Breton

Breton (Brezhoneg /bʁe’zonek/) is a Brythonic Celtic language spoken in the region of Britanny in modern day France.  It is thought to have been brought to the area by immigrants from southern Britain escaping the inroads of the English in the middle of the first millennium ad, though some theories prefer to see it as a remnant of Gaulish which was strengthened and influenced by British colonists.  The language is similar in many ways to Cornish and, less so, Welsh.  It is traditionally split into four dialects, based on the political divisions of the peninsula: Leoneg (in Léon), Tregerieg (in Tréguier), Kerneveg (in Cornouaille) and Gwenedeg (in Vannes). 

Phonology and Orthography

Vowels

	Front	Rounded	Back
High	i  /i/	u  /y/	ou  /u/
Closed Mid	e  /e/	eu  /ø/	o  /o/
Open Mid	e [ɛ]	eu  [œ]	o  [ɔ]
Low	a  /a/		a  [ɑ]

All of these vowels have nasal allophones, shown in writing with ñ, e.g. evitañ “for him” [e’vitã].

The open mid vowels [ɛ, œ, ɔ] are allophones of /e, ø, o/ before consonant clusters beginning with l, r.  [ɑ] is an allophone of /a/ in long syllables. 

There are also two diphthongs: /ai, ei/. 

Vowel Length

Breton vowels may be long or short.  All unstressed vowels are short and stressed vowels are short when:

• followed by another vowel or semivowel
• followed by a voiceless consonant
• followed by a consonant cluster

A stressed vowel is long when it occurs:

• before a voiced consonant
• before a consonant cluster ending in <l, r>
• before <n, l, r>

Consonants

	Stop	Nasal	Fricative	Approximant	Semivowel
Labial	p  /p/ b  /b/	m /m/	f /f/ v /v/		v, w, o(u) /w/
Alveolar	t  /t/ d  /d/	n  /n/	s, sh /s/ z, zh  /z/	l  /l/
Postalveolar			ch /ʃ/ j /ʒ/
Palatal				ilh  /ʎ/	i, y  /j/
Velar	k  /k/ g  /g/	gn  /ɲ/	c’h  /x/
Uvular				r /ʁ/
Glottal				h /h/

Initial Mutations

Like all Celtic languages, Breton has initial consonant mutations which occur following certain words and in certain grammatical situations.  The mutations are the soft mutation, the hard mutation, the spirant mutation and the mixed mutation; they cause the following changes:

Radical	Soft	Spirant	Hard	Mixed
p	b	f
t	d	z
k	g	c’h
b	v		p	v
d	z		t	t
g	c’h		k	c’h
m	v			v
gw	w			w

Grammar

Articles

Breton has both definite (al, ar, an) and indefinite articles (ul, ur, un), which assimilate to the following sound:

• ul and al are used before words beginning with l-
• un and an are used before n-, t-, d-, h- and vowels
• ur and ar are used before all other consonants

The definite articles also combine with the preposition e “in” as el, en, er “in the”. 

Nouns

Nouns are either masculine or feminine in gender. 

Most plurals are formed by adding -où, -ioù or -ed, but other plural endings such as -i, -ier, -ien, -on and -ez occur.  A few words change a vowel in the plural (e.g. dant “tooth” → dent “teeth”) and there are numerous irregular plurals (e.g. den “person” → tud, ki “dog” → kon/chas, buoc’h “cow” → soaut).

Like other Brythonic languages, traces of the dual number occur in dual body parts, which take the words for “two” as prefixes, e.g. lagad “eye” → daoulagad “eyes”.

Diminutives are regularly formed by adding -ig.  Plural diminutives add the ending -igoù to the plural of the stem (e.g. bag “boat”, bagoù “boats” → bagig “little boat”, bagoùigoù “little boats”).

The Genitive

Breton follows the other Brythonic languages in placing the genitive noun directly after the noun to which it relates, e.g. dilhad Yann “John’s clothes”.

Adjectives

Breton adjectives follow the noun they qualify, but unlike Welsh, they are not altered when they occur in the feminine or plural except for the adjectives kaezh “poor” which has a plural keizh and mezv “drunk” which has a feminine mezvez.

