The Unfortunate Case of the Breton Language

[@vraelatao2264]

As a breton, lots of us are quite upset/angry towards the French government for purposely trying to erase our language and culture. All my grand parents were beaten at school if they spoke Breton, and that was just 70-80 years. We are trying to revive the language through Diwan schools indeed, but it is costly. After WW2 the French government decided to end the Breton unity and divided our region, giving our capital Naoned (Nantes) and the south East of Brittany to another region. In 2014 a law was voted to reform the region scheme and lower the number of regions with the purpose to restore historical regions. And guess what... one region remained unchanged : Brittany. 😑🤬

[@vgjl1824]

Im spanish with Bretón ancestry

[@eternalvigilance5697]

I am from the U.S. and have Breton ancestry, and it even makes me mad.

[@Tvngsten]

I'm ashamed of being french. The more i look into the history of France outside of school, the more i realise how fucked up this country actually is. Long live Brittany

[@1000eau]

Ouais enfin, la réforme de 2015, à part pour la Normandie ça a restoré aucune région historique, bien au contraire...

[@vraelatao2264]

@@1000eau Ah c'est sur ! Entre le projet de départ et ce qu'ils en ont fait... ils ont du fumer un sacré paquet de truc.

[@gota7738]

Honestly, France makes England look almost decent when it comes to it's treatment of it's minority languages, and I say that as a welsh speaker. Edit because it could be clearer: Specifically referring to contemporary policy. For as long as Westminster can control itself at least.

[@SirBojo4]

While the irishs will say that you had it easy compared to them and you're saying that due to the rivalry between France and the United kingdoms. Because yeah, not to minimize the suffering of breton but irishs went through litteral hell thanks to the english.

[@hedebeb]

True, frankly Brittany should have joined the UK, we choice the wrong side during the 100 Years War, I'm sure the British would have respected us more than the French.

[@gota7738]

@@SirBojo4 I was refering specifically to the modern day treatment of the languages, which is still shit but it's at least legal. Unlike it's historical stance up till recently. Not sure what your mean about the rivalry, I am perfectly capable of holding contempt for two countries.

[@MaaFreddy]

@@SirBojo4 all true the Irish went through hell. Fortunately they are now free to look after themselves. Sadly nothing of substance can be achieved in Brittany. So there the nightmare continues.

[@Oluinneachain]

And yet still those of English and British identity in Northern Ireland are preventing official status for Gaelic. Will Westminster overrule the DUP et al and finally recognise parity of esteem for the indigenous language? We will see how much respect the English ( your reference) have if it means upsetting their kindred.

[@asiersanz8941]

So sad. France is an absolute disgrace for minority languages. Those stories are common in the Basque Country. An aunt of a friend of mine would walk 3 km to go to school in Southern Basque Country, she didn't know to speak spanish, and her spanish fascist teacher everyday told her to go back home until she knew to speak spanish. Nowadays she hates the basque language. As well, my partner was hit on a daily basis by his teacher because of not knowing basque, etc, etc...... Hold on Breizh!!!!!! Gora Euskal Herria eta gutxiagotutako herri eta hizkuntza guztiak!!!!!

[@prigual2901]

nowadays Basque is an oficial language in Spain, not like in France

[@makusaasu]

Not France, the Republic.

[@planteruines5619]

The more important thing is to understand how did all of this happen, this is because french function with a central power,they want to "unite" all french so nobody will but brezhoneg is not dead so now french is going to recieve a hard time

[@asiersanz8941]

@@planteruines5619 I do know. I know who Abbé Gregoire was when he stated that "federalism and superstition spoke Breton, emigration and hatred spoke German, the counter-revolution spoke Italian, and fanaticism spoke Basque", and added, "Let us break these harmful instruments of error." That is the origin thta led to a cultural genocide

[@viddl8267]

in the Elsass it was simmilar. hope the people proudly saves theyr language!

[@mak_zak]

I Wanted to notice that Breton isn't a "patois" !! It's a full language with its culture, grammar, vocabulary etc etc

[@alexgabriel5423]

Merci pour avoir ajouter tout ça!

[@targard.quantumfrack6854]

J'ai en partie été élevé a kergroes (moelan ar mor/ moelan sur mer) pas tres loin d'un bled appelé lozachmeur. Yec'hed mat cousin. Mon gamps breton qui m'a élevé s'appelait Maxen

[@datCatInSunglasses]

@Carlos Breton you have a wonderfull last name, mister Carlos

[@yannschonfeld5847]

Oui, la France adore traiter toute langue qu'elle ne rescpecte pas de "patois".

[@evefreyasyrenathegoddessev4016]

No such thing as ‘cultures’ or ‘identities’ etc, and languages were created / modified by certain dudes that were inspired by nature, and the rest were just taught those languages at school, so there’s no such thing as a true native speaker, and anyone can become native speakers in other languages by learning over 10.000 base words and developing an automatic mode in the new language - Breton is a gorgeous language, like Dutch and Welsh and Gallo and Cornish and Norwegian and Hungarian and Icelandic and Slovene etc, and most pretty languages come from one language, Proto European or something!

[@lubin9203]

I'm Breton and my great father was born in 1936 in Finistère. After the WW2 Breton was banned at school and if anyone spoke it, he was not allowed to have a playtime

[@PatoBZH]

Le Breton a été bien banni avant la fin de la WW2, depuis la création de l'école Jule Ferry en faite

[@briandmaxime5412]

Tu peux apprendre cette langue. et le retransmettre.

[@KingMidas1983]

YES. My grandfather was born in 1927 in Carhaix-Plougher and had the same thing happen. He said that if he was caught speaking Bretagne he would get beaten

[@PatoBZH]

@@briandmaxime5412 Deskiñ a ran brezhoneg, ya. Evit bloaz a zeu, me e vin e Roazhon 2 ober an aotreegezh e brezhoneg.

[@yannschonfeld5847]

@@PatoBZH Ca, c'est bien vrai.

