Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-mkpzs Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-18T02:01:34.336Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

The role of the speaker in language obsolescence: the case of Breton in Plougastel-Daoulas, Brittany1

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  12 June 2009

Mari C. Jones
Mari C. Jones*
Affiliation:
University of Cambridge
*
Peterhouse, Cambridge CB2 1RD
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

This paper examines the phenomenon of language obsolescence by focusing on a large sample of Breton-speakers and non-Breton-speakers within the commune of Plougastel-Daoulas, Finistere. As well as considering matters such as the ability to understand Breton, the opportunities to speak it and so forth, the study also investigates linguistic preference, inter-generational transmission and attitudes towards language planning in an attempt to determine the extent to which the speakers themselves may be considered as catalysts in the process of language death.

Type
Articles
Information
Journal of French Language Studies , Volume 6 , Issue 1 , March 1996 , pp. 45 - 73
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1996

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Footnotes

1

I would like to thank both Cambridge University General Board and the University's French Department for grants which made it possible for me to complete the extensive fieldwork necessary for this study.

References

REFERENCES

Ball, M. J. (ed.) (1988) The Use of Welsh, Clevedon: Multilingual Matters.Google Scholar
Ball, M. J., Griffiths, T. and Jones, G. E. (1988) Broadcast Welsh. In Ball (ed.), pp. 182–99.Google Scholar
Broudic, F. (1991) Ar brezoneg hag ar vrezonegerien c 1991. Brud Nevez 143: 20–60.Google Scholar
Campbell, L. and Muntzel, M. C. (1989) The structural consequences of language death. In Dorian (ed.), pp. 181–96.Google Scholar
Dorian, N. C. (1981) Language Death: the Life Cycle of a Scottish Gaelic Dialect. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press.Google Scholar
Dorian, N. C. (ed.) (1989) Investigating Obsolescence. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Dressler, W. (1972) On the phonology of language death. Papers from the Eighth Regional Meeting of the Chicago Linguistic Society. Chicago: Chicago Linguistic Society, pp. 448–57.Google Scholar
Dressler, W. and Wodak-Leodolter, R. (1977) Language preservation and language death in Brittany. International Journal of the Sociology of Language 12: 33–44.Google Scholar
Fishman, J. (1991) Reversing Language Shift. Clevedon, Philadelphia, Adelaide: Multilingual Matters.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gwegen, J. (1975) La Langue bretonne face à ses oppresseurs. Quimper: Nature et Bretagne.Google Scholar
Hewitt, S. M. (1977) The degree of acceptability of modern literary Breton to native Breton speakers. Diploma of Linguistics dissertation, University of Cambridge.Google Scholar
Hindley, R. (1990) The Death of Irish. London: Routledge.Google Scholar
Hudson, R. A. (1980) Sociolinguistics. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Kuter, L. (1989) Breton vs. French: language and the opposition of political, economic, social and cultural values. In Dorian (ed.), pp. 75–90.Google Scholar
Labov, W. (1985) Sociolinguistic Patterns. Oxford: Blackwell.Google Scholar
Macaulay, D. (ed.) (1992) The Celtic Languages. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
McDonald, M. (1986) Celtic ethnic kinship and the problem of being English. Current Anthropology 27: 333–47.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
McDonald, M. (1989) We are not French! Language, Culture and Identity in Brittany. London and New York: Routledge.Google Scholar
Mertz, E. (1989) Sociolinguistic creativity: Cape Breton Gaelic's linguistic ‘tip’. In Dorian (ed.), pp. 103–16.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Parry, M. M., Davies, W. V. and Temple, R. A. M. (eds.) (1994) The Changing Voices of Europe: Social and Political Changes and their Linguistic Repercussions Past, Present and Future. Cardiff: University of Wales Press.Google Scholar
Press, J. I. (1986) A Grammar of Modern Breton. Berlin, New York, Amsterdam: Mouton de Gruyter.Google Scholar
Press, J. I. (1994) Breton speakers in Brittany, France and Europe: constraints on the search for an identity. In Parry, Davies and Temple (eds.), pp. 213–26.Google Scholar
Romaine, S. (1991) Bilingualism. Oxford: Blackwell.Google Scholar
Simon, P. (1979) Aspects de l'ethnicité Bretonne. Pluriel 19: 23–43.Google Scholar
Ternes, E. (1992) The Breton language. In Macaulay (ed.), pp. 371–452.Google Scholar
Timm, L. (1980) Bilingualism, diglossia and language shift in Brittany. International Journal of the Sociology of Language 25: 29–41.Google Scholar
Trudgill, P. (1983) Sociolinguistics, an Introduction to Language and Society. London: Penguin.Google Scholar