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![s: kaseg, keseg 'mare(s)' -z everywhere [s/z--z--z/s] (Old Breton s)](profile/Steve-Hewitt/publication/344772125/figure/fig2/AS:948678583910406@1603194008594/s-kaseg-keseg-mares-z-everywhere-s-z--z--z-s-Old-Breton-s.jpg)
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![Figure 4: s: kaseg, keseg 'mare(s)' -z everywhere [s/z--z--z/s] (Old...](profile/Steve-Hewitt/publication/344772125/figure/fig2/AS:948678583910406@1603194008594/s-kaseg-keseg-mares-z-everywhere-s-z--z--z-s-Old-Breton-s_Q320.jpg)
From a peak of over 1 million speakers in 1950, Breton, a severely endangered Brythonic Celtic language in Brittany, northwestern France, now has probably under 200,000 speakers, with numerous semi-speakers and rusty speakers, and approximately 0.2-0.3% literacy (ability to write a simple personal letter) in Breton among native speakers. Practicall...
Citations
Discourses which seek to position different speakers/users of Breton through the use of labels such as ‘traditional’, ‘new’, ‘learner’, ‘néo-bretonnant’, ‘brittophone’, etc. draw on persistent essentialist ideologies of language and create, in the process, contested elites and counter-elites in Breton-speaking networks. These discourses can be counter-productive towards projects which aim at producing multilingual citizens in Brittany at the present time. This article examines how stances of different speakers towards other speakers of Breton can involve jostling for positions of power within the Breton-speaking community and how attempts at creating elites and counter-elites seem to be a defining feature of contemporary revitalisation efforts in Brittany. This characterisation may, however, miss a ‘third space’ which some social actors may seek to engage with. These discourses are examined in this article through a critical sociolinguistic exploration of how (elite) multilingualism is constructed, maintained and contested by different actors in the Breton language community.
