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98-432: Guérande ( French pronunciation: [ɡeʁɑ̃d] ; Breton : Gwenrann , pronounced [ɡwɛnˈrãnː] ; Gallo : Geraundd ) is a medieval town located in the department of Loire-Atlantique , and the region of Pays de la Loire , Western France. The inhabitants are referred to as Guérandais (masculine), and Guérandaise (feminine). The Guérande Peninsula overlooks two contrasting landscapes:

196-560: A Brittonic language community that once extended from Great Britain to Armorica (present-day Brittany) and had even established a toehold in Galicia (in present-day Spain). Old Breton is attested from the 9th century. It was the language of the upper classes until the 12th century, after which it became the language of commoners in Lower Brittany. The nobility, followed by the bourgeoisie , adopted French . The written language of

294-541: A act would be dishonorable. Luis refused to change his resolve and threatened to quit the army if he did not obtain satisfaction. Charles gave in and the two knights, were sent for. Luis remained unmalleable to showing mercy and announced that the execution would take place the same day after dinner. The Anglo-Breton defenders apparently had spies in Charles camp and became aware of the situation, resolving to try everything to snatch them back. While Amaury de Clisson simulated

392-489: A canon college that was a benefit to the city's development. At the turn of the second millennium, a fortified town was built and a political and administrative organization could be established thanks to the existing castle. According to local legends, a Viking band arrived in Guerande in 919 determined to pillage the city. The Guerandais apparently took refuge in the collegiate church praying to St Aubin who apparently sent

490-534: A daughter of King Louis IX of France. In 1306, Luis married Leonor de Guzman, daughter of Alonso Perez de Guzman "el Bueno", the defender of Tarifa, and Maria Alonso Coronel. Through his wife’s inheritance he became, lord of Deza, Enciso and Puerto de Santa Maria. He lived for some time in Castile , where his presence is noted at the coronation of Alfonso XI who conferred on him the order of chivalry. Luis had his first military experience when he served Alfonso XI in

588-465: A distraction to attract the attention of the besiegers, Mauny took a detour into the now empty camp and recaptured the two knights returning with them. The second siege of Hennebont then continued without any progress; being finally abandoned around the middle of October. Charles then attacked the small town of Jugon , while the rest of the army was garrisoned in Garhaix under the command of Luis. Luis

686-540: A fairly large body of literature for a minority language. In 1977, Diwan schools were founded to teach Breton by immersion . Since their establishment, Diwan schools have provided fully immersive primary school and partially immersive secondary school instruction in Breton for thousands of students across Brittany. This has directly contributed to the growing numbers of school-age speakers of Breton. The Asterix comic series has been translated into Breton. According to

784-578: A known ill-fated Aragonese expedition of 1360, but it is improbable that Cerda's galleys would have remained available that late. Luis de la Cerda was buried in the Abbey of Saint-Gilles in Languedoc, France. His titles of Talmont and Prince of Fortuna were inherited by his eldest living son Luis de la Cerda y Guzmán . But after the male lines died without issue, the titles passed through Luis de la Cerda's daughter Isabel de la Cerda Pérez de Guzmán into

882-461: A national culture. Teachers humiliated students for using their regional languages, and such practices prevailed until the late 1960s. In the early 21st century, due to the political centralization of France, the influence of the media, and the increasing mobility of people, only about 200,000 people are active speakers of Breton, a dramatic decline from more than 1 million in 1950. The majority of today's speakers are more than 60 years old, and Breton

980-635: A naval battle. During the truce that followed, Luis worked to rebuild the navy, with new ships being built and fitted out ships available in all ports of France, while also recruiting crews from maritime populations of the Basque provinces. During the Breton War of Succession , Luis joined the command of the Duke of Normandy in October 1341, travelled to Angers where a Franco-Breton army was massing, joining

1078-583: A part of the salterns of the Atlantic Ocean, more than three-quarters of them, found in the Gironde and the peninsula of Quiberon . Salterns are sites where the salt workers collect approximately 15,000 tons of cooking salt a year, and approximately 300 tons of Fleur de sel or flower of salt . A cooperative promote quality with a label (the French Label rouge). Today around 250 workers live on

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1176-465: A protest, claiming priority of discovery, but conceded to the authority of the pope. Alfonso XI of Castile also protested, using the ancient Visigothic dioceses and prior reconquista treaties to claim the islands fell within Castilian jurisdiction and 'sphere of conquest', but nonetheless recognized Cerda's title. Despite their formal recognitions, preparations were stalled by the opposition of

