The Breton Language - A Language In Danger

[Treffie]

History

Breton is not thought to be a modern-day descendant of any continental Celtic language such as Gaulish, though evidently it has borrowed some features from it, but it is rather descended from insular Brythonic. The other regional language ( GalloGallo is a regional language of France, traditionally spoken in Eastern Brittany. In contrast to Breton, the Celtic language which is traditionally spoken in the Western territory of the country, Gallo is a Romance language, one of the Oil languages (clos) derives from Latin.

Breton is traditionally spoken in Lower Brittany, roughly to the west of a line linking Plouha and Vannes. It comes from a language community between BritainThe word Britain is used to refer to the United Kingdom (UK): i. the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland (from 1927), the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland ( 1801- 1927) or the United Kingdom of Great Britain ( 1707- 1801). and Armorica or Aremorica is the name given in ancient times to the part of Gaul that includes the Brittany peninsula and the territory between the Seine and Loire rivers inland to an indeterminate point. Pliny the Elder, in his Natural History (2. 105), clai, present day Brittany. It was the language of the elite until the 12th Century. However, afterward it was only the language of the people of West Brittany (Breizh Izel), and the nobility, then successively the bourgeoisie adopted French. As a written language, the Duchy of Brittany used Latin, switching to French in the 15th Century. It should be noted that Old Breton has left some vocabulary which has served in the present day to produce philosophical and scientific terms in Modern Breton.

The French Monarchy never really concerned itself with the minority languages of France. The revolutionary period really started policies favoring French over the "regional" languages, more pejoritively called "patois". According to the defenders of the Breton language, humiliating practices geared toward stamping out Breton lingered in schools and churches until the 1960's.

Today, despite the political centralization of France and the important influence of the media, Breton is still spoken and understood by about 200,000 people. This is, however, down from 1.3 million in 1930. At the beginning of the 20th Century, half the population of Lower Brittany only knew Breton, the other half being bilingual. By 1950, there were only 100,000 monolingual Bretons.

In 1925, thanks to professor Roparz Hemon , the review Gwalam came to light. During its 19 year run, it tried to raise the language to the level of other great "international" languages by creating original works covering all genres and by proposing Breton translations of internationally recognized foreign works.

In 1946, Al Liamm took up the role of Gwalam. Other reviews came into existance and gave Breton a fairly large body of literature for a minority language.

In 1977, Diwan schools were founded in order to teach Breton by immersion. They taught thousands of young people from elementary school to high school. Another teaching method proposed was a bilingual approach, Div Yezh (two languages).

Some poets, linguists, and writers who wrote in Breton are now known internationally, such as Yann-Ber Kalloc'h , Roparz Hemon , Anjela Duval and Per-Jakez Hélias .

Today, Breton is the only Celtic language which is not recognized legally. The French state has refused to change the second article of the Constitution added in 1994 which declares "The language of the Republic is French." Each year more protesters demand the repeal of this law, which is unique in Europe.

The first Breton dictionary, the Catholicon, was also the first French dictionary. Edited by Jehan Lagedec in 1464, it was a trilingual work containing Breton, French and Latin. Today bilingual dictionaries directly from Breton into languages such as English, German and Spanish show the will of a new generation to gain international recognition of Breton. A monolingual dictionary also exists, defining Breton words in Breton.

http://www.economicexpert.com/a/Breton.htm

[Treffie]

IN BRIEF. The Celtic language is losing ground in spite of its increasing use among youth

Breton has lost 28% of speakers between 1997 and 2007, according to a report launched this week. Brittany's own language is currently spoken by 172,000 people, compared to the 246,000 people who spoke it twelve years ago. Figures refer to the western part of the country, or Low Brittany, where Breton is most spoken.

According to the report 'Parler breton au XXI siècle' (Speaking Breton in the XXI century), the profile of a typical speaker of Breton is that of a woman over 60 living in Penn-ar-Bed (Finistère in French). 12,000 people from 15 to 40 years old speak the language, while the number increases to 120,000 when referring to people over 60.

As MónDivers online journal reports, hopes are pinned on the 15 to 19 years-old youth, who show an increase of language use from 1% to 4%.

http://www.nationalia.info/en/news/435

[Poltergeist]

They should try to copy the relatively successful Basque system of ikastolas.

[Treffie]

They should try to copy the relatively successful Basque system of ikastolas.

Well, they already have the DIWAN system in place, but it makes it very difficult when the French Constitutional Council doesn't want to help.


