The Celtic Language of Brittany Suffers the Malign Indifference of the French Government

Breton, the Celtic language of Brittany, is the topic of an article on the language interest website "Freelang".  The article highlights the decades old campaign of discrimination against the Breton language by the French Government. Paris has refused to ratify the "The European Charter For Regional or Minority Languages" and by doing so deprive Breton speakers of the rights and priviledges protected by the Charter.

The Network To Promote Linguistic Diversity (NPLD), a European wide organisation dedicated to the importance of linguistic diversity, reports on actions taken in response to the French Governments attitude toward minority languages.  At the 5th World Forum on Human Rights held in the French city of Nantes in May of this year, demands were made of the French Government to ratify the Charter for Minority Languages.  The NPLD web page gives us: " Hundreds of civil society associations working in the field of language promotion gathered at the Conference..to demand that the French Government ratify The Europen Charter For Regional or Minority Languages, the only legally binding international instrument aimed at promoting Europe's linguistic minorities."

The United Kingdom has ratified the Treaty.  

www.freelang.net/blog/breton-the-fight-to-save-a-language,2013-07/

www.npld.eu/news/latest-news/48/civil-society-language-associations-gather-to-demand-ratification-of-the-european-charter

www.coe.int/t/dg4/education/minlang/aboutcharter/default_en.asp