- Joined
- Jul 4, 2006
Hi all,
Does anyone know if Gwendal Peizerat speaks Breton?
Thanks,
Fredegunda
Does anyone know if Gwendal Peizerat speaks Breton?
Thanks,
Fredegunda
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.Do people in Brittany still speak this language?
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?
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.
People do move though. That means that his family could have been born in Bretagne. Roots are a tough thing to ferret out.
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 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).
Indeed - in patagonia apparently! (i was born in Argentina !)
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.
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?