An attempt by the French government to incorporate the independent Breton-language immersion schools (called Diwan) into the state education system was blocked by the French Constitutional Council on the grounds that, as the 1992 amendment to the Constitution of the 5th Republic states that French is the language of the Republic, no other language may be used as a language of instruction in state schools. The Toubon Law states that French is the language of public education, which means that Breton-language schools do not receive funding from the state, though the Bretagne Region funds bilingual schools.

The Diwan schools were founded in 1977 to teach Breton by immersion. They taught a few thousand young people from elementary school to high school. They gained more and more fame due to their high level of results in school exams.

Another teaching method is a bilingual approach by Div Yezh ("Two Languages") in the State schools, created in 1979, and Dihun ("Awakening") in the Catholic schools, created in 1990.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diwan_(school)

[Beorn]

Today, despite the political centralization of France and the important influence of the media, Breton is still spoken and understood by about 200,000 people. This is, however, down from 1.3 million in 1930. At the beginning of the 20th Century, half the population of Lower Brittany only knew Breton, the other half being bilingual. By 1950, there were only 100,000 monolingual Bretons.

Very depressing and worrying figures. I wonder how much of this is caused by the effects of shifting political climes, demographics and outright denigration and abandonment of culture amongst the youth coming through education?

[Murphy]

They should try to copy the relatively successful Basque system of ikastolas.

And like the Irish gaelscoileanna, but first they need to work on the langugage being recognised in France!

Regards,
Eóin.

[Treffie]

And like the Irish gaelscoileanna, but first they need to work on the langugage being recognised in France!
Regards,
Eóin.

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

The wiki link wouldn't work so here's the text



Diwan (school)
Diwan (pronounced [ˈdiwɑ̃n], seed in Breton) is a federation of Breton language-medium schools in Brittany (France).

Concept
The Diwan concept, which allows children to learn French and Breton through immersion was inspired by the Gaelscoileanna movement in Ireland, Ikastolak movement in the Basque Country and the Ysgolion Meithrin movement in Wales.

At the age of 2-6, Breton is the sole language of education. At the age of 7 and a half, French is introduced during 2 hours out of 26 school hours. When they are 10, French (6 hours out of 23) is taught at the same level as Breton. This is the same in college, but in addition, English and a choice of Spanish or German are taught.[1]


History
The first Diwan school was created by a few parents in 1977 at Lampaul-Ploudalmézeau (Breton: Lambaol-Gwitalmeze) near Brest, because the centralized French state schools were unwilling to offer the Breton language in the curriculum. The initial nursery school was followed by the first primary school in 1980, the first collège in 1988 and the first lycée in 1994.

In 2003-2004, 2.761 pupils attended Diwan schools throughout Brittany at all levels from preschool to the Baccalaureat. A Diwan preschool opened in Paris in September 2004. The network included 35 primary-level schools as of the start of the academic year 2007.

In 2008, Diwan schools celebrated their 30th anniversary and organizing Ar Redadeg, a non-stop race through Brittany in support of Breton language learning in schools, which has little support from French central government.

[Treffie]

Interesting article I found from 2005 in The Telegraph

-------------------------------------------------------------

They have their own schools, bilingual road signs, vibrant festivals and dubbed Perry Mason repeats on television.

But even the most passionate champions of the Breton language admit that its survival is in question.

Native speakers are ageing, their numbers falling by 15,000 a year. And among those remaining, there is anger that the French government does more for Brittany's large influx of British settlers than for those campaigning to save Breton from extinction.

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.

"Bretons are always being told France is one nation with one language," said Yann Rivallain, 33, who ran a EU-funded organisation for minority languages in Dublin before returning to Brittany with his Huddersfield-born wife, Sarah, to edit a magazine, ArMen. "So they are enraged when the préfecture does something for English speakers that is denied to them. They say if the British can go in and sort out licensing problems in English, why can't they do it in Breton?"

He insists that anti-Englishness, while hardly unknown in French society generally, is largely confined in Brittany to a minority of nationalists and Left-wingers who identify Britain with the supposed evils of global capitalism.

But the language grievances add to the bitterness aroused, especially in the northern département, Côtes d'Armor, by the far greater spending power of the invading British in the property market.

The decline of the Breton language dates from the 1914-18 war when soldiers from Brittany found they had to use French to communicate with comrades-in-arms.

Now, out of a population of four million, up to 300,000 still speak it and a further 200,000 have some knowledge of the tongue. But amid the pressures of Francophone society the number of families using it routinely at home is small and dwindling.

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.

Mr Le Lay is a top TV mogul but after launching TV Breizh five years ago, even he was powerless to overcome commercial and government obstacles to development. Breton-language output is now restricted to a weekly football programme and those Perry Mason dramas.

Organisers of the Diwan network of schools claim that they are starved of resources despite academic results that match or better the state's.

