I suppose that when you take a look at the language combinations I propose, you are probably surprised to see Breton among English, Danish and Norwegian. You may find this linguistic mix somewhat surprising, even incongruous. What is the point, you might ask? What is the point of speaking a ‘small’ language that only 200,000 to 300,000 people can speak and/or understand? Wouldn’t it be wiser to propose and speak only so-called international languages? I would tell you, in this case, let’s just speak English or Chinese! That “would make things easier”…

I have always thought it has always been essential to preserve linguistic diversity and the cultural richness that goes with it. If we all spoke the same language, the world would be a very dull place! Could one imagine that we all wore the same clothes or ate the same food? The answer is, of course, no…

So why Breton? Well, why not? As I was born in Brittany, the choice seemed obvious to me. Breton was my maternal grandparents’ mother tongue. As a preamble, however, I should point out that Brittany is a land of linguistic diversity, with two original languages living side by side: Gallo, a Romance language (like French, Catalan, Corsican and Occitan) spoken mainly to the east of a line between Saint-Brieuc and Vannes, and Breton, a Celtic language whose linguistic area lies to the west of this line. I would also like to stress that Gallo and Breton are full-fledged languages and not dialects (of French) as some people label them in order to denigrate them! France is by no means a monolingual country. It is one of the most linguistically diverse countries in Europe! A richness that must be preserved. And isn’t the motto of the European Union ‘United in diversity’?

Celtic language??? I can see some slightly questioning looks on people’s faces. The Celtic languages are a family of languages spoken mainly in Western Europe, particularly in the British Isles and Ireland. They are divided into two groups: the Gaelic languages (Irish, Scottish Gaelic and Manx) and the Brittonic languages (Breton, Cornish and Welsh, from which Breton is derived). I should also add that the Welsh anthem and the Breton anthem also share the same melody! Rugby fans know what I am talking about.

So I chose to learn Breton (which was not passed on to me for various reasons, including political and historical ones, which I will not talk about here) many years ago to reconnect with this land that I love so much (the land of my ancestors, to paraphrase the title of the Breton hymn, Bro Gozh Ma Zadoù), with its thousand-year-old history and its rich cultural heritage, but also to keep alive the linguistic diversity that is so badly mistreated these days. For me, learning Breton was above all a choice of the heart!

Maybe I will soon be learning Gallo? Or other languages? Basque? Irish? Japanese? When I retire, who knows?

Learning a language is never a way of closing yourself off from the world, a form of communitarianism or identity withdrawal. It is an opening onto another world, another culture, a key to a fabulous treasure trove. And I will end with the last stanzas of the poem ‘An Alc’houez Aour’ (The Golden Key) by Anjela Duval, a breton poetess:

Hag holl deñzorioù Breizh

Zo dispak er c’hastell

Gant alc’houez aour ar yezh

Digor eo an dourell…

 

And all the treasures of Brittany

Are spread around the castle

With the golden key of language

The dungeon is open…

 

Ken arc’hentañ! See you soon!