The Linguist

@CIOL_Linguists WINTER 2023 The Linguist 25 FEATURES Francisation policies and marginalising cultural representations underpin the psychosocial 'inferiority complex' of Breton among its speakers. This firsthand account captures the internalised sentiments of shame endowed on Breton speakers: "We felt [Breton] was a flaw. So we had to hide it… as if it was an abscess that we really didn't want to show… It's a handicap." 1 Resurgence By 1950, the number of Breton speakers had fallen by 75%. Bretons endured diminished socioeconomic opportunities, while regional heritage risked cultural erasure. The outlook for Breton was bleak. However, things began to change in the post-war period when numerous protest movements emerged demanding that Brittany deserved greater recognition and that Breton should be preserved and promoted. Some extremists even demanded independence. An initial success of the movement was the enactment of the Loi Deixonne in 1951, which, for the first-time, recognised minority French languages in law. It legalised the use of Breton in education, representing a transformative shift of national language ideology towards a multilingual, modern France. The student uprisings of 1968 mounted pressure on the government, as did growing dissent from parliamentary socialists. By the late 1970s, Paris began, slowly but surely, to offer more support to the Breton cause. For instance, in 1977, an associative network of monolingual Breton schools, Diwans, was established. There are now over 5,000 Breton school children educated in 55 Diwans across the region, with pupil numbers set to increase. Diwans not only play a pivotal role in the promotion of the Breton language, but also feature specially curated community spaces to celebrate Breton culture, traditions, folklore and art. They often host Fest-Noz events, which showcase Brittany's resilient culture, traditional music and dance. The Loi Deixonne also permitted regional languages to be printed in newspapers, literature and cultural outputs, renewing Breton's cultural expression. Breton-language TV shows, such as the talk-show Bali Breizh, newspaper and literature publications, such as the Ar Falz journal, and radio stations, including RadioBreizh, started to emerge. By 1999, the Ofis Publik ar Brezhoneg was set up to further promote the use of Breton in everyday life, through campaigns such as Ya d'ar brezhoneg, which encouraged regional businesses to install bilingual signage and provide French-Breton translations of their promotional material. Today, bilingual street signs have become commonplace and notable milestones, such as France's 2022 Eurovision entry performed in Breton, continue to underscore this cultural resurgence. Francisation policies bear a profound legacy on Brittany and have fundamentally changed the state of play for the language. Breton is now spoken as an expression of regional culture, rather than a primary means of communication, with some commentators speculating that the government is still sceptical of minority languages. Unesco continues to classify the language as severely endangered, 2 yet revitalisation efforts have been hugely successful. They have directly increased the number of Breton speakers and continue to erode the marginalising cultural legacy of francisation. Just 70 years ago, the mere suggestion that Breton children could receive education in immersive Breton schools, that streets would proudly display bilingual signs, or that Breton culture would be embraced, would have been dismissed as an implausible scenario. But this vision has become a reality. The speed with which Breton has reclaimed cultural visibility is aspirational for beleaguered minority languages across the world. Let us draw inspiration from this ongoing triumph and work collectively in preserving linguistic diversity for generations to come. Notes 1 Le Coadic, R (1998) 'L'identité bretonne'. In Terre de Brume, Presses universitaires de Rennes; cutt.ly/Coadic (my translation from the French) 2 Unesco (2017) 'Unesco Atlas of the World's Languages in Danger'; cutt.ly/2wQcrEbS CULTURAL CELEBRATION 'Breton Women at a Wall' by Émile Bernard

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