Professor Colin Baker of the University of Wales, Bangor, a world expert on bilingualism, the effect is the opposite.

The evidence is that bi- and trilingualism actually increases mental capacity and that multilingual children tend to do better at school. "The latest research shows that in intelligence tests, children with two or more well developed languages have higher scores," he says. "Bilingual children have two or more words for objects and ideas, so the links between words and concepts are looser, allowing more fluent, flexible and creative thinking."

He adds that children learning languages young also tend to have more confidence and better general communication skills: "That has obvious knock-on effects."

Multilingual children are enriched and able to think more imaginatively because they have more language associations, he adds. "For example, the word for school in Welsh is ysgol but it also means ladder; the word cuisine in French means cooking, and kitchen, and further still, it tends to mean a kitchen where the family congregate, so it is also reflective of French culture."

Professor Tony Cline of Luton University is an educational psychologist specialising in language development in children. He says we have revised our image of how the brain works. "We used to think it had a limited capacity, like a milk bottle, and that it was impossible to pour two pints of milk into a pint bottle. Now we understand that our brains are capable of making an infinite number of connections; there is no limit to what we can take in."

He concedes that there might be temporary disadvantages in having a bi- or trilingual childhood: "The child sometimes applies the rules of one language to another, and so makes mistakes - but these grammatical 'errors' are soon outgrown, as long as the child is exposed to good models of language."

It seems that by giving your child the option of becoming multilingual, you are offering them far more than just the acquisition of foreign language. That certainly seems to be case for the Gray girls. All three - Naomi, 9, Ailsa, 12, and Nina, 14 -are getting top grades at school and are literate in three languages.

Naomi and Ailsa are planning to go on to do their Baccalaureates in Breton while Nina, who is a Dr Who fan and loves surfing the BBC's website, has recently opted to do hers in French at a local lycée. Here, she has also taken on German, where she is proof that bilingualism increases language-learning aptitude. Says Jane: "Nina joined a year and a half after her French fellow students but just four months in, she is top of the class in German."

That doesn't surprise Prof Cline: "Multilingual children pick up other languages quickly because they have a more flexible approach and are used to handling different forms of syntax, grammar and vocabulary."

Jane thinks her daughters have gained more than just language; they have also gained culturally. In fact, the girls are all enthusiastic about Breton culture: Naomi does extra-curricular Breton step dancing and loves singing in Breton and attending fest-noz (dance evenings not unlike Celtic ceilidh) while Nina is the champion of Finistère in her age and weight group in the Breton sport of Gouren (a form of Celtic wrestling). Says Prof Baker: "Multilingual children gain the benefits of multiple sets of literatures, traditions, ideas, ways of thinking and behaving."

There is much debate among linguists about the optimum time to expose a child to a foreign language although the general rule is the earlier the better. If your child is 12 or of secondary school age and you intend to put him or her into a local, rather than international school, Prof Baker advises the following: "Re-member that working in a second language is harder the higher you go up in school because the concepts the child is learning are more complex. I'd advise that a child of this age undergo three months of specialist language teaching with a tutor or language school to get their skills up first."

He also suggests that parents consider having their child drop a year at the new school to relieve them of pressure to achieve academically and to give them time to acquire language competence.

And, he stresses, if parents have the opportunity to give their children the gift of another language, they should jump at it. Because in today's global marketplace, on top of all the above, multilinguals are far more employable than monolinguals. "I find it a great shame that languages don't have a higher place in the classroom in the UK because English is a mainstream language of business but, in the future, that is going to change.

"Education ministers may well have their hands forced as Latin America and China grow in economic strength and our kids have a much more compelling reason for becoming fluent in Spanish, or Mandarin Chinese."

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/expat/420...ilds-play.html

[Ankoù]

I think the number of Breton speakers will drop to a very low level, mainly due to the dying population but I'm quite sure that it will bottom out and start to grow again, albeit slowly.

