Breton Orthographies and Dialects, Volume 1: The Twentieth-Century Orthography War in Brittany

[Harold Schiffman]

Breton Orthographies and Dialects, Volume 1: The Twentieth-Century
Orthography War in Brittany
Series Title: Contemporary Studies in Descriptive Linguistics. Vol. 18
Published: 2008
Publisher: Peter Lang AG
                http://www.peterlang.com

Book URL: http://www.peterlang.com/Index.cfm?vLang=E&vSiteID=4&vSiteName=BookDetail%2Ecfm&VID=11364

Author: Iwan Wmffre

Abstract:

This work is for comparative linguists and celticists who are keen to study
Breton but may be too daunted to undertake such a venture by the wide
variety of orthographical conventions which exist in Breton.

The chronological development of the Breton orthographical debates during
the twentieth century is charted along with an attempt to discern the
ideological, political and personal motivations which lay behind those
debates. Based on a substantial corpus of hitherto unpublished original
documents and personal interviews, the research throws new light on the
nature of the political, ideological and linguistic divisions of the Breton
movement of that period (not least the events that occurred during the
1939-45 war).

The historical and societal background of the language is succinctly
delineated and points of orthographical contention are discussed, each in
turn, so that their correlation to the spoken varieties of Breton can be
judged by the reader.

The work should dispel once and for all the notion - boosted by the
existing orthographical instability and variety - that Breton is too
dialectally fragmented to be studied profitably without an inordinate
amount of effort.

Contents:

The Development of Modern Breton Standards - A historical summary of the
Breton orthographic debate - Dialects and Variation - Orthographies: KLT
and the Vannetais - The origins of the ZH orthography - The establishment
of ZH - Weisgerber and Hemon: German cultural policy towards the Breton
nationalists - Wartime reactions to ZH - State teaching of Breton 1940-44 -
Retrospect on the establishment of ZH - Post-war backlash - The origins and
establishment of the H orthography - The reaction to H - The Hemon-Mordiern
letters - A time of dissension - The origins and establishment of the SS
orthography - The failure of SS - Other proposed orthographic systems since
1975 - The survival of the Vannetais standard - Ideologies: Western
Brittany against the Duchy - Nationalism against regionalism - Hemon's
anti-scholarly streak - Orthographic inflexibility - Harmful repercussions
of orthographic censorship on publishing and scholarship - The phonological
quality of - Quis custodiet custodies? - Criticism of the Breton of
native speakers - Criticism of the Breton of learners - An orthographic
quasi-monopoly: ZH since the 1980s - A clash of principles: a
supradialectal or a localised base for a norm? - Problems of
standardisation - Purism and neologisms.

http://linguistlist.org/issues/19/19-1339.html

-- 
**************************************
N.b.: Listing on the lgpolicy-list is merely intended as a service to
its members
and implies neither approval, confirmation nor agreement by the owner
or sponsor of
the list as to the veracity of a message's contents. Members who
disagree with a
message are encouraged to post a rebuttal. (H. Schiffman, Moderator)
*******************************************