Chapter II: GOIDELIC AND BRYTHONIC.--When the monuments of the Celtic dialects (2)

The chief features which distinguish the Brythonic from the Goidelic dialects have already been enumerated. In the course of the 6th and 7th centuries final short vowels disappeared. In compound names the final vowel remains in the first component until the 7th century. Short vowels in other than initial syllables when immediately preceding the stress (on the historical penultimate) disappear, whilst long ones are shortened, e.g. Welsh _cardawt_ from Lat. _caritatem_. Other vowels in unstressed position are apt to be reduced, thus o, u, give i in O.W. (Mid. W. y). A marked characteristic of Welsh as distinguished from Cornish and Breton is the treatment of a under the influence of a following i. In Welsh the result is ei, in Corn. and Bret. e, e.g. Welsh _seint_, "saints," Bret. _sent_, sing. _sant_. The mutations seem to have started in the second half of the 6th century in the case of the tenues.

See J. Loth, _Les Mots latins dans les langues Brittoniques_ (Paris,
1892); J. Loth, _Chrestomathie bretonne_ (Paris, 1890).

(a) _Welsh (Cymraeg)._--It is usual to divide the history of the Welsh language into three periods--Old, Middle and Modern. To the oldest period belong the collections of glosses, the earliest of which go back to about 800. The middle period extends from 1100 to 1500.

As a rule the medial mutation of the tenues and mediae is not denoted
in O. Welsh. Intervocalic g is sometimes retained but generally it has
disappeared, whilst after r and l it is still written. In the course
of the 9th century initial w (v) becomes gu (later gw). As the O.
Welsh documents consist almost entirely of isolated words, we know
scarcely anything about the morphology of the language during this
period. To the middle period belong the ancient poems from the Black
Book of Carmarthen, but the language of these compositions is
evidently much older than the date of the manuscript (12th century),
as it preserves a number of very archaic features. Other important
sources of information for this period are the O. Welsh Laws contained
in a MS. of the 12th century. To a somewhat later date belong the
Mabinogion (14th century MS.), and the prose versions of French
romances published by R. Williams (15th century). In Middle Welsh the
consonant mutations are in general denoted in writing, though not
consistently, and from this period dates the introduction of w and y
(O.W. u, i) to denote vowel sounds. The symbol ll to denote a
voiceless l was already employed in Mid. W. but rh (= voiceless r), dd
(= Eng. th in "thou") and f (= v) either do not appear or only become
regular during the modern period In Mod. W. the orthography is
regularized and does not differ materially from that of the late
medieval documents. In O.W. the old stress on the final syllable (the
historical penult) appears to have been preserved, but during the
middle period the accent was shifted to the penult. In consequence of
this change aw (a) in final syllables is reduced to o in Mod. W., e.g.
Mid. W. _pechawt_ < Lat. _peccatum_, Mod. W. _pechod_.

The comparative wealth of inflection preserved by O. Ir. has almost
entirely disappeared in Welsh. There are only the faintest traces of
the case forms, the dual and the neuter gender. Compared with the
Irish nominal declension according to -o- (-jo-), -a-, -i-, -u-, -s-,
guttural, dental and nasal stems, Welsh only distinguishes the nom.
sing. and plur., the latter sometimes retaining an old formation. Thus
masc. -o- stems show palatal modification, e.g. _corn_, "horn," plur.
_cyrn_ < _*korni_; the plural ending of -u- stems, O. Gaulish _-oves_,
gives O.W. -ou, Mid. W. -eu, Mod. W. -au, e.g. _penneu_, "heads." The
termination _-ones_ of the -n- stems appears as -on. The infixation of
pronominal objects between a verbal particle and the verb itself
continues in use down to the present day as in Breton. In the third
person sing. of the pres. ind. there are instances in the oldest Welsh
of the peculiar alternation between orthotonic and absolute forms
which characterize the Irish paradigms, e.g. _pereid_, "it endures,"
but _ny phara_. The several types of conjugation represented in Irish
have become obscured, traces remaining only in the endings of the
third sing. of the pres. ind., the pret. ind. (Mid. W. -as, -es, -is)
and the pret. passive (Mid. W. -at, -et, -it). The verb system of
Welsh comprises the following tenses: indic. present (also used as
future), imperative, imperfect, preterite (in Mid. W. forms with s
have become prevalent as in Irish, but forms corresponding to the
Irish preterites in t or with reduplication or unreduplicated with
long vowel are not infrequent in the early poetry), pluperfect (a new
formation), pres. and pret. passive. In the subj. early W.
distinguishes pres. and past, but the latter comes to be replaced by
the pluperfect indicative. The sign of the subj. is -h- < s, which
reminds one of the Irish s-subj., though the formation is somewhat
different. There are also traces of a future formation containing h
< s. (See also under WALES.)