[@KingMidas1983]

Thank you for this video. My grandfather was born in Carhaix-Plougher in 1928 with the sunname LeBoulc'h. He received the same treatment from transition schools and as a result he forgot most of the language, though he became fluent in French, then Spanish, then English. The only resources I could find were a pocket Bretogne-English dictionary from Ebay and a Bretagne flag. He unfortunately passed before I could practice the language with him but I did show him videos on KZbin of other young people speaking it and it made him happy.

[@peterpcholkin1842]

The one dislike is from some doodoo-head in Finistere

[@Yu5aku]

Something very similar happened to many local "dialects" in Italy, a few of them being recognized only recently as proper languages (i.e. Sardinian, Napolitan, Friulan etc.). Many are still regarding them as peasants' dialects, and speakers are often seen as ignorant people instead of as minorities, and as you pointed out, many speakers don't want their own children to speak those languages because they were brainwashed into thinking that's not a good thing to do.

[@MaaFreddy]

This is of course sad . Just to clarify Breton is not a dialect of French it has no relation to French. It is a Celtic language like Welsh and Gaelic.

[@LazierSophie]

I think that you mean: ... a few of them being recognized only recently as proper languages...

[@Yu5aku]

@@LazierSophie edited my typos , thanks.

[@LazierSophie]

@@Yu5aku I could not really understand what you meant, since English is not my mother language. It is very important for native English speakers to spell English correctly. Otherwise, we non-native English speakers cannot understand posts written by British people.

[@Yu5aku]

@@LazierSophie I understand. I'm not a native English speaker either. Anyways I'm glad you could understand me regardless of typos.

[@familycurious3813]

As a native of Wales who speaks English and French but not Welsh or Breton, it's really important that we learn these things. Some similar things happened in Welsh schools for those who spoke Welsh, hence I think my grandfather didn't pass Welsh down to my mum. Fortunately, the Welsh government is very strongly promoting the language and it's great. Dw i'n dysgu yr iaith gymraeg nawr. Pob lwc a pobl sydd yn mwyn dysgu yr iaith Breton 🙏

[@paolherledan4917]

To your sentence in welsh : a word for the breton language does actually exist in Welsh, it's llydaweg. And Welsh in breton is kembraeg.

[@Benjamin-l2f4f]

Llydaweg : breton language

[@IrunkaG]

Trugarez! I am very interested in Breton history since I studied s Hundred Years War period and I am a great fan of Jean V de Montfort. This situation about breton language is awful, I hope it would change. I am from Ukraine and we know things about language humiliation. Russia emerged a plenty of laws which were against Ukrainian language, but luckily were have an independent state now, so I feel for bretons who have no autonomy and cannot defend their language.

[@garethwriter-davies5205]

In Wales we have had a turn round in the language since WW2. It is possible!

[@PatoBZH]

@@garethwriter-davies5205 Ya, evel-just. Ret eo deomp deskiñ brezhoneg gant skol, gant tudoù hag all...

[@MaaFreddy]

@@garethwriter-davies5205 I agree we should never give up I see how things can improve for instance in Cornwall. We can’t go back in time but changing course before TV and mass media were introduced and before people migrated to towns would have made a tremendous difference. But again thinking it is “too late” would be of no use. Bretons need to wake up this is the only way forward. Which is difficult when you have a low self esteem and are bombarded by French propaganda from dawn to dusk

[@rsdtknqr]

you forgot one big point: some Breton people speak Breton, but many do it with a French accent! The vocabulary is established, that's not the problem. But most of the people who speak Breton with the right Celtic accent are old people who learned it as a first language. The risk is that once the native speakers have died out, the right pronunciation of Breton will have gone extinct!!

[@racheldeschaine]

I'm currently working on a project about endangered languages and I picked Breton-thank you! This was extremely helpful!

[@nateesc7413]

Something quite cool this year, If you’re familiar with the Eurovision Song Contest, France will be represented this year with a song completely in breton. And it’s an amazing song too! It’s called fulenn by alvan & Ahez

[@sorakohukene]

fulenn is the reason i'm interested in breton

[@MimiNizan]

Thank you for making this! I’m only now starting to research more about Bretagne. I’m half Breton and half Martinican but I was born in Amsterdam so didn’t grow up with history/culture of any side. When people here my last name: Nizan, they say it doesn’t sound french, but I found out there are so many Nizan’s all over Brittany. Definitely following you, interesting to learn more!

[@autumnphillips151]

You should learn Breton. The language contains the history and qualities of the people.

[@jesseloquen]

I'm breton. Thank you for your video. I'll subscribe. Long life breton language! Free Brittany! Bevet Breizh dizalc'h!

[@safwaanchowdhury8260]

We support your language and hopefully one day I will learn it even though I’m bengali

[@jesseloquen]

@@safwaanchowdhury8260 👍Thanks

[@keerthi3086]

I stand with you from a different part of the world against (linguistic and cultural) imperialism that are normalised even today. Btw, I love that song 'Gortoz a ran'. Beautiful language.

[@jesseloquen]

@@keerthi3086 👍

[@Fadeduniverse559]

hello all does anyone here is fluent in breton? i have a song which i absolutely love but i can't find the lyrics anywhere so i was wondering if anyone could translate the lyrics for me?

[@adhamhmacconchobhair7565]

I HAD NO IDEA BRETON LOOSES 10,000+ SPEAKERS PER YEAR!! NOR DID I KNOW THE MAJORITY OF SPEAKERS ARE IN THEIR 60'S!! I just wish France would just recognise it. As an Irish person I got to admit, England these days actually seems to be partially helping the cornish language. France has done NOTHING to help Breton! I'm learning Irish in school & at home and I was trying to decide which other Celtic language I was really interested in. I started learning Manx but After doing more research I want to learn Breton. And I want to teach Breton as I'm learning it! It's extremely difficult to find resources online to teach Breton. The best thing out there is dictionaries which really helps! I might make a new series dedicated to grouping stuff like colours, months, numbers ect in it to make it easier for people to learn the basics. And the more I learn the more I can teach.