Breton adjectives have an exclamative form which takes -at (e.g. koshat “how old!”) and a diminutive in -ik (e.g. kozhik).

Comparison

There are three degrees of comparison: the equative, comparative and superlative.  The equative is formed by placing the adverb ken before the positive adjective and following it with ha(g) (e.g. ken kozh hag ur ti “as old as a house”).  The comparative takes -o’ch and is followed with the conjunction eget (e.g. koshoc’h eget e vreur “older than his brother”).  The superlative is formed with -añ (e.g. koshañ “oldest”). 

There are a number of adjectives which have irregular comparative and superlative forms:  mat “good”, gwell “better”, gwellañ “best”; fall “bad”, gwazh “worse”, gwashañ “worst”; meur “large”, mui “more”, muiañ “most”; kent “before, sooner”, kentañ “first”

Note that final -z and -zh change to -s- and -sh- with the addition of the comparative and superlative endings.

Adverbs

Adverbs of quality are created by placing ez before the appropriate adjective, e.g. ez vat “well” (from mat “good”)

Numerals

	Cardinal	Ordinal		Cardinal	Ordinal
1	unan	kentañ	21	unan warn-ugent	unanvet warn-ugent
2	daou, div	eil	30	tregont	tregontvet
3	tri, teir	trede	31	unan ha tregont	unanvet ha tregont
4	pevar, peder	pevare	40	daou-ugent	daou-ugentvet
5	pemp	pempet	50	hanter-kant	hanter-kantvet
6	c’hwec’h	c’hwec’hvet	60	tri-ugent	tri-ugentvet
7	seizh	seizhvet	70	dek ha tri-ugent	dekvet ha tri-ugent
8	eizh	eizhvet	80	pevar-ugent	pevar-ugentvet
9	nav	navet	90	dek ha pevar-ugent	dekvet ha pevar-ugent
10	dek	dekvet	100	kant	kantvet
11	unnek	unnekvet	120	c’hwec’h-ugent	c’hwec’h-ugentvet
12	daouzek	daouzekvet	140	seizh-ugent	seizh-ugentvet
13	trizek	trizekvet	150	kant hanter-kant	kant hanter-kantvet
14	pevarzek	pevarzekvet	160	eizh-ugent	eizh-ugentvet
15	pemzek	pemzekvet	180	nav-ugent	nav-ugentvet
16	c’hwezek	c’hwezekvet	200	daou c’hant	daou c’hantvet
17	seitek	seitekvet	1000	mil	milvet
18	triwec’h/eitek	triwec’hvet
19	naontek	naontekvet
20	ugent	ugentvet

The cardinal numbers 2, 3 and 4 have both masculine (daou, tri, pevar) and feminine forms (div, teir, peder) used in conjunction with nouns of the same gender. 

Nouns following numerals are always in the singular.  When a noun is used with a compound numeral, it is placed after the initial element (e.g. dek den ha tri-ugent “70 men”).

Fractions

The main fractions are hanter “half”, trederenn “third”, palevarzh “fourth”.  Other fractions add -enn to the ordinal, changing -t to -d (e.g. pempedenn “fifth”). 

Multiplicatives

These are formed by following the numeral with the masculine word kement or the feminine gwech (e.g. tri c’hement “triple”, teir gwech “three times”).

Pronouns

Personal

	Subject	Object	Infixed Object	Possessive
1sg	me	va	‘m	ma/va, ‘m
2sg	te	da	‘z	di, ‘z
3sg m	eñ	e	hen	e
3sg f	hi	he	he
1pl	ni	hol, hon, hor	hol, hon, hor
2pl	c’hwi, hu	ho(c’h)	ho(c’h)
3pl	i/int	o	o

Subject pronouns are generally only expressed when there is a need to stress them.  They may be placed before the verb followed by some sort of particle and the 3rd person singular verb (e.g. me a scriv “I am writing”), or they may be placed after the verb and joined by a hyphen (e.g. scrivan-me “I write”).  The subject forms are also used as the direct object of an affirmative imperative (e.g. lezit me “let me”).  The form hu is used after the 2nd person plural verb (e.g. ne welit-hu ket? “don’t you see?”).

