Why the Bretons of Brittany Speak a Celtic Language - Celtic Breton Explained

[@ItsBrittanyBirch]

Most of my family is from Brittany, but my close family lives in Paris. The reason there was such a drop from the 20th century to the 21st was that the French government attempted to kill the language but forbidding its use in schools, or even giving your children celtic names. It's pretty recent to be able to do that actually. I don't know breton but my grandmother had given me a vocabulary book of Breton and I wish I knew where it is because I want to learn it now.

[@celtichistorydecoded]

Thanks Junee, fascinating comment

[@MAKDavid-1]

As Hungarian I’m fundamentally a GaL like many other HunGerians which has a Scythian variant which is in genetic sense very much the same as GaL where Kelet in my language means East hence when you talk about Celtic people it sounds as you talk about Eastern GaLs.

[@IdiotBoxProductionsTV]

Tragic honestly,

[@user-fb3ky5ur6x]

Same my grand mother who had alzheimer could only speak breton and her sons (my father and his brother) often use expresions such as "oh ghast" when they are surprised

[@user-fb3ky5ur6x]

Their is a book called barzaz breiz I think it contains songs and poem sadly I never heard of a vocabulary book

[@lauriedmills7581]

So pleased you speak slowly! I'm an Australian descended in part from Brittany so learning from you is very interesting - thank you :).

[@zorbeclegras5708]

The Bretons play a form of bagpipes that has been their own for centuries: The biniou coz, used during village festivals. The very high sound of this bagpipe is not suitable for large groups, and it was therefore decided to use the Scottish bagpipe associated with Bombardes (a kind of haubois with a strong and vibrant sound) and percussion when it was decided to create this ensemble. called Bagad in the 1930s.

[@fdghn4567]

Breton is also close to Welsh, My brother in law was amazed that driving through Wales to visit relatives he could read the road signs in Welsh. My brother in law told me that when he was at school, if he or anyone else got heard speaking Breton they were caned for it.

[@thornil2231]

that's a made up story...

[@fdghn4567]

@@thornil2231 If this is a reply to my post you are very wrong, I was in the car with my brother in law when he said he could understand Welsh and him and his brothers were caned for speaking Breton in school,

[@michaelhalsall5684]

@@thornil2231 In the 19th Century Breton speaking children were punished for speaking that language and made to wear a cow bell around their neck to remind them they 'dirty peasants' if they spoke Breton. School teachers, trained the main cities, were told it was their job to 'destroy the Breton language'. Since the 1950s the situation has changed for the better with 'Diwan' (Breton language schools) now promoting the language. Gallo, a non-Celtic regional language, also spoken in Brittany, is under pressure from the French language too.

[@thornil2231]

I am a Breton... yes it was true up to WW2.@@michaelhalsall5684

[@anaaile6691]

​@@thornil2231it is not a made up story My grand parents who were borned after the 2nd War were not suposed to speak breton at school They were borned in western France they were opposed to speak their language

[@sonofhunnewell7145]

Excellent short summary. A minute or two of information on local customs and identity would have rounded it off. Looking forward to one of these for every region mentioned. Don’t forget to include Galicia as a Celtic tribe. Cheers.

[@celtichistorydecoded]

Thanks Son of Hunnewell. I will be sure to do a video on Galicia in the future.

[@gwendallazzara287]

Unfortunately, the galician language is a latin-roman language. There'se nothing overthere that we could consider as celtic... except some toponimic names. Devezh mat deoc'h !

[@sonofhunnewell7145]

@@gwendallazzara287 Yes there is one more thing. Their blood

[@dirtsauce]

@@gwendallazzara287 Galicians spoke a Celtic language up to the 9th century and there were reports of a spoke Celtic language in use up to the 14th century. But even if today there is no spoken Celtic language in Galicia today does that make them less Celtic when the Majority of peoples in Ireland and Scotland do not speak their native tongue 🤔!!!

[@gwendallazzara287]

@@dirtsauce I have a degree in Celtic studies from the University of Upper Brittany and have kept in touch with scholars from Cambridge, Harvard and Aberystwyth. I have never heard of a possible survival of Celtiberian or Brittonic in Galicia after the fifth century AD... (when the brittish Celts settled in Brittany and in Galicia) I would like to know your sources because they would question many studies on the durability of a language Celtic in this region. Regards

[@willhovell9019]

Love the machine Scottish voice. Do you do a Glaswegiian one too 😂

[@christianbargain560]

Very nice vidéo ! thank you ! i am Breton .😀👌👌👌👍

[@SantaFe19484]

Nice video! I can see the kids saying "why do we have to learn two languages?"

[@ashton1952]

When they're big they'll be happy they did. Best time to learn languages is during childhood, because it sounds like ones mother tongue. Learning as an adult is possible but you get stuck with an accent.

