Ball Martin, M?ller Nicole. The Celtic Languages
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746 THE SOCIOLINGUISTICS OF THE CELTIC LANGUAGES
CONCLUSION
For a millennium and a half (circa 500–1900 AD), Breton was a language unthreatened by
the possibility of disappearing. During those many centuries it was mainly spoken by the
lower socioeconomic strata of society, but that base was very considerable demograph-
ically, and the intergenerational transmission of oracy was not interrupted. The Breton
aristocracy had early on abandoned the language for French, followed by the rural nobil-
ity and the urban bourgeoisie. The Catholic clergy from the seventeenth century onwards
developed modern Breton as a written medium, and an older robust tradition of Breton
theatre also promoted the use, on a limited basis, of written Breton.
Sea changes for the practice of Breton are detectable by the last quarter of the nine-
teenth century, as the still largely monolingual Breton- speaking population began to be
swept into the national education system, the military (for men), out- migration and a
growing tourist industry establishing itself in Brittany. The two world wars in the follow-
ing century accelerated the language shift already under way, especially in the aftermath
of the Second World War when Breton parents ceased, en masse, passing Breton on to
their children – the moment of rupture of familial intergenerational transmission that is so
vital to the reproduction of a language. Ever since then the story of Breton has been one of
steadily declining numbers of native speakers and the limitation of its use to fairly closed
social networks or communities of practice.
This is so in spite of a very considerable effort from the late 1970s onwards to estab-
lish schools in Brittany in which Breton immersion or bilingual pedagogy would be
practised. That initiative, on the part mainly of young parents who themselves had not
learned Breton in their own families of origin, has succeeded – along with the adult learn-
ers of Breton – in creating a new cohort of Breton speakers – the néo- bretonnants or
brittophones – who have, in some instances, received a signifi cant portion of their pre-
university schooling in Breton, and who speak Breton among themselves. Like the older
native bretonnants, they practise Breton in social networks or communities of practice,
speaking and/or writing the language in real and/or virtual space. Overall their numbers
are estimated at 15–17,000
30
or about 0.4 per cent of the population of historic Brittany
(4.2 million).
Given the politics of resistance of the French government concerning the promotion of
regions and their languages, these pedagogical movements have attracted the interest of
many in the Breton public (and not just those involved in Breton- language learning) who
are concerned to maintain and promote Brittany’s regional identity and economic devel-
opment. The central government’s wrangling with Diwan and its refusal to incorporate
the latter into the national education system have prompted impressive numbers of Breton
citizens to take to the streets in support of immersion and bilingual schooling. The gov-
ernment’s refusal to ratify the European Charter for Regional and Minority Languages
has further augmented public support for the language. In short, across a broad spectrum
of the Breton population, the language has become a powerful symbol of Breton identity,
whether they happen to speak it or not.
Breton still presents a reasonable demographic profi le of speakers – with 257,000 reg-
istered by the latest INSEE survey – who claimed to speak Breton at least sometimes with
people close to them. However, when one considers that the vast majority of these are
older speakers (>50–60), it is clear that within a relatively short time numbers will tumble
very dramatically. While the immersion and bilingual schools are training some 11,000
students each year, not all complete their education in these streams, necessarily limiting
their profi ciency in the language. Several thousand adults enrol each year in supplemental
LANGUAGE, CULTURE AND IDENTITY IN BRITTANY 747
Breton language courses or workshops but the outcome of these in terms of real linguistic
competence remains uncertain, or unknown. With 10,000 of the older bretonnant popula-
tion dying each year, these second- language learner numbers cannot fi ll the gap.
Although the Breton Region approved a plan in 2004 for the linguistic politics of
Breton, calling for an increase the number of students in Diwan and bilingual classes
to 20,000 by 2010, the reality as that year approaches is that only slightly more than
half that number is found in these streams of education. Further, while the OLB, estab-
lished in 1999, has been working indefatigably to re- Bretonize toponyms and communal
names and to provide bilingual road signage throughout Brittany (among other projects),
these efforts have not increased the practice of Breton in society in any signifi cant way.
Such projects remain important symbolically, but perhaps are only, as one person put
it, ‘a vaccine against forgetting’ that Breton was once here (Quéré 2000: 78). Thus, the
langua cultural situation in Brittany has come to a point where many Bretons are proud to
proclaim their Breton identity, to support the teaching of the language and the promotion
of Brittany’s diverse cultural expressions and its economy, but where only a relative hand-
ful feel compelled to do so through the medium of Breton.
