Language Diversity - Language Diversity - Map of Minorities & Regional and Minority Languages of Europe for and about linguistic and cultural diversity in Europe.

Language

Breton (Brezhoneg)

Description

Breton belongs to the branch of Celtic languages within the Indo-European language family. Together with Welsh, Cumbric (extinct) and Cornish its forms the sub-group of the Brythonic languages from the Insular-Celtic language group.

Breton is spoken by the Bretons, mainly in the western part of Britanny and is the only modern Celtic language spoken on the European mainland. There are approximately 450,000 speakers. Because France does not carry out surveys on minority languages, all these number are based on estimations.

The language does not enjoy any recognition by the French State and was severely oppressed in the 19th and 20th century. Until the nineteen-sixties there was oppressive legislation aimed at eliminating the Breton language. Nowadays the language is extremely endangered.

Important Words

Hello - Salud

You are not alone - N’OUT KET DA-UNAN-PENN

Special

The basic phonological domain in Breton is not the word, but the sentence. The end of sentenced is characterised by final-obstruent devoicing.

Language families

  1. Indo-European
  2. Celtic
  3. Insular-Celtic
  4. Brythonic
  5. Breton