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706 THE SOCIOLINGUISTICS OF THE CELTIC LANGUAGES

17 See Thomas (1987: 16, 17). In Pontrhydyfen (Neath- Port Talbot County Borough Council),

in spite of industrialization and a certain degree of immigration, the language survived at the

beginning of the century because the religious and socio- economic conditions upheld it. ‘The

main social centres were the nonconformist chapels which played an important role in language

maintenance as their activities were exclusively Welsh in language. They therefore gave Welsh

a respected status in a domain that was central to community life. Involvement in chapel activi-

ties also meant a high degree of exposure to formal variations of Welsh, the Sunday Schools

providing a medium through which some level of literacy in the language could be attained.’

18 This point was made in several course- work extended essays on lexical variation in the Welsh

Department, University College, Swansea.

19 Llwyd (1983: 16): ‘the standards of the class are no better than the teacher responsible for

them. This is especially true in the context of presenting Welsh as a second language. Unless

there is strong motivation to succeed on the part of the individual teacher, then strong declara-

tions of policy by the LEA are in vain.’

20 The success of this scheme owes much to the leadership and pedagogic skills of Cen Williams

and the very able tutors employed by both centres who present the retraining programme in a

professional and non- threatening manner, for recall that most of these teachers may have basic

Welsh language skills, but often lack the conﬁ dence to deploy them in a classroom setting.

21 This, of course, necessitates a change in attitudes on both sides of the linguistic divide, if the

traditional pattern described in Greene (1981) is to be reversed: ‘Even in Wales where the lan-

guage had been highly developed by the time that universal education was introduced, only a

few fanatics ever dreamed of making it the language of instruction and the Welsh people opted

for a bilingualism in which no English man ever participated and in which the losses were

inevitably in one direction’ (Greene 1981: 8).

22 For details see the Annual Report of MYM, 2006/7.

23 These two had retained a strong Welsh language policy in spite of the general trend towards

bilingualism which had been a blot on Welsh journalism e.g., Yr Adsain, Corwen. In the 12

July 1932 issue, twenty- one news items were in English and only four in Welsh. Y Seren and

Y Cyfnod of Bala followed a similar policy. ‘Of the nine papers listed in Benn’s Newspapers

Press Directory for 1967 with Welsh- language titles only four had not succumbed to the blight

of bilingualism, a form of palsy which usually leads to death’ (Betts 1976: 131). In terms of

content, however, the Herald Gymraeg and Herald Môn ‘suffer from . . . far too much empha-

sis on the world of literature, culture and eisteddfodau’ (Betts 1976: 138). Other news items

which were of interest to the public at large were printed in the English Caernarvon and Den-

bigh Herald and the Holyhead and Anglesey Mail. The Welsh- medium newspapers therefore

gave restricted coverage and this was a contributory factor in lowering sales.

24 The papers in question are Tafod Elai (Cardiff area, est. 1985), Y Clawdd (Wrexham), Clochdar

(Cynon Valley), Hogwr (Bridgend, all est. 1987), Y Bigwn (Denbigh, est. 1988), and Papur Bro

Ifor (Rhymney Valley, est. 1989).

25 Source: ‘Effaith Economaidd S4C ar Economi Cymru 2002–2006’, June 2007. We are grateful

to our colleague Caroline Walters for drawing these ﬁ gures to our attention. For other details

visit www.s4c.co.uk/corfforaethol.

26 On a personal note, Nia Parry is a former student and colleague of the authors.

27 The 1987 Urdd National Eisteddfod was held in Cwm Gwendraeth where the Welsh language

was slowly losing ground. It is a valley of industrial villages where coal mining was once

the main employer. A gradual weakening in the role of the chapels, coupled with a change in

employment patterns and the low status afforded to Welsh within the communities, has led to

gradual erosion. The 1987 Eisteddfod kindled new interest and new pride in the language, and

local people approached the Welsh Language Board with ideas for a new initiative, Menter

Iaith (‘Language venture’). In June 1990 the Cwm Gwendraeth Initiative was launched and a

director and staff were appointed. ‘The challenge was to widen the role of Welsh in all walks of

life and to show people its relevance in their lives. Their success has led to the development of

similar initiatives in all parts of Wales. For a critique of Menter Cwm Gwendraeth see Campbell

(2000) and for the Mentrau Iaith in terms of community empowerment, C. H. Williams 2000).

THE SOCIOLINGUISTIC CONTEXT OF WELSH 707

28 The most notable examples were Eileen and Trevor Beasley of Llangennech, who refused to

pay rates until Llanelli District Council would issue bilingual rate demands. Legal proceed-

ings were instituted against them on twelve occasions. They were at ﬁ rst regarded as eccentric

cranks but gradually public opinion changed and in 1960 the Council gave in and provided

bilingual rate forms. In their quite different ways the extended families of Gwynfor Evans and

of Trevor Beasley are central to the development of the Welsh language struggle.

