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Minority languages and language revitalisation 103 even anachronistic role (Aitchison and Carter 2000: 156). Unlikely though this seems at present, there are Irish and Scottish parallels, and there are some observers who would not be averse to such a development, for they see a Welsh language spoken by 20 per cent of the population as, ultimately, a divisive rather than a unifying force in the construction of a Welsh national identity. 10 Our concluding point here, therefore, is that while Welsh revitalisation has made great progress, its trajectory is not complete, and neither is it uncontested. 4.3.3 Efforts to revitalise Breton Alongside Welsh, Breton revitalisation is very fragile, but this is not to deny the fact of progress in some areas. In education, for example, the Diwan organisation, a voluntary association of activist parents and teachers founded in 1977, has successfully established a network of private Breton-medium schools operating at nursery, primary and secondary levels. These are now complemented by bilingual streams at officially designated French–Breton bilingual schools in the public and Catholic sectors. Enrolment figures for 2002/03 are shown in Table 4.5. Table 4.5 Enrolments of Pupils in bilingual medium and immersion classes at pre-primary, primary and secondary levels in 2002/2003 Pre-primary schools 2002/2003 Diwan 1,054 Public bilingual 1,525 Catholic bilingual 1,250 Total 3,829 Primary schools 2002/2003 Diwan 1,073 Public bilingual 1,073 Catholic bilingual 1,053 Total 3,199 Secondary schools 2002/2003 Diwan collège level 504 lycée level 137 Public Bilingual collège level 268 lycée level 78 Catholic bilingual collège level 156 lycée level 0 Total 1143 Grand Total 8,171 (Source: Mercator-Education 2003) The figure of 8,171 above represents just under 1 per cent of the total school population of Brittany (Mercator-Education 2003: 30); certainly a very small proportion but not an insignificant one, considering that Breton only re-entered the public schools curriculum in 1951 under the Loi Deixonne.
104 Language Planning and Education One should not overlook, moreover, increased provision of Breton teaching at the universities of Brittany – Rennes, Brest, Lorient, Nantes, Université Catholique de l’Ouest (UCO) – where in 2003 an estimated 769 students were enrolled on single or dual degree courses, or, indeed, on courses for adults more generally. Enrolment on the latter, principally evening classes, stood at around 5,400 individuals, and further numbers participated in summer camps for learners and Breton enthusiasts, the best known of which are those run by the KEAV organisation (Kamp Etrekeltiek ar Vrezhonegerien). Beyond the education domain, Breton has extended its presence in the broadcast media with the arrival on air in September 2000 of a new, privately funded digital TV channel, TV-Breizh, which now provides competition for the very limited Breton-language output (four hours weekly) of the existing terrestrial channel, France-Ouest (Moal 2000). On radio, meanwhile, France-Bleu Breiz-Izel, part of the national network, broadcasts two hours of Breton programmes daily, adding to the output of four independent local radio stations. In the print media, there are a variety of weekly, monthly and quarterly Breton-language publications, all with restricted circulations, but no daily Breton newspaper. The two regional dailies – Le Télégramme and Ouest-France – are almost entirely in French, though they do carry weekly Breton-language columns, focusing mainly on language learning issues (Texier and O’Neill 2000). Another development worth mentioning is the establishment in 1999 of a language promotion agency, the Office of the Breton Language (Ofis ar Brezhoneg), but as its powers and remit are still uncertain, it is difficult to gauge its eventual impact. 4.3.3.1 Weaknesses in Breton revitalisation There is progress to report, then, but there are also weaknesses, one of the most significant of which is the division within the Breton-speaking community between native speakers and néo-bretonnants, the principal activists of the revitalisation movement (McDonald 1989; Jones 1998a, 1998b). The latter, like some other minority language movements (e.g. the Irish case), has a membership that is predominantly middle class, educated and politically mobilised, and this sets it apart socially and politically from the mainly elderly, country-dwelling native speakers, who tend to be illiterate in Breton and inclined – after decades of state-led marginalisation of the language – to regard it negatively. The social meanings attached to the Breton language by the two groups are, therefore, quite different. For the native speakers, Breton is, as suggested earlier, an expression of a local, parochial identity, one that they are not unhappy to leave behind: ‘tout ça [Breton], c’est le passé ’ (all that’s in the past) was the comment of one of Jones’s informants (1998b: 135). The néo-bretonnants, on the other hand, passionate in their support for Breton-medium education, see the language as an indispensable constituent of a regional pan-Breton identity. Reinforcing, and perhaps underpinning, these contrasting outlooks are differences in the kind of Breton used. Native bretonnants mainly speak a home-transmitted
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