Breton of Batz-on-Sea
The Breton of Batz-on-Sea is the alternative of the Breton spoken with Batz-on-Sea (Loire-Atlantique), last vestige of the Breton speeches of the Nantes Pays. The last speakers died out in the years 1960.
The Breton language in Nantes Country
The Breton one was spoken with the Moyen-âge in a broad zone about the Nantes Country extending until Lusanger, Nort-sur-Erdre, Vigneux-of-Brittany, Bouée, and the littoral fringe of the Pays of Retz. This maximum extension, given thanks to toponymy, goes back to the 9th century.
Thereafter, the Breton one gradually moved back towards the west with the profit of the Gallo, language Romance. It is estimated that he was still spoken at the 12th century in the west of a line including Pierric, Guémené-Penfao and Mounting block-of-Brittany. Bilingualism Breton-novel probably had course in many parts of this zone.
More close to us, testimonys and documents make it possible to know with quasi-certainty the surface of practice of Breton in Nantes Country:
; 1695: The chart of Jean-Baptiste Nolin indicates that the Breton one is still spoken in the west of a line including/understanding Férel, Herbignac, Saint-Lyphard, Guérande and Pouliguen; Saint-Andre-of-Water and Escoublac (La Baule) is in Romance zone, but near the limit Breton-gallo. ; 1806: The investigation of Coquebert de Montbret indicates that the Breton one is spoken in the south about the Vilaine to Férel, Camoël, Pénestin. It is also learned that the Breton one is still known with Borough-of-Batz (Batz-on-Sea), and that “ the line of division of the two languages starts with the saltworks of Herbignac on the territory of the department of the Loire-Inférieure (…) ”, that is to say in the Western part of the commune of Assérac, like in part of Saint-Molf, but probably also towards Mesquer and Piriac. This investigation did not relate to the department of the Loire-Inférieure for administrative reasons. It is thus very vague for the area which interests us. ; Medium of: According to a testimony collected by Paulin Benoist (Exposure: The Breton language with the country of Guérande), about old still spoke the Breton one with Piriac-sur-Mer after 1830, and with Mesquer still later. In 1889, the Carried out canon evokes the disappearance of Breton in Pénestin “ at one time enough close to us ”. ; 1886: The investigation of Sébillot indicates that the Breton one is still spoken with Borough-of-Batz. It is extinct in all the other communes located at the south of the Unpleasant one. This information is confirmed in 1887 by Alcide Leroux, which says that “ in four villages of (…) Borough-of-Batz, the 40 year old people know all Breton the ”; he intended children to play into Breton in the streets of the village of Roffiat. Batz-on-sea is thus the last commune of the Nantes Country to have spoken the Breton one.
Disappearance of Breton with Batz-on-Sea
The borough
The Breton one was maintained in the borough until the beginning of the 19th century, in the street of the Furnace and with the district of Kerbouchard.
The villages paludiers
The villages concerned with the late practice of Breton are, according to Leon Bureau (Leon Bureau, Ethnographie of the peninsula of Batz, French Association for the advance of sciences) in 1875: Kervalet, Kermoisan, Kerdréan, Beauregard, Kerbéan, Guho, Trégaté and Roffiat, villages paludiers gathering on the whole 1320 inhabitants. Let us mention also Keralan in seaside, village of the young girl near whom Pître of Lisle of Dreneuc collected a song into Breton in 1872, as Penchâteau on the commune of the Pouliguen which preserved late speakers. In 1875, Leon Bureau estimates that the Breton one is the usual language of approximately 400 people, but does not quote the number of those which know the speech. He also says that the practice to speak in French with the children is very recent (since 4 to 5 years). The Breton one was used as language of communication until in the years 1910-1920, mainly at the village of Roffiat.
Last speakers
Born at the village from Roffiat, they died out between 1960 and 1970. Let us quote Mr. Jean-Marie Cavalin says “Yannik”, recorded in 1959, and Mrs. Suzanne Moreau and Florestine Cavalin, questioned by Leon Fleuriot in 1960 and 1961. A lady died in 1988 at the 99 years age had spoken the Breton one in her childhood at the village about Kervalet.