[@Rolando_Cueva]

Too late to help Cornish. All the native speakers died 200 years ago. It's a revived language.

[@denniswilkerson5536]

You’re a hero for the willed effort, I hope you learn Breton, seriously. The survival of the language is paramount for the survival of the culture.

[@egbront1506]

@@Rolando_Cueva They said the same about Hebrew. That was dead for more than a couple of centuries. You have got to start somewhere.

[@gamermapper]

Scottish and Manx would be much easier to learn tho cuz they're Gaelic languages like Irish is. Breton isn't, it's still Celtic but it's absolutely not mutually intelligible for example

[@autumnphillips151]

@@Rolando_Cueva Why would you say that a revived language can’t be helped? Of course it can. Cornish is growing, and that wouldn’t be happening without a lot of help.

[@urium3965]

Trugarez bras evit da video. What you say is true even the shame because my mother tell me that she heard once my great grandmother say in french to my great grandfather : "Stop speaking breton, the children are coming". But now, it's really not true for my generation. There are more and more people who want to learn breton (even japanese people ! I've met one) and few teenagers who didn't learn breton when they were younger, began by themselves to learn it. In Brest (Finistère), there is the Centre for Breton and Celtic Research (CRBC) which is good for our culture. As a breton speaker, I will teach it to my children. One of the sadest things is that we are a part of the "lucky ones" in France because we managed to keep our culture and language throughout the History but some peoples in France didn't manage to. They have been acculturated. The other one is that the History is repeating : the english language and the american culture are spreading everywhere even in France where there are people who find better to speak very well english than speak very well french. I find that heartbreaking. I don't mean that the english language and the american culture are bad, I'm horrified that people prefer a foreign culture than their own.

[@mirzo2698]

@Anita K. the French are proud of their language and opress the usage of the local native language

[@safwaanchowdhury8260]

I am Son if bengali parents and live in England and i listened to one Breton folk song and I fell in love with language and now I want to learn it one day. I think if people keep on wanting to learn and keep it alive that hopefully it will prevail.

[@safwaanchowdhury8260]

kzbin.info/www/bejne/aH6snqltmZ1geqs this is Breton folk song I found on KZbin

[@alexgabriel5423]

Bravo pour ton Courage! Les langues de la Terre sont venues des cieux! Nous devons les preservees! Il faut aider tout les populations en danger de perdre leur cultures ou leur langues...merci beaucoup pour ton brave commentaire. C'est une forte inspiration pour tous les autres.

[@cattubuttas4749]

Breton is (used to be) a beautiful language but the modern one has been "immerdée" by the French. Sadly the pronunciation is like a horrible French patois and the French vocabulary is overwelming.

[@astralp4292]

Thanks for that video ! As an Occitan speaker I kinda understand how tragic the fall of Breton (And all the other regional languages) is, but struggles shall ensure their survival ! And btw where can we found the map you shown with the endangered languages ?

[@evefreyasyrenathegoddessev4016]

There should be many yt channels teaching Breton and the other Celtic languages, and there should be lots of vocab videos with over 1.000 Breton words etc and lots of videos on grammar / prepositions / verbs / conjunctions / adverbs etc and pronunciation rules, and there should also be Easy Languages channels for Welsh / Breton / Cornish / Manx / Irish / Scottish Gaelic - I am trying to learn all 6 Celtic languages, and it’s not easy to find resources for most of them! And also, for the less known Germanic languages, like Faroese / Icelandic / Gothic / Old Norse / Norn / Old English etc and Limburgish and the West-Vlaamse / Oost-Vlaamse Dutch-based languages and Luxembourgish / Low Dietsch / Ripuarian etc and the three Frisian languages (West Frisian / North Frisian / East Frisian) and the other German-based languages and Gallo / Galician / Guernsey and the 4 French-based languages spoken in Belgium and Occitan and Aranese etc and all Italian-based languages like Venetian / Sicilian / Neapolitan etc and Slovenian, they all should have an Easy yt and a Pod101 yt and lots of other yts teaching them on yt! I am trying to learn all these languages - they are very pretty languages, so they should be included in language related videos and also on lists of recommended languages etc!

[@evefreyasyrenathegoddessev4016]

NGL, Breton and Gallo are prettier than French, to be honest, and French is pretty too, but not as pretty as Breton - I don’t understand how can some ppl want to be monolingual, especially when there are so many pretty languages out there (I have over 60 pretty languages on my list of languages I want to learn and improve) and, cannot realize how many pretty words one is missing out on, if one has such wröng méntæłity, and it sounds more like łazíness, so most ppl don’t want to learn a new language because it takes a lot of time and effort and dedication, even though they should be learning as many new languages as possible, because being monolingual is so afł, but only pretty languages should be learned and spoken, so learners should always choose wisely, only the pretty languages with mostly pretty words, and one should learn the language for its pretty words, so true motivation is supposed to come from within...

[@evefreyasyrenathegoddessev4016]

Anyways, the big superiority term astral cannot be in yt names or names etc and must be changed, and numbers also cannot be in yt names - I am the only astral being aka the superior being and the only being reflecting superiority / purity / nature / color / flower / gemstone / light etc related terms / names / items etc!

[@evefreyasyrenathegoddessev4016]

By the way, ppl that already know Breton or Cornish or Gallo or Occitan or Manx (or any other pretty language that is isn’t that known) should teach it on yt, anyone can make simple vocab videos and grammar videos with text and sound - it would definitely help the unknown pretty languages become more known and it would make it possible for learners (who want to learn those languages) to learn them, so I really don’t understand why no one is trying to teach those languages, like, it’s so difficult to find even a few videos about those languages, and they aren’t even on Google translate, ugh...

