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| Abaoe 1995 | Brezhoneg · Français · English · Español · Deutsch |
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Llyr, 2001-07-05 13:47:17 I thought somebody may be interested in what the other Celtic languages call Brittany and the Breton language? Cornique/Cornish(Kernewek) Country - Breten Vyghan. Language - Bretonek Gallois/Welsh(Cymraeg) Llydaw. Llydaweg Irlandais/Irish(Gaeilge) An Bhriotain. Briotanais Gaelique/Gaelic(Gaidhlig) A'Bhreatainn Bheag. Breatannais Mannois/Manx(Galeg Vannin) Yn Vritaan. Britaanish Some examples: Welsh: Yn Llydaw Isaf y mae'r Llydaweg. Irish: I mBriotain Iochtar ata an Bhriotanais Gaelic: Is ann an Iochdar na Breatainn Bige a tha a'Bhreatannais Breton: E Breiz Izhel eman ar brezhoneg French: C'est en Basse-Bretagne qu'on parle le breton English: It is in the West of Brittany that they speak Breton Re: Celtic for Brittany/Breton Arian Iñigo, 2001-08-18 07:24:09 Bore da, a Lyr! (See if I got my Welsh vocative right!) It is interesting when you analyse the words in your letter, the Celtic languages on both P and Q sides of the divide employ a similar declarative word order in a sentence. For example: Welsh: Mae Siôn yn edrych arna ni. (John is looking on us.) Gaelic: Tha Iain a'seall oirnn. (John is looking on us.) Welsh: Mae Siôn yn sefyll ar y car. (John is standing on the car.) Gaelic: Tha Iain a' stad air an càr. (John is standing on the car.) Welsh: Mae Siôn yn sefyll ar ei car. (John is standing on his car.) Gaelic: Tha Iain a' stad air càr aige. (John is standing on his car.) Although both are not the same, essentially the order is identical between both languages. The declarative here can be thought of as uniquely "Celtic" since this group of languages has it pretty much exclusively, if I am not wrong. As for Brittany, that was the name given it by the Franks when they established their government in Gaul after the fall of Rome. Since Brittany is essentially "Little Britain," this was the name given it by everyone else eventually. In the Celtic languages the borrowing of the names for Brittany possibly came from the native Breton name - Breizh, which means "Britain." This is because the ones who named it were from Britain. Before it was called Armorica by the Romans who occupied the peninsula. This comes from two Celtic terms - "ar-", meaning "on" and "mor", meaning "sea" - thus "land upon the sea." Although these terms exist today in Welsh, they have a special name for Brittany - Llydaw. I woud guess they had connexions by sea with the Ancient Bretons long before the occupation of Brittany by the Romans. As for the Cornish and Bretons, they were once the same people until about the 18th century or so. Thus the term "brezhoneg" existed in Cornwall as well as Brittany - "bretonek" in Cornish and "brezhoneg" in Breton. So really there is not much to the name "Brittany" since it was the Britons who settled Brittany later on and the Franks called it Brittany because of the Briton population there. When the Gaelic peoples began to trade with the Bretons, they took the name "Brittany" into their own languages, albeit in different forms. Pob hywl, - Arian Iñigo | |
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