1274-573: A result, no expedition was mounted before Cerda's untimely death on 5 July 1348. Tradition holds that the Aragonese galleys prepared for Luis de La Cerda, either tired of the delays (or immediately after his death), decided to set out on their own for the Canaries and attempted a landing on La Gomera , but were quickly repulsed by the natives. As there is no documentary evidence for this expedition, some historians have been eager to identify it with

1372-477: A schwa sound occurs as a result of vowel neutralization in post-tonic position, among different dialects. All vowels can also be nasalized , which is noted by appending an 'n' letter after the base vowel, or by adding a combining tilde above the vowel (most commonly and easily done for a and o due to the Portuguese letters ), or more commonly by non-ambiguously appending an ⟨ñ⟩ letter after

1470-666: A sign giving courage to the locals who took up arms and drove out the invaders. During the Middle Ages, the town had a very rich history, with many important events. It was also the capital of the Pays Guérandais, an ancient region of the Duchy of Brittany . In 1343 during the Breton War of Succession , Guerande was captured by Breton-French troops led by Luis de la Cerda , a commander of Charles of Blois . The former admiral used his Spanish and Genoese auxiliaries to attack

1568-412: Is -où , with its variant -ioù ; most nouns that use this marker are inanimates but collectives of both inanimate and animate nouns always use it as well. Most animate nouns, including trees, take a plural in -ed . However, in some dialects the use of this affix has become rare. Various masculine nouns including occupations as well as the word Saoz ("Englishman", plural Saozon ) take

1666-662: Is a Southwestern Brittonic language of the Celtic language group spoken in Brittany , part of modern-day France. It is the only Celtic language still widely in use on the European mainland, albeit as a member of the insular branch instead of the continental grouping. Breton was brought from Great Britain to Armorica (the ancient name for the coastal region that includes the Brittany peninsula) by migrating Britons during

1764-509: Is a 15th-century châtelet known as Porte Saint-Michel) as well as ten towers. Guérande was visited regularly by Breton rulers such as Duchess Anne of Brittany . In 1532, upon the marriage of Anne of Brittany to Charles VIII of France , Brittany (and with it the pays of Guerande) became unified with the French Kingdom. In the late Middle Ages, the city was regularly visited by merchants from Rouen who came to buy salt. During

1862-402: Is applied for animate referents. Metals, time divisions (except for eur "hour", noz "night" and sizhun "week") and mountains tend to be masculine, while rivers, cities and countries tend to be feminine. However, gender assignment to certain words often varies between dialects. Number in Breton is primarily based on an opposition between singular and plural. However, the system

1960-406: Is full of complexities in how this distinction is realized. Although modern Breton has lost its ancestral dual number marker, relics of its use are preserved in various nouns pertaining to body parts, including the words for eyes, ears, cheeks, legs, armpits, arms, hands, knees, thighs, and wings. This is seen in a prefix (formed in daou , di or div ) that is etymologically derived from

2058-517: Is known to exist for historians to understand the motives for this. What is known is by spring 1342 he had directly joined the Franco-Breton army of Charles de Blois as a commander. During the siege of Hennebont , Luis was issued siege weapons by Charles after he had moved on to attack Auray; Luis accelerated operations as quickly as he could, and soon the defenders were open to surrender talks when an English fleet arrived. The besieged exited

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2156-422: Is not used, while keleier has become the regular plural, 'different news items'. Meanwhile, certain nouns can form doubly marked plurals with lexicalized meanings – bugel "child" is pluralized once into bugale "children" and then pluralized a second time to make bugaleoù "groups of children". The diminutive suffix -ig also has the somewhat unusual property of triggering double marking of

2254-609: Is now classified as an endangered language . At the beginning of the 20th century, half of the population of Lower Brittany knew only Breton; the other half were bilingual. By 1950, there were only 100,000 monolingual Bretons, and this rapid decline has continued, with likely no monolingual speakers left today. A statistical survey in 1997 found around 300,000 speakers in Lower Brittany, of whom about 190,000 were aged 60 or older. Few 15- to 19-year-olds spoke Breton. In 1993, parents were finally legally allowed to give their children Breton names. In 1925, Professor Roparz Hemon founded

2352-680: Is one of the best preserved and complete in France. Its circumference stretches 1434 meters. The main towns around Guérande are Saint-Nazaire and Nantes to the East (19 km (11.81 mi) and 80 km (49.71 mi) away), and Vannes (70 km (43.50 mi) to the North). The Guérande Peninsula is surrounded by water. It stretches out from the Atlantic Ocean (west) to the Brière Regional Nature Reserve (east), and from