[@nicolasglemot6760]

I know some people who attended Diwan schools and sometimes speak Breton among themselves. I'm always absolutely delighted when I hear people speak Breton in public, but I gotta admit it's very rare. It really pisses me off that even to this day, Diwan schools still aren't even recognised as legitimate by the state and thus receive no fundings, while even fucking religious schools do. Sadly, I didn't attend a Diwan school myself (in fact I attended catholic schools), and I feel very alienated from my own culture and language because of this.

[@pol...]

It's not too late to learn the language!

[@lucblin5302]

People from Diwan schools speak awfull french like sounding Bretón, I run away as soon as I can when I Hear them, quite pathetic...

[@nicolasglemot6760]

@@lucblin5302 Well, I know they usually don't sound native, but then again they're not natives, so... I mean if we want to make Breton thrive, many people will have to learn it as a second language so it will eventually sound a lot more like French than it did historically. But as time passes on it will "recover" in a way, as it evolves its own unique sound again. I think the Irish have a very good saying: "Better broken Irish than perfect English", which I think applies here very much as well.

[@lucblin5302]

@@nicolasglemot6760 I respecte yout point of view

[@lucblin5302]

I respect your point of view, friendly greatings!

[@Desertime]

3:35 I am going to debunk that lol : Tractor : Marc'h tann (Litterally Horse of fire) Car : Karr (Lit. Cart, as in a hay cart or whatever) or Oto Airplane : Karr nij (Lit. Flying cart) Television : Tele It's not that this language is incapable of describing modern concepts, but rather that it does so in a very poetic manner. I've taken it on myself to learn it from my dad and my grandmother (my mom doesn't speak, although being from here as well, so that's probably why I wasn't taught it), and I hope I'll be able to raise my kids with it. I'm glad to see many other people in the comments do the same Mersi bras evit ho video !

[@yannschonfeld5847]

Le vrai problème, ce sont ces militants bretons qui ont voulu créer un vocabulaire qu'aucun bretonnant digne de ce nom,aurait dit. Ils ont fait beaucoup tort à langue bretonne. Mon beau père disait tracteur mais avec un accent breton très fort. C'était dans une ferme à Plouaret. Ces militants étaient et sont des puristes. Ils ont crée un faux breton (breton chimique). Je n'ai aucun respect pour ces puristes. La pureté de la langue? Et quoi encore?

[@Desertime]

Update (as I stumbled acccross this video 3 years later) : I've just had the results of the state-official breton exam, and got the highest possible mark (C1 european level, as this test can't assert the C2 level). Which means : - (personal level) I'm now fluent and will be able to raise my children in breton - ("community" level) It IS possible ! And I didn't go through an intensive studying program, I'm self taught. So can you ! It's such a joy to speak with other bretons in our language, and I did get to have conversations with my grandmother in her native language before it was too late. Best of luck to all learners of suppressed minority languages like this ! And do not get discouraged by the task ahead, it took me 4 years to get there. It will also allow you to access plenty of material (songs, books and such) that were never translated. Ra vevo hor yezhoù (may our languages live) !

[@norajohnson2841]

You could not have explained that better or said it better I think. It’s all so sad and really breaks my. I want so much to learn Irish! Scottish! Manx! Breton! Cornish! Welsh! I will. Thank you for the video. I just subscribed

[@laurena227]

Wow I didn't know Breton also had something around their neck to ridicule and humiliate in schools, I grew hearing about the Welsh Not here in Wales, I've been trying to find a good way to learn Breton.

[@ShellyAbramovich]

this was really interesting. had no idea about this!

[@KianSheik]

Great tone, loved the content! Subscribed and waiting for more

[@sheepishlysly]

I know it’s offtopic but I like your accent. I’m not a native so I can’t quite distinguish it but I adore the way it sounds, a literal pleasure to my ears. Thanks for the video btw. I enjoyed it /let us all ignore the fact I came here for Breton and stayed for the way you speak/

[@karlmakhwa4182]

Me too! I stayed for the Breton AND your accent! Being from the UK, it was fascinating for me because there were so many moments when you sounded exactly like an american to me and then just a few things that betrayed you as a non-native. If you aspirate those voiceless stops, you might have me fooled! If anyone from the USA can comment how american he sounded, I'd be really interested.

[@karlmakhwa4182]

@@woods1914 Ahhhh, yeah when he says that 'two' he really doesn't sound American, even to me! Can you say anything about other parts of his speech?

[@yannschonfeld5847]

@@karlmakhwa4182 Some dialects of Breton sound as if the person was secretly American. Like Cornish English speakers. i remember around Bégard (Bro dreger) a pair of roofers, husband and wife both sounded very American. This was in 1980. English American comes from the West Country, the last Keltic kingdoms to fall. Linguistic habits die hard even they fall into a new language.

[@clemseth3168]

thanks you so much, sadly I'm from a north Finisterian family and our original language is already lost in my family. Hope to learn it one day with my siblings to pass it to our children!

[@ayangdidi5524]

When writing "North finisterian" you follow the French official policy:not using the real breton names for the different territorial boundaries. So tell us you are from Leon, or Kerne uhel, or Bro pagan.😢

[@adrianelias2365]

I didn't even know of a Breton language until today when I watched Eurovision France. A Breton language song won and it will be sung at this year's Eurovision and represent France.

[@zootallures6470]

It was only to show the world that France cares about their minorities. It was a cheap price to pay. And in real life, business [=eradication] as usual.

[@guitarbinary]

Nice videos my friend. I can't believe you only have a 100 subs. Your channel will get big for sure!

[@critical_chaos7794]

Now I can't decide if I want to learn Basque or Breton first 🤔

[@claudiocarbone2225]

Both very fascinating language! I want to learn them both

[@belstar1128]

For me the basque is kind of useful because there is "a lot" of Wikipedia articles and other things compared to Breton but i personally don't like some a lot of the basque media for political reasons but Breton has a lot less media but the little media there is more of my liking also Breton is spoken relatively close to me only french and German speaking lands are closer so the culture is relatable.

