Breton Language - Celtic Language under political pressure

LAA   Fri Sep 15, 2006 8:24 pm GMT
<<I think you'll find that that's not true. The overwhelming majority of British settlers to North America were English. >>

Really? The **overwhelming** majority? Then explain the Scotch-Irish influence on Canadian accents. The majority may have been English, but not the overwhelming majority. There were many Welsh, Scots, Scotch-Irish, and Irish in the North American colonies as well.
french   Tue Sep 26, 2006 12:26 pm GMT
If the Breton want their independance, why don't they go back to the british isles (English area). The french Bretagne was nor originally their home. So why don't you shut up and go to the UK. As a french, i won't never pay any taxes for a school which will be taught in a dead language. Jean Marie LEPEN is breton and we can notice how nice he is.
greg   Tue Sep 26, 2006 5:16 pm GMT
french : perdu ! Tu es démasqué.
fab   Tue Sep 26, 2006 6:03 pm GMT
"french", heureusement que tous les Bretons ne sont pas comme LePen, et d'ailleurs la Bretagne est l'une des régions ou il fait ses plus mauvais scores.
Par ailleurs, l'immense partie des Bretons se sent parfaitement Français, une bonne part d'entre eux n'ont aucun lien ni génétique, ni linguistique, ni culturel avec les "Grand-Bretons" pré Anglo-saxons, et n'a aucune envie de transformer la Bretagne en pays Celte.
greg   Tue Sep 26, 2006 7:53 pm GMT
D'autant qu'une bonne partie des Bretons vit en pays gallo¹.


¹Le gallo est une langue romane d'Oïl.
suomalainen   Wed Sep 27, 2006 6:48 am GMT
It is sad that France seems to be unable to admit its minorities linguistic rights. The Bretons in Bretagne can only dream of a position that is self-evident for French-speaking minorities in Canada, Belgium and Switzerland. What if you would change the situation and make your country a model that grants education in own language to your traditional minorities. You would win sympathy from us who represent other nationalities, and you could show that the stereotypic image of arrogant Frenchmen is totally wrong. I would also be more eager to learn French - I try it even at present, but my studies get a bitter taste when I think about the situation of Bretons, Occitans, Corsicans, Alsacians, Flemish. C´est triste!
french   Wed Sep 27, 2006 2:58 pm GMT
greg,

démasqué de quoi?
french to suomalainen   Wed Sep 27, 2006 3:07 pm GMT
suomalainen,

i am from the south and i could think i am occitan, i don't think it. I am french that is all. There aren't any minorities in France because there are only french people.

You cannot compare Canada, Belgium, Swiss with France, its history is different. It does not have anything to see with arrogance. I don't see why we should let a bunch of racist people telling us what to do. In France, the administration language is french and the people speak french. Do the english speak the old english? no i don't htink so. Do the canadians have schools in german or italian because of its big immigration due to germans and swiss? no they don't. Swiis is federal, different. Do not speak about Belgium where it does not work, and please, DO NOT SPEAK ABOUT CANADA WHERE MOST OF THE ANGLO DO NOT TOLERATE THE USE OF FRENCH AND VICE VERSA WITH THE QUEBECKERS.
your examples do not work and that is why we don't want. Nobody asks you to learn french, this is your choice. About the stereotype of the arrogant french we have the same about you.
Adam   Wed Sep 27, 2006 5:52 pm GMT
"It's OK for the French to scream 'VIVE LE QUEBEC LIBRE!' "

Or "VIVE LA CORNOUILLE!"
Adam   Wed Sep 27, 2006 5:57 pm GMT
"You cannot compare Canada, Belgium, Swiss with France, its history is different"


In simpler words - "Canada, Belgium and Switzerland are not France! France is MAGNIFIQUE! France is GREAT! It is the best country in the world! We are so strong, mighty and powerful! Long live La Belle France!"

Those Frenchies get on my nerve. And I'm a bit of an expert on them because I'm English. They are right next to us and we've been fighting wars against the for centuries.
suomalainen   Thu Sep 28, 2006 5:48 am GMT
"There aren´t any minorities in France because there are only french people."
Do you really mean that Bretons, Occitans, Basques and Alsacians don´t even exist? That there are no minorities in France that speak languages of their own? As far as I know, your policy has not yet been able to totally succumb national identity among your minorities. According to your example, shouldn´t Canadians deny the very existence of a French minority in their country? Still, they have not done this but there is a French-speaking Quebec with education, mass media and government in French. Anyway, you are not satisfied with this but at the same time you feel it would be a terrible unrighteousness if you would admit that there are linguistic minorities in France and grant them normal linguistic rights. How can this be possible in the 21st century when almost all other European countries consider it is their duty and even honor to preserve linguistic minorities, a matter as urgent as preserving of rare animals and plants?
greg   Thu Sep 28, 2006 6:28 am GMT
Adam : « Or "VIVE LA CORNOUILLE!" »

Ha ha ha !!!

La Cornouille ! Excellent : ça rime avec "andouille".
Meijse   Thu Sep 28, 2006 8:37 am GMT
France has never been tolerant with it's linguistic minorities, but they want their French speaking minorities in Belgium, Canada and Switzerrland put on end of existance of these lovely countries.


Belgium Canada Switzerland should be the way they are
No separatism plese, no violence, no terrorism.
Do you remember all those bomb attacks and plane crashes organized by Quebec terrorists? It's shameful. Quebec should realize that their place is in Canada and not France. After all, France literarily SOLD Quebec the way Mexico sold California and Russia sold Alaska. There are no use crying over spilled milk. I don't know why Quebeckers keep admiring France but France don't give a damn about them, they condier Quebec dialect ''hilly, redneck, ugly''. No wonder why Celine Dion opted for English. In North America, it's all about English. Spanish and French are local languages but will never be predominant. Stop crying and get your English grammar.
nico   Thu Sep 28, 2006 10:04 am GMT
Dear Adam,

1
don't speak for me please. I said you can't compare Belgium, Canada, Swiss and France. I never said France was better? I said its history is different, like the swiss history is different from the Canadian one. So please, what you undertsand reflects what you think, this is your problem not mine.

2
you generalize too much. Did i say "Vive le Quebec libre?" here again you speak for the others. Luckily for me, my englsih friends aren't like you and i don't use to generalize.



suomalainen

no there aren't minorities in France, the bretons ere french, the auvergnats are french, a provençal is french..... When you meet somebody from France he won't tell you i am breton, he will tell you i am french. That is all.
the bretons, the provençaux or whoever you want speak french at home, even the corsicans. My mother is corsican and we use to speak french where we are in family in Corsica. The same with my father from Marseille, we all speak french. Those who tell you the opposite are liars. I have many colleagues who are form Bretagne and they don't only speak french.

Another thing, being occitan does not mean anything, occitan is an artificial word. You can be provençal, gascon or auvergnat but you cannot be occitan. Occitan is a term to speak about several languages.


About the Canada,

When i see the relation the people have (between french speakers and english speakers, i have been to Montreal), i don't want to know that in France. I have seen from the both side a lot of untolerance and a lot of racism. They aren't abbler to leave together.
SO PLEASE DON'T TELL ME THIS IS A GOOD EXAMPLE WHEN IT IS NOT.
nico   Thu Sep 28, 2006 10:09 am GMT
suomalainen,


As you can notice "Meijse" is a good example of what you must call tolerance in Canada.

Meijse,

You generalize too much about the french people. I personnally like the Quebec accent.

the french do not especially want the french spoken in Belgium, Switzerland...some politicians yes. But most of the french really don't care about that.