Breton Spoken with an Authentic Accent

[@yannschonfeld5847]

I met Angéla Duval in May '79 while working on a couple of farms in or near Plouaret. Yvona Martin had invited me to Angéla's little farm Traou an Dour. This is she reading a poem by her hand. One must not confuse poetry reading with normal speech. This is the Tregor whose accent is indeed similar to either traditional Cornish accent in English or some people's close pronunciation to what traditional Cornish might have sounded. Her voice is raspy and the recording is not of good quality. I learnt written Breton with Yvona Martin who was based in Brest. Breton was not her mother tongue. It took me several weeks of working on two farms Ker- ( I shall not name the farms even though the people have all passed on two of whom were to become my mother and father in law.) to understand and speak Tregorese Breton. My future mother in law invited me back in 1980. My mother in law passed away in July 2000. My father in law in January 2021. He was quite well known. Anyone who knew Plouaret back then and later knows of whom I am talking. I divorced their twin daughter in 2006 but remained close to the family despite that. There are few people left who speak traditional Breton now. One must not confuse the artificial French sounding Breton that people try to pass as Breton. It is no more Breton than many French people who learnt English but kept a heavy French accent, intonation and general phonology. Angela Duval spoke traditional Breton. I also met people of my grandparents generation on farms who were monolingual Breton speakers near Vieux Marché.

[@kernowforester2349]

I can hear some similarity with Cornish accents, especially mid and west Cornwall, particularly in the cadence, i.e. rise and fall of pitch. Modern Breton has deffo become influenced by French over the last few centuries, losing its fricatives 'th' and 'dh' as spelt in Cornish, to become a French 'z' or 'zh', with a northern French accent, more like Paris, This recording does not sound very French to me, and I could pick out some words that would be Cornish. We can still hear echoes of 17th C Cornish accents, from a time when Cornish was still widely spoken in Cornwall, from the outer banks on Chesapeake Bay, US, and despite becoming Americanised, still recognisable as Cornish. From Bodmin, Cornwall.

[@breizhkatolik]

"th" has become "zh" at least since the beginning of the 15th century, so nothing to do with the french.

[@loicrodriguez2532]

Name of the poem : E-tal an tan www.anjela.org/oberenn/e-tal-an-tan/?lang=bz Author (and voice): Añjela Duval (1905-1981) fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anjela_Duval Poem: ↓ ↓ ↓ I. Me n'am eus morse redet War-le(r)c'h arc'hant nag au(r). 'Skeud va labour 'm eus bevet Gant va zud 'n o zi paur, Hag hon-zri, (e-)tal an tan, Er goañv goude koan, Gant marvailhoù ha kan, Ni 'ankoua(zh)e hon foan. II. Marvet eo va zud karet, Pep eil gant ar gozhni. Hag un deiz on 'n em gavet Va-unan ‘ba(r)zh va zi. Ha va-un 'tal an tan Er goañv goude koan, 'Lec'h kan n'eus met gwelvan 'N em c'halon leun a doan. III. Bloavezhioù am eus stourmet Ouzh kleñved ha dispi ; Dre m'n a-viskoazh douget D'al labour, d'ar studi. Met en noz 'tal an tan, Er goañv, goude koan, Ouzh netra ne ran van : Moredet en em poan. VI. Heklev ho sonioù marzhus Nijet eus Iwerzhon, Met un deiz, « tra vurzhudus ! », A zihun va c'halon. Ha bremañ 'tal an tan, Er goañv, goude koan, Din va-unan m'o c'han Da luskellat va foan.

[@EminencePhront]

Was this recorded on a wax cylinder?

[@kite2139]

To someone who doesnt know any celtic languages but has been exposed to many other languages, it sounds in between turkish and russian or maybe persian.