29 A total of 377 forms and leaﬂ ets were available in Welsh in 1986 but only 29 of them were pro-

duced bilingually. All the others were separate Welsh versions. They covered a whole range of

public services. (Information from Welsh Language Board (l990b).)

30 Cefn is a movement which aims to support and extend the use of Welsh in business, place of

work and public life. Its spokesperson and mainstay, Eleri Carrog, is an effective and tireless

advocate of social justice in Wales.

31 More recently commentators have begun to argue that the Welsh Language Act was essentially

an Act to establish the Welsh Language Board rather than an Act to secure equality of treatment

for both the Welsh and English languages.

32 It was funded by a grant from the Welsh Ofﬁ ce, which, for example, in the year ending

31 March 1998, prior to devolution, totalled £5,756,000.

33 Under the spirit of the 1993 Act, the Board has also developed partnerships with the twenty-

two Unitary Authorities through Rhwydiaith (Network), with the Welsh Consumer Council, the

Welsh Council for Voluntary Action and with a range of private sector organizations. During

the ﬁ nancial year 1997–7 grants totalling £2,254,792 were distributed under the Board’s main

grants scheme to organizations as varied as the National Eisteddfod, the Welsh Books Council

and Shelter Cymru (Welsh Language Board 1998).

34 The key strategy document is ‘Information Technology and the Welsh Language’, November

2005.

35 Canolfan Bedwyr, Bangor, has produced a signiﬁ cant amount of essential software products

in this ﬁ eld, as have a multiplicity of other smaller private companies throughout the UK: for

example, Draig Technology Ltd and its work on diacritical marks and on fonts.

36 Thus Microsoft Windows XP Service Pack Two (XPSP2) contains a locale for Welsh, which is

part of the operating system.

37 The best known is Cwmni Iaith, with ofﬁ ces and skilled personnel deployed throughout Wales.

38 A dissenting note to this orthodox view has been raised by Cymdeithas yr Iaith Gymraeg who

are campaigning for a Council of the Welsh language on the grounds that direct access to politi-

cians is still very difﬁ cult, while a statutory consultative council would give supplicants and

lobbyists regular opportunities to advance their concerns and views.

39 Of course, this is dependent upon an ofﬁ cial designation of the Welsh Heartland districts and a

consideration as to who will co- ordinate proposed remedial action.

40 Based on Canadian and Irish experience, the ofﬁ ce should be an independent regulatory body.

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712 THE SOCIOLINGUISTICS OF THE CELTIC LANGUAGES

CHAPTER 15

LANGUAGE, CULTURE AND

IDENTITY IN BRITTANY

The sociolinguistics of Breton

Lenora A. Timm

OVERVIEW OF BRITTANY

Geography

Brittany is easily recognized on topographical maps of France as that western arm of

northern France that projects into the Atlantic Ocean. It is with good reason, then, that the

westernmost of the four departments that comprise today the Région Bretagne (hence-

forth Breton Region) within the administrative parameters of France is called Finistère

(<Lat. ﬁ nis terrae) ‘the end of the earth’; the other three departments are Côtes d’Armor,

Ile- et- Vilaine, and Morbihan. Prior to 1941, however, Brittany also included the depart-

ment of Loîre- Atlantique, lying south of the other four. It was detached from the others

during the administrative reorganization of France under the Vichy Regime, a sore point

for many Bretons, and a vocal movement exists today calling for its re- attachment to the

Breton Region.

The major city of Loîre- Atlantique, Nantes, was the seat of the Duchy of

Brittany during its period of semi- autonomous existence that extended effectively from

the late Middle Ages until the French Revolution. In this chapter, reference to Brittany

or Bretons should generally be assumed to mean the current ofﬁ cial (four- department)

region unless mention is speciﬁ cally made of ‘historical Brittany’.

Brittany is an impressive- sized peninsula (27,200 km

), three of its sides consisting of

coastlines (2,730 km) and over half a dozen inhabited islands, mainly off the western and

southern coasts; it possesses several important commercial and military ports. Altogether,

Brittany represents 5 per cent of the surface of continental France.

Its northern coast is

located approximately 100 miles from the southern reaches of Great Britain (Devon and

Cornwall) on the other side of the English Channel. The similarity in names – Brittany,

Britain – is of course not accidental, as both are reﬂ exes of an earlier indigenous ethno-

nym, Pritani, Latinized by the Roman invaders as Britani or Britanni,

whence also (via

Welsh) the linguistic designator Brythonic for one of the two subgroups of languages to

which Breton belongs (along with Welsh and Cornish); Goidelic is the branch consisting

of Irish, Scottish Gaelic and Manx. The eastern capital Rennes in the département (hence-

forth department) of Ile- et- Vilaine, lies about 350 km west of Paris; the western capital,

the naval port city of Brest, lies 250 km further west.

