The Public Office for the Breton Language (Breton : Ofis Publik ar Brezhoneg; French : Office public de la langue bretonne) was established on 15 October 2010 as a public institution, with state and regional cooperation and funding, to promote and develop teaching and use of the Breton language in daily life. It is an example of language revival efforts for minority languages in France.
One of its missions is to collect and distribute socio-linguistic data, in order to approach language revival with a basis in science and facts. Its remit is to collect data on the Breton language (Arsellva ar brezhoneg) and publish it, and advise communes on bilingual signage and place names.
It supports TermBret, the cooperative terminology service which publishes glossaries. In addition, it assists individuals, administrations and businesses who want to use the Breton language. (From 1 July 1999 to September 15, 1999, 42 administrations, associations or companies have made an appealed to the national government to allow use of Breton as an official language.)
It was established to replace the Ofis ar Brezhoneg/Office de la langue bretonne, which had been created on 1 May 1999 by the Region of Brittany. That office had a similar mission and worked mostly to promote use of Breton in daily life. In 2001 it initiated Ya d'ar brezhoneg (French : Oui au breton, English: Yes to Breton), an effort to encourage businesses to adopt use of Breton and provide bilingual resources, as well as to encourage communes to establish bilingual signs and tourist materials.
The Office is now an Établissement public de coopération culturelle , a public institution run by a board of directors. They represent local authorities and the French state. It was presided over by Lena Louarn, a councillor elected in the Regional Council of Brittany until October 2021, when she was succeeded by regional councillor and deputy Paul Molac. The Office is based in Carhaix, where its director Fulup Jacq works. The Observatory of the Breton Language (l'Observatoire de la langue bretonne), led by the deputy director Olier ar Mogn, is located in Rennes.
Before October 2010, the OPB was an independent regional association, led by Lena Louarn between 1999 and 2010. Its budget of €1 million was primarily funded by the Brittany Region.
The Office participates in the promotion of Breton courses for adults. It has published data on participation in and centers for Breton courses for adults:
In the year 1998–1999, 9,300 adults followed a course (e.g. evening courses, correspondence). Of those, 1,200 were in Upper Brittany (550 in Ille-et-Vilaine and 462 in Loire-Atlantique). At the time, a total of 165 organizations organised evening courses in Brittany and 28 outside Brittany (of the latter, 15 are in the region of Paris).
In 2003, the Office prepared and published a road map of Brittany in the Breton language. (The map includes Loire-Atlantique, which was historically considered part of the region until 1941.) [1]
In June 2024, the Office opened "Desketa", its free website for learning Breton. [2]
Breton is a Southwestern Brittonic language of the Celtic language group spoken in Brittany, part of modern-day France. It is the only Celtic language still widely in use on the European mainland, albeit as a member of the insular branch instead of the continental grouping.
Brittany is a peninsula, historical country and cultural area in the north-west of modern France, covering the western part of what was known as Armorica during the period of Roman occupation. It became an independent kingdom and then a duchy before being united with the Kingdom of France in 1532 as a province governed as a separate nation under the crown.
Ille-et-Vilaine is a department of France, located in the region of Brittany in the northwest of the country. It is named after the two rivers of the Ille and the Vilaine. It had a population of 1,079,498 in 2019.
The Celtic Revival is a variety of movements and trends in the 19th, 20th and 21st centuries that see a renewed interest in aspects of Celtic culture. Artists and writers drew on the traditions of Gaelic literature, Welsh-language literature, and Celtic art—what historians call insular art. Although the revival was complex and multifaceted, occurring across many fields and in various countries in Northwest Europe, its best known incarnation is probably the Irish Literary Revival. Irish writers including William Butler Yeats, Lady Gregory, "Æ" Russell, Edward Martyn, Alice Milligan and Edward Plunkett stimulated a new appreciation of traditional Irish literature and Irish poetry in the late 19th and early 20th century.
"Bro Gozh ma Zadoù" is the anthem of Brittany. It is sung to the same tune as that of the national anthem of Wales, "Hen Wlad Fy Nhadau", and has similar lyrics. The Cornish anthem, "Bro Goth Agan Tasow", is also sung to the same tune.
Redon is a commune in the Ille-et-Vilaine department in Brittany in northwestern France. It is a sub-prefecture of the department.
France has one official language, the French language. The French government does not regulate the choice of language in publications by individuals, but the use of French is required by law in commercial and workplace communications. In addition to mandating the use of French in the territory of the Republic, the French government tries to promote French in the European Union and globally through institutions such as La Francophonie. The perceived threat from Anglicisation has prompted efforts to safeguard the position of the French language in France.
The culture of Brittany is the patterns of human activity and symbolism associated with the historical region of Brittany in northwestern France and the Breton people. Breton culture has been influenced by various local and nearby traditions over the centuries, including the Celtic culture of the Britons and Gauls and French culture to a lesser extent, particularly in Upper Brittany.
The Bretons are an ethnic group native to Brittany, north-western France. They trace their heritage to groups of Brittonic speakers who emigrated from southwestern Great Britain, particularly Cornwall and Devon, mostly during the Anglo-Saxon settlement of Britain. They migrated in waves from the 3rd to 9th century into Armorica, which was subsequently named Brittany after them.
Daoulas is a commune in the Finistère department of Brittany in north-western France.
Le Faou is a commune in the Finistère department of Brittany in north-western France.
Plouarzel is a commune in the Finistère department of Brittany in north-western France.
Saint-Rivoal is a commune in the Finistère department of Brittany in north-western France.
Ar Redadeg is a relay race modelled on the Basque Korrika. It takes place around Brittany over three days and three nights from Naoned (Nantes) to Karaez (Carhaix). Its aim is to raise funds each year to finance a project promoting the Breton language.
François-Joseph-Claude Jaffrennou was a Breton language writer and editor. He was a Breton nationalist and a neo-druid bard. He is also known as François Taldir-Jaffrennou, since he also used the bardic name Taldir. He was one of the pioneers of the Breton autonomist movement.
Stourm ar Brezhoneg is a Breton association founded in 1984 which calls for an official statute for the Breton language in public life.
Ya d'ar brezhoneg is a campaign started in the 21st century by the Ofis ar Brezhoneg to promote and stimulate the use of the Breton language in daily life in Brittany, northwestern France. Breton is a Brythonic Celtic language which has fallen out of general use since the mid-20th century. Efforts are underway in the region to revive the language, which is classified by UNESCO as endangered.
Joseph-Marie Jaffré, better known as Job Jaffré, was a French journalist and Breton nationalist. He also published under pseudonyms, most notably as Jos Pempoull.
Al Liamm is a bimonthly magazine of culture and literature in the Breton language.
The Reunification of Brittany or Breton Reunification is a political movement to reunite the Loire-Atlantique department with the administrative region of Brittany, to form the entire cultural and historical region of Brittany. This "reunification" is considered a prerequisite for further Breton autonomy.
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