25 juin 2006
21% de Celtes Britanniques en Bretagne !
Un article du nouveau magazine des anglophones de Bretagne (Brit'Mag) révèle que parmi les Britanniques installés en Bretagne il y aurait 11% de Gallois, 8% d'Ecossais et 2% d'Irlandais, soit 21% de Celtes Britanniques en Bretagne (ont-ils compté les Cornouaillais ?).
La revue explique aussi la signification du Gwen Ha Du, du "Bzh", le mythe de Brocéliande, etc...
(agrandir l'image pour voir l'article)
Analyse linguistique du Breton
An Analysis of the Linguistic Phylogeny of Breton
Nicolas C. Ward, Ling 52, 2004.04.19
Abstract
The claim that Modern Breton is directly descended from ancient Gaulish, a much older Celtic language, is one that has been made by a number of otherwise respectable Breton linguists. They have been influenced by a desire to create a national identity for the Bretons, one that includes a rich linguistic history. The linguistic evidence, however, clearly refutes this claim, and places Breton as a descendant of Brythonic, along with Welsh and Cornish. An examination of some of the major sound changes in Brythonic and Gaulish confirms the generally accepted phylogeny.
Introduction
Throughout the world, language is very closely tied to culture. This is
even more true in the communities of linguistic minorities, where their
cultural heritage in a large part depends on maintaining their
linguistic independence. Unfortunately, this nationalist mentality,
while good for protecting an endangered language, can lead to
unscientific interpretations of linguistic data. One of the more famous
examples is Basque, in which some linguists have made the claim that it
is a nearly unchanged form of Proto-Indo-European, or perhaps even
Proto-World. In addition to a dearth of linguistic data supporting
these claims, there is conflicting evidence in the historical
record.
A similar situation has arisen more recently with Breton, a Celtic
language spoken in the rural regions of Brittany in France. Breton has
been suppressed for many years by France’s official language policies,
although it is not yet a moribund language. In the last century, there
has even been a resurgence in the production of Breton literature and
poetry. In order to promote a nationalist
agenda, the Breton linguist François Falc’hun proposed that Breton was
the direct descendant of ancient Gaulish (Macaulay, 371), a Celtic
language spoken in France at the time of the Roman conquest of France,
then the province of Gaul. Gaulish was also a contemporary of
Brythonic, the ancestor of Breton, Cornish, and Welsh.
This view is
simply incorrect, and although there may remain a small handful of
Gaulish elements in Modern Breton, they were not inherited, but
borrowed. Breton and Gaulish are definitely related, as they are both
descendants of p-Celtic, the branch of the Celtic language family where
PIE *k w
> *p (Macaulay, 5). Gaulish is also a p-Celtic language, so it is
more closely related to Breton than any of the other non-Brythonic
Celtic languages, which are classified as q-Celtic. That is where the
similarities end; Gaulish is a continental Celtic language, whereas
Breton is insular, a distinction that reflects the history of Celtic as
it spread across western Europe, but later becoming largely isolated to
the British Isles.
After a brief discussion of the history of Breton and Gaulish,
their linguistic differences will be examined. These will conclusively
show that Breton is not a descendant of Gaulish, as posited by some
nationalist linguists.
History of Breton
At the end of the 4th century AD, the Britons lived in the southwestern
region of post-Roman Britain. Over the next 200 years, many of them
migrated to the Continent, under pressure from expanding Anglo-Saxon
territory in eastern England and coastal raids performed by Pictish-
and Scottish-speaking tribes from Ireland. The Briton settlers quickly
integrated with the Armoricans (who spoke Vulgar Latin), a transition
eased by their common status as Roman citizens and as Christians
(Galliou, 128). These two groups quickly became known as the Bretons,
and the region became Britannica, now Brittany. They spoke a form of
Old Breton, a close descendant of Brythonic. An army of Bretons even
went to battle with Roman soldiers in an attempt to repel the invading
Franks, a Germanic tribe moving into northern Gaul.
Breton managed to
resist the powerful influence of French throughout the middle ages,
with even 16th century Middle Breton retaining a predominantly Celtic
vocabulary, with very few loan words from Romance or Germanic languages
(Galliou, 144). Starting with the Frankish Carolingian dynasty,
Brittany fell under (largely) French control, and remained in that
state under a string of kings and dukes.
