Breton People

Breton People

The Bretons are an ethnic group located in the region of Brittany in France. They trace much of their heritage to groups of Brythonic speakers who emigrated from Cornwall (Kernow) and southwestern Great Britain generally in waves from the 3rd to 9th century (most heavily from 450 to 600) into the Armorican peninsula, subsequently named Brittany after them.

The main traditional language of Brittany is Breton (Brezhoneg) and is spoken in Western Brittany. Today Breton is spoken by approximately 365,000 people, of whom about 240,000 speak it fluently. Another linguistic minority is present in Brittany, namely speakers of the Gallo language; Gallo is only spoken in Eastern Brittany, where Breton has virtually never been. Breton is closely related to the Brythonic languages Cornish (closely) and Welsh (more distantly) while the Gallo language is a Romance language of the langue d'oil family. Bretons' native language is mainly French nowadays.

Brittany and its people are included as one of the six Celtic nations. Ethnically, along with the Cornish and Welsh, the Bretons are the last vestiges of the ancient British. The actual number of ethnic Bretons in Brittany and France as a whole is difficult to assess as the French government does not make such statistics. The present day population of Brittany based on a January 2007 estimate is 4,365,500.

A strong historical emigration has created a Breton diaspora whithin the French borders and in the overseas departments and territories of France; it is mainly established in Paris area were more than 1 million people claim Breton heritage. Many Breton families have also emigrated to the Americas, predominantly to Canada (mostly Québec and the Maritimes) the United States and the first French settlers of the French Antilles were from Brittany.