History and extent.

We have seen already that Wales began to exist as a separate entity
roughly at the end of the 6th and beginning of the 7th centuries. In
the second half of the 8th century the Welsh were confined in pretty
much their present limits by Offa, king of Mercia, who constructed the
Dyke going by his name, which has approximately remained the political
boundary between England and Wales ever since. From this time onwards
the bitter feeling against England which we find expressed in the
fervid compositions of Iolo Goch and other political bards served to
prevent any serious inroads of English on Welsh-speaking territory.
With the advent of the Tudors, however, there came a great change.
Henry VII. owed his throne in large measure to the support he had
received from Wales and he prided himself on his Welsh ancestry. A
consequence of this was that throughout the 16th century Wales
received exceptionally favourable treatment at the hands of the
English sovereign and parliament. In 1562 a decree was issued ordering
a translation of the Bible to be made into Welsh. All this could
naturally not be without effect on the attitude of the leaders of the
people towards England. The change is already apparent in the poems of
Lewis Glyn Cothi and others. And the striking difference in the manner
in which the Reformation was regarded in Ireland and Wales is worthy
of remark. During the Stuart wars the Welsh nobles fought invariably
on the Royalist side, and there is plenty of other evidence that the
aristocracy of Wales was becoming thoroughly anglicized both in
sentiment and language. At the same time the practice of the Tudors
was reversed in many particulars. Thus it became the custom to appoint
Englishmen ignorant of the national language to the Welsh bishoprics.
In this manner it is not a matter for surprise that a feeling of
estrangement should grow up between the bulk of the population, who
only knew Welsh, and the clergy and nobles, their intellectual
leaders. The neglect of the national language is evident from the
large number of English words which have even crept into such
classical works as Prichard's _Canwyll y Cymry_ and Ellis Wynn's
_Gweledigaethau y Bardd Cwsg_. It is stated that, of the 269 works
published by Welshmen between 1546 and 1644, 44 were in Latin, 184 in
English and only 41 in Welsh, and of these 37 consist of works of
piety. Thus at the beginning of the 18th century there seemed a fair
chance that Welsh would soon become extinct like Cornish.

An extraordinary change was brought about by the Methodist movement in
Wales. The preachers, in order to get hold of the masses, addressed
them in the vernacular, and their efforts were crowned with enormous
success. At the same time a minister of the Established Church,
Griffith Jones, went about Wales establishing lay schools to which
young and old might come to learn to read the Welsh Bible. Between
1737 and 1761 3395 such schools sprang up, at which no fewer than
158,238 persons of all ages learned to read their native language.
After Griffith Jones's death this work was carried on by others,
notably by Charles of Bala (1755-1814), who passed over to Calvinistic
Methodism and whose schools were transformed after the model of the
Sunday schools instituted in 1782 by Robert Raikes. Charles of Bala
was largely instrumental in the founding of the British and Foreign
Bible Society, and Wales was provided with 100,000 copies of the Bible
and Testament at very moderate prices. Bishop's Morgan's version of
the Scriptures made in 1588 (final revision 1620) represents the
speech of North Wales which had remained more or less free from
English influence, so that the language of the Welsh Bible is rightly
regarded as the literary model. Three-fourths of the inhabitants of
Wales belong to the various Nonconformist sects, and therefore pass
almost without exception through the Sunday school, where they are
drilled in its sole object of study, the Welsh Bible.