The greatest threat to the Breton language did not actually arise until
the formation of the First French Republic in 1792. The period of
French nationalism that followed, including the Napoleonic Wars,
encouraged equality of the people in all aspects of their lives. This
including the institution of a common language: French. In the case of
the Bretons, the French language was forced upon them through the
educational system. Only recently has Breton become more accepted in
formal education in Brittany, although it is still an endangered
language.
History of Gaulish
The Gauls were a presence in what is now modern-day France by at the
latest 1000 BC. They were an offshoot of the ancient Celts who migrated
westward across Europe, although they remained on the Continent. Gauls
were responsible for the sacking of Rome in 390 BC, and Gauls were also
present in Iberia, and some even found their way to Asia Minor, in a
region that was known as Galatia at the time of Paul’s Epistles.
Julius Caesar was responsible for the Roman conquest of Gaul by 51 BC, a rule which continued
until the Frankish invasions of 486 AD. The Gauls quickly adapted to
life under imperial rule, and abandoned Gaulish in favor of Latin. The
similarity between the two languages, both members of the Italo-Celtic
family, was sufficient to make the transition fairly smooth. Gaulish
has been extinct since the period of Roman rule, although some loan
words may have survived into Modern Breton (Galliou, 145).
Linguistic Comparison
Essentially, this issue is one of phylogeny. In the case discussed
here, there are two possible trees: one in which Breton and Welsh are
both Brythonic languages, and Gaulish is a now-dead offshoot of
p-Celtic, and one in which Breton is the modern descendant of Gaulish,
as proposed by Falc’hun. The difference between these two phylogenies
is illustrated in Figure 1, where the former is Phylogeny A and the
latter is Phylogeny B. Both of these are theoretically valid
phylogenies, but there is a lot of evidence that makes Phylogeny much
more widely accepted.
Breton uses an SVO ordering, unlike any of the other modern Celtic
languages, which use VSO (Macaulay, 386). Gaulish also used SVO, but it
is more likely that Breton’s unusual (for Celtic languages) ordering is
a result of its close contact with French, an SVO langage. Although
this is an interesting fact about the languages under scrutiny, the
placename and sound change evidence covered in this section is far more
telling.
Breton is broken up into a number of highly distinct dialects,
which is somewhat unusual for a language spoken in such a small
geographic area. The three northern dialects are Léon, Kernev, and
Treger, and are all fairly similar. The southern dialect, Gwened (or
Vannetais) is much more divergent (Press, 2). The geographic
distribution of the dialects is in a large part the origin of
Falc’hun’s claim regarding Breton’s ancestry. He believed that the only
way to explain Vannetais’
unusual separation from the other three dialects was that it had been
influenced by absorbing elements of ancient Gaulish at the time of the
arrival of the Britons in Armorica.
As in many historical linguistics studies, evidence of an older
state of the language can be found in modern-day placenames, which tend
to be preserved. Gaulish placenames tended to end in -acos, which
became -acum during the Gallo-Roman period, to largely match Latin
placenames. As Vulgar Latin evolved into French, -acum became -ay, -y,
or -é. The arrival of the Briton settlers, speaking a Celtic language,
helped maintain an intermediate stage of that transformation: -ac. This
suffix is still present today, in the forms -oc, -euc, -uc, and -ec
(Galliou, 138). The distribution of placenames is such that these are
found largely in western Brittany, the area farthest from the
encroaching French influence. With a reduced incidence of loan words,
western Brittany is very likely the region that best preserves Celtic
elements in the Breton language.
The placename example is an element of Gaulish that has survived
into Modern Breton, but it does not mean that Breton is a descendant of
Gaulish. In publishing his claim, Falc’hun did call attention to the
presence of some connection between these two Celtic languages, one
that had been largely ignored by other scholars. In order to refute his
claims, they were forced to study the possibility that there was a
connection. Thus, although he challenged the canonical interpretation
of the data with a highly dubious conclusion, Falc'hun did force
another examination of more legitimate research into the origins of
Breton.
One piece of evidence against Phylogeny B is found in the formation of
noun cases. Gaulish had a gendered genitive case suffix: -i for
feminine genitive, and -as for masculine genitive. It also had a
general masculine ending -os. All three of these endings are not
present in the Brythonic languages. Both Modern Welsh and Modern Breton
do not use them. It is possible that this is a parallel development in
Welsh, and in Breton descending from Gaulish, as opposed to a change in
Brythonic
from p-Celtic. The loss of morphological characteristics, such as these
case endings, is often a parallel innovation (Forster, 2).