NOTES
1 More information is on the website of the Comité pour une réunion administrative de la
Bretagne, available: www.cuab.org> (accessed 10 September 2007).
2 Geographic data from Merienn (2004: 1).
3 Encyclopedia of the Celts: Pach–Pwyll. Available: www.celticgrounds.com/chapters/encylopedia
/p.html (accessed 29 July 2007).
4 INSEE data, available: www.citypopulation.de/France- Bretagne.html and www.citypopula-
tion.de/France- PaysdelaLoîre.html (accessed 9 September 2007).
5 Much of this account developed during the course of the nineteenth century – a period of
Romantic imaginings about the history and nature of ‘the Celts’ combined, in Brittany at least,
with complex debates concerning the origins of both the French and Breton languages, shot
through with contesting religious and political ideologies and goals. For a detailed account of
this period in Breton intellectual history, see Guiomar 1987.
6 Note that ‘the last duke to speak Breton as a native was probably Alain Fergent (1084–1113/16);
his successors were almost certainly monolingual French speakers’ (Jones 2003: 5).
7 This is the Speculum Historiale of Vincent de Beauvais (Guyonvarc’h 1987: 197).
8 These fi gures are estimates, as the French government has never included in its censuses ques-
tions relating to languages spoken by the population. However, unoffi cial surveys have been
conducted from the time of the Revolution to the present, which have helped shed some light
on the question.
9 For more about this historical period, see Caerleon 1969; Calvez 2000; Fouéré 1977; Frélaut
1985; Hamon 2001; Nicolas 1986.
10 Vannetais places word stress on the fi nal syllable rather than the penultimate syllable, charac-
teristic of KLT; it also has a voiceless glottal fricative [h] where the other three dialects have a
voiceless sibilant [s]. In addition there are some minor morphological differences distinguish-
ing vannetais from the other three – e.g., some plurals in - ion instead of KLT - ien; - ein for the
infi nitive suffi x in lieu of - a or - añ for KLT (Gourvil 1968: 98).
11 This digraph innovation had actually been fi rst proposed in 1911, but was rejected at that time
by the majority of Breton writers.
12 Le Dû sees in this the infl uence of Esperanto (1997: 424).
13 Nearly 70 per cent of communes in Lower Britany have Breton signage, 20 per cent of them
within city limits (Nicolas 2001: 146).
14 Fishman’s scale is explicitly modelled on the Richter Scale for measuring the intensity of
748 THE SOCIOLINGUISTICS OF THE CELTIC LANGUAGES
earthquakes, with higher numbers refl ecting higher levels of geologic disruption; in the case of
language, higher numbers indicate higher levels of societal disarray and thus greater threat to
the prospects for survival (1991: 87).
15 None of these organizations has a substantial following, perhaps several hundred individuals in
each.
16 The quantitative part of the analysis comprised responses to 470 questionnaires; the qualitative
portion was based on a subset of sixty- two individuals who participated in interviews with the
researcher.
17 A term proposed by anthropologist Michael Agar (1994) to refer to the often close connection
between language and culture.
18 A fuller description of the Institut’s mission is available at http://www.institutcultureldbretagne.
com/article.php3?id_article=2]> (accessed 31 August 2007).
19 More information is available at the ICDBL website: <http://www.breizh.net/icdbl/saozg/
index.htm> (accessed 31 August 2007).
20 E.g., in 1870 Henri Gaidoz, the director of the new Revue celtique (and a Basque) and Charles
de Gaulle (great- uncle of the later President of France) drafted a Pétition pour les langues
provinciales, the fi rst of its kind. Based on the idea that the French language is well established
and will always be the living and veritable symbol [of France], they asked for the right of these
languages ‘de garder leur place, si modeste qu’elle soit, au soleil de la grande patrie.’ Shortly
thereafter war with the Prussians broke out and the petition was set aside (Postic 2003: 385).
21 Courcelle points out that ‘in certain cafés in Brittany, the box for tips is for “Diwan”. In the
majority of festoù- noz, the entrance fee is increased by one franc for “Diwan”’ (2003: 135).
However, very substantial funds come in from the proceeds of the large festivals held each
summer in Brittany – e.g., in 1999 the Vielles Charrues festival donated one million francs of
its profi ts to Diwan (Gemie 2005: 112, 114); it does so each year.
22 Alain Savary, Minister of Education at the time.
23 However, in a recent letter from the President of Dihun, dated 9 May 2007 the writer expresses
consternation at the ‘regular degradation of bilingual education’ within this stream. Online:
<http://www.dihun.com/actualites/etatdeslieux07.htm> (accessed 12 September 2007).