With the increasing employment of Welsh owing to the Nonconformist
movement there was also awakened a new interest in the past history of
the principality. A society calling itself the _Cymdeithas y
Cymmrodorion_ was founded in London in 1751, and during the succeeding
half-century two periodicals exclusively in Welsh were started, the
one, _Trysorfa y Gwybodaeth_, in 1770, the other, _Cylchgrawn
Cymraeg_, in 1793. The year 1792 witnessed the creation of an
important society, the _Cymdeithas y Cymreigyddion_, in London, in
which the moving spirits were William Owen (Pughe), Owen Jones and
Edward Williams. The results of their indefatigable search for ancient
Welsh manuscripts were published in three volumes under the title
_Myvyrian Archaiology_ (London, 1801-1807). Owen further published an
edition of the greatest medieval Welsh poet Dafydd ap Gwilym, and also
the first copious dictionary. But this was not all. In Goronwy Owen
(1722-1769) a poet had arisen whose works could stand comparison with
the compositions of the medieval writers, and it was owing to the
efforts of the three men above mentioned that the national Eisteddfod
(=session, from _eistedd_, "to sit") was revived. The origin of these
literary festivals is shrouded in obscurity. It is recorded that a S.
Welsh prince, Gruffydd ap Rhys, held a festival lasting forty days in
1135 to commemorate a victorious campaign at which poets and minstrels
competed for gifts and other rewards. Gruffydd's son Rhys ap Gruffydd
is reported to have instituted a similar contest in 1176, at which the
successful competitors received a chair whilst the others were given
presents. It would seem that after the loss of Welsh independence a
carefully graded order and a system of jealously guarded rules came
into existence. Similar national festivals were held under royal
patronage under Henry VIII. in 1523 and again under Elizabeth in 1568.
From 1568 until 1819 no general eisteddfod for all Wales was held.
Since 1819 the national festival has been held annually and every
little town has its own local celebration. Hence the Nonconformist
Sunday school, the pulpit and the eisteddfod may be regarded as the
most potent factors in resisting the inroads of English. The whole
question of the vitality of Welsh and what may be called the political
and social history of the language is treated in great detail by H.
Zimmer, "Der Pan-Keltismus in Gross-britannien und Irland," i., in
_Preussische Jahrbucher_, vol. xcii. (1898). In elementary schools in
Wales the use of Welsh has been permitted since 1893.

With regard to the extent over which Welsh is spoken a detailed map is
given in J.E. Southall's _Welsh Language Census of 1891_ (Newport,
1895). A line drawn from the southern end of the estuary of the Dee
about 2 m. W. of Connah's Quay to Aberthaw in Glamorgan would
practically include all those districts where Welsh is spoken by 60%
of the population, and considerable deductions would have to be made
for parts of Flint, Montgomery, most of Radnor and the N. part of
Brecon. Little is spoken in the southern half of the Gower peninsula
or in S. Pembrokeshire. Over much of Anglesey 97-1/2% of the population
spoke Welsh and in parts of Cardiganshire 98.3%. Of a total population
in 1901 of 2,012,876, 929,824 were returned as speakers of Welsh, of
whom 280,905 were monoglots. That Welsh is a very living language may
be gathered from the following statistics. Between 1801 and 1898 no
fewer than 8425 volumes were published in the vernacular, whilst in
1895 there were appearing regularly 2 quarterlies, 2 bi-monthlies, 28
religious and literary monthlies and 25 weekly papers. In 1909 the
number was probably greater. The danger for Welsh lies rather in the
direction of internal decay. The speech of the people is saturated
with English words and idiom, and modern writers like Daniel Owen
submit to the same influence instead of returning to the classical
models of the 17th century.

Much remains to be done as regards the classification of the modern
Welsh dialects. It is usual to divide them into four groups--(1) Powys
(N.E.); (2) Gwynedd (N.W.); (3) Dyfed (S.W.); (4) Gwent (S.E.). One of
the chief points on which N. and S. diverge is the pronunciation of
the vowels i, u, y, which in the S. all tend to become i. The
difference between N. and S. was noticeable as early as the time of
Giraldus Cambrensis. See M. Nettlau, _Beitrage zur cymrischen
Grammatik_ (Leipzig, 1887), also _Rev. celt._ ix. pp. 64 ff., 113 ff.;
T. Darlington, "Some Dialectal Boundaries in Mid-Wales," _Trans, of
the Hon. Soc. of Cymmrodorion_, 1900-1901. The only scientific
description of a living dialect is "Spoken N. Welsh," by H. Sweet,
_Trans, of the London Phil. Soc._, 1882-1884.