Certain late advisers like Marie-Francoise Berre, questioned little before its death in 1982, can be regarded as passive speakers of this dialect (total comprehension but incapacity to speak it). Attempts at transmission took place until in the years 1940: Pierre Gall foot-note at that time some words and sentences in contact with his/her Breton-speaking grandfather Guillaume Bread. This lexicon is presented in the exposure of Gildas Buron.
For information, the Cadic abbot then claimed to have met in 1925 the last speaker of the Breton room in the person of Clemence Berre, old of soixante-douze years, at the village of Kermoisan. This assumption must obviously be rejected taking into consideration element above; the existence even of Clemence Berre is doubtful: neither the registers of Registry office, nor the local memory have some to remember… (information G. Buron).
Survivals
Regional French comprises a considerable number of bretonnisms (a hundred approximately). Examples drawn from the vocabulary paludier: dourer (of dour, water), govérer (of gover, brook), camladure (of kamm ladur, tool of hydraulics of the salt-water marsh), etc the majority of these words fall in disuse. Also let us quote in the language running: linen merglé (of mergl, rust), morson , noise of the sea (of mor its, more exactly mor séoñ in Breton room), pourhic , shells coffee beans (of pourc' hig, small pig), soup of blonic (of bloneg, COInG)… Nowadays remains a handle of direct or indirect witnesses of the Breton room sometimes able to bring, still in 2007, a word or a new expression. It goes without saying that the case becomes very exceptional.
From 1980 with today, Gildas Buron collected these last testimonys among which the expression original and not stripped of humor: “ Kenavo, my hi za ket hi skreñvo ” (goodbye, if you do not come you will write).
Another survival of the Breton one: nicknames attached to certain family branches of Batz-on-Sea. Ex: Lagad Of, Tadic, Fanch, Guillouic, Job, etc In 2007, some are still employed and included/understood.
With Batz-on-Sea, the late practice of Breton badly known is even ignored, often confused with the presence, in the port close to Croisic, from an important community of Breton-speaking fishermen originating in Cornwall. Confusion with the gallo is not less frequent.
Reasons of the late maintenance of Breton to Batz-on-Sea
Geography
Vast zone of marsh located at the east of the peninsula of Guérande, Brière played a part of barrier to the Romance influences coming from the east lasting the Middle Ages. Moreover, the commune of Batz-on-Sea is with the one of the Western points of the peninsula guérandaise.
Commercial exchanges with Low-Brittany
The paludiers sold their salt in all Low-Brittany: the knowledge of Breton was essential for them, the Breton-speaking monolinguals being very majority in Western Brittany until the end of the 19th century. Without that, one can estimate that the Breton one would have been definitively abandoned at least hundred years earlier. Thus, the documents of files suggest that Breton-gallo bilingualism was of setting in the local community since the 17th century at least.
Paludiers: a community with the well marked identity
The community paludière is characterized by many particular features, of which the late use of Breton is not the least. A certain allied endogamy with a will to dissociate neighbors gallos can have contributed to maintain the Breton one longer.
