Colloquial Breton

Herve Ar Bihan, Ian Press

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2015
• ISBN:
  9781317306306
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Languages & Linguistics
• Subtopic: Languages
• Index: Languages & Linguistics

Colloquial Breton: The Complete Course for Beginners has been carefully developed by an experienced teacher to provide a step-by-step course to Breton as it is written and spoken today.

Combining a clear, practical and accessible style with a methodical and thorough treatment of the language, it equips learners with the essential skills needed to communicate confidently and effectively in Breton in a broad range of situations. No prior knowledge of the language is required.

Colloquial Breton is exceptional; each unit presents a wealth of grammatical points that are reinforced with a wide range of exercises for regular practice. A full answer key, a grammar summary, bilingual glossaries and English translations of dialogues can be found at the back as well as useful vocabulary lists throughout.

Key features include:

A clear, user-friendly format designed to help learners progressively build up their speaking, listening, reading and writing skills

Jargon-free, succinct and clearly structured explanations of grammar

An extensive range of focused and dynamic supportive exercises

Realistic and entertaining dialogues covering a broad variety of narrative situations

Helpful cultural points

An overview of the sounds of Breton

Balanced, comprehensive and rewarding, Colloquial Breton is an indispensable resource both for independent learners and students taking courses in Breton.

Audio material to accompany the course is available to download free in MP3 format from www.routledge.com/cw/colloquials. Recorded by native speakers, the audio material features the dialogues and texts from the book and will help develop your listening and pronunciation skills.

1 En em gavout gant tud

Meeting People

In this Unit you will Learn:

• about the verb bezañ/bout ‘to be’
• about Breton stress
• about the definite and indefinite articles
• about consonantal mutation
• about how to identify and ask questions about people, places, and things
• about greeting people and taking your leave
• what attracts us to Brittany

Dialogue 1 (Audio 1: 7)

How’re things?

GWELTAZ:	Penaos emañ kont ganeoc’h? Gweltaz on.
SOLENN:	Mat an traoù ganin, Gweltaz. Solenn on.
GWELTAZ:	Ha setu ma mignonez, Tereza.
SOLENN:	Mont a ra, Tereza?
TEREZA:	Mat-tre, Solenn.
GWELTAZ:	How’re you? I’m Gweltaz.
SOLENN:	I’m fine, Gweltaz. I’m Solenn.
GWELTAZ:	And here’s my friend, Tereza.
SOLENN:	How are things, Tereza?
TEREZA:	Very well, Solenn.

Vocabulary

bezañ/bout	to be (bezañ in the north, bout in the south)
en em gav/out gant	to meet, lit. ‘to find oneself with’
tud	people, parents, family
penaos	how
emañ	is
kont, f.	account, ‘things’
ganeoc’h	with you
on	I am
mat	good, fine
an	the
traoù	things
ganin	with me
ha(g)	and (hag before a vowel and, sometimes, h-)
setu	here/there is/are
ma^S	my
mignon, m.	friend (male)
mignonez, f.	friend (female)
mont, a	to go
a^L	verbal particle
ra	does
tre	very

Underlined vowels are stressed; we try to mark this on their first appearance. The superscript consonants refer to consonantal mutations. See later in this unit. The infinitive or verbal noun, and the verbal radical, will be presented in Unit 2.

Exercise 1 (Audio 1: 8)

Here are the first two pieces from the dialogue. Repeat them, slotting in different names; a few are given below:

A: Penaos emañ kont ganeoc’h? Gweltaz on.

B: Mat an traoù ganin, Gweltaz. Solenn on.

Men: Herve, Gwenn, Yann, Alan, Paol, Jakez

Women: Louiza, Jaketa, Nolwenn, Soazig, Rozenn, Janig

Dialogue 2 (Audio 1: 9)

Who are you and what do you do?

YANN:	Mont a ra mat ganeoc’h? Yann on-me. Ha c’hwi, piv oc’h?
KATELL:	Katell on-me, ha setu ma c’hoar A...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Title Page
• Copyright
• Contents
• Preface
• Abbreviations
• Introduction
• 1. En em gavout gant tud
• 2. Lec’hioù ha tud
• 3. E kêr
• 4. Prenañ traoù ha mont d’an ostaleri
• 5. E kêr e vezomp alies
• 6. En ostaleri hag er stal-levrioù
• 7. Ar marc’had hag an aod
• 8. Ha ni ha selaou an dud o komz
• 9. Ne gollimp ket hon hent!
• 10. Bepred gant hon tamm tro war ar maez
• 11. Pell diouzh tousmac’h kêr – Dreist!
• 12. Kavet an ti a-benn ar fin
• 13. Pesked, bigi ha traoù da brenañ
• 14. A-raok pell e vo echu ar vakañsoù – poent mont da Roazhon
• 15. Kenavo ur wech all!
• Grammar section
• Key to exercises
• Breton-English glossary
• English-Breton glossary
• Index