AUTHORITIES ON WELSH LANGUAGE.--For the study of older Welsh:--J.C.
Zeuss, _Grammatica Celtica_ (Berlin[2], 1871)--an index to the O.
Welsh glosses cited in this work was compiled by V. Tourneur, _Archiv
f. celt. Lexikographie_, iii. 109-137; J. Strachan, _An Introduction
to Early Welsh_, with a Reader (Manchester, 1909); J. Rhys, _Lectures
on Welsh Philology_ (London[2], 1879). Editions of texts--_The Black
Book of Carmarthen_, facsimile edition by J. Gwenogvryn Evans
(Pwllheli, 1906); J. Rhys and J. Gwenogvryn Evans, _The Text of the
Mabinogion_ (Oxford, 1887); _The Myvyrian_ _Archaiology of Wales_
(1801-1807; reprinted Denbigh, 1870); W.F. Skene, _The Four Ancient
Books of Wales_ (2 vols., Edinburgh, 1868); Aneurin Owen, _Ancient
Laws and Institutes of Wales_ (London, 1841); facsimile edition by
A.W. Wade-Evans, _Welsh Medieval Law_ (Oxford, 1909); K. Meyer,
_Peredur ap Efrawc_ with glossary (Leipzig, 1887); R. Williams,
_Selections from the Hengwrt Manuscripts_ (London, 1876-1892); J.E.
Southall, _Wales and Her Language_ (Newport, 1892). The earliest Welsh
grammar was published as long ago as 1567 in Milan by Griffiths
Roberts, reprinted in facsimile as supplement to the _Revue celtique_
(Paris, 1883). An account of the language was prefixed to Owen Pughe's
Dictionary (1803). During the 19th century many manuals of indifferent
value saw the light of day. The most authoritative works are:--T.
Rowland, _A Grammar of the Welsh Language_ (Wrexham, 1853^1, 1876^4),
(still the most complete work), the same author also published a
companion volume of _Welsh Exercises_ (Wrexham, n.d.); W. Spurrell, _A
Grammar of the Welsh Language_ (Carmarthen^3, 1870); E. Anwyl, _A
Welsh Grammar for Schools, (i.) Accidence, (ii.) Syntax_ (London^2,
1898). Other useful manuals for the beginner:--T. Jones, _A Guide to
Welsh_, pts. i. ii. new ed. (Wrexham, n.d.); S.J. Evans, _The Elements
of Welsh Grammar_ (Newport^3, 1903). Dictionaries:--The first Welsh
dictionary was compiled by William Salesbury (London, 1547; facsimile
reprint, London, 1877); W. Owen Pughe, _A Dictionary of the Welsh
Language_ (2 vols., London, 1803; reprinted Denbigh, 1870); W.
Spurrell, _Welsh-English and English-Welsh Dictionary_ (Carmarthen^6,
1904); a smaller one by W. Richards in 2 vols. (Wrexham, n.d.), and
many others. A dictionary on a large scale was planned by D. Silvan
Evans and subsidized by the government. Only A-Dd has, however,
appeared (Carmarthen, 1893-1906), cp. J. Loth in _Archiv. f. celt.
Lex._ vol. i. for additions and corrections. A survey of Welsh
periodical literature is contained in T.M. Jones's _Llenyddiaeth fy
Ngwlad_ (Treffynnon, 1893). For Welsh folklore see J. Rhys, _Celtic
Folklore, Welsh and Manx_ (Oxford, 1901). H.H. Vaughan, _Welsh
Proverbs_ (London, 1889), also _Rev. celt._ iii. 419 ff. See also G.
Dottin, _Revue de synthese historique_, vi. 317 ff.; H. Zimmer and
L.C. Stern in _Kultur der Gegenwart_, Teil 1, Abt. xi. 1.
(E. C. Q.)

(b) _Breton_.--Breton (_Brezonek_) is the name given to the language spoken by those Britons who fled from the south-west of England to Armorica (see BRITTANY) in the 5th and 6th centuries of our era to avoid being harassed by the Saxons. The first migration probably took place about 450. The Dumnonii and Cornovii founded small states in Brittany, or Britannia Minor, as it was termed, and were followed in the second half of the 6th and into the 7th century by a long stream of refugees (cf. J. Loth, _L'Emigration bretonne_, Paris, 1883; A. de la Borderie, _Histoire de la Bretagne^2_, vol. i., 1905).

