Gallo language

The term gallo is sometimes spelled galo or gallot.[3] It is also referred to as langue gallèse or britto-roman in Brittany.[3] In south Lower Normandy and in the west of Pays de la Loire it is often referred to as patois,[4] though this is a matter of some contention.[5] Gallo comes from the Breton word gall, meaning 'foreigner', 'French' or 'non-Breton'.[3][6] Gallo was first used by Breton speakers, which explains why it is used very little by Gallo speakers themselves. Henriette Walter conducted a survey in 1986 which showed that just over 4% of Gallo speakers in Côtes-d'Armor had ever used the term, and a third of them found it "had quite a pejorative connotation". According to the survey, the term patois was the most common way of referring to the language.[7]

The term britto-roman was coined by the linguist Alan-Joseph Raude in 1978 to highlight the fact that Gallo is "a Romance variety spoken by Bretons".[5] Gallo should not be confused with Gallo-Roman, a term that refers to the Romance varieties of ancient Gaul.

Gallo is one of the langues d'oïl, a dialect continuum covering the northern half of France. This group includes a wide variety of more or less well-defined and differentiated languages and dialects, which share a Latin origin and some Germanic influence from Frankish, the language spoken by the Franks.[8]

Gallo, like the other langues d'oïl, is neither ancient French nor a distortion of modern French.[9] The langues d'oïl are Gallo-Romance languages, which also includes Franco-provençal, spoken around Savoy. All the Gallo-Romance languages are Romance languages, a group which also includes, among others, Italian, Spanish and Romanian.

Gallo has not just borrowed words from Breton, but also aspects of grammar; the use of the preposition pour as an auxiliary verb is said to be of Celtic origin. The relationship between the two is comparable to that of the two languages of Scotland: Scots, an Anglic language closely related to English, and Scottish Gaelic, a Celtic language descended from Old Irish.[10]

The Celts settled in Armorica toward the 8th century BCE. Some of early groups mentioned in the written records of the Greeks were the Redones and the Namnetes. They spoke dialects of the Gaulish language[11] and maintained important economic ties with the British Isles.[12] Julius Caesar's invasion of Armorica in 56 BC led to a sort of Romanization of the population.[13] Gaulish continued to be spoken in this region until the 6th century CE,[14] especially in less populated, rural areas. When the Bretons emigrated to Armorica around this time, they found a people who had retained their Celtic language and culture.[15] The Bretons were therefore able to integrate easily.

In contrast to Armorica's western countryside, Nantes and Rennes were Roman cultural centres. Following the Migration Period,[12] these two cities, as well as regions to the east of the Vilaine, including the town Vannes,[16] fell under Frankish rule.[12] Thus, during the Merovingian dynasty, the population of Armorica was diverse, consisting of Gaulish tribes with assimilated Bretons, as well as Romanized cities and Germanic tribes.[17] War between the Frank and Breton kingdoms was constant between the 6th and 9th centuries,[12] which made the border between the two difficult to define. Before the 10th century, Breton was spoken by at least one third of the population[18] up to the cities of Pornic and Avranches.

Historically, France has been a nation with a high degree of linguistic diversity matched with relative tolerance, that is until the French Revolution.[19] Gallo's status as a tolerated regional language of France suffered as a direct consequence of the French Revolution. During the revolution, the Jacobins viewed regional languages as a way in which the structural inequalities of France were perpetuated.[19] Accordingly, they sought to eradicate regional languages to free regional language speakers of their unconstitutional inequalities.

The consequences of the revolution on Gallo stretch into recent history. Within the 1900s, government policy directly affected the use of minority languages in France. In 1962, Charles de Gaulle established the Haut Comité pour la défense et l'expansion de la langue française; this French Language policy's purpose was to enforce the traditional dialect of French, to the detriment of minority languages.[20] Furthermore, in 1994, the Loi Toubon declared that any governmental publications and advertisements must be in French.[20] Thus, the use of Gallo declined due to direct government actions.

Furthermore, Gallo speakers began to associate French as the language of intellectuals and social promotion, and their Gallo language as an impediment to their success.[21] As a result, the rate of children learning the language has diminished, since parents struggle to see the benefit of Gallo in their children's future.

Within recent history, the presence of Gallo has fluctuated in Brittany's school system. Shortly before World War II, the Regional Federation of Bretagne introduced the idea of rejuvenating Gallo's presences in schools.[22] They were primarily motivated in increasing the linguistic competence of children.[22]

In 1982, Gallo was officially adopted as an optional subject in high schools in Brittany, even appearing on France's high school-exit exam, the Baccalaureat.[22] It took years for the Gallo language to actually be incorporated into the curriculum, but by the 1990s, the main focus of the curriculum was cultural awareness of the Gallo language and identity.[22] However, in 2002, Gallo's optional-subject status in high schools was withdrawn.[22]

In reaction to the 2002 decision, an effective and committed network of Gallo activists advanced Gallo's status in Brittany schools.[23] Gallo is now taught in Upper Brittany's state schools, though the population of students enrolled in Gallo courses remains low. In the academic year of 2003 to 2004, there were 569 students learning Gallo at high school or college.[23] For comparison, in the same year, 3791 students were learning Breton in either high school or college.[23]

The town of Loudéac displays its Gallo name, Loudia, on signage

One of the metro stations of the Breton capital, Rennes, has bilingual signage in French and Gallo, but generally the Gallo language is not as visibly high-profile as the Breton language, even in its traditional heartland of the Pays Gallo, which includes the two historical capitals of Rennes (Gallo Resnn, Breton Roazhon) and Nantes (Gallo Nauntt, Breton Naoned).

Different dialects of Gallo are distinguished, although there is a movement for standardisation on the model of the dialect of Upper Brittany.

It is difficult to record the exact number of Gallo speakers today. Gallo and vernacular French share a social-linguistic landscape, so speakers have difficulty determining exactly which language they are speaking.[19] This makes estimates of the number of speakers vary widely.[19]

Although a written literary tradition exists, Gallo is more noted for extemporised story-telling and theatrical presentations. Given Brittany's rich musical heritage, contemporary performers produce a range of music sung in Gallo (see Music of Brittany).

The roots of written Gallo literature are traced back to Le Livre des Manières written in 1178 by Etienne de Fougères, a poetical text of 336 quatrains and the earliest known Romance text from Brittany, and to Le Roman d'Aquin, an anonymous 12th century chanson de geste transcribed in the 15th century but which nevertheless retains features typical of the mediaeval Romance of Brittany. In the 19th century oral literature was collected by researchers and folklorists such as Paul Sébillot, Adolphe Orain, Amand Dagnet and Georges Dottin. Amand Dagnet (1857-1933) also wrote a number of original works in Gallo, including a play La fille de la Brunelas (1901).[24]

It was in the 1970s that a concerted effort to promote Gallo literature started. In 1979 Alan J. Raude published a proposed standardised orthography for Gallo.[25]

A Gallo sign in the Rennes metro

Bilingual signage in the Rennes metro

• Of Pipers and Wrens (1997). Produced and directed by Gei Zantzinger, in collaboration with Dastum. Lois V. Kuter, ethnomusicological consultant. Devault, Pennsylvania: Constant Spring Productions.