General features of Breton of Batz-on-Sea
Dialectology
The Breton one of Batz-on-Sea was a dialect of the definitely south-Armorican type, very near to the vannetais. Let us quote the following characteristic features:
; fall of Z intervocalic: this one disappears in the major part of the Breton-speaking field out some places in Leon; KLT trizeg , Batz triheik ; KLT brezhoneg , Batz brehonñeik or broñneik ; treatment of Z final: KLT gwirionez (/gwirione/ or /gwirionez/), Batz guirioñnec' H ; KLT kozh , Batz koh ; chuintement of S in front of T: KLT sterenn , Batz chtereñn and sometimes of S in front of K > KLT skuizh , Batz chuih (milked common in KLT also) ; palatalization of K: KLT ket , Batz tchet or chet (milked common in KLT also) ; treatment of certain vowels and diphthongs: KLT loar , Batz luer ; KLT Tom , Batz tuem ; KLT troad , Batz trèt ( oa is marked /wa/ or /we/ in KLT) ; stressing very marked on the last syllable ; treatment of it H: KLT it hoar , Batz uèr ; KLT it hoarzhiñ , Batz hwareñ ; definite article: KLT year , rear , Batz in , er ; syntax of the type vannetais: “ Hi beét my dalèit ” = you would have plugged me
By certain sides, the Breton one of Batz was characterized clearly from the various speeches vannetais:
; lexicon of the type KLT: Batz and KLT dour (water), vann. dor ; Batz arc' heñt (money), KLT arc' hant , vann. argant ; Batz tréo (valley), KLT traoñ , vann. teno ; Batz abar , abars , E bar and E bars (in, inside), KLT e-barzh , vann. abarh ; Batz baradeis or baradoeis (paradise), KLT baradoz , haut-vann. barawiz ; Batz plèic' H and mèn (where?), KLT pelec' H , vann. menn only, etc ; semantics similar to the KLT but different from vannetais: Batz chteink (laundrette), Goëlo stank , Trégor stank kannañ , vann. poull , oglenn or goleri . ; form plural: Batz - éo , vann. - eù ; pronunciation in - F of - v final: irif (today); beif (alive); kleñf (sick); marf (death); conk (which?) : feature common to Breton of Goëlo; this pronunciation is unknown vannetais some. ; many pronunciations: Batz chti or achti (here are), vann. chetu (KLT /setu/ or /cheteu/, Léonard: /set/), Batz trougaré (thank you), vann. trugaré and bougalé (children) against bugale everywhere else; Batz to dobeir (to make), vann. gober , etc
According to the data of the ALBB, it is with Breton islands morbihannaises and of Goëlo that the Breton one of Batz presented the most affinities. However, with the dires speakers of the beginning of the 20th century, mutual comprehension with the Breton-speaking neighbors of Belle-Ile or the peninsula of Rhuys had become quasi-impossible.
According to Yves Mathelier (Guérandais…, pp. 369-370), the study of the ALBB of the Russet-red one shows that the proximity between Breton of Batz-on-Sea and vannetais is not of nothing comparable with that observed between the three dialects KLT: in the field vannetais, no point does not include/understand more than 20% of pronunciations identical to Batz-on-Sea .
Characteristics and originalities by reports/ratios with the other dialects of the Breton one
; original lexicon: swallow-hole : of (ex: “ Swallow-hole conk komzit today? ” = of which do you speak?) ; fremoutchel : owl, bichuen : blue, chalirik : grasshopper; chañgaf : to meet by chance… ; diphthongizations under the accent: Batz Roeñheoñ , KLT Roazhon or Raon , “Rennes”; Batz kaveit , unneik , other dialects kavet “found” and unnek “eleven”; bwèyt , “food”, KLT boued … ; contrary, reduction attends diphthongs present in the other dialects: sèc' H (seven), KLT seizh and vann. seih ; keñt-er-keñt (together, adv.), KLT keit-ha-keit ; krès (medium), KLT kreiz ; Brèrh (Brittany), KLT Breizh and vann. Breih , etc ; original pronunciations: Batz flight , other dialects holl , “all”; Batz rebeñ , vann. arben , “meets”; Batz barlen , other dialects balan, banal, bonal or benal, “broom”, Batz sarheñ , “sardine”, KLT sardinenn and vann. sardrinen ; noñ chtri : “us three”; chtrédéo : “feet”, etc ; generalization of the impersonal conjugation: in a grammatically incorrect form in the other Breton dialects > “ Swallow-hole pi gherat I zeo? ” = Of which village are you? ; personal pronouns: hi, “you”, ruffle, “it”, noñ, “us”, dañ, “they” ; generalization of the present usually: emañ (verb end , in the form my ) in the place of zo > My guen = it is white (also finds itself cornouaillais some) ; softening of the initial consonant K of certain words: Batz gorn , KLT and vann. korn , Batz garreik, KLT karreg, “rock”. Even phenomenon for T > D: Batz dowl , KLT taol , “table” (from where the assumption of Yves Mathelier who the word dolmen would be a loan with Breton guérandais). ; softening of certain internal consonants: Batz fedein , KLT feunteun , vann. fetan , “fountain”. ; méthathèses (sometimes common to certain speeches haut-vannetais): KLT and vann. DRE , Batz for the third time , “by”; KLT terzhienn , Batz treheñn , “fever”; KLT bremañ , Batz beurmeñ , “now”. ; high frequency of plurals in - I: garegi , “of the rocks”, demoazili , “of the young ladies”, rocheidi , “of the shirts”, kwadiri , “of the chairs”, dowli , “of the tables”, kazegi , “of the mares”… ; change of kind of many names, even degeneration of the changes in certain case: e.g. er kac' H (the cat) noted in a song. ; very many lexical loans with the gallo: semitere , “cemetery”; krapaodeñ , “clamping plate”; oubieñ (= or), “if not”; siffleñ , “to whistle”, etc Many these characteristics are to be put at the account of a contact prolonged with the gallo, as well as relative insulation compared to the other Breton speeches. Others seem to raise of an archaism specific to the peripheral speeches.