2450-589: Is pluralized to pesked , singulativized to peskedenn , referring to a single fish out of a school of fish, and this singulative of the plural can then be pluralized again to make peskedennoù "fishes". On top of this, the formation of plurals is complicated by two different pluralizing functions. The "default" plural formation is contrasted with another formation which is said to "emphasize variety or diversity" – thus two semantically different plurals can be formed out of park : parkoù "parks" and parkeier "various different parks". Ball reports that

2548-546: Is the only living Celtic language that is not recognized by a national government as an official or regional language. The first Breton dictionary, the Catholicon , was also the first French dictionary. Edited by Jehan Lagadec in 1464, it was a trilingual work containing Breton, French and Latin. Today bilingual dictionaries have been published for Breton and languages including English, Dutch, German, Spanish and Welsh. A monolingual dictionary, Geriadur Brezhoneg an Here

2646-405: Is used to form singulars out of collective nouns , for which the morphologically less complex form is the plural. Thus, the singulative of the collective logod "mice" is logod enn "mouse". However, Breton goes beyond Welsh in the complications of this system. Collectives can be pluralized to make forms which are different in meaning from the normal collective-- pesk "fish" (singular)

2744-557: Is wet-lands. This swamp of brackish water is called The Swamp of Grande Brière and covers 70 km (27.03 sq mi). There are 21 municipalities which are a part of this territory and of which Guérande is a member. The regional nature reserve of Brière was created on 16 October 1970 (revised on 6 June 2001). This is one of the first natural parks to be listed as a "Parc Naturel Régional" in 1970. This small village between Guerande and La Turballe has many typical houses of salt workers. There are many monuments of interest such as

2842-498: The Ya d'ar brezhoneg campaign, to encourage enterprises, organisations and communes to promote the use of Breton, for example by installing bilingual signage or translating their websites into Breton. In the late 20th century, the French government considered incorporating the independent Breton-language immersion schools (called Diwan ) into the state education system. This action

2940-572: The Duchy of Brittany was Latin , switching to French in the 15th century. There exists a limited tradition of Breton literature . Some philosophical and scientific terms in Modern Breton come from Old Breton. The recognized stages of the Breton language are: Old Breton – c.  800 to c.  1100 , Middle Breton – c.  1100 to c.  1650 , Modern Breton – c.  1650 to present. The French monarchy

3038-607: The Early Middle Ages , making it an Insular Celtic language . Breton is most closely related to Cornish , another Southwestern Brittonic language. Welsh and the extinct Cumbric , both Western Brittonic languages , are more distantly related, and the Goidelic languages ( Irish , Manx , Scottish Gaelic ) have a slight connection due to both of their origins being from Insular Celtic. Having declined from more than one million speakers around 1950 to about 200,000 in

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3136-569: The Fourth siege of Gibraltar in 1333 against the Moors . Most historians argue that Luis returned to France to mainly improve his fortunes. As a cousin of the French King, he entered the French court. King Philip VI of France invested Luis de la Cerda as Count of Clermont and the first Count of Talmont in 1338/39. The King set up these estates in a area of France immediately bordering

3234-431: The county of Léon ), tregerieg ( trégorrois , of Trégor ), kerneveg ( cornouaillais , of Cornouaille ), and gwenedeg ( vannetais , of Vannes ). Guérandais was spoken up to the beginning of the 20th century in the region of Guérande and Batz-sur-Mer . There are no clear boundaries between the dialects because they form a dialect continuum , varying only slightly from one village to

3332-567: The "Pays Blanc" (White Land), because of its salt marshes, and the "Pays Noir", with the Brière peat bog. The town's salt marshes have made it a renowned producer of salt, and it is the traditional source of fleur de sel , a type of garnishing salt. Since 2004, the medieval town of Guérande has been a member of a national network of 120 towns, the Villes et Pays d'Art et d'Histoire (Towns and Regions of Art and History). The fortified wall of Guérande

3430-472: The 17th and 18th centuries, the city was transformed, with bourgeois houses in granite replacing the houses of the 15th and 16th centuries. In 1686, at the Saint-Aubin public place, a new building was built called Les Halles; which was notable for its large auditorium. These mansions and houses represent about 50% of the buildings still visible today in the sector called the intra muros . The Chouannerie

3528-498: The Breton-language review Gwalarn . During its 19-year run, Gwalarn tried to raise the language to the level of a great international language. Its publication encouraged the creation of original literature in all genres, and proposed Breton translations of internationally recognized foreign works. In 1946, Al Liamm replaced Gwalarn . Other Breton-language periodicals have been published, which established

