THE Breton language is as different from French as Welsh is from English. Small devoted groups are trying to keep it alive, but young people generally are showing little interest, and though Breton is offered as an optional subject in schools, it is not a popular choice. There is now a TV channel in Breton, which seems to be helping.

However, you can easily find native Breton speakers among the older generation. There are plenty of elderly people who spoke only Breton until they went to a new school and had to start learning French. Today, despite the political centralization of France and the important influence of the media, Breton is still spoken and understood by about 300,000 people. This is, however, down from 1.3 million in 1930. At the beginning of the 20th Century, half the population of Lower Brittany only knew Breton, the other half being bilingual. By 1950, there were only 100,000 monolingual Bretons.

Breton is a celtic language and cannot be avoided by travellers in the Morbihan, as place-names are given in both French and Breton, and most of the latter contain some celtic root. The ubiquitous "Ker-" (or "Quer-" or "Guer-"), for instance, means hamlet, village or town. "Mor" means "sea" and "bihan" means "small", so Morbihan is the equivalent of "little sea".

As in Welsh, aber means a river estuary. Kastell is a castle and Gallaou is a French person or a Gaul. An English person is a Saoz. The English Channel is referred to as the Mor Breizh or Breton Sea.
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An important phrase to recognise is fest noz which means literally a night festival. Every week from spring to autumn it is possible to find a fest-noz taking place not too far away, and to us it implies a chance to meet the locals and enjoy an excellent meal, usually at trestle tables, and likely to consist of a starter of charcuterie and tomatoes, followed by roast pork, then a slice of camembert cheese and finally a piece of the local speciality, far breton, a kind of custard slice studded with prunes. Drinks include local cider, red wine and coffee, with soft drinks for children. Try to visit at least one fest noz during your stay!

The word kenavo is useful as it is a general greeting and can mean hello or goodbye. Nouz vad is good night. (See also the glossary below.)
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As in English, surnames often developed from nicknames based on a person's appearance or some particular personal attribute. Thus we have Queffelec, which means 'silly'; Pennec, which means 'large-headed'; Le Treut, or 'skinny'; Le Coant, 'pretty'; and Pensec, which means 'having a large bottom'.

George = Jord; Peter = Për; David = Dewi (Welsh again!); Philip = Fulub; Guy = Gwion; and John = Yann.

Also the name might come from one's occupation, such as Person, which meant a parish priest, or Le Tocquer, a hatter. Le Goff is a blacksmith and Le Quéméneur is a tailor.

Place Names

More than half the towns in Brittany have Breton names. Ker- or Caer- menas a farm or village; plou- or plu- (or poul- or pli-) means a parish or Christian settlement, and is usually followed by the name of a saint. Lann- is a monastery. Loc- implies a holy place, so Locminé is the equivalent of Place of the Monks, or Monktown. Tré means a place, or subdivision of a parish, and gui- is a hamlet. Tro- or Traou- is a valley while goat (or coat or goët etc.) means a wood, as in Huelgoat.

On road signs indicating arrival or departure from a town, the name is given in both French and Breton. Hence Quimper (French) is also Kemper (Breton), St-Brieuc is Sant-Brieg, Pontivy is simply Pondivi and Vannes is Gwened (which sounds distinctly Welsh!).