I do not doubt about that but the problem is how Breton language can survive with a population who is less in less Breton and suffer of cultural integration ? Today, there are maybe 15-20% strangers (non-euros and euros) in Brittany, how many in 30 or 50 years ?

[Treffie]

I do not doubt about that but the problem is how Breton language can survive with a population who is less in less Breton and suffer of cultural integration ? Today, there are maybe 15-20% strangers (non-euros and euros) in Brittany, how many in 30 or 50 years ?

Well Ankou, it's a similar problem here also. Anglicisation has put a huge dent in the language, but due to a surge in ethnic awareness, this has been overcome. Here's a couple of figures for the status in the language. What has also been interesting is the number of immigrants (mainly from England) that send their children to Welsh schools, but I don't think that there is data for this information.

1991 - 508,000 speakers
2001 - 582,000
2004 - 611,000

The next census is due in 2011 and even more positive figures are expected.

[Rudel]

Yes, or more importantly, the Constitutional Council needing to pull their finger out of their arse.

The Constitutional Council is there to see that the laws respect the Constitution, not to change it. The financing from some regions of such things as Diwan schools could actually be deemed unconstitutional.

Along the pink granite coast of northern Brittany, where nationalists demonstrated in February against British "colonisation", Paris-appointed administrators are lambasted for banning dealings in Breton while sending staff on English courses to cope with the newcomers' queries.

Yes, there is a big hypocrisy regarding English. I think this language should be banned all together from France. It's belittling to have to endure it, and dishonoring to encourage it.

Only about 9,000 Breton children use Breton daily in class, in schools run by the pro-Breton-education Diwan movement or in bilingual state and Roman Catholic schools. But the French authorities are accused of giving only token support. Patrick Le Lay, the Breton head of TF1, France's biggest television channel, recently accused the state of waging "cultural genocide" against Brittany. Despite being mocked by the Parisian press for "staying out in the sun too long", he is said to have no regrets about his emotive words.

Le Lay is also the man who said that his job it to sell available brain-time to Coca-Cola for advertising. He's a piece of shit.

She said she completely understood Bretons' demands for the same right to use their own language with civil servants as the thousands of Britons who struggle with French.

Bretons are all native French-speakers. This is hardly comparable to Britons who should stay in their country to begin with.

She denied that the movement was inextricably linked to separatism, even though some parents had nationalist sympathies.

Diwan schools are notoriously linked to leftist autonomists.

I do not see them protest against massiv immigration from third world in your cities or French retired on our coasts. These usefull idiots choose an easy target who will not be protected by the republic.

You're French yourself. Though living in Provence, I understand the butthurt about the rest of the country treating you as the national Club Med.

That's the problem with the greater state which governs the smaller nation attempting independence. They are very brutal in mocking and deriding the plight of the nation either in the hope to destroy the movement, or through simple ignorance and arrogance. The Cornish are the exact same amongst even the English nationalist movement. I can't recall having really met another who agrees that Cornwall should have independence, or at least the right for governmental autonomy.

Brittany's part of the nation

I recall watching a programme on the History channel which mentioned that. Apparently a few Breton nationalists threw their lot in with the occupying Germans in the hope of appeasing the route to independence, and after the war were systematically rounded up and murdered by, unfortunately it seems, their own Breton brothers.

Have you any articles worthy of mention about this, Ankoù?

Pretty much all the provincial neo-traditionalists collaborated with Vichy's Révolution nationale (especially in the South) or directly with Germany. Bretons were clearly the wackiest of the bunch.
But the Catholic traditionalists of Brittany and elsewhere were usually monarchists, (French) nationalists and often joined the Résistance pretty early.

but I'm quite sure that it will bottom out and start to grow again, albeit slowly.

Because of Europe and the latent balkanization of Western nations, there are resurgences of certain identities from a symbolic point of view. But the dynamic of languages goes beyond that and Breton will most likely just get extinct in the next two generations.