In the earliest stages it is difficult to distinguish Breton from
Welsh. The history of the language may be divided into Old Breton from
the 7th to the 11th centuries, Middle Breton from the 11th to the 17th
centuries, and Modern Breton. In Old Breton the only material we
possess consists of glosses and names occurring in lives of saints,
Frankish authors, and charters. However, we find a few characteristics
which serve to show that the old glosses are really Breton and not
Welsh. Thus, an original a never becomes a diphthong (au, aw) in Old
Breton, but remains o. In Bret, gn becomes gr. Further, in O.W.
pretonic u is weakened to an indeterminate sound written i and later
y, a phenomenon which does not occur in Breton, e.g. Lat. _culcita_
appears in O.W. as _cilcet_, but in O. Br. as _colcet_. A marked
characteristic of Breton is the confusion of i and e, e.g. Ir. _lis_,
"court," W. _llys_, Br. _les_. In Old Breton as in Old Welsh neither
the initial nor the medial mutations are expressed in writing, whilst
in Middle Breton only the latter are regularly denoted. In this period
the language diverges very rapidly from Welsh. As prominent features
we may mention the following. Stressed o (=Prim. Celt. and Ir. a)
becomes eu, in unstressed syllables e; thus the suffix _-aco_ becomes
_-euc_ and later -ec, but in Welsh _-auc_ and later -oc, -og.
Postvocalic -tr, -tl become -dr, -dl as in Welsh, but in Middle Breton
they pass into -zr, -zl, which in the modern language appear as _-er,
-el; e.g._ Mid. Br. _lazr_, Mod. Br. _laer_, "robber," W. _lleidr_,
Lat. _latro_. Further, -lt becomes -ot, -ut, e.g. Br. _aot_, _aout_,
"cliff," W. _allt_; Br. _autrou_, "lord," Ir. _altram_, W. _alltraw_,
_athraw_, Corn. _altrou_; and, more important still, th, [+a] (W. dd)
become s, z, e.g. Mid. Br. _clezeff_, "sword," Mod. Br. _kleze_, W.
_cleddyf_. The orthography only followed the pronunciation very
slowly, and it is not until 1659 that we find any attempt made to
reform the spelling. In this year a Jesuit priest, Julien Maunoir (Br.
Maner), published a manual in which a new spelling is employed, and it
is usual to date Modern Breton from the appearance of this book,
although in reality it marks no new epoch in the history of the
language. It is only now that the initial mutations are consistently
denoted in writing (medially they are already written in the 11th
century), and the differences between the dialects first come into
view at this time. As in Welsh the accent is withdrawn during the
middle period from the final to the penultimate (except in the Vannes
dialect), which causes the modern unstressed vowel to be reduced in
many cases. Again, in Old Welsh and Old Breton a short stressed vowel
in words of one syllable was lengthened, e.g. _tad_, "father," pl.
_tadau_, but in Modern Breton the accent tends to lengthen all
stressed vowels. Breton has gone its own way in the matter of initial
mutation. The nasal mutation has been entirely given up in the initial
position, whilst a new mutation, called medial provection, has arisen
in the case of b, d, g, which become p, k, t after a few words which
originally ended for the most part in z or ch. The vocalic mutation of
initial g in Breton is _c'h_. We may also make mention of one or two
other points on which Breton differs widely from Welsh. Breton has
given up the combination ng, e.g. Mid. Br. _moe_, Mod. Br. _moue_,
"mane," W. _mwng_, Ir. _mong_. The language betrays a fondness for
nasalized vowels, and in this connexion it may be noted that v
representing an original m (W. f, Ir. mh), though generally written ff
in Middle Breton, now frequently appears as nv; Mid. Br. _claff_, Mod.
Br. _klanv_, "sick, ill," W. _claf_, M. Ir. _clam_. Final g after r
and l and sometimes in monosyllables after a vowel is represented in
Breton by _c'h_, whilst in Welsh in the one case we find a vowel and
in the other nil, e.g. Br. _erc'h_, "snow," W. _eiry_, _eira_; Br.
_lec'h_, "place," W. _lle_. In Welsh mb, nd immediately preceding the
stress appear in the modern language as mm, nn but in Breton we find
mp, nl, e.g. Br. _kantol_, "candle," W. _cannwyll_, Lat. _candela_;
Br. _kemper_, "confluence" (in place names), W. _cymmer_, Ir.
_combor_.