24 The licence, equivalent to the BA degree in Britain and the USA, was fi rst created in 1981.
25 Prior to 1993 it was a two- year degree following the licence; now it is a two- year degree on the
way to the licence.
26 From the region’s website, the section entitled ‘Editions en breton’: <www.region- bretagne.
fr/CRB/Public/rubriques_thematique/culture_et_sport/cache_culture_et_sport/editions_en_
breton3114> (accessed 15 August 2007).
27 Sources for information concerning radio stations are the following:
Association Stalig website: <http://www.stalig.com>; Radio Kreiz- Breizh website: <www.
antourtan. org/ radio/rkb.html>; Bretoned Bro Bariz website, with this link to ‘Radios en
Bretagne’: <www.gwalarn.org/bbb/articles.php?lng=fr&pg=26>
28 ‘France 3 Ouest et la langue bretonne’. Available: <www.ouest.france3.fr/emissions/mouchigdall/
2429785- fr.php>; (accessed 1 September 2007).
29 Information available at <br.wikipedia.org/wiki/Degemer> (accessed 22 September 20007).
30 This is based on Broudic’s calculation that about 6.5 per cent of those who (in the 1997 survey)
claimed to know Breton learned it through some sort of schooling (1999: 59), yielding 15,600
school- trained speakers (out of 240,000). Using the 2003 INSEE fi gure of 257,000 speakers,
this would raise the school- trained number slightly to 16,705.
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Winick, S. D. (1995) ‘Breton folk music, Breton identity, and Alan Stivell’s Again’, The Journal of
American Folklore, 108: 334–54.
Winterstein, D. P. (2001) ‘Language and media in the promotion of the Breton cultural identity in the
European Union’, unpublished doctoral dissertation, University of Washington.
Wyart, V. (2004) ‘Histoire bretonne et “néo- bretonnité”’, in N. Dugalès, R. Le Coadic and F. Patez
(eds) Et la Bretagne? Heritage, identité, projets, Rennes: Presses universitaires de Rennes,
pp. 72–95.
CHAPTER 16
THE REVIVED LANGUAGES
– CORNISH AND MANX
Ken George and George Broderick
REVIVED CORNISH
Introduction
Cornish is a remarkable language in that, after being moribund throughout the nineteenth
century, it has been revived, and is now spoken by a growing band of enthusiasts. Many
academic linguists have hitherto ignored Revived Cornish, because being in the business
of comparative philology, they are interested only in the traditional language. Some (for
example Wakelin 1975; Price 1984) have adopted an unnecessarily scornful attitude: a
few, notably the late Professor Léon Fleuriot, have supported the language movement and
actually tried to converse in Cornish. For the sociolinguists, however, Revived Cornish is
of great interest (MacKinnon 2000; Wimmer 2006).
SLEEPING
In the nineteenth century, a few people (notably John Davey, d. 1891) had a traditional
knowledge of pieces of Cornish, such as the Lord’s Prayer and the numerals, but so far as
we know, they could not converse. From the mid- century onwards, others began to com-
pose new material in Cornish (Saunders 1999).
RISING
Jenner’s reconstruction
The revival is usually considered to date from 1904, when Henry Jenner (1848–1934)
published his Handbook of the Cornish Language, though it is clear (Williams 2004)
that Jenner was composing poetry in Cornish thirty years previously. For the fi rst sixty
years of its life, Revived Cornish was largely a written medium: although many revival-
ists wished it to be a spoken tongue, it was diffi cult for speakers to meet frequently, owing
to poor communications. The spoken language was heard mainly on ceremonial occa-
sions: at the annual Gorsedh (gathering of bards), at midsummer bonfi res, and at church
services.
754 THE SOCIOLINGUISTICS OF THE CELTIC LANGUAGES
The process of revival
The extant literature of traditional Cornish (about 176,000 words) seems enormous when
one examines it line by line, but is limited in scope. The religious verse which makes
up its bulk is not representative of the everyday speech of Cornish people in the Middle
Ages, and still less suitable as a basis for conversational Cornish in the twenty- fi rst cen-
tury. The task of codifying and reconstructing Cornish, begun by Jenner, was taken up in
the 1920s by Allin- Collins and by Robert Morton Nance (1873–1959), but Nance’s views
were dominant. He was later joined by the Englishman A. S. D. Smith (1883–1950).
Unlike Jenner, Nance based his ideas for the revived language fi rmly on Middle Cor-
nish. This was reasonable, because 75 per cent of the extant material dates from the
Middle Cornish phase. He spent many years attempting to rationalize the spelling, even-
tually producing an orthography which he called Unifi ed Cornish (Nance 1929). It was
based primarily on the forms found in the Ordinalia (see chapter 11). Where two or more
alternative spellings are found in the texts, Nance chose the commonest; in cases of doubt,
he chose the simplest form.
