Linguicide in France -Another endangered Celtic language

national | miscellaneous | news report Sunday June 16, 2002 23:47 by Jean Colombia

The Breton language is a Celtic language closely related to Welsh, Cornish, Manx, and Irish and Scottish Gaelic (see Celtic Languages). It is the everyday language of an estimated 250,000 people in Brittany, the far western peninsula of France. But Breton is threatened with extinction. The Breton language is no longer forbidden in schools or hidden totally from public view, but France continues to withhold the resources necessary for its development as a healthy living language.

The International Committee for the Defense of the Breton Language needs your support! The State of Breton Today :
As with all minority languages, Breton has both factors working in its favour and other factors working against it. A recent survey carried out by the French language daily Le Télégramme in Brest in March to April of 1997; covering western Brittany the traditional Breton-speaking region helps to give us a clear picture of the real state of the spoken language today.

It is estimated that in 1881 about 2,000,000 people or 64% of the population spoke Breton. As mentioned previously in 1914 about 1.3 million people out of 3.1 million in Brittany as a whole were estimated as Breton-speaking. Of these about 500,000 are estimated to have been monoglot Breton speakers. This drops to about one million Breton speakers in 1945 out of a population of three million. Today all the evidence points to a catastrophic fall to about 240,000 fluent speakers and another 125,000 semi-speakers for a total of 365,000 in western Brittany and between 50,000 and 100,000 in eastern Brittany out of the four million inhabitants of Brittany. The survey of March to April 1997 in Basse Bretagne or Breizh Izel the traditional Breton speaking region of western Brittany (which is considered reliable) indicates a sharp drop over previous surveys. This region had been 90% Breton speaking in 1900 and 75% Breton speaking in 1945 and appears to have dropped to about 25% in 1997. A survey carried out in 1987 determined that there were about 550,000 Breton speakers in this area. Of these, those above 65 were 73% Breton speaking while of those over 35 all age categories exceeded the 50% mark. This can reasonably be construed as evidence that up until about 1960 intergenerational transmission of the language continued in most households but soon began to decrease very sharply.

The survey of March to April 1997 indicated a sharp deterioration in the situation with only 240,000 Breton speakers in the same region of western Brittany with an additional 125,000 classified as able to understand Breton but with a diminished ability to speak Breton for a total of 365,000 speakers and semi speakers in western Brittany. Of these 18% speak it occasionally, but only 5.5% daily. Those who can speak it well range from 45% of those over 75, 42% of those in the 60-74 age group, 20.5% of those aged 40-59, 5% of those aged 20-39 with less than 1% of those under 20. Another survey in 1991 had corresponding figures of 35.5%, 39%, 30%, 8%, (and omitted the under twenty group). The 1997 survey revealed some geographic patterns also. Due to more intense economic and industrial development in the southwestern coastal region of Morbihan 14% of the population at present speaks Breton. In the western department of Finistère/Penn ar Bed 22.5% of the population is now Breton-speaking while in the northwest in Côtes-d'Armor/Aodoù an Arvor 30.5% of the population is at present Breton-speaking.

Clearly the Breton language possesses an unhealthy age pyramid in it's demographic composition and the annual attrition rate of lost speakers as the elderly pass away is not being matched by comparable numbers of new learners in the younger age groups. On the other hand the expansion of enrollment in the Breton medium school networks has proceeded to the point that in parts of western Brittany 3% and more of primary students are now being educated in Breton and appear to be acquiring a fair fluency not to mention literacy in the language. Further than that the present annual growth rate of enrollment in the Breton medium schools is about 23% indicating that the percentage of Breton-speaking children will shortly be in the 5% to 10% range. Already the 1997 survey is out of date regarding the under 20 age group, so fluid is the situation. As we have learned in Ireland and elsewhere however Irish speaking youths do not add up to Irish speaking communities, a fact that Breton RLSers must bear in mind.

Despite the massive erosion which has taken place over the past 120 years and which is still ongoing as older native speakers are lost every year, in the past quarter century RLS efforts on behalf of Breton have overcome some herculean obstacles and are clearly making a difference in the battle to save this Brythonic Celtic tongue.

Breton language activists have established a network of Breton medium schools across Brittany which are expanding rapidly. They have launched a Breton language television service. They have launched several Breton language radio stations. Numerous new periodicals and books in Breton are now being published to serve a clearly increasing market. Plans are proceeding to launch a Breton language university within the next five years. A concerted effort to strengthen both youth and adult literacy in the language has been mounted. Municipality after municipality in Brittany has adopted a policy of Breton/French bilingualism. A region wide agency Ofis ar Brezhoneg/the Office of the Breton Language has been established to carry out and monitor both status and corpus planning for the language in the future.

Ofis ar Brezhoneg is only a year old at the time of writing and the exact limits of it's jurisdiction and just how far it's mandate permits it to go in pursuit of greater Bretonization are still a matter of debate among both Bretons and the central administration in Paris. What remains to be seen is whether or not Breton RLS efforts can reach a large enough segment of the population to achieve the critical mass that is necessary. What also remains to be seen is whether Breton can regain it's hold on family and community life - something which it had retained until very recently in sharp contrast with most other Celtic languages. The battle is not yet lost because when all is said and done a quarter of the population of Lower Brittany the traditional stronghold of the Breton tongue is still Breton speaking. However time is running out as the Breton speaking population ages and nothing less than a continuation of the present herculean efforts on the part of language activists - and a simultaneous realisation by Breton RLSers that some less dramatic areas of endeavour such as family life and community life must be conquered as well can in fact turn the tide for Breton. It is in this last area mentioned that the achilles heel of the Breton movement may lie for efforts at rebuilding home, family and community life in Breton are few and far between indeed as we shall see. The realisation that such efforts are a necessity not a luxury and their incorporation into the Breton RLS agenda will come not a moment too soon.