With regard to the extent of country over which Breton is spoken we
shall do well to note the seats of the old Breton bishoprics. These
were Quimper, St Pol de Leon, Treguier, St Brieuc, St Malo, Dol and
Vannes. Under Count Nominoe the Bretons succeeded in throwing off the
Frankish yoke (841-845) and founded an independent state. At this time
of greatest political expansion the language boundary was formed by a
line which started roughly a little to the west of Mont St Michel at
the mouth of the Couesnon, and stretched to the mouth of the Loire.
During the next three centuries, however, in consequence of political
events which cannot be enumerated here, we find French encroaching
rapidly on Breton, and the old dioceses of Dol, St Malo, St Brieuc,
and in part Vannes became Romance-speaking (cp. J. Loth, _Revue
celtique_, xxviii. 374-403). So that since the 13th and 14th centuries
the boundary between French and Breton begins in the north about
Plouha (west of St Brieuc Bay), and stretches to the mouth of the
Vilaine in the south. That is to say, the Breton speakers are confined
to the department of Finistere and the west of the departments
Cotes-du-Nord and Morbihan. Lower Brittany contains a population of
1,360,000, of whom roughly 1,250,000 speak Breton. The number of
monoglot Bretons is stated to have been 768,000 in 1878, 679,000 in
1885, and over 500,000 in 1898. There is an infinity of dialects and
subdialects in Brittany, but it is usual to divide them into four
groups. These are the dialects of (1) Leon in Finistere; (2)
Cornouailles in Finistere, the Cotes-du-Nord and a part of Morbihan;
(3) Treguier in the Cotes-du-Nord and Finistere; (4) Vannes in
Morbihan and a portion of the Cotes-du-Nord. The first three resemble
one another fairly closely, but the speech of Vannes has gone its own
way entirely. The dialect of Leon is regarded as the literary dialect,
thanks to Legonidec.

The modern language is unfortunately saturated with words borrowed
from French which form at least a quarter of the whole vocabulary. The
living speech is further characterized by innumerable cases of
consonantal metathesis and by parasitic nasalization. Loth gives
specimens of the most important varieties of Breton in his
_Chrestomathie bretonne_, pp. 363-380, but here we must confine
ourselves to pointing out the two most salient differences between the
speech of Vannes and the rest of Brittany. In Vannes the stress has
not been shifted from the final syllable. In Haute-Cornouailles and
Goelo there is a tendency to withdraw the stress on to the
antepenultimate, whilst in Treguier certain enclitics attract the
accent to the final. s, z of the other dialects representing Welsh th
become h in Vannes, e.g. W. _caeth_, Br. _keaz, kez_, "poor,
miserable," Vannes _keah, keh_. This phenomenon occurs sporadically in
other dialects. It may also be mentioned that Prim. Celt, non-initial
d, W. dd, is retained as z in Leon but disappears when final or
standing between vowels in the other dialects, e.g. O. Br. _fid_, W.
_ffydd_, "faith," Leon _feiz_, in Cornouailles, Treguier and Vannes,
_fe_. It is doubtful if the most serious differences between the
dialects are older than the 16th century.

In the middle ages the language of the Breton aristocracy was French.
Upper Brittany was politically more important than the western
portion. The consequence was that no patronage was extended to the
vernacular, and Breton sank to the level of a patois with no unity for
literary purposes. But a new era dawned with the beginning of the 19th
century. The national consciousness was awakened at the time of the
Revolution, when the Bretons became aware of the difference between
themselves and their French neighbours. It may be mentioned by the way
that the Breton language was regarded with suspicion by the leaders of
the First Republic and attempts were made to suppress it. A Breton
named Legonidec had to flee to England for fighting against the
Republic. He came under the influence of the movement in Wales, and on
his return sought to create a Breton literary language. He published
an excellent grammar (_Grammaire celto-bretonne_, Paris, 1807) and a
dictionary (_Dictionnaire breton-francais_, Paris, 1821), from which
he omitted the numerous French words which had crept into the language
and for which native terms already existed. Legonidec's example fired
a number of writers with zeal for their native tongue and the clergy
became interested. Under their auspices manuals of Breton were
published and the language was utilized in a number of schools. A
society called the _Association Bretonne_ was founded in the year
1844. But under the Second Empire, for reasons which are not easy to
discover, this Breton awakening was declared to be contrary to the
interests of the state, and all the means at the disposal of a highly
centralized government like that of France were employed to throttle
the movement. Down to the present day the use of Breton is strictly
forbidden in all the state schools, and the influence of the Roman
Catholic clergy has for the most part been hostile to the language.
However, the attitude of the government aroused considerable
dissatisfaction in the early 'nineties, and in 1896 the _Association
Bretonne_ (disbanded in 1859 and reconstructed in 1873) appointed a
permanent committee with the object of preserving and propagating the
national language. At the same time some of the clergy headed by Abbe
Buleon began to move, and Breton was introduced into many of the
schools not under state control. In 1898 was founded the _Union
Regionaliste Bretonne_, the most important section of which endeavours
to foster the native speech in conjunction with the _Comite de
preservation du breton_ (founded 1896). In 1899 the annual meeting of
the U.R.B. was modelled on the lines of the Irish Oireachtas, the
Welsh Eisteddfod and the Scottish Mod, and festivals of this kind have
been held ever since. Many Breton newspapers publish columns in
Breton, thus _Ar Bobl_ (a weekly newspaper founded in 1904 and
published at Carhaix) frequently devotes half its columns to the
language. But there is also a weekly four-page newspaper which is
wholly in Breton. This is _Kroaz ar Vretoned_, edited by F. Vallee and
published at St Brieuc. In addition to this there are three monthly
magazines wholly in Breton. The first is _Ar Vro_, edited by the poet
Jaffrennou, and in 1908 in its fifth year. The second is _Dihunamb_,
written in the dialect of Vannes and started in 1905. The third is
_Feiz ha Breiz_, started 1899.

