'If you go to rural areas, to the very small villages or farmhouses in the west, people aged over 50 usually will be able to speak some
Breton, perhaps quite a bit of it.
As a brief survey and synthesis of pre-historic, ancient, and medieval Brittany, The
Bretons is well written and interesting.
The Pariahs of Yesterday:
Breton Migrants in Paris.
Until the arrival of the railroad around the middle of the nineteenth century,
Breton migration was distinct in that
Bretons migrated internationally more than people from most parts of France, but were less likely to migrate internally.
[bar] SIR - James Samuel Cole of Castell Nedd wrote (March 11) about the battle between the English and French armies when Welsh and
Breton soldiers in both armies refused to fight on hearing each other singing the same song.
Changing social and economic circumstances in the region also spurred the emigration of rural
Bretons to larger towns and cities within the region as well as to Paris and other parts of France--where they were often less inclined to don traditional dress.
He told us: "During the early 1900s more than 50,000 people in Cape
Breton spoke Irish as their first language.
"
Breton doesn't need to receive special treatment," explained Le Lay, "but clearly not all problems can be resolved in Paris or in Brussels.
Hence the chagrin of a Cambridge graduate on addressing
Bretons in
Breton; they would insist on replying in French, considering his use of
Breton to them as an insulting implication that they were yokels.