[@Ricky_Evans1611]

It's been a year broski. Which one did you choose?

[@critical_chaos7794]

@@Ricky_Evans1611 I started Breton

[@arielp7582]

What resources are you using to learn Breton?

[@patatedouce1186]

I'm very happy to see someone actually smart made this video.

[@kielbuela8610]

Because Parisian French is too centralized when they selected to became official language, Other French Dialects were left behind and got discriminated just like Breton. I feel sad for them! 😔😔

[@Jazzgin]

Breton is not a French dialect.

[@ousamadearudesuwa]

@@Jazzgin he meant the other French Dialects like Gascon and Provencal dialects. The ones that are not similar to the Francione tongue that the Bourbon family uses.

[@nikolazcardellach5795]

@@ousamadearudesuwa Gascon and Provençal are dialects of Occitan, not French. French = langue d'oïl. OCCITAN IS NOT FRENCH.

[@willhovell9019]

Good to hear this as a realty of the enforced decline of a Brythonic Celtic language. As London Welsh descendant , and whose grandfather only spoke Welsh before he attended school aged 5 in 1913. Welsh is being revived through Welsh medium state schools and young people find it cool to speak to the language and mystify their English or Saes ( y Saesneg) contemporaries across in England. Bi lingualism has shown to be good for the development of the brain and switched on English parents now send their children across the border to Welsh medium schools. Cornish is also making a lesser revival , though nearly extinct as an every day language since the early 19th century. Cornish is now officially recognised by the British government and EU. The 3 languages Breton , Cornish and Welsh are partially mutually intelligible as Brythonic tongues. This is not the case across the Celtic languages , though Irish , Manx and Scottish Gaelic are again mutually intelligible. A bit like Scots and Uster Scots languages. Welsh has a number of dialects principally North and South mostly about pronuciation. I'd be interested to hear about Breton dialects. The Breton regional goverments should set up more of their Breton medium schools and appeal to the EU and the Court of Human rights to get French state funding. I visited the Cote du Nord 22, St Brieaux and Guingamp as an exchange student in 1968 and 1969 respectively and found the language and culture very much alive and encouraged by the socialists. Cote du Nord renamed by the marketing people I note.

[@KateeAngel]

Brittonic languages indigenous in England too! Hence many names of places descend from Brittonic

[@lawrencep8923]

Living out in Ceredigion, it's so heartening to hear welsh spoken on the streets. Its such a shame the story of breton, I just hope that it can be saved. It was my grandpa's language and I've watched the native language of my home (Guernésiaise) basically die out is just depressing.

[@autumnphillips151]

The Goidelic languages are much more mutually intelligible than the Brittonic languages are.

[@theopajo]

Great video, don't let it die! ✊

[@captaintwoface1422]

Its so sad, i have been to brittany more than 14 times, i love the language so much and i love the region and everything in it.... this really makes me, as a german person extremly sad

[@mulot5022]

1:28 yet these first names are from the calendar. Erwan = Yves ; Soazig = Françoise (or rather Francette because ig or ik means small like ito/ita in Spanish)

[@freealter]

Fantastic channel that I’ve discovered today just trying to learn what Breton sounds like.

[@Nafas02]

Amazing .Can you make a video about Tamazight language !! It's my mother tongue but a lot of people never heard of it which is so sad:(

[@richarddominooo]

Nice video. Really interesting stuff. I'm french and my sixth grade french teacher is from brittany and he spoke breton to us in class, it was pretty cool lmao.

[@Bln-f9u]

If I'd ever move to Brittany (or Cornwall) I'd rather learn Brezhoneg (or Kernowek) than French, just the causal duty on boosting local culture and economy. Considering that vast parts of Germany are also build on the La Tene culture, it would be interesting to reconnect with our Celtic basis.

[@CamsterClips]

The numbers in Ireland are misleading in the image. 90,000 are native Gaelic (we call it just "Irish") speakers, but there are probably a few hundred thousand that are quite fluent speakers, and almost everyone in Ireland has some level of proficiency since it is taught since age 4 through to age 18.

[@TheWiseSalmon]

Almost everyone in the Republic of Ireland to be more precise. In Northern Ireland, it's only really taught in some schools as an optional subject. For example, I never learnt a single word of Irish until I decided to teach myself a wee bit.

[@cigh7445]

70,000 daily speakers. 30,000 of them in Gaeltacht areas. The numbers given were not misleading at all, very accurate if anything. Unless you want to artificially bolster the numbers and include anybody who repeated a mispronounced learned by heart pre-prepared line to pass their Leaving Cert before leaving school and forgetting everything

[@lemeejean1231]

Thank you for your luminous explanations. France governments have always fighted against Breton language with one purpose only in mind: make that celtic language not existing anymore. Remenber the french constitution says on one of it's article; there is only one language in France , the french language. Another article in french laws says: "There is no minority in France, only one people only one nation: the french one. Remenber, some month ago, 2 Breton babies could'nt get passport because of having a Breton surname which included the ñ letter, not recognised in french official grammar ! Ken ar c'hentan Ken ar c'hentañ.

[@chaidie7056]

Makes me so happy that the eurovision entry from France this year is in Breton!

[@gwenl.8651]

Trugarez vras dit! Thank you for your video.

[@doktorklaus300]

Bennozh doue deoc'h ! Kerneveureg (cornish) zo tost tre d'ar brezhoneg hag o tont war wel adarre. Bevet kerneveureg !

[@ayangdidi5524]

A sonje din Kerneveureg a oa aet da goll 😮

[@Knappa22]

It’s so sad. Go back a century and Breton was the most widely spoken Celtic language.

[@daviphelipee]

Hey, thank you for the video! Keep up the good work! Please, could you share the link of the map of languages that you showed you at the end? Thank you ;)

[@mathiaslist6705]

well, at least it was/is a recognized language but try to say that for Hianzisch or other languages in Austria ... I was probably the first one who asked why we unfortunately might never seen a newspaper in it .... I started to write it on what I remembered from my grandparents (they actually never wrote in it) and through the linguistic department and people I heard and saw that I should ~ for nasals ... however I use them scarcely

[@JorgeGarcia-lw7vc]

OK, I'm subscribing. Thank you for supporting these important parts of our human heritage.

