Overview of the Breton Language

Breton is the native language of Brittany, the Celtic part of the French state territory. It is one of the Celtic languages that is still spoken in western Europe. Irish, Scottish, and Manx are Goidelic Celtic languages while Welsh, Cornish, and Breton are Brythonic Celtic languages. Of those languages, Breton is most closely related to Cornish.

The Breton Alphabet and Breton Pronunciation

Written Breton uses a version of the Latin alphabet, similar but not identical to that of English. There are twenty-four letters in the Breton alphabet. Some of the Breton letters are pronounced the same as their English counterparts, while others have different sounds. The digraphs ch and c'h are each considered single letters, even though they are each written with more than one character. The Breton language also uses several types of accent marks to indicate various aspects of pronunciation. The stress in Breton words is usually strong, and typically falls on the second-to-last syllable of a word.

Another notable aspect of Breton pronunciation is that the first consonant sound of a Breton word may change in certain circumstances, either due to grammar or to the word that comes before it. Breton has four types of initial consonant mutation: the soft mutation, the hard mutation, the mixed mutation, and the aspirate mutation.

Breton Vocabulary, Breton Dialects, and Breton Spelling

Even though the majority of Breton words come from native Celtic roots, the Breton language has taken in a number of loanwords from the other languages that have surrounded it during the course of history. A number of older borrowed words were taken from Latin. More recent loanwords have tended to come from French, given that most people who speak Breton are also fluent French speakers.

There are four main dialects of the Breton language: Kerneveg, Leoneg, Tregerieg, and Gwenedeg. The spelling of various Breton vocabulary words often differs between these various dialects, although a series of spelling reforms have attempted to eliminate some of the differences.

Breton Grammar

Breton grammar is different from English grammar in a number of ways. For example, Breton nouns have gender, meaning that each noun is considered to be either masculine or feminine. Breton adjectives often follow the nouns they modify. If a Breton pronoun comes after certain prepositions, the pronoun is attached to the preposition. Breton verbs are conjugated to show aspect as well as tense.

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