BRET'ON LITERATURE. The Breton, or Armorican, language belongs to the British sub division of the Celtic family of languages. (See CELTIC LANGUAGES.) In its earliest form it was spoken in Britain, and closely resembled Cornish. As a result of social and political disturbances in Britain, many of the Celtic inhabitants emigrated during the Fifth and Sixth centuries to what is now French Brittany. The language that they planted there was known as Breton or .Armori can. It was strongly influenced by French. as time went on, and in the Middle Breton period a large part of the vocabulary came to be of Ro mance origin. The Celtic language was entirely driven out of Lipper Brittany by French. but in Lower Brittany it is still spoken by more than a million people. In modern Breton four distinct dialects are recognized—those of Leon. Treguier. Cornouailles, and Vannes. The Vannetais stands rather apart from the other three.
The material for the study of 01(1 Breton con sists entirely of glosses and lists of proper names, of which there is a considerable quantity in man uscripts ranging from the Eighth to the Tenth Century. The oldest literary monuments that have been preserved are Middle Breton; and like those in Cornish, they are almost entirely of a religious character. A number of the most im portant texts are accessible in recent editions.
During the Nineteenth Century there was a kind of literary revival in Brittany. In 1827 the Bible was translated into Breton by Le Gonidec. In 1839 appeared the first edition of Barzaz Breiz, by Hersart de la Villemarque, a book which gave rise to a long discussion resembling. on a smaller scale, the controversy over Slaepher son's fission. The Barzaz Brciz was finally dis credited as a reproduction of Breton popular poetry, but it gave an impulse to the work of more scientific collecting which has gone on steadily to this day. The most valuable publica tions in this field have been those of Al. F. M. Lure].
At the present time in Brittany. as in the other Celtic countries, an active effort is hieing made to preserve the native language and to promote its use in literature.
BIBLIOGRAPHY. For Old and Middle Breton Bibliography. For Old and Middle Breton monuments consult: Loth. Ch•estomathie Brc tonne (Paris. 1890) ; Le Ilystere dr Sainte hlarbe, edited by Ernault ( Paris, 1888), contains a Middle Breton vocabulary, and the same scholar has since published a separate dictionary- of :Mid dle Breton. An important bibliography of mod Breton materials was eontrilmted by Gaidoz nod Sebillot to the Rcruc Celtique, Vol. V. (Paris, 1875).