Traditionally the peninsula has been contrasted geographically by invoking two

LANGUAGE, CULTURE AND IDENTITY IN BRITTANY 713

Breton terms: Arvor (‘on the sea’) in reference to the coastal areas and Argoad (‘on/at

the woods’) in reference to the interior areas, which have historically been and are still

today the region’s rural strongholds. Interior Brittany also has two relatively low- lying

mountain ranges – the Monts d’Arrée and the Montagnes Noires – each with altitudes

not exceeding about 400 metres, but associated with distinct patterns of land use and life-

style. These differences in habitat, accessibility, and human ecology in the two areas are

reﬂ ected in the differential patterns of Breton language maintenance and shift over the

centuries, as the coastal regions, particularly cities and other larger population centres

along the coasts, became francophone centuries before the inland and upland areas did.

Population

Recent data (2005) from France’s Institut National de la Statistique et des Études

Economiques (INSEE) indicate 3,063,000 inhabitants for the Breton Region (Bretagne.

com/fr/geographie/demographie). For the Department of Loîre- Atlantique INSEE data

for the same year show 1,134.266 inhabitants. The total population of historic Brittany is

thus 4,197,266. Within the Breton Region, the three western departments – roughly con-

stituting Lower (traditionally Breton- speaking) Brittany – have a population of 2,133,000

and Upper (traditionally French- speaking) Brittany has 930,000.

The ﬁ ve largest cities in the Breton Region are Rennes (209,900), Brest in northern

Finistère (145,200), Quimper (64,900), Lorient (58,300) and Vannes (54,000); Nantes in

Loîre- Atlantique in historic Brittany has a population of 281,000.

The settlement of Brittany

Received notions of the settlement of the Breton peninsula – often referred to in docu-

ments from earlier centuries as Armorica – have interpreted the settling of Brittany as a

series of immigrations of Celtic peoples from south- western England during the ﬁ fth–

seventh centuries AD).

It is generally held that Britons (Celtic peoples from England)

led by priests and warriors were ﬂ eeing the advancing Anglo- Saxon invaders, seeking

a brighter future on the other side of the channel and that they encountered there either

no inhabitants or very few (the ‘desert’ hypothesis of the Celtic scholar Joseph Loth: see

Giot 1999: 296). It was not until the 1960s, as Humphreys observes (1993: 609), that lin-

guist François Falc’hun challenged this interpretation, arguing instead for the continued

existence of a Gaulish- speaking (Gallo- Roman) population on the peninsula with whom

the Briton immigrants would have had to contend one way or another. For Falc’hun there

is no other way to understand the high degree of distinctiveness of the southern regional

dialect (vannetais) of Breton from the three northern dialects (léonais, trégorrois, and

cornouaillais). He elaborated in two important studies (1963, 1981) the controversial idea

that vannetais was the continuation of Gaulish which he believed was still spoken in parts

of Armorica in the ﬁ fth to sixth century AD. This went against the prevailing thinking

developed during the nineteenth century by historian Arthur La Borderie, linguist Joseph

Loth and others, that emphasized the insular origins of Breton language and culture, deny-

ing any Gaulish survival as an important component of the new Breton society.

In more recent years, however, linguist and historian Léon Fleuriot (1980) came to

believe that the immigrants could not have successfully established themselves in Armor-

ica without the presence of a culturally similar population (ibid.; see also Favereau

2006; Wyart 2004). It may be that the Gallo- Roman residents more or less welcomed the

Breton immigrants, possibly seeing them as additional support against the Saxons who,

714 THE SOCIOLINGUISTICS OF THE CELTIC LANGUAGES

if historian Nora Chadwick is right, had already made assaults on Armorican Gaul (1965:

202). Whatever the state of Gaulish survival in Armorica, successive waves of emigration

by insular Britons cannot be doubted, according to Pierre- Roland Giot, whether

facilitated by invitations from Roman authorities to go occupy empty or deserted

spaces; or perhaps motivated by epidemics . . .; or by famines . . . or by the demoral-

izing raids of the Saxons, Angles, Frisians, Picts, Scots and Irish. But . . . the common

basis [of the migrations] was quite simply the urge to move on.

