IN your article “Oor weans hae richt tae see mither tung respect” (15th March 2021) John Hodgart said “The French hae recently passed a law makkin linguistic discrimination illegal” and that Scotland can learn from this example. As a Breton I feel I need to reply.

We Bretons have a great opinion of Scots. We consider you as cousins. We have had strong and old links. Even Robert the Bruce’s ancestors came from Brittany. So, it is painful when you show France as positive to its minority languages. We have had to struggle to maintain our minority cultures and languages.

On April 8, an overwhelming majority of MPs voted in favour of a law proposed by Breton MP Paul Molac, to promote education in minority languages. This allowed immersive teaching (“Diwan”, similar to Gaelic medium units) in state schools, and made municipalities reach mutual agreements so most citizens could access them. Diwans have existed for over 50 years, but are just legally tolerated. The passing of the law was seen positively by people in France and globally. It came as a surprise therefore, that Education Minister, Jean-Michel Blanquer, strongly expressed his opposition. But the law was approved by most MPs of Macron’s party.

Two weeks later there was another surprise when the law was referred to the Constitutional Court by 61 MPs, all belonging to Macron’s party, that had massively approved it. This is unprecedented. Normally it is expected new laws are referred by opposition MPs. As the days of waiting passed, confusion increased. Many Mps, feeling uncomfortable, asked for their signature to be withdrawn.

It was then made public that the arguments for rejecting the law had been prepared by Jean-Michel Blanquer’s ministry. On May 21, ironically “diversity day”, the Constitutional Court published its ruling. It allowed financial compensation for municipalities that have greater education demand due to providing minority language medium education. But they were, I think you say, “sleekit”.

They were supposed to rule only on this issue but they also ruled on two other important principles. Firstly, that immersive teaching can not be directly funded. Secondly, the use of letters not in the French alphabet (e.g. ñ, used in Breton and Basque) can not be used. Now it is impossible for parents to give their children names traditional names that use “foreign” letters, so you can not have e.g. Iñaki, Seán, Fañch, Derc’hen. Both decisions based on the grounds of article 2 of the Constitution: “French is the language of the Republic”.

This ruling may lead immersive schools to disappear, if they can’t apply for public funding anymore. It would put us 50 years back, erasing all the progress that has been made.

Attempts to establish a single national language date back to the French revolution. The First Republic (1792-1804) aimed to eliminate all other languages to cement one nation. Abbé Grégoire stated: “superstition speaks Breton, the hatred of the Republic speaks German, the counter-revolution speaks Italian, and fanaticism speaks Basque. Let us break those instruments of damage and error”. Those who thought differently were “eliminated”.

In the early 20th C priests were forced to only preach in French. Compulsory education started at the end of the 19th C but had to be in French only. Most children didn’t know French when they arrived, but it was forbidden to use their mother tongue. But still Breton flourished.

After WWII, the vast majority of Breton speakers (about 1 million) started speaking French, breaking language transmission between generations. Teaching “regional” languages was only permitted as an option from 1951. A few Breton programmes were allowed on the radio and on TV from the 1960s. Nowadays, there is still no public Breton channel, and there is only around two hours of Breton-language programmes broadcast per week.

In 1977, a group of Breton patriots created the Diwan schools where Breton was the only language used. These schools were illegal, and so they struggled to maintain these them. Now Around 5000 pupils are taught in Diwans, 30,000 in minority languages in France. The French state, seeing that it could not eliminate them, decided to grant them some subsidies, and created bilingual public schools. Yet, only around 2% of the pupils in Brittany have access to Breton education.

I know Gaelic and Scots are under threat too. We must work together for our national cultures and languages.

Bev eo hor yezhoù c’hoazh! Oor leids are yet wi us! Tha ar canàin bèo fhathast!

Sant ar Gall
Kemper, Breizh