[@bertoldriesenteil1430]

Well researched. Sometimes it was a wooden clog that the children who spoke Breton were forced to hang around their necks. Bennozh Doue.

[@futureshock382]

What was the definition of genocide again? "The deliberate eradication of a people, ethnic group, or culture with the aim of weakening or destroying that group" The Brits also genocided the Irish, then both of them turn to say "Oh look at us, the liberators of Europe and the defenders of freedom"

[@shrekisthebestanime3644]

British languages got genocided by the English

[@zootallures6470]

@@shrekisthebestanime3644 And English got genocided by American English. Everybody outside the UK [exception South Africa, Australia, etc] is trying to speak English with American accent.

[@Fadeduniverse559]

hello all does anyone here is fluent in breton? i have a song which i absolutely love but i can't find the lyrics anywhere so i was wondering if anyone could translate the lyrics for me?

[@funkerman7]

As Lithuanian who's language was outright banned for 40 years, it sucks to see that even today such ancient languages in Europe can go extinct.

[@injecktilo]

My friend, I wish I spoke Breton. My grandmother was born on Belle Ile. Thank you so much for preserving Breton. I wish my grandmother could have taught me Breton language.

[@begaydocrime5719]

Fun fact, I still had to pick the french spelling of my breton name to make sure it'd be accepted. In 2021.

[@oceanecaumartin2310]

I'm Breton but my english ils very bad so I don't understand tour video 😢

[@istoerioubreizh]

Mat eo ar fiñc'hkeudenn mañ ! Bevet breizh ! :)

[@breizhmabro7132]

Ya d ar brezhoneg ! Komz e brezhoneg !

[@anti79]

The way Breton was desribed as a "peasant patois" really resonated with me as a Ukrainian. Our language used to have the same status for centuries when we were part of Russia. And there still are people who view it as "village speech"

[@veeeen]

Same with Macedonian as viewed by (some) Bulgarians

[@GarthDjesi]

My acadian elders (parents, aunts etc) were punished at school for speaking Acadian French instead of English... my uncles had their knuckles smacked with rulers...

[@mirzo2698]

You can change the Breton's current 'r' sound from French 'r' to Celts 'r' to be more differentiate it from French and make it closer with your Celts brothers. It feels so sad when you can't speak your own native language

[@cigh7445]

Yeah it sounds identical to French now. I cannot tell Breton and French apart

[@briandmaxime5412]

like welsh sound like english now... but there is some breton speakers with a reel accent

[@mirzo2698]

@@briandmaxime5412 no, the Welsh and the others Celtic are in their real accent, the real British accent sounds like Frisian or Norse

[@supahnubz]

@@mirzo2698 A lot of speakers learning Welsh as a second language do speak it with an English accent, which is perfectly understandable seeing as English is their native tongue, and there's no such thing as a real British accent.

[@adammacgreagoir4924]

@@mirzo2698 Irish first language speakers are in the original accents, but teachers can't speak the language here because pronunciation isn't focused on and there is en emphasis on literature instead of conversation and therefore they don't teach the nuanced pronunciation of the different letters and how they change so it sounds terrible, the closest comparison I can draw between non native Irish speakers speaking the language is a stereotypical American speaking Spanish

[@celtofcanaanesurix2245]

I have some Breton ancestry, and I hate to see it diminish, remember Bretons, you are the people of Arthur and the red dragon like your Welsh cousins, stand together as the remnants of the proud and eternal Brythonic race, who has exist for at minimum 3000 years since the Urnfield people first mixed with the British Bell Beakers in the late bronze age.

[@rouxcool1227]

Race ? Artur. Really? Celtics are from central Europe. You should be proud of that instead of legends.

[@firyalazeera5396]

Awesome very interesting keep continuing, all the best 👍👍👍👍👍

[@sebastianmakowski7735]

Hey what was that "tfu tfu tfu " with knocking on the table....it sounds familiar

[@Sunflower-lk2xo]

Hey what was that map with the yellow and red dots?

[@alexgabriel5423]

Bravo! Mes sinceres remerciements!

[@sagetechnology4913]

I agree with the point of this video, I am from the US and my mother is an Israeli and can speak fluent Hebrew, but she never taught me it, it's a language that's difficult to learn, plus I can't learn languages the way they're taught in schools, so I missed out on being a native speaker of language with thousands of years of history. Though Hebrew is not very useful practically, the only place where it's the main language is Israel, and most people there can also speak English.

[@madmouse4400]

I'm luba (a central african folk) and all you said is the actual situation in schools and administration since 1885. It's really dangerous thing for Culture diversity . In the book "decolonizing minds" by Ngugi Wa Thiong'o (a Kenyan writter writing in his mother tongue) it says that language is part of process of domination and oppression of a people , because it's part of his history , it's his identity and . Erase language language of dominated and replace it by language of dominator is one of first thing to do after conquered a territory (the same way as Changing names of plqces). It will subjugated minds after subjugated body by weapons. And language is important for the self determination and identification of a people. It's like Ireland and England , two different territory which can't be confounded (even after British invasion)because they have two different history , 2 different cultures and most important 2 different languages.

[@prigual2901]

Look for the example of Basque and Catalonian in Spain .They are both official languages of Spain alongside Spanish, the common national language. Those languages are protected and growing

[@kasafrosk]

What about Alain Stivell, very populare in the 70-s Hep Brezoneg, Hep Brezoneg, played all over Europe

[@DESTARTV]

Well done sir, great work

[@targard.quantumfrack6854]

I attended to Diwan school when I was a kid, a shame that I forgot nearly all of the language but if ever I have a child, I'll re-learn it to transmit it.

