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Breton dialect

Breton

Also known as: Brezhoneg

A Brittonic Celtic language of Brittany in north-western France. The only continental Celtic survivor; brought from south-western Britain in the 5th-6th centuries.

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Frequently asked questions

What language is Breton?

Breton is a dialect of the Breton language.

Where is Breton spoken?

Breton is primarily spoken in France.

Which region is Breton associated with?

Breton is part of the Europe region on DialectAtlas.

Is Breton known by other names?

Yes — Breton is also referred to as Brezhoneg.

Nearby dialects

See on the atlas →
Welsh

394 km away

A Brittonic Celtic language and the most-spoken Celtic language. Co-official in Wales, with around 900,000 speakers and a strong contemporary literary and broadcast presence.

Welsh Romani

461 km away

The inflected Northern Romani variety historically spoken by the Kååle of Wales. It was extensively documented by John Sampson in the early twentieth century and is now extinct as a first language, the last fluent speakers having died in the mid-twentieth century. It is notable as the last conservatively inflected Romani dialect attested in Britain.

Received Pronunciation

484 km away

The traditional prestige accent of southern England. Long carried by national broadcasting and higher education, but no longer dominant in everyday British speech.

Metropolitan French

486 km away

The Paris-area standard of European French. Carried nationally by education and broadcasting; the reference point for most French taught abroad.

Romanichal

523 km away

The Romani variety of the Romanichal Travellers of England and the wider British Isles. The older inflected dialect is no longer spoken; it survives as Angloromani, a para-Romani register in which a substantial Romani-derived lexicon is embedded in an English grammatical frame. Diaspora communities exist in North America and Australia.

Basque

534 km away

A language isolate of the western Pyrenees, with no proven relatives anywhere in the world. The only pre-Indo-European language to survive in Western Europe; co-official in the Basque Country and Navarre.

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