Linguistic Competence and Regional Identity in Brittany: Attitudes and Perceptions of Identity

Abstract

This article outlines a research project conducted in Brittany in 1994 and 1995. The object of this project was to investigate the attitudes of young people in Brittany (aged 8-18) towards varieties of language in the region (especially Breton), using a questionnaire survey and interviews. A brief outline of the project is followed by a discussion of the sociolinguistic situation in France and in Brittany and a description of the methodology and fieldwork. An assessment is made of the attitudes of informants towards issues of language and identity together with knowledge of Breton and the desire to learn the language, the combination of which is designed to provide an insight into perceptions of Breton identity and the likely future of the language. IntroductionQuestionnaires and interviews are used to explore in some depth the attitudes of young people in Brittany towards Breton and French, and to closely examine questions of identity and perceptions of the future of the Breton language. The study differentiates between informants on the basis of region of origin (Upper and Lower Brittany), gender and age (12 years and under, 13-14, 15-16, and 17 and over).Regionality was considered to be an important criterion for the selection of informants and although the areas of Upper and Lower Brittany have never had any administrative status, the division represents the linguistic dichotomy (Humphreys, 1992: 621), and Lower Brittany now generally designates the traditionally Breton-speaking part of Brittany. This division is confirmed by a number of sources including Falc'hun (1963), Fleuriot (1980, Abalain (1989) and Broudic (1995). Significant differences between the attitudes of the informants from the two regions could be expected, given the differences in their sociolinguistic profiles and historical backgrounds. The entity now known as Brittany has never been wholly Breton-speaking, even though the linguistic frontier with langue d'oïl varieties has receded over the centuries. In fact certain studies, for example Loth (1907), clearly indicate that at the time of the greatest expansion of Breton (in the ninth century), the frontier was considerably further eastward, stretching beyond Dinan and Redon (cf. Broudic, 1995 for an account of the changing limits of the frontier between Upper and Lower Brittany).In view of the findings of W.R. Jones (1949( , 1950( ), Sharp et al. (1973 and E.P. Jones (1982) that girls had more favourable attitudes to Welsh than boys, it was hypothesised that this would also be the case with female attitudes towards the Breton language.Age has often been found to be an important parameter in attitudes research (cf. relevance to this study is Baker's (1992) study of language attitudes in Welsh schools which found important attitude changes in the 13-14-year age group. These changes were accounted for by the maturation process, the emergence of different value systems, changing reference groups and the differences in local and global culture. The categories for the current study were chosen w...

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