[@yannschonfeld5847]

Ah oui? Dans quelle ville?

[@targard.quantumfrack6854]

@@yannschonfeld5847 Bannalec

[@karnunnos7413]

This is why I struggle to speak breton now. My grandfather didn't want me to speak his native language, he told me that was once beaten by his teacher because he didn't know a french word as kid. I know a few words now and I'm still learning but it's not easy.

[@yannschonfeld5847]

This was typical in those days. C'est dans quel département?

[@wrursqsl]

Pareil ici en Alsace, mes grands parents étaient battus pour le moindre mot alsacien au point ou les récréations étaient complètement muettes. En plus des affiches de propagande type "Le Francais c'est chic"

[@rico4.700]

the same happened with langue d'oc in southern france.

[@gabriellef5795]

Trugarez ! 🙏🏻

[@Brendan29310]

I am Breton and I am very sad what happened to our culture and country. Now we are very few Breton left.

[@loeiznedeleg4447]

Dalc'homp mat!!!

[@yannschonfeld5847]

By Bretons; you mean "des vrais bretonnants". Ça c'est sûr.

[@Brendan29310]

​@@yannschonfeld5847 People having a Breton ethnicity

[@Axacqk]

4:35 wait, French is called "galleg" in Breton?

[@ZarexianMapper]

Servus I really enjoyed your video. I'm currently working on a video about Britanny myself where I will be mostly talking about the history of the region and its people and of course its language (and its mistreatment) plays a huge role. Do you mind if I use parts of this video?

[@imshawngetoffmylawn]

I don’t mind at all, go ahead!

[@cattubuttas4749]

Great talk man ! KREIZ AN AVEL HAG AN DREZ !

[@breizhmabro7132]

Trugarez vras deoc'h evit hon labouret Thank you very much for you work

[@morzhed-hoqh732]

Hol labour... Kentoc’h 😉

[@jaqbs0n]

What about Sorbian?

[@StudioKelpie1993]

I'm Ulster Scottish and I've ancestry from Alba (Scotland), Southern West Albion (Cornwall, England), Isle of Man, Éire & Airlann (Ireland in both Irish and Ulster Scottish), Norge (Norway) and mɒŋˈɡoʊliə (Mongolia) and honestly, I'd love to learn the languages of all my ancestors because this is a key part of Celtic and Pre-Euro Asian History!

[@highestsprings]

With Breton ancestry I hope the language can survive. It's important to open it up to all and encourage the youth.

[@hcn6708]

Note: The original Breton R is a normal trill or approximant rather than a uvular trill, the modern pronunciation of it is due to French influence.

[@RealOGfikey]

As a Welshman with strong ancestry to Cornwall I would love one day to learn Breton as much as I would love to be fluent in both Cymraeg and Kernowek as well.

Thanks a lot for your valuable video!

[@billbirkett7166]

France has been notorious for having crap policies regarding minority languages. The only one that you might consider as 'healthy' is Basque, but primarily because the Basque people in Spain have been able to do a much better job keeping the language alive. Go and check the status of all of France's 8 or so minority languages (minus Basque), and every single of one them is moribund. And if you talk to any random French person about it, they absolutely do not give a shit and will just say something like, "hon hon hon, il y a one baguette dans mon pantalon hon hon hon". France as a political entity has been seriously overrated.

[@darmakusuma891]

Breton to Brittany is like Scottish Gaelic to Scotland and Gallo to Brittany is like Scots to Scotland.

[@Paguo]

Castillian has done the same with Basque, Galician, Catalan, etc

[@luissantiago8446]

This is true. I'm Puerto Rican, with Irish and Corsican alongside my Spanish ancestry. My grandmothers first tongue was Catalan, not Castillian. It is good to see the Catalans fighting for self determination. And the same goes for Gaelic speaking Scots, Irish in Ireland, the Tuscan dialect spoken in Corsica, and Breton in Brittany. All beautiful languages worth saving.

[@lucasrodrigues9766]

No wonder Catalans hate Spain and want independence.

[@michaelhalsall5684]

We English don't help the situation by refering to Castillian as "Spanish"

[@Paguo]

@@michaelhalsall5684 not only a problem of English. Even in portuguese, today, it's common to refer to castilian as "spanish"

[@thomashernandez8700]

Feesh le compte?

[@phlarrdboi]

How do u say vive le breton in breton. ETA: Brevet Breizh ! Hope I spelled it right

[@nicolaspicard1501]

you did !

[@cdtcobra]

Small correction : Bevet (without the r) Breizh means "Vive la Bretagne" (the country). Vive le breton = Bevet ar brezhoneg.

[@HaberfieldchiropracticAu]

Breizh atao is a more common saying btittany forever

[@cdtcobra]

@@HaberfieldchiropracticAu since world war 2 it's usually tied to far-right and fascistic people (there's is, for example, a nasty racist website using that as its title). Breton speakers tend to use other sayings now.

[@HaberfieldchiropracticAu]

@@cdtcobra oh didn't know that jk

[@gitaarfreakoriginal]

Really good, but this was not only the cause for Breton: Around the turn of the last century, French was a minority language in France. Other languages in the same situation within France: Dutch (West Flemish), Catalan, Corsu, Basque, German (Aldacian), Langue D'oc, Arpitan, ... I forget a few.

[@keroabl1587]

French was not a minority language in France at the turn of the 20th, neither in the 18th or the 16th. More than 80% of the the population spoke french, but with several dialects. This dialects started to disappear after the WW2.

[@Yakodindar]

@@keroabl1587 France was in fact a minority language. What you call dialect were other languages. Normand, Picard, chti, gallo, lorrain etc are all languages with their own grammar and vocabulary. Considering them as dialect is like saying That catalan is not a language

[@keroabl1587]

@@Yakodindar I'm french, and i've heard gallo when i was a child, it's definitively a dialect of french, not a language by its own.

[@pol...]