Collectors of Breton of Batz
Leon Office, industrialist Nantes and impassioned languages, was the principal collector of Breton of Batz. He learned it about 1875 in contact with various advisers, of which Marie-Francoise Mouilleron, who followed the occupation of carrying salt. Its interest for the Breton one of Batz would be explained by a not very banal history: he would have lived a shipwreck with one of the members of the local Breton-speaking community.
Let us quote Emile Ernault, which compiled the notes of Office, then Pierre the Russet-red in 1910 (ALBB present of the definitely south-Armorican features, perhaps comparable with Breton of Batz after decoding of the sounds returned by the C-Ws communication means-allemandes of Von Harff. Examples:
-
salt: haelen (for /ha: len/), Batz héleñ , but vannetais halen .
- water: to doir (for /dur/), Batz dour , vannetais dor .
- to drink: hisit (restored in probable /ivit/), Batz eveit or evet , vannetais ivein (but Damgan ivat > infinitive in T also).
- God: Doie (for /du: E), Batz douhé
- two: duwe (for /dow/), Batz C or doé
This glossary presents several limits: the place of origin of the adviser is not specified, which lets plane an uncertainty; C. - J. Guyonvarc' H leans for the peninsula of Guérande. Moreover Von Harff was only one simple curious and carried out an approximate notation of what he heard. One will retain especially this single document, the first effective testimony on the Breton one spoken, that the dialectalisation of Breton was accomplished at the end of XVe century.
Toponymy and onomastics
The recourse to these last does not make it possible to solve the question with certainty. Here all the same of the elements which leave think that the Breton one of Batz-on-Sea would have been the last representative of a dialect guérandais disappeared.
-
Breton of Batz bihen or biheñ , small (other dialects bihan ): toponyms Locbihen in Turballe, the Bridge Bihen in Guérande and Saint-Lyphard, Bihen in Pénestin, Bihin with Saint-Andre-of-Water, Nibehen (> *lennig bihen?) with Guérande, Pourbien (> *poull bihen?) with Baule-Escoublac, and locality Port-Bihain in Saint-Molf (quoted by Gustave Blanchard in 1883). Family names Bihen and Bihain in peninsula guérandaise.
- Breton of Batz tréo , valley (KLT traoñ, vann. teno), deduced starting from or-tréo , bellow > toponyms Tromartin in Guérande (Tromarzin 1480), Troffigué in Guérande (Troffiguet 1549), Trologo with Baule-Escoublac (Trologoff 1623), Kerantrou in Pouliguen (Querantrou 1678). The evolution of the tn group > tr seems attested since XVe century at least in the peninsula of Guérande, contrary to the country vannetais which preserved tn.
- Breton of Batz fedein , fountain (KLT feunteun , vann. fetan ) cf the toponym Feden Go with Batz-on-Sea (noted Goff Fountain in 1680) > toponyms Goveden in Férel (*Er Goh Feden, the old fountain) and Goffedin in Mesquer (idem). The softening of the consonant T > D is quite present, unknown characteristic elsewhere.
Sentences into Breton of Batz-on-Sea
Following examples, drawn from work of Leon Office and Emile Ernault
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