Breton Language Education Growing in Brittany Despite Suppression by French Government

According to the Endangered Languages Network (ELN) the Celtic language of Brittany is a severely endangered language due to decades of suppression at the hands of the French educational system. Today the number of Breton speakers is roughly 210,000, although estimates vary: “Historical suppression of the Breton language at the hands of Paris has been was extreme to the point that parents were not allowed to name their children with Breton names until 1993. “

However, according to the ELN, Breton benefits from an uptick in the number of young speakers. A good sign for the future health of the language: “Despite a precipitous downturn in language transmission, younger speakers, have now begun to emerge again from the Diwan Language schools, which were established in the 1970s and are playing a key role in the revival of the language. There are interesting differences in the language of the older and younger generations, as most younger speakers learned the language in school later in life. While the phonology of the language among younger speakers shows a degree of convergence with French, the lexicon has also been purged of many French loan words that exist in the speech of older people.

In a 2009 article The Atlantic Monthly described the impact of the Diwan schools: “Finally, in the late 1970s, a movement sprung up to revive the Breton language, which bears far more resemblance to the tongue of Brittany's Celtic settlers than French. Language immersion schools now teach the language to children wishing to learn Breton as well as French, and other cultural revival efforts in Breton music and dance have accompanied the language movement. The result has been remarkable, even though only a tiny percentage of Bretons actually go through the language schools”. http://carla.umn.edu/immersion/acie/vol8/Feb2005_guest_diwan.html, https://www.theatlantic.com/national/archive/2009/11/whats-lost-when-a-language-dies/29886/

Students in Breton Diwan Schools Defy Paris and Take Finals in the Celtic Tongue: Last year, they were 15. This year, they are 14 candidates for the baccalaureate of Diwan high school in Carhaix, Finistere, to have written their mathematics test in Breton this Friday morning. And this, against the advice of the rectorate. https://celticlanguagesnews.blogspot.com/2019/06/14-candidates-for-baccalaureate-written.html

3,000 Rally in Defense of the Diwan Schools: “ The demonstration in support of the network of schools Diwan was in Roazhon in May. Under the slogan 'A dazont evit ar Brezhoneg' (A future for Breton). The network celebrates 40 years in critical moments due to the lack of the French state of willingness to train new teachers and calls for "real support to the teaching of the Breton language." http://celticlanguagesnews.blogspot.com/2018/05/3000-rally-in-defence-of-breton.html