Breton has a t-v distinction in which the plural form c’hwi is used formally for both singular and plural, whilst te is reserved for familiar singular subjects.  In parts of the Kerneveg and Gwenedeg regions te has been lost entirely. 

The object pronouns are used before verbal nouns and past participles.  The forms ‘m and ‘z are used following the preposition da “to” before a verbal noun. 

The infixed object pronouns are used before other forms of the verb.  The 1st person plural form changes according to the same rules as the articles; the 2nd person plural is ho before consonants and hoc’h before vowels.  Breton traditionally follows French in placing the object pronoun before the verb, e.g. me ho kar “I love you”.

The possessive adjectives are virtually the same as the object pronouns; they are placed before the noun two which they relate (e.g. hon ki “our dog”). 

Demonstrative

	Masculine	Feminine	Plural
“This”	hemañ	houmañ	ar re-mañ
“That“	hennezh	hounnezh	ar re-se
“Yonder”	henhont	hounhont	ar re-hont

Demonstrative adjectives are formed by adding the endings -mañ “this”, -se “that” and -hont “that yonder” to the definite noun (e.g. an ki-mañ, an ki-se, an ki-hont).

Interrogative

The interrogative pronouns are piv “who”, petra “what”, pehini “which one”, pere “which ones”. 

Interrogative adjectives are pe “what”, peseurt/petore “what kind of” and pet “how many”.

Interrogative adverbs are pegement “how much”, pegeit “how far”, perak “why”, penaos “how”, peur/pe vare “when”, pele’ch “where”.

Indefinite

A selection of indefinite pronouns includes:

• bennak “some, a certain”
• unan bennak “someone, some”
• un dra bennak “something”
• nebeud “some, a little”
• holl “all”
• pep “all, each, every”
• nep “no, none”
• netra “nothing”
• den, nikun “no one”
• all, arall “other”
• an eil hag egile “each other”
• hevelep “same”
• seurt “such”

Verbs

Regular Verbs

The endings of the regular verbs are:

	1sg	2sg	3sg	1pl	2pl	3pl	Passive
Present Indicative	-an	-ez	–	-omp	-it	-ont	-er
Imperfect Indicative	-en	-es	-e	-emp	-ec’h	-ent	-ed
Past Indicative	-is	-jout	-as	-jomp	-joc’h	-jont	-jod
Future Indicative	-in	-i	-o	-imp	-ot	-int	-or
Present Conditional	-fen	-fes	-fe	-femp	-fec’h	-fent	-fed
Past Conditional	-jen	-jes	-je	-jemp	-jec’h	-jent	-jed
Imperative	n/a	–	-et	-omp	-it	-ent	n/a

Irregular Verbs

bezan ‘be’	1sg	2sg	3sg	1pl	2pl	3pl	Passive
Present Indicative	on	out	zo, eo, eus	omp	oc’h	in	oar/eur
Imperfect Indicative	oan	oas	oa	oamp	oac’h	oant	oad
Past Indicative	boen	boes	boe	boemp	boec’h	boent	boed
Future Indicative	bin	bi	bo	bimp	biot	bint	bior
Present Conditional	befen	befes	fefe	befemp	befec’h	befent	befed
Past Conditional	bijen	bijes	bije	bijemp	bijec’h	bijent	bijed
Imperative	n/a	bez	bezet	bezomp	bezit	bezent	n/a
Present Habitual	bezan	bezez	bez	bezomp	bezit	bezont	bezer
Imperfect Habitual	bezen	bezes	beze	bezemp	bezec’h	bezent	bezed
Present Locative	emaon	emaout	emañ	emaomp	emaoc’h	emaint	emeur
Imperfect Locative	(em)edon	(em)edos	(em)edo	(em)edomp	(em)edoc’h	(em)edont	(em)edod

Bezan has four additional tenses to the other verbs.  The habitual tenses are used to express habitual actions, long duration or frequency.  The locative tenses are used to express place and with the present participle to form a progressive-type structure (e.g. edo e vervel “he was dying”). 