[@ShellyVoiceActsToo]

What a beautiful accent

[@jasonbritt2497]

My last name is from this Region or person from. I’m assuming it’s just a surname given to people from the region

[@Christophe-pl5xu]

Often breton surname means something in breton. A job or a physical specific aspects. Le goff = the black smith Le duff = black hair man Le saux = the englishman Le gall = the stranger or the french

[@jasonbritt2497]

@@Christophe-pl5xu I was told it’s from le bret

[@Christophe-pl5xu]

@@jasonbritt2497 breton briton are just the all celtic culture people normally. French named us breton because we are coming of there. In french brittany is bretagne and england is grande bretagne

[@Christophe-pl5xu]

​​@@jasonbritt2497 ok yes may be your ancester name come from breton name Le Bret. If u want in the past they hadnt of name. They named them like this. Yann Mab ar Yves. Mab means " son of" like Mac of scotland. Name have been given when they have registered person. That is the reason that name are frenchized, name are physical particularity, linked to church or breton saint, or simply a work name ( name being the add of the person). So Le.Bret could be a person who spoke breton. Probably he lived in east brittany because language in east brittany is gallo or then he have received his name in france. Its not logic if u want he receives his name in.breton language area .

[@trashman5018]

Nice video 👍

[@celtichistorydecoded]

Thanks

[@Schwitzmaul]

love your english from the first second. Greetyings from GER. Was nice diffrent english on youtube

[@youenn2180]

The speaker may be of celtic origin according to the way he speaks English , he speaks like some elderly people in Brittany speak French because their first language is Breton ....

[@christopher6759]

Why the Bretons of Brittany Speak a Celtic Language? Because they are Celts, simple as.

[@jackieroberts7895]

Why does Breton have the same national anthem as wales?

[@celtichistorydecoded]

Great question. I think the tune is to celebrate the Celtic connections, as the ancient Britons settled Brittany

[@jackieroberts7895]

@@celtichistorydecoded very interesting different places same people love from Wales to Brittany 😍

[@celtichistorydecoded]

@@jackieroberts7895 Thanks Jackie

[@alanroberts6439]

When people ask about Wales and I say it's a lot bigger than you think. I say play the Welsh anthem and then the Breton one . The puzzled look always makes me smile.

[@thornil2231]

I am a Breton, and I didn't know we had a national anthem... LOL I checked... and I never heard it before. People mostly listen to celtic traditional music. I have no idea where that tune comes from.

[@LVQuinn83]

You seem to forget that spaniards are not just Celtic, but CELTIBERIAN with also roman influence. And not all iberians were the same, there were different tribes of Iberians. That is , the substartum is a mix of Iberian and Celtic, whereas the British isles, (and Ireland) are a mix of celtic with Germanic and Viking.

[@user-ze8yy8jg1f]

Well Spanish are also visigoths Here in Ireland we are Gael dominant. Norse would be high in clusters not over all population And Germanic is high in Irish who came from Britain or Irish from the pale area

[@LVQuinn83]

@@user-ze8yy8jg1f Exactly I know this I love our heritage

[@e.jenima7263]

Bretton is spoken regularly by over 8 million people today.allthough it is regularly spoken in Brittany today and is now legal to be taught in the public schools after being banned for almost 100 years. There is a fear that with Rural flight and increased tourism that although it has over 8 million speakers it could become endangered. Britons are somewhat discriminated against mainly bc they are not seen as being truly French in culture, there language sets them apart and the Betton's are seen as stubborn, harboring Royalist and separatist sympathies ect. As well as having a unshakable faith in the Roman catholic church....Bretons are deeply devoted to the church something secularist France dislikes.

[@saturn5918]

where did you get this number of 8 million speakers? I know that people speak breton out of France (like in NYC) but all of this only accounts to half a million according to numerous sources

[@ThatDamnPandaKai]

There are only about 227,000 speakers in France, it's highly unlikely 7.8 million more people speak a minority language outside of the country considering it's UNESCO listed as Severely Endangered, whereas Welsh is spoken by around 650,000 people worldwide and it's only listed as Vulnerable

[@christopher6759]

If there were 8 million speakers, Google would add the language on Google translator. And that's the goal.

[@3dsaulgoodman43]

​@@christopher6759Cantonese still hasn't been added tho

[@Christophe-pl5xu]

U know brittany have been christianized by celtic church of ireland in the beginning.

[@bouchacourtthierry8506]

Before Brittany was Armorique and Armorique was Celt. .. Celt langage continental before romanisation (Gaulois, in French), was very similar with Celt from Great Brittany ... and Roman settlement was none in Gaul ...but when British Celt invader continental Celt was erased

[@bretagnejean2410]

Armorica is name caesar give to the space due to inhabiitant they named themself armorican. People front of the sea. AR MOR like sea ....in.breton language.

[@zorbeclegras5708]

From what I have read about the Gauls, and the Celts in general, the tribes could form an alliance around a powerful tribe (patron, overlord). The region called Armorica was in fact an alliance of Osismes, Curiosolites, Redones, Namnetes, Baiocasses, Unelles and Lexovii around the Veneti who roughly occupied current Morbihan. The total territory roughly included Brittany and Normandy, up to the Seine. other powerful tribes like the Aedui, the Arverni, the Allobroges had their own "client" tribes. As for the replacement of continental Celtic by insular Celtic in Brittany, it is not certain that it took place directly, Gallo Roman having had time to penetrate strongly in the meantime.

[@bertoldriesenteil1430]

"Celtic" is a language group not a race of people as implied in the title of this video.

[@ashton1952]

It is a specific ethnicity

[@waterdragon2340]

Manx died in the 1970s and Cornish a long time before - there are revivals now but with a broken history

[@familhagaudir8561]

Manx always retained fluent ( second language ) speakers, unlike Cornish, which was forgotten and revived from books.

[@Christophe-pl5xu]

And cambrian?