Trégorrois Breton dialect

Trégorrois Breton is the dialect of Breton spoken in Trégor ("Bro Dreger" in Breton).

Distinguishing characteristics

Trégorrois differs from other varieties of the language in a number of ways:

* It always uses the possessive "hon" (often pronounced "hom") whereas the other dialects use "hol" before "l", "hon" before "n,d,t,h" and vowels, and "hor" before all others (these other forms are nonetheless understood because of exposure to hymns and songs, for instance)
* After the possessive "hon", Trégorrois makes a sibilant variation (e.g., where Vannetais uses /hon tu/, or Cornouaillais and Léonard "hon ti", Trégorrois says "hon zi")
* The "h" is very aspirated (e.g., in "he")
* Different from Léonard, "z" is generally not pronounced (nor is it in Cornouaillais and Vannetais)
* The tonic accent is very strong (for example, "bihan" is pronounced /b:in/)
* Certain constructions are preferred. For instance, "me a wel ac'hanout" or "plijet on ouzh da welout" instead of "plijet on o welout ac'hanout"
* Frequently the 'd' will not mutate into a "z" where it would in the other dialects (for example, "ar paotr a dañs")
* The glyph "w" is generally pronounced "ou" (e.g., "war" is pronounced /uar/), unlike Léonard dialect where it is pronounced /v/

There are several other pronunciation details. For example, "an heol" is pronounced /ãn heul/ (compare to the /ar mur/ of Kemper). This is possible in Trégorrois because the very strong aspiration of /h/ avoids any confusion with "l'huile" ("eoul").

Finally, future endings are different. The future of Middle Breton was "-homp", "-het", "-hont". Trégorrois moved from "h" to "f" (forms in "-fomp", "-fet", "-font," etc.). (Compare with the forms "-ahomp", "-ahet," "-ahont" of Vannetais, due to the appearance of an "-a-" elision (pronounced /e/).

Links

This article is based on the French-language Wikipedia's article, fr iconBreton trégorrois.

External links

* [http://www.ethnologue.com/show_language.asp?code=bre Ethnologue: Breton] Uses the dialect names listed in this article
* [http://www.omniglot.com/writing/breton.htm Omniglot: Breton language, alphabet and pronunciation] Refers to the dialects as Kerneveg (Cornouaille), Leoneg (Leon), Tregerieg (Tregor), and Gwenedeg (Vannetais)
* [http://www.breizh.net/saozneg/ Breizh.net] A "non-profit association whose objective is the promotion of Brittany and the Breton language on the web"
* [http://www.csis.ul.ie/staff/richard.sutcliffe/final_proceedings.htm 6th Annual Conference of the North American Association for Celtic Language Teachers, The Information Age, Celtic Languages and the New Millennium] Includes a brief overview of Breton history and dialects