Breton cornouaillais

The Breton cornouaillais is the Dialecte Breton spoken in Cornwall.

Dialectal fact and geography

The Breton cornouaillais is not easier to define than the three other great dialects of Breton (trégorrois, vannetais, léonard). On the contrary, it is a dialect which is defined complementarily in the three others.

On the one hand Cornwall widest and more are populated old évéché S of Low-Brittany: that makes more difficult to define a Langue of Cornwall, as one could do it for the Leon. However the speech cornouaillais varies from commune with commune about in the same proportions as its 3 neighbors. The only speech with which the limit is really sensitive is Vannetais. On the other hand, to separate cornouaillais and trégorrois is very arbitrary: the zone of the Monts of Arrée where the limit would be is on the contrary relatively homogeneous.

In addition, the absence of seminarists cornouaillais at the 19th century did not allow to propose with cornouaillais a written standard, contrary to what occurred in Trégor: the writers of Cornwall used the written language of the Leon, diocese from which the priests generally came.

The local speeches are thus numerous, as the linguists prefer to refer to the dialects as with cornouaillais in itself: Breton of the Country Bigouden, the Poher, the Cape Sizun or of the country of the Swallow-hole.

Inside the zone, a under-dialect particularly differentiated is that of South-west, in particular the Bigouden Country, part of the Glazik (Quimper) and the area of Douarnenez (country PEN-sardin).

Note:: one should not confuse the Breton cornouaillais with the Quimpertin which is a variety of French in the town of Quimper.

Characteristics of cornouaillais

Accent

The tonic Accent is generally placed on penultimate the Syllabe, as as léonard, but it is marked more. In fact, the Voyelle S not-accentuated (in particular the last Syllable S of the words) are or of the Schwa S, or elided. For example will bara (“bread”) often decides /ba: R. The words frequently employed ( anezhañ / anezhi /.. , neighed ) thus is often pronounced in only one syllable.

Grammar

the verbal particle O is sometimes replaced by E (which implies same the mixed change). For example: Emma O tont (“it comes, it is coming/to arrive”) gives in cornouaillais: Emma E tont (/ma I tõn/).

But in general no vowel is marked.

On the other hand, the mixed change gets along. Also sometimes means (in the part Is in particular) a H etymological ( O comes from ouzh ) which:

* made transfer /l/, /n/, /r/ in /lh/, /nh/, /x/ (“oh lenn” /lh εn/);

* reinforces the changes of /m/ and /b/, giving /f/ instead of /v/ (“oh goes” /f õn/);

* prevents the pronunciations of the “S” in /z/ and “F” in /v/ (“oh sevel” /sewl/).

the particle has only gets along as relative pronoun (except by the Consonant shift which it causes).

the particle very seldom does not get along. On the other hand the negative sentences with the third nobody in general comprises a “negative subject” anezañ, anezi, aneze , marked /n õ/, /n èj/, /n ε/. One will have thus for example, instead of “ glevont ket mad ” (“they do not hear well”) “ () glev ket mad aneze ” /gl EFF ke my: nε/.

the particle E is not either marked. To introduce the completive subordinate clauses, to compensate for it, a clean Subordinating conjunction, lar (or the ) appeared.

“ veze ket gouiet the E oa kamm kén ” (“ one did not notice any more that it was lame ”)

Its construction is much freer than the traditional construction, which imposes that the verb comes directly after the particle. It is thus possible laire to follow lar of the subject:

“ soñjal has ran the year ouvrierien has were unemployed da gousked ” (“ I think that the workmen remained to sleep ”)

or of any term, which can be another proposal:

“ evel rear it hefeleg, the my ve yen year amzer in EM blija… ” (“ like the woodcock, which if time is cold likes… ”)

Notes: In the same situation, vannetais and trégorrois uses sometimes penaos . Jean-Marie Scraigne uses sometimes both “ gwelet e-meump abaoe lar penaos oa ket to gwir! ” (“ we saw since it was not true ”)

cornouaillais It uses quasi-systématiquement the word Ba (coming from the elision of e-barzh , “in”) where the Breton arts person written E .

same the Ba replaces also E (N) in the derived prepositions: e-kreis, e-lec' H, e-mesk, stall will be thus replaced by Ba-kreis , Ba-lec' H (or Ba-plass ), Ba-mesk , Ba-tal .

the word glove undergoes the same elision and is often marked /ga/.

cornouaillais It hardly makes difference between the prepositions have , ouzh and diouzh . He pronounces them uniformly all either deus , or doc' H (according to the dialects).

Pronunciation of the consonants

Just like in Trégor and Vannetais, the dialect of Cornouailles, generally does not pronounce /z/ coming from old/ð/(" dd" Welsh). For example the word ezomm (“need”, the Peurunvan writes ezhomm incorrectly) will be marked /e: m or /i: m , and the verb anavezout (“to know”) will give /ã' nowt/.
/z/ coming from old a /s/ Latin ( asen “ass”) or Celtic ( isel “low”) are on the other hand marked. (There are exceptions: neuse (“then”) decides sometimes/'nœhe/, year dra- (“that, this thing”)/'ndrahe/).
the it H is pronounced various manners:

a /h/ (H expired) in general (as in the majority of Low-Brittany).
a /x/ (jota), in the words beginning with “it hoa” /xwa/, in the changes of “K”, at the end of the word…
when it comes from the change of “G”, the/ɣ/perhaps heard /h/ or even/ʀ/in South-east.

Of the written letters “v” decides /w/ sometimes (or/µ/). Others written “W” decide sometimes /v/. Or then they do not decide.

For example, the word awel ( avel in peurunvan, “wind”) is marked /a εl/in the area of Quimper/Douarnenez.

the W is often marked /v/ when it begins the word (especially in front of E or I), if not, it is marked /ɥ/ (as vannetais some) after a G in particular.

In Bigouden Country and in the surroundings, the it hw , consequently gives the combination of a /h/ and a /v/, to lead to the /f/ consonant. Also it hwi (“you”) says fi , and it hwec' H (“six”) fec' H .

Vocabulary

There never exists into Breton several translations for the French word . The version cornouaillaises are Morse and especially James .
the dialectal alternative of martese (“perhaps”) is a derivative of the métathèse term of origin: matrese / matre' E / mantr' eñ / matros / matrèhe …
Pegouls (“when”), is more frequently replaced by pedavare / pezavare / pevare / fear .
the interrogative pronoun Peseurt MOD (“how” besides marked generally Weighed MOD ) is often used in Cornwall, although the form penaos remains used in many dialects of évéché.

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