It appears that Nance fi rst devised the orthography, and then subsequently, with the
help of Smith, thought out a phonological system to fi t it. This is the converse of what
they should have done, but since until the 1970s revived Cornish was largely a written
medium, it did not matter much.
The syntax, semantics and lexicon of the traditional language are all incomplete, and in
the absence of traditional Cornish speakers, all the gaps have to be fi lled by analogy, both
within the language and with Breton and Welsh. On the whole, the problems of recon-
structing Cornish grammar and syntax were solved by Nance and Smith during the years
1920 to 1940, with the aid of the notes of Lhuyd (1707) and Stokes (1872), and using
Breton grammar as a comparative model. Occasionally mistakes in their reconstruction
come to light and have to be rectifi ed, e.g. the tek a wel construction, which Nance had
wrongly interpreted as an exclamative (Padel 1978, 1979).
The lexical gaps comprise:
a common words which must have existed in the language, but do not happen to have
been recorded; e.g. Breton razh suggests that the Cornish word for ‘rat’ may have
been rath;
b words for concepts which did not exist in the eighteenth century.
Many of the gaps were fi lled by Nance in his dictionaries (Nance 1938, 1952, 1955):
in many cases he used Breton and Welsh cognates, but often favoured borrowing from
Middle English.
Organizations
After a partially false start before the First World War, the Cornish revival progressed
under the auspices of the Federation of Old Cornwall Societies (the fi rst founded in 1920)
and the Gorsedh of Cornwall (established in 1928). Since 1940, the Gorsedh has held
annual competitions for original works written in Cornish, which have done much to
encourage a modern literature.
THE REVIVED LANGUAGES – CORNISH AND MANX 755
Publications
Publishing in Cornish has always suffered from a lack of money. Many publications
have been fi nanced privately by their authors, or paid for by advance subscription. Nance
was able to publish numerous short articles about Cornish and stories in Cornish in the
magazine Old Cornwall, which he edited. Yet no money was available to publish his
Unifi ed versions of the Ordinalia until well after his death in 1959 (Sandercock 1982,
1984). A large amount of poetry was composed during Nance’s lifetime, but has only
recently been published (Saunders 1999). A short play in the style of the Ordinalia (Pol-
lard 1941) and an epic poem by Smith (1951) were among the few books in Cornish to
be published.
Conclusion
Nance summed up his work on Cornish with the remark: ‘One generation has set Cor-
nish on its feet. It is now for another to make it walk’. An assessment of this work after an
interval of nearly fi fty years has been made by Lyon (2007).
WALKING
In the early 1970s, the attitude towards Cornish began to change. The more widespread
ownership of cars and the use of telephones enabled Cornish speakers to communicate
much more frequently than in the 1930s. Faster roads also enabled many more Cornish
speakers to visit other Celtic countries, particularly Wales, and to see at fi rst hand how it
is possible to live one’s life using a Celtic language. A few parents have been inspired to
teach their children to speak Cornish from birth, the fi rst native speakers for 200 years.
Today an increasing number of people wish to lead their lives as far as possible through
Cornish, and to speak it on all possible occasions as a living language.
Although unquestionably a living language, it is not a living community language.
There is in Cornwall no village where Cornish is spoken by most of the people for most
of the time. The nearest that one can get to a Cornish- speaking community is the Cor-
nish Language Weekend, held almost every year since 1976, comprising formal lessons,
games, songs, walks, a concert, and Cornish dancing. Unlike in Brittany and Wales, there
is in Cornwall no reservoir of traditional Celtic speakers. This meant that it took some
years before the best speakers reached full fl uency. Spoken Cornish is practised at the Yeth
an Werin (Language of the people) meetings, held regularly in taverns.
The increased interest in Cornish may be seen as part of a wider cultural movement,
including the revival of traditional Cornish dancing. Although spoken by a very small
number, the language is seen in this movement as having immense symbolic signifi cance,
and has been used to emphasize Cornwall’s distinctiveness.
Phonology and orthography
The change of emphasis in the 1970s from written to spoken Cornish meant that the
question of pronunciation became increasingly important. A few speakers began to
look beyond Nance’s Unifi ed Cornish to the original spelling of the traditional texts.
Gradually it became apparent to them that, so far as phonology is concerned, what
some academics had been saying for years was true – that Nance’s reconstruction was