It is also helpful to examine the consonant systems in use in the
modern languages. Welsh has 22 consonant phonemes: /p b t d k g f v θ ð
s ʃ ɬ x h ʧ ʤ m n ŋ l ɾ/ (Macaulay, 321). Breton has 20 consonant
phonemes: /p b t d k g f v s z ʃ ʒ x h m n ɲ l ʎ r/ (Macaulay, 428).
These are fairly similar, with the exception of the affricates /ʧ ʤ/ in
Welsh, which are loans from English, and the /ʒ ɲ ʎ/ in Breton, which
are loans from French. Welsh and Breton are close relatives, and
although their are influenced by the Germanic and Italic neighbors,
respectively, it is unsurprising that they both have similar consonant
systems.
The cognates in
words for family members is more solid evidence that Welsh and Breton
are closely related as Brythonic languages, whereas Gaulish is an
ancient offshoot of p-Celtic. The word “mother” is <mam> in
Modern Welsh, and <mamm> in Modern Breton, but <matir> in
Gaulish (Forster, 3). There were two forms for "mother" in
Proto-Celtic: *mātīr and *mammā. p-Celtic preserved both of these
proto-forms, but Gaulish kept only *mātīr, whereas Brythonic kept only
*mammā. Both Breton and Welsh lost the word-final -ā in this case. It
could be a parallel innovation, but the use of *mammā for "mother" was
a probably a common innovation in Brythonic (Jenkins, 80).
Even more obvious are the cognates for "daughter": Gaulish duxtir,
Welsh merch, and Breton merc’h. Note that <x>, <ch>, and
<c’h> all represent /x/ (Forster, 3). The Gaulish duxtir is
probably a loan word from another Indo-European language, because the
Proto-Celtic form for "daughter" is *merkā (Jenkins, 30). Again, we see
the loss of word-final ā, as well as k > x, in both Welsh and
Breton. The same sound changes apply to Proto-Celtic "horse" or *markā,
which is
marka in Gaulish, and march and marc'h in Welsh and Breton,
respectively (Jenkins, 63) (Whatmough) (Nodine) (Press, 361). It is
unclear where the Gaulish form for "daughter" came from, but it must
either be a loan word or a mistaken attribution. Still, in this case we
see further similarities between the vocabulary of Welsh and Breton, as
well as some common sound changes that probably occurred to their
common ancestor Brythonic.
There are other examples of cognates in Modern Welsh (ModW), Modern
Breton (ModB), Proto-Celtic (PClt), and Gaulish (Gal). ModB garan, ModW
garan, PClt *garanu and Gal *garanus (ModE crane), where Gaulish
preserves the final vowel of the proto-form, which is lost in both
Breton and Welsh (Forster, 3) (Jenkins, 28). ModB nerzh, ModW nerth,
PClt *nerto and Gal *nertos (ModE strength), where Gaulish again adds a
word-final s. Breton and Welsh differ in the articulation of the
word-final fricative, but in the consonant systems described above,
Breton has /ʒ/ and not /θ/, whereas Welsh has the reverse. Presumably
p-Celtic *t went to these two fricatives in Welsh and Breton, but was
still /t/ in the older Gaulish (Press, 366) (Nodine) (Jenkins, 122)
(Whatmough) (Macaulay).
Conclusion
There is more than sufficient evidence to phylogenetically place Breton
as a descendant of Brythonic, along with Welsh and Cornish. This is the
Phylogeny A as depicted in Figure 1. The roots of Gaulish lie farther
back on the Celtic language tree, and while there is some evidence that
elements of ancient Gaulish have survived into modern-day Breton, it
did not occur through inheritance.
The historical evidence also cannot be ignored; Gaulish was
effectively replaced by Latin during the Roman conquest of Gaul, which
occurred almost 500 years before the migration of Britons
from Britain to Brittany. This fact alone should convince any linguist
who doubts the canonical interpretation of the phylogeny.
Breton is not a descendant of Gaulish, but it is sensible from a
nationalist point of view to make that claim. By giving your nation
over two millennia of linguistic continuity, you engender a certain
amount of pride in its citizens. While this is in some ways an
admirable goal, it is by no means linguistically valid. The comparative
method has given a reconstructed tree of the Celtic language family
that clearly separates the origins of Breton from the branch containing
Gaulish. They are clearly related, but Gaulish is most definitely not
an ancestor of Breton.