AUTHORITIES FOR BRETON.--For the external history of Breton see H.
Zimmer, "Die keltische Bewegung in der Bretagne," _Preussische
Jahrbucher_ for 1899, xcix. 454-497. For Old and Middle Breton, J.
Loth, _Chrestomathie bretonne_ (Paris, 1890), and the same writer's
_Vocabulaire vieux-breton_ (Paris, 1884). Loth and E. Ernault have
been indefatigable in investigating the history of the language. Their
numerous contributions are mainly to be found scattered through the
_Revue celtique, Zeitschrift fur celtische Philologie_ and the
_Annales de Bretagne_. Ernault has also published _Glossaire
moyen-breton_ in 2 vols. (Paris, 1895-1896); _Dictionnaire
etymologique du moyen-breton_ (Paris, 1888). Another etymological
dictionary was published by V. Henry (Paris, 1900). Grammars,
&c.:--Dialect of Leon: Legonidec, _Grammaire celto-bretonne_ (Paris,
1807, 1838[2], also contained in H. de la Villemarque's edition of
Legonidec's Dictionary); F. Vallee, _Lecons elementaires de grammaire
bretonne_ (St Brieuc, 1902); E. Ernault, _Petite Grammaire bretonne_
(St Brieuc, 1897, the latter also takes account of the dialects of
Treguier and Cornouailles). Dialect of Treguier: L. le Clerc,
_Grammaire bretonne_ (St Brieuc, 1908); J. Hingant, _Elements de la
grammaire bretonne_ (Treguier, 1868); P. le Roux, "Mutations et
assimilations de consonnes dans le dialecte armoricain de Pleubian,"
_Annales de Bretagne_, xii. 3-31. Dialect of Vannes: A. Guillevic and
P. le Goff, _Grammaire bretonne du dialecte de Vannes_ (Vannes, 1902);
_Exercises sur la grammaire bretonne_ (Vannes, 1903); H. d'Arbois de
Jubainville, "Etude phonetique sur le dialecte breton de Vannes,"
_Revue celtique_, i. 85 ff. 211 ff.; E. Ernault, "Le Dialecte
vannetais de Sarzeau," _Rev. celt._ iii. 47 ff., 232 ff.; J. Guillome,
_Grammaire francaise-bretonne_ (Vannes, 1836). As a curiosity we
mention P. Treasure, _An Introduction to Breton Grammar_ (Carmarthen,
1903). Dictionaries: Legonidec, _Dictionnaire francais-breton_ (St
Brieuc, 1847), _Breton-Francais_ (St Brieuc, 1850), both republished
by de la Villemarque and representing the Leon dialect; A. Troude,
_Nouveau Dictionnaire pratique francais et breton du dialecte de Leon
avec les acceptations diverses dans les dialectes de Vannes, de
Treguier, et de Cornouailles_ (Brest, 1869), and _Nouveau Dictionnaire
pratique breton-francais_ (Brest, 1876); E. Ernault, "Supplement aux
dictionnaires bretons-francais," _Revue celtique_, iv. 145-170. The
Breton words in Gallo, the French patois of Upper Brittany, were
collected by E. Ernault, _Revue celtique_, v. 218 ff.