(Giot 1999: 305)

Evidence from place names strongly suggests that the immigrants settled mainly in

the northern and western sectors of the peninsula, for it is here that one ﬁ nds a prepon-

derance of settlements with one of several clearly Breton preﬁ xes, such as plou- /plu- /

plé- (‘parish’), gui(c)- /gwi(k)- (‘bourg’), lan- (‘monastery/hermitage’). In the southern

and south- eastern parts of Brittany, by contrast, there is a predominance of place names in

- acum, a Latinized form of the Gaulish - ac. Such data suggest that the immigrants either

did not attempt to, or did not succeed in, colonizing this already densely populated region,

which is attested archaeologically (Chadwick 1965: 250).

In the centuries following their arrival the Bretons engaged militarily with the Franks

who had been establishing themselves in the northern portions of Gaul and had pushed

westward to Armorica, increasingly referred to as Britannia in the literature after the

sixth century. The Franks intended to supersede the Romans as the rulers of Gaul and

thus fought the Bretons to exert their dominance, and they succeeded until, in a famous

battle in 845 AD, the Breton military leader Nominoë defeated them on Breton soil and

proclaimed Breton independence, which was to last only brieﬂ y into the tenth century.

During this time Breton armies were able to lay claim to the eastern city of Rennes and

the southernmost city of Nantes.

THE SHIFTING LINGUISTIC FRONTIER

It is assumed that the Breton language travelled and installed itself with the eastward-

moving armies and dependents such that it became possible to speak of a Breton–Frankish

linguistic boundary that extended, in the tenth century, as far east as the so- called Loth’s

line, running, grosso modo, from Mont St Michel in the north to the estuary of the Loîre

River in the south; this is based on Loth’s examination of the conﬁ guration of place names

in ninth- century charters (see Loth 1883). The majority of names to the west of the line in

these charters are in Breton, the majority to the east are Gallo- Roman. This boundary has

ever since been interpreted as showing the easternmost expansion of the Breton language

indicated on the map (Figure 15.1) as Loth’s line. The westward recession of the linguistic

boundary is indicated by Sebillot’s (1886) and Timm’s (1976) lines.

It has long been customary in literature about Brittany to refer to two Brittanies on the

basis of this shifting frontier – i.e., Lower Brittany (Breton Breiz izel) lying west of the

line, in which Breton has been spoken continuously (if by diminishing numbers of people

in recent times) since the era of the immigrations and Upper Brittany (Breton Breiz uhel)

lying east of the line in which Breton had been spoken ﬂ eetingly, or not at all. Lower

Brittany is also frequently referred to in the literature as Bretagne bretonnante ‘Breton-

speaking Brittany’.

Subsequent surveys undertaken in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries have dem-

LANGUAGE, CULTURE AND IDENTITY IN BRITTANY 715

onstrated a signiﬁ cant westward regression of Loth’s boundary. The best- known is that

of Paul Sébillot (1886) who traced a line running roughly from just west of the city of

St Brieuc in the north to just east of the city of Vannes in the south (refer to Figure 15.1).

This line was re- investigated in 1942 by R. Panier, who did not signiﬁ cantly alter the

conﬁ guration delineated by Sébillot, yet the researcher noted anecdotally that French

was nonetheless being spoken in one supposedly solidly Breton- speaking village; for

example, he reported hearing children who, in playing a game of war, shouted out orders

and calls for help in French. Panier also noted that children seemed to be learning Breton

more from the grandparent generation, not from their parents, even though the latter were

Breton speakers (though likely bilingual). He concluded from these and other observa-

tions that ‘spontaneous thought is in French’ (1942: 111).

Thirty- four years later, I undertook my own inquiry into the status of this ‘frontier’,

visiting forty communities west of Sébillot’s 1886 line (and classiﬁ ed by him as Breton-

speaking), interviewing three or four local people in each community on the use of Breton

in their daily life in the community, asking who would speak it with whom, where, and

how often. My ﬁ ndings were not surprising: nearly a century after Sébillot’s observations,

the vast majority (28/40) of the once ﬁ rmly Breton- speaking communities were no longer

that. In some villages interviewees would recite the names of the two, three, or four older

people who still spoke Breton among themselves. In ten villages Breton seemed to have

disappeared from usage altogether, for I would be told ‘Breton is ﬁ nished here . . . you

Brest

Morlaix

Paimpol

St Brieuc

St Malo

Mont St Michel

Quimper

Carhaix

Lorient

Corlay

Plouha

Mûr

Loudéac

Pontivy

Noyal-Pontivy

Kergrist

Golfe de

Morbihan

Rennes

Muzillac

Nantes

Vilaine R.

FINISTÈRE

MORBIHAN

Perros-Guirec

CÔTES D’ARMOR

Vannes

LOIRE-ATLANTIQUE

ILLE-ET-VILAINE

Loth’s line, 9th century

Sébillot’s line, 1886

Timm’s line, 1976

Department boundaries

Guérande

Figure 15.1 Brittany: department boundaries and the shifting linguistic frontier