A visit to Relecq Kerhuon on the Atlantic coast near Brest illustrates both the fervour of the language campaign and its limitations. This was the first Diwan secondary school, launched with eight pupils in a flat in 1988, 11 years after the birth of the movement.

Now, 200 children attend but they are taught in drab accommodation long ago abandoned by a state school. The atmosphere is friendly but the facilities outdated.

The English teacher, Morwenna Jenkin, 47, is Cornish, the daughter of two grand bards of Cornwall and fluent in Welsh, Breton and French. She speaks Breton to her husband and English to their three children, who talk to each other mostly in French.

Wall paintings and signs, designed by pupils, urge the use of the language even when teachers are not listening. But two girls revising in the library admitted they spoke more French than Breton outside school.

"We do as much as we can, but teachers cannot be there all the time," Ms Jenkin said.

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.

"People say we are dreamers," said Anna-Vari Chapalain, 50, the director of Diwan. "But my dream is modest. I want all our staff funded by the state and all parents to have the chance to send their children to Breton schools."

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

Alex Richards, 36, a teacher from Hampshire who now lives near Bourbriac, scene of the anti-British protest, said he could understand "up to a point" the Breton demands for fairer treatment of their language.

"But the fact is that every Breton who speaks it also speaks French," he said. "The local tobacconist, a proud Breton who speaks the language, said to me the other day that the problem was simple. 'It's a dead language because young people don't use it in the street' ."

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/france/1499661/Bretons-speak-up-to-save-their-dying-language.html

[Ankoù]

Very depressing and worrying figures. I wonder how much of this is caused by the effects of shifting political climes, demographics and outright denigration and abandonment of culture amongst the youth coming through education?

At the name of unity of the Republic, there were a politic of disparagement, it was forbidden to speak breton in school. After 1945, French goverment profited of the fact of the collaboration of Breton nationalists with Germany to denigred always more Breton identity, therefore Breton language. Since 60's, Breton identity was better with a musical revival, singers like Alan Stivell, Dan ar braz or Gilles Servat.
Today it's not a shame to be Breton, speaking Breton is not considered like a shame, even if some people considered it like useless.


And like the Irish gaelscoileanna, but first they need to work on the langugage being recognised in France!

Republicans never will accept this. For them, that was already a problem with local minority from hexagone (Alsacians, Basques, Corsicans, etc.), now with immigrants, they would feel to accept to recognise Arabic, Turk and so on.


He insists that anti-Englishness, while hardly unknown in French society generally, is largely confined in Brittany to a minority of nationalists and Left-wingers who identify Britain with the supposed evils of global capitalism.

They are leftists, not nationalists.
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.

[Jarl]

And like the Irish gaelscoileanna, but first they need to work on the langugage being recognised in France!

Regards,
Eóin.

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

Stats:


In 2008, 12,333[8] students (about 1.4% of all students in Brittany) attended Diwan, Div Yezh and Dihun schools, a number which is rapidly growing yearly. The president of the Regional Council, Jean-Yves Le Drian wanted the number to be 20,000 in 2010, though this is unlikely to be realised.[9]

Some 4,500 to 5,000 adults followed a Breton language course (evening course, correspondence, ...) in 2007. The family transmission of Breton in 1999 is estimated to be only 3%.[8]

See the statistics at dihun.com for graphics about the three systems.

(...)

A statistical survey[5] performed in 1997 found around 300,000 speakers in Breizh izel, of which about 190,000 were aged 60 or over. Few of those of the 15-19 year-old age-group spoke Breton. Breton is now considered to be an endangered language.


These Diwan, Div Yezh and Dihun systems seem no to be enough if the number of speakers is declining by 10, 000 a year. It is worrying that the families do not pass down the language either. I guess if Breton is not recognised as an official language, like Welsh, and Breton schools are created, it will soon die out. If currently majority of Breton speakers in Lower Brittany are >60, then Breton will almost completely dissappear from that region within two-three generations.



P.S.

Btw. a very good thread! :thumb001: Thanks Arawn!

[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 (http://www4.uwm.edu/celtic/ekeltoi/volumes/vol4/4_1/)

The Breton movement and the German occupation 1940-44 - Alan Heusaff and Bezen Perrot : A case-study (http://www.uhb.fr/langues/klask/documentations/bezen_perrot.pdf)

[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)

--------------------------------------------------------

Learning the real local lingo can be child's play

By Sarah Monaghan


Published: 12:00AM BST 14 Jun 2006

http://1.2.3.9/bmi/i.telegraph.co.uk/telegraph/multimedia/archive/01231/global-graphics-20_1231769a.jpg
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/4200438/Learning-the-real-local-lingo-can-be-childs-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 :picard1:



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.