In the 3rd person singular present indicative there are three forms of the verb: zo, eus and eo:

• zo is used in affirmative sentences whenever the subject precedes the verb (e.g. Yann a zo “John is”)
• eus means “there is/are” and is used when the subject is indefinite (e.g. eno ez eus tud “there are people there”)
• eo is used elsewhere (e.g. bras eo “it is large”).

ober ‘do’	1sg	2sg	3sg	1pl	2pl	3pl	Passive
Present Indicative	gran	grez	gra	greomp	grit	greont	greer
Imperfect Indicative	graen	graes	grae	graemp	graec’h	graent	graed
Past Indicative	gris	grejout	greas/geure	grejomp	grejoc’h	grejont	grejod
Future Indicative	grin	gri	gray/graio	graimp	greot	graint	greor
Present Conditional	grafen	grafes	grafe	grafemp	grafec’h	grafent	grafed
Past Conditional	grajen	grajes	graje	grajemp	grajec’h	grajent	grajed
Imperative	n/a	gra	graet	greomp	grit	graent	n/a

Verbal Nouns and Participles

There is no infinitive in Breton and its place is taken by the verbal noun, which has functions of both a verb and a noun.  The present participle is formed from the verbal noun by placing o (oc’h before a vowel) before it, e.g. o tebrin “eating”, o komz “speaking”. 

The past participle passive is formed by adding -et to the stem of the verb (e.g. skrivet “written”).

Verbal Particles

In most circumstances the Breton verb is preceded by a particle of some sort.  The kind of particle depends on the structure of the sentence: the particle a is used when the subject or direct object precedes the verb; the particle e (ez or ec’h before a vowel) is used when the indirect object or an adverb precedes:  e.g. me a skriv  “I am writing”, neuze ez eas kuit “the he left”. 

The particle ra is placed before a future verb to express a wish: e.g. ra zeuio buan en-dro “may he return quickly”

The verb is negated by ne … ket, e.g. ne skrivan ket “I do not write”.  In the imperative, a subordinate clause and after certain conjunctions na … ket is used, e.g. na skriv ket “don’t write”.

Prepositions

Like all Celtic languages, prepositions are ‘conjugated’.

	dindan “under”	war “over”	gant “with”	da “to”	a, eus “from, of”
1sg	dindanon*	warnon	ganin	din	ac’hanon
2sg	dindanout*	warnout	ganit	dit	ac’hanout
3sg m	dindanañ	warn(ezh)añ	gantañ*	dezhañ	anezhañ
3sg f	dindani	warn(ezh)i	ganti*	dezhi	anezhi
1pl	dindanomp*	warnomp	ganimp/eomp	dimp/deomp	ac’hanomp
2pl	dindanoc’h*	warnoc’h	ganeoc’h	deoc’h	ac’hanoc’h
3pl	dindano/e	warn(ezh)o/e	ganto/e*	dezho/e	anezho/e

Like dindan: dreist “over”, hervez “according to”, e “in” (stem enn-), a-zioch “above” (stem a-ziocht-), e-giz “like” (stem egist-), dre “through” (stem drez-), eme “said” (stem emez-), etre “between” (stem etrez-), a-raok “before” (stem a-raoz-), dirak “in front of” (stem diraz-), rak “against” (stem raz-)

*with -t > –d-: davet “towards”, eget “than”, estreget “other than”, evit “for”, nemet “except”, panevet “if it were not for”, evel “like” (stem evelt-), hep “without” (stem hept-)

Like war: diwar “from” (stem diwarn-)

Like gant: digant “from”

*with -zh > -t-: ouzh “at, beside”, diouzh “from”.

Example

John I, 1-5

¹Er penn-kentañ e oa ar Ger, hag ar Ger a oa gant Doue, hag ar Ger a oa Doue.  ²Er penn-kentañ e oa gant Doue.  ³An holl draoù a zo bet graet drezañ, ha netra eus ar pezh a zo bet graet n’eo bet graet heptañ.  ⁴Ennañ e oa ar vuhez, hag ar vuhez a oa sklêrijenn an dud.  ⁵Ar sklêrijenn a lugern en deñvalijenn hag an deñvalijenn n’he deus ket he degemeret.

¹In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.  ²The same was in the beginning with God.  ³All things were made by him, and nothing that was made was made without him.  ⁴In him was life, and the life was the light of men.  ⁵And the light shined in darkness and the darkness did not comprehend it.

References

• Everson, M. (2007) Breton Grammar, Evertype,