(c) _Cornish._--The ancient language of Cornwall (_Kernuak, Carnoack_) stood in a much closer relation to Breton than to Welsh,[1] though in some respects it sides with the latter against the former.

It agrees with Breton on the following points:--It has given up the
nasal mutation of initials but provects the mediae. Prim. Celt. a is
not diphthongized, but becomes e, e.g. Corn, _ler_, "floor," Br.
_leur_, W. _llawr_, Ir. _lar_. _Ng_ is lost as in Breton, e.g. _toy_,
"to swear," Br. _toui_, W. _tyngu_, Ir. _tongu_; nd becomes nt before
the stress and not nn as in Welsh, e.g. Corn. Br. _hanter_, "half," W.
_hanner_. Cornish like Breton does not prefix a vowel to words
beginning with s + consonant, e.g. Corn. _spirit_, later _spyrys_, Br.
_spered_, W. _yspryd_. On the other hand, O. Cornish does not confuse
i and e to the same extent as Bret., e.g. W. _helyg_, "willow," O.
Cornish _heligen_, Br. _halek_. Further, Cornish does not change th, d
to s, z as in Breton, _e.g. beth_, "grave," Br. _bez_, W. _bedd_, and
initial g disappears in the vocalic mutation as in Welsh. Peculiar to
Cornish is the change of non-initial t, d to s, z. This occurs in the
oldest Cornish after n, l, e.g. O. Corn, _nans_, "valley," W. _nant_;
Corn. _tas_, "father," W. _tad_. A feature of later Cornish is the
introduction of a d before post-vocalic m, n, e.g. _pedn_, "head," W.
_pen_. In later Cornish the accent seems to have fallen on the
penultimate as in Modern Welsh and Breton.

In 936 the "Welsh" were driven out of Exeter by AEthelstan, and from
that time the Tamar appears to have formed a general boundary between
English and Cornish, though there seems to be evidence that even as
late as the reign of Elizabeth Cornish was spoken in a few places to
the east of that river. The decay of Cornish has been largely
attributed to the Reformation. Neither the Prayer-book nor the
Scriptures were translated into the vernacular, and we find the same
apathy on the part of the Church of England in Cornwall as in Wales
and Ireland. Unfortunately the Methodist movement came at a time when
it was too late to save the language. By 1600 Cornish had been driven
into the western parts of the duchy and in 1662 we are informed by
John Ray that few of the children could speak it. Lhuyd gives a list
of the parishes in which Cornish was spoken, but goes on to state that
every one speaks English. In 1735 there were only a few people along
the coast between Penzance and Land's End who understood Cornish, and
Dolly Pentreath of Mousehole, who died in 1777, is commonly stated to
have been the last person who spoke it, though Jenner seems to show
that there were others who lived until well into the 19th century who
were able to converse in the dialect. However, the modern English
speech of West Cornwall is full of Celtic words, and nine-tenths of
the places and people from the Tamar to Land's End bear Cornish names.
Celtic words still in use are to be found in Jago's _Dialect of
Cornwall_ (Truro, 1882); thus the name for the dog-fish is _morgy_,
"sea-dog."

AUTHORITIES FOR CORNISH.--A mass of details about Cornish is collected
in H. Jenner's _Handbook of the Cornish Language_ (London, 1904). (Cf.
J. Loth's review in the _Revue celtique_, xxvii. 93.) Lhuyd's
_Archaeologica Britannica_ (1707) contains a grammar of the language
as spoken in his day, and a _Sketch of Cornish Grammar_ is to be found
as an appendix to Norris's _Ancient Cornish Drama_. A dictionary was
published by R. Williams entitled _Lexicon Cornu-Britannicum_
(Landovery, 1865), to which W. Stokes published a supplement of about
2000 words in the _Transactions of the London Philological Society_
for 1868-1869. We may also mention the _English-Cornish Dictionary_,
by F.W.P. Jago (Plymouth, 1887), and a _Glossary of Cornish Names_, by
J. Bannister (Truro, 1871). W. Stokes published a Glossary to _Beunans
Meriasek_ in the _Archiv fur celtische Lexikographie_, i. 101, and
important articles by J. Loth have appeared in the _Revue celtique_,
vols. xviii. to xxiv. W.S. Lach-Szyrma, "Les Derniers Echos de la
langue cornique," _Revue celtique_, iii. 239 ff. H. Jenner, "Some
Rough Notes on the Present Pronunciation of Cornish Names," _Rev.
celt._ xxiv. 300-305.