Breton skaters | Golden Skate

Breton skaters

chuckm

Record Breaker
Joined
Aug 31, 2003
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Gwendal was born in Brun, France, a town outside Lyon, in the southeast area of France, not far from the Swiss border.

Bretagne is in the northwest part of France, across the English Channel from Cornwall and Dartmoor, England.

Highly unlikely that he speaks Breton.
 

krenseby

Final Flight
Joined
Jan 8, 2006
Re:

People do move though. That means that his family could have been born in Bretagne. Roots are a tough thing to ferret out.
 
Joined
Jul 11, 2003
Apparently the people of the West coast of France can converse with the people of Wales in a Celtic dialect.
 

snow_shoe

Spectator
Joined
Sep 23, 2006
Do people in Brittany still speak this language?
Yes they do, but it becoming less common. I think that if a child has only one Breton-speaking parent, they tend to speak French at home rather than Breton. You hardly ever hear Breton in Rennes, the administrative capital of Brittany. It's quite common in the more distant smaller towns such as Quimper. Also signposts, museum information and maps are usually written in both French and Breton everywhere in Brittany, though I think only about 1 in 5 people can speak it. I think it's pretty unlikely that Gwendal can speak it, since the population of France is 60 million but the number of Breton speakers is less than half a million. In other words, more French people speak German as their first language than Breton. France's main naval base as well as air force and army bases in the area have brought lots of non-Breton speakers to Brittany and the language has been diluted. Not forgetting the large number of British people who have bought holiday homes there, who rarely speak anything other than English.

Breton does indeed sound a lot like Welsh to me, though I don't understand either language. However, I have heard that Welsh and Breton speakers cannot understand a word from each other. They diverged too long ago. In Wales, Welsh is very prevelant everywhere and about 50% of the population are first language speakers (and the other 50% have had compulsory Welsh tuition in school). This isn't what I observe in Brittany, where the Celtic language is dying. I believe there is some attempt to re-introduce the language into schools and save it.

NB my sister lives in Brittany, which is how I know. She is a teacher and she thinks less than 5% of her students are Breton speakers.

edited to add. This is my first post because I usually don't think I can comment on much. Sorry if it's too long.
 
Joined
Jun 21, 2003
Thanks so much for the info, and welcome to the forum. :)

Our motto around here is "post often, post long!" :agree:
 

demarinis5

Gold for the Winter Prince!
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Jan 23, 2004
Thank you snow-shoe very informative post. Welcome to the forum.
 

La Rhumba

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In Wales, Welsh is very prevelant everywhere and about 50% of the population are first language speakers (and the other 50% have had compulsory Welsh tuition in school).

Really 50%? Isn't that quite a high guestimate? Welsh is only visible in non-Welsh speaking areas because it's the law to have every sign in both languages. I think you're giving the impression that Welsh is spoken as much as English in Wales, and I don't think it is really.

Funnily enough I heard Manx spoken on TV last week, that's the Gaelic language of the Isle of Man, which is between Liverpool and Ireland. That sounded very unusual, and the speaker said only about 1,500 people in total can speak it.

Cornwall was mentioned earlier, and it's interesting that all attempts to make the Cornish language more prominent don't seem too successful. I've never heard it spoken, I wonder if that sounds like Breton?
 

snow_shoe

Spectator
Joined
Sep 23, 2006
Manx and Cornish are both dead languages so there are no first language speakers. You can go to Manx speaking primary school on the IOM though. It has had a bit of a revival. IOM only has a tiny population anyway so it's never been a common language. I've been there 4 times (childhood holidays) and never heard it spoken. It's a nice place IOM. Trapped in the 19th century and a bit wild but still nice. A tax haven with several casinos. You have also certainly seen IOM in film as film making is major industry there. It is Ireland, Scotland, Yorkshire, Cornwall and many other places. "Waking Ned" and "I capture the Castle" were filmed there entirely and Johnny Depp can be seen there in "The Libertine" apparently (but I haven't seen this one).

I've only been to north Wales where nearly everyone is a 1st language Welsh speaker. I've heard no-one speaks Welsh in Cardiff. I've just googled this and it seems that 50-60% of the population of Wales claim to speak Welsh but only about 20% are fluent first language speakers. So that's about half a million I'd estimate. Plus there are some Welsh-speaking outposts in Argentina.
 

antmanb

Record Breaker
Joined
Feb 5, 2004
Really 50%? Isn't that quite a high guestimate? Welsh is only visible in non-Welsh speaking areas because it's the law to have every sign in both languages. I think you're giving the impression that Welsh is spoken as much as English in Wales, and I don't think it is really.

Funnily enough I heard Manx spoken on TV last week, that's the Gaelic language of the Isle of Man, which is between Liverpool and Ireland. That sounded very unusual, and the speaker said only about 1,500 people in total can speak it.

Cornwall was mentioned earlier, and it's interesting that all attempts to make the Cornish language more prominent don't seem too successful. I've never heard it spoken, I wonder if that sounds like Breton?

It wouldn't surprise me if 50% of the welsh population speak welsh as a first language - having been to college in Chester (not very far from north wales) i was given the impression by a large contingent of students from Aberystwyth uni that most of the welsh students that go to Welsh universities actually take their subjects in welsh. Add to this the fact that welsh students remaining ni wales for university get a hefty chunk of their tuition fees paid for by the assembly i would have thought it is about right. My trips into Nroth wales have usually shown most of the small towns and villages to be predominantly welsh speaking as a first language and i'm told that the trend is greater in teh south of wales.