References
Forster, Peter and Alfred Toth. “Toward a phylogenetic chronology of
ancient Gaulish, Celtic, and Indo-European”. Proceedings of the
National Academy of Science. Vol. 100: 9079-9084. ©2003.
Galliou, Patrick and Michael Jones. The Bretons. Blackwell, Cambridge, MA. ©1991.
Jenkins, Geraint H. "English - Proto-Celtic". University of Wales
Centre for Advanced Welsh and Celtic Studies, ©2002. Internet,
2002.06.12. http://www.aber.ac.uk/awcwww/MoE-PCl.pdf
Macaulay, Donald, ed. The Celtic Languages. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, United Kingdom. ©1992.
Nodine, Mark H. "English to Welsh Lexicon". Cardiff University, ©2003. Internet, 2003.02.20. http://oldweb.cs.cf.ac.uk/fun/welsh/LexiconEW.html
Press, Ian. A Grammar of Modern Breton. Mouton de Gruyter, New York, NY. ©1986.
Whatmough, Joshua. Dialects of Ancient Gaul: Prolegomena and Records of the Dialects. Harvard University Press, Cambridge, MA. ©1969.
[source (PDF)]
Travailler et vivre au pays ? ADSAV!, le parti du peuple breton dit oui !
Les habitants de Châteaubriant ( Pays de la Mée) viennent d'apprendre avec
stupeur que trois mille euros d'amende dont mille avec sursis, ont été requis le
21 juin 2006 contre la paisible gérante d'un salon de coiffure de leur ville.
La raison invoquée par le système judiciaire français ? "Discrimination à
l'embauche en raison d'une appartenance ethnique ou raciale".
Cette peine
est en outre assortie d'une obligation de suivre un "stage de citoyenneté".
Quels sont les faits ? En 22 novembre 2005 une jeune femme d'origine
haïtienne qui répond à une annonce d'emploi diffusée par l'ANPE est refusée à
l'embauche du salon de coiffure cité. Elle prévient l'agence ANPE qui saisit
l'inspection du travail. Il en résultera une condamnation, SOS racisme
s'étant entre temps porté partie civile. La gérante incriminée ne le cache pas,
elle aurait préféré embaucher une Bretonne. Selon les propos de son avocat
rapportés par la presse "elle se sent mieux avec des personnes de son coin, de
sa région". Est-ce donc un crime que de vouloir rester entre Bretons ? Pour la
France cela semble être le cas !
ADSAV! s'élève contre toutes les
tentatives de destruction du peuple breton. Ce phénomène typique de la
colonisation prend des formes sournoises : mutations systématiques de
fonctionnaires, substitution de main d'oeuvre, délocalisations d'activité ; et
maintenant, stigmatisation de ceux qui souhaitent maintenir des emplois bretons
en Bretagne ! Désormais, le seul fait de souhaiter travailler entre Bretons peut
conduire à des "stages" de rééducation. Le prélude à des camps dignes des pires
régimes totalitaires?
ADSAV!, le parti du peuple Breton, relève une fois
de plus le rôle actif joué par l'Etat et le secteur public français dans la
destruction de notre identité. L'ANPE en l'occurrence, semble s'investir dans le
"testing" et la délation. Le ferait-elle pour défendre les Bretons victimes de
discriminations ? On aurait raison d'en douter au regard de certaines positions
récentes, comme l'interdiction des annonces d'emploi en Breton, et leur
autorisation dans d'autres langues, par exemple l'arabe.
Cette hostilité,
qui s'ajoute à une incompétence notoire, appelle une question : ne serait-il pas
temps de penser à la création d'une AGENCE BRETONNE POUR
L'EMPLOI afin d'aider les Bretons de manière vraiment efficace à
trouver du travail au pays ?
18 juin 2006
Bro Gwened / Vèneto : des origines communes
Introduction
Vèneto takes his name from the population that occupied this territory roughly 1000 b.C., and that came, it appears, from Central Asia together with other indoeuropean populations. The etimology of the word means "noble" or also "shining" being an honorary name rather than an etnic description. In fact there are quite a few places in Europe were this root-name is found, in particular France, Austria, Brittany, Wales, the Baltics and some Slavic areas.