@@keroabl1587 The more precise wording is that both French and Gallo are dialects of the so-called Oil Languages. It's not precise to say that Gallo is a dialect of French.

[@Twittler1]

@@keroabl1587 What you, and everyone else, calls ‘French’, including the French, is the modified (by L’Academie Française in the 18th/19th centuries) descendant of one of the many dialects of La Langue d’Oil which were spoken in the northern half of France, none of them the precursor of any of the others. They developed simultaneously as dialects of Vulgar Latin, NOT of each other. They were the languages of those who spoke and used them. They changed over the centuries as all languages do, each with their own influences. Some were easily mutually intelligible, others only with more difficulty. What we all call ‘French’ was originally the Langue d’Oil language/dialect of a small area around Versailles and Paris. That dialect, the language of royalty and the court, was the one that became dominant, and the one that had to be used at court. From there, it went on to supplant all of the other languages of the country, firstly all of the other Langue d’Oil languages, then the very different Langue d’Oc languages, and, all in their turn, Euskari, Brezhoneg, Vlams, Allemani, Alsatian, Catalan (Roselo), Arpitan, Gasconnais, etc, and all of those languages own dialects. This ‘supplanting’ was achieved in nearly all cases by violent oppression and mass slaughter. You could tell the same or a very similar story in every almost every country of Europe. The language now known as that of any particular country was once only the language of a few. But that ‘few’ were the ones who held power at the key points in history. My language, English, is the result of the same or a similar story. There were/are many dialects of English, although nearly all of them are mere shadows of what they were, mainly reduced to residual accents and the occasional word or saying. Some are stronger than others. Even now, an ordinary native of Cornwall will find it a bit difficult to understand someone similar from Northumberland, particularly someone from the area around the rivers Tyne and Wear. What is now known as ‘standard English’ is the descendant of two languages/dialects; the first being that spoken by the elites in London and Westminster, the seats of power. The second was the speech of the area around Norwich in Norfolk, which was considered to be the most mutually intelligible across the country. Those choices weren’t made by the state though, as they were in France. They were made by the compilers of dictionaries and at first varied slightly. Eventually, the Oxford English Dictionary (Oxford University) became the recognised authority. But again, unlike French, it isn’t officially (i.e; by the state) recognised or mandated. It’s maintained and promoted by OED academics and lexicographers, who take a careful but liberal note of changes in usage. There is no weight of the state, no national authority, behind English or how it’s used. It just exists by itself.

[@littleimpostor]

Trugarez !

[@dream-67]

Very interesting thank you....nice to see Welsh is flourishing however

[@10hawell]

I see you knocking on unpainted wood nice tradition. I hope that someday time will come to take care of Polesian in Poland too

[@allahverdiverdizade5537]

that is such a weird way of suing knock on the wood and тьфутьфутьфу, as if you're actually happy about the peril of language death :D

[@cigh7445]

I find the fate of many minority languages disturbing or upsetting. One thing I've noticed with languages that lose their traditional native speaking populations/communities is that the people - revivalists, learners, semi-native bilinguals with greater competence in the majority language - who attempt to revive them use the melody, sounds, stress patterns, mouth/jaw positions, phonetics of the majority language which displaced the ancestral language to speak it. Therefore even if people still 'speak' these languages, they still sound like and have a French/English identity, which is especially obvious to an unbiased outsider and even moreso obvious to the last traditional natives themselves. The individual character of the language has been lost and replaced, it becomes the majority language with 'different words'. It's so sad to me to hear a young Breton person speaking Breton but you think it's French, or to hear an Irish person not from a native community speaking Irish and it just sounds like jibberish English due to the phonetics (like Simlish I guess, gibberish English).

[@DavidHoodEdinburgh]

Same happened in Scotland, with Scots and Gaelic.

[@OrkosUA]

In a similar way Russia has treated Ukrainian, almost same methods.

[@safwaanchowdhury8260]

Luckily Ukraine have their own state now 🇺🇦

[@OrkosUA]

@@safwaanchowdhury8260 yeah, hope that Bretons one will also have their situation significatnly improved.

[@combatantezoteric2965]

The same way the habsburgs treated Romanians in Bukovina, so that they had to abandon their language to ukrainian

[@Natadangsa]

I thought Ukrainian is still spoken in a limited matter in Kuban ?

[@owlofathena1247]

This aged badly

[@koss1818]

As a Polish person I am shocked about all those policies. The only thoughts that come to my mind are that French and English people responsible for them (policies) are the same disgusting rubbish which were Germans and Russians who were killing our nation. Please, stay strong my Indo-European brothers and sisters. My love for You shall never fade away.

[@lesbretonsdominentlejapon2848]

LES BRETONS DOMINENT LE MONDE !!

[@mbernadat]

Ya, ha penaos e vefe lavaret an dra-se e brezhoneg?

[@Galavine]

you're right it isn't entirely accurate.. there's about 5000 speakers of Cornish in Cornwall and no it didn't actually go completely extinct, but almost.. (Breton's closest relation language wise).. perhaps you could give us a similar shout out.. good video :)

[@phil2854]

The last person who spoke Cornish as a mother tongue died in 1777. It was revived in the 20th century. So unfortunately, it did go completely extinct. It's fantastic that it's been revived, but I suspect the current speakers have an English accent, because Cornish is not their mother tongue and there are no recordings of native Cornish speakers since they died before sound recording.

[@Galavine]

@@phil2854 I don't believe it did go completely extinct, the fact that you're mentioning 1777 (dolly pentreath) means you've either been reading wikipedia or some other unreliable source as there were people at her funeral who could speak more Cornish than she ever could,, Henry Jenner who started the revival in the early 19th century re-pieced the language back together from some people who could speak it at the time,, fishermen were said to have been using it until the 20th century to count fish.. and even I have heard some Cornish words from the language not dialect used in daily life since the early 80's.. I do not believe that it went extinct since there's always been knowledge of it... it is fair to say there are no mother speakers of 'original' Cornish, but there are now people who have it as their first language.