Ant
 

antmanb

Record Breaker
Joined
Feb 5, 2004
Manx and Cornish are both dead languages so there are no first language speakers. You can go to Manx speaking primary school on the IOM though. It has had a bit of a revival. IOM only has a tiny population anyway so it's never been a common language. I've been there 4 times (childhood holidays) and never heard it spoken. It's a nice place IOM. Trapped in the 19th century and a bit wild but still nice. A tax haven with several casinos. You have also certainly seen IOM in film as film making is major industry there. It is Ireland, Scotland, Yorkshire, Cornwall and many other places. "Waking Ned" and "I capture the Castle" were filmed there entirely and Johnny Depp can be seen there in "The Libertine" apparently (but I haven't seen this one).

I've only been to north Wales where nearly everyone is a 1st language Welsh speaker. I've heard no-one speaks Welsh in Cardiff. I've just googled this and it seems that 50-60% of the population of Wales claim to speak Welsh but only about 20% are fluent first language speakers. So that's about half a million I'd estimate. Plus there are some Welsh-speaking outposts in Argentina.

Indeed - in patagonia apparently! (i was born in Argentina !)

Ant
 

Fredegunda

Rinkside
Joined
Jul 4, 2006
People do move though. That means that his family could have been born in Bretagne. Roots are a tough thing to ferret out.

I wondered also about his surname - Peizerat. It seemed a strange coincidence that Pechalat and Bourzat also have the -at suffix, so I wondered if they all came from the same region (which on the basis of Gwendal's first name I incorrectly assumed was Bretagne).
 

La Rhumba

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It wouldn't surprise me if 50% of the welsh population speak welsh as a first language - having been to college in Chester (not very far from north wales) i was given the impression by a large contingent of students from Aberystwyth uni that most of the welsh students that go to Welsh universities actually take their subjects in welsh. Add to this the fact that welsh students remaining ni wales for university get a hefty chunk of their tuition fees paid for by the assembly i would have thought it is about right. My trips into Nroth wales have usually shown most of the small towns and villages to be predominantly welsh speaking as a first language and i'm told that the trend is greater in teh south of wales.

Ant

I find this baffling, cos AFAIK South Wales is most definitely predominately English speaking, as is mid-Wales. Chester borders North Wales, which is the only area of the country you could call Welsh speaking as a first or equal language, as you say, in small towns and villages, so I would imagine experiencing that part of Wales is quite different to visiting or living in Cardiff, Newport etc.

To give other posters an idea of the area we're talking about, former British Champion skaters Steven Cousins and icedancer Marika Humphreys both come from the North Wales area. :)

Also Sharpie, owner of FSU comes from Newport in South Wales. I know she learnt Welsh at school, but it was not her first language. ;)
 

La Rhumba

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I wondered also about his surname - Peizerat. It seemed a strange coincidence that Pechalat and Bourzat also have the -at suffix, so I wondered if they all came from the same region (which on the basis of Gwendal's first name I incorrectly assumed was Bretagne).

I'm not sure of their birthplaces, but Pechalat/Bourzat certainly train in Lyon, with Muriel Zazoui/Romain Hagenauer. [That's probably an Alsace name in origin]. :laugh:

Don't forget there was Nathalie Tauziat, the former Tennis player who made the Wimbledon Final the year France won the Football World Cup in 1998, with her cousin Didier Deschamps as Captain. ;)
 

La Rhumba

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Indeed - in patagonia apparently! (i was born in Argentina !)

Ant

Ant, I'm intrigued by your background. I thought you were English, as you often report on ice shows here, but you seem to be much more cosmopolitan. May I ask your origins? :)
 

antmanb

Record Breaker
Joined
Feb 5, 2004
I find this baffling, cos AFAIK South Wales is most definitely predominately English speaking, as is mid-Wales. Chester borders North Wales, which is the only area of the country you could call Welsh speaking as a first or equal language, as you say, in small towns and villages, so I would imagine experiencing that part of Wales is quite different to visiting or living in Cardiff, Newport etc.

To give other posters an idea of the area we're talking about, former British Champion skaters Steven Cousins and icedancer Marika Humphreys both come from the North Wales area. :)

Also Sharpie, owner of FSU comes from Newport in South Wales. I know she learnt Welsh at school, but it was not her first language. ;)

Perhaps my friends (who are very pro Wales and pro the wlesh language) have given me a stilted view on the prevalence of the language throughout wales!! :) It would not surprise me!

Marika is a coach at my rink and you can spot the skaters who work with her for choreography - they all have beautiful programs and she works them hard to get that polished look to their programs.

Ant
 

antmanb

Record Breaker
Joined
Feb 5, 2004
Ant, I'm intrigued by your background. I thought you were English, as you often report on ice shows here, but you seem to be much more cosmopolitan. May I ask your origins? :)

I was born in Argentina to a half english/half argentinian father and an argentinian mother. We lived all over the world (mostly Europe) until they finally settled in the UK - once i was appraoching GCSE age my fathers' job took them abraod again and they've since spent an awful lot of time in the middle east (though they're now retired in Spain)!!

Potted history of me!

Ant
 
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