The first time the etnic name "venet" is found is on a stone in Isola Vicentina, on which it can be read "Venetkens (venet kin, race)" and dates around the 4th century b.C. There is also a myth which traces the origin of Rome to the town Venetulan, of which however, nothing else is known. It's however probable that the root of the Venet name does not indicates a unique population, but a honorary title used in several populations of indoeuropean language.
Without doubt, any name they used to be called, they were not the first population to live in what is currently Veneto, and they shared the territory in patches as it is often the case in ancient times. Without doubt theer were pre-indoeuropean populations already present, as the Euganei, in honor of whom the hills by Padua are now called. Also, teh name of the town Abano appears to be of pre-indoeuropean etimology.
There is also a mythical story on the origins of the Venets, which according to ancient accounts, they came from Paflagonia, a region located in today's northern Turkey on the Black Sea. Homer talks about the Venets, and so do the Greeks using the name "Henetoi". Roman historians claim that their leader was Antenore, originary of Troy. It is possible, however, that this tradition was made up to celebrate the friendship between Venets and Romans.
There were close relations between the Venets and teh Greek world: in fact, for sure the Greeks traded abundantly with populations of the Adriatic coast, and in particular the main commercial hub was the port of Adria. There is also a tradition of an incursion lead by king Cleonimo which was fought back by the Venets, and the myth of the Argonauts mentions the Venet area as well. The Venets were since then a maritime population and they were reknown for their navigational skills, a characteristic that perhaps draws a link between the Venets of the Adriatic to the Celtic population in Brittany (who defeated by Caesar had to disclose the routes to the British Isles). If there was a relationship between the Venets of the Adriatic and those of Brittany, it is possible that some roots of the ancient venetic language are present in the Breton spoken in the area of Vannetais (the ancient stronghold of the celtic venets) where the Breton there has some differences with the rest of the region.
Regarding religion of the Venets in the Adriatic it is documented that they worshiped the goddess Reitia, who is represented with an egg and with a a key on her hand. Her name, according to Prosdocimi, has the same roots as the Spartan Goddess Ortia, which is similar also for the type of worship (donations of bronze tools). It is possible that the worship of Reitia has then been transformed in that of Juno. There is an account by Tito Livio (ancient historian of Veneto) that there was a temple dediacted to Juno in Padua of the 4th century b.C. (from which the apparent link betwwen Juno and Reitia). The worship of Reitia was also found in Cadore under the name Ludera (meaning free), and it was also linked to otehr two feminine divinities (Pora and Veica). The greek hero Diomede was also worshiped as the mythical founder of teh city of Adria, from which the Adriatic sea took its name. In honor of Diomede white horses were sacrificed at the mouth of the river Timavo.
Horses were another identifying sign of ancient Venets, since they were reknown throughout the ancient world for their horse-breeding. Horses were also considered among some indoeuropean populations as a link with life afterdeath.
Findings in sacred grounds include also letters divided in sixteen squares (sacred number also for the Etrurians, being the product of four by four). It is also posible that these tables were used to teach or for ritual purposes. The alphabet used was of etrurian origins with bustrofic scripts (meaning that the letters went from right to left and then from left to right on the next line). In fact the archeological findings are quite numerous. They are tables, coins, and inscriptions (usually very short that do not consent to learn more about the venetic language.
It is possible instead to say that ancient Venets traded metals and in particular gold. Many archeological findings areare still happening nowadays, especially in the cities of paleo-venet origins like Este, Pàdua, Odèrzo, Adria, Vicénza, Verona, Altìno, but also Carìnzia, on the "amber road", a mineral coming from the baltic area. Since the Romans and the Venets were in good relations (except perhaps few marginal episodes) Venet integration in Roman society was gradual and easy. THe historian Tito Livio and the architect Vitruvio were Venets, and the latter in particular had a influencial impact on architecture. According to some recent thesis, the centurization (the method of dividing arable land) was invented by the Venets, and perhaps it was the outcome of ancient methods based on the measurement of places and land based on celestial reference points. According to a recent book "Italian Archeoastronomy" by Romano a great number of geographical places in Veneto support this thesis, and advances the theory that centurization was actually invented by the venets and then adopted by the Romans
Finally, a bit of religious tradition of the ancient venets has remained today in the local folklore of the Pallidi Mounts in the Dolomites, as recounted by the German F. Wolff.
Contributed by Raspakant.