3626-594: The Canary islands, with the objective of capturing natives to sell them as slaves in European markets. Luis de la Cerda, then serving as a French ambassador to the papal court in Avignon , submitted a proposal to Pope Clement VI that offered the Catholic Church the more palatable vision of conquering the islands and converting the native Guanches to Christianity. On 15 November 1344, Pope Clement VI issued

3724-601: The English possessions of the Guyenne in the south west and in the north east, and was particularly exposed. Accounts show that in 1339 the French Army was garrisoned at his castle of Talmont, to defend Lille He was titled “Sovereign captain” at that stage. In 1340, Luis received a testimony of royal confidence when he was called on March 13 to fill the post of admiral left vacant by Hue Quiéret , fatally wounded in

3822-621: The Franco-Bretons had captured four Anglo-Breton ships loaded with provisions and horses. This however did not stop the Anglo-Breton commander Robert III of Artois landing his troops in Brittany. The chroniclers relate that Luis was involved for the rest of the war in seizing English supply ships intended for the Anglo-Breton force besieging Vannes , and surprising an enemy fleet anchored not far from there, to seizing four ships loaded with supplies, three of which were sunk. Luis left

3920-412: The French law known as Toubon , it is illegal for commercial signage to be in Breton alone. Signs must be bilingual or French only. Since commercial signage usually has limited physical space, most businesses have signs only in French. Ofis Publik ar Brezhoneg , the Breton language agency, was set up in 1999 by the Brittany region to promote and develop the daily use of Breton. It helped to create

4018-589: The Iberian monarchs. With the assistance of the Archbishop of Neopatria, Luis de la Cerda managed to secure a commitment from Peter IV of Aragon to put some galleys at his disposal, but the others were far less forthcoming, if not outright hostile. The renewed outbreak of the Hundred Years War in 1346 put the project on hold, as Luis de la Cerda resumed military service for the French crown. As

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4116-654: The Sainte-Catherine church (built during the 15th century), Requer's Cross ( listed building in 1944) as well as parts of an old Roman wall. This village is situated in the heart of the salt marshes. Like Clis, there are many typical houses of salt workers. This village is famous for its castle. Breton language Breton ( / ˈ b r ɛ t ə n / , BRET -ən , French: [bʁətɔ̃] ; endonym : brezhoneg [bʁeˈzɔ̃ːnɛk] or [bɾəhɔ̃ˈnek] in Morbihan )

4214-510: The University of Rennes 2 has a Breton language department offering courses in the language along with a master's degree in Breton and Celtic Studies. Vowels in Breton may be short or long . All unstressed vowels are short; stressed vowels can be short or long (vowel lengths are not noted in usual orthographies as they are implicit in the phonology of particular dialects, and not all dialects pronounce stressed vowels as long). An emergence of

4312-499: The War of Breton Succession very rich as a result of the huge loot and plunder captured. During the War in the Guyenne, in 1346, Luis resumed service for Philippe de Valois. The chroniclers state that he participated in a campaign led by the Duke of Normandy against the English commanded by the Earl of Derby during the first half of that year. The season’s campaign ended in failure in front of

4410-423: The architect Bourgerel were overly ambitious and caused the collapse of the west front in 1876. It was Eugène Boismen who was charged with reconstructing it in the original style. Local tradition tells the story of a peasant named Yves Herbic, who was very poor. At daytime, he would work for his lord. At night, he would cultivate his own small piece of land. He sowed wheat but this didn't bring in enough money to pay

4508-479: The base vowel (this depends on the orthographic variant). Diphthongs are /ai, ei, ou/ . Breton nouns are marked for gender and number. While Breton gender is fairly typical of gender systems across western Europe (with the exception of Basque and modern English), Breton number markers demonstrate rarer behaviors. Breton has two genders: masculine ( gourel ) and feminine ( gwregel ), having largely lost its historic neuter ( nepreizh ) as has also occurred in

4606-681: The biggest ones are Saillé, Clis, Careil and La Madeleine -2000 hectares of salt marshes About half of the remaining megalithic monuments of the Département Loire-Atlantique , is located on the Peninsula, which makes it an important area for Prehistory. It is now known that these structures date from around 5200–2200 BC. At the end of the Iron Age , the Peninsula was occupied by 2 tribes: The Peninsula represented an important crossroads for these and other tribes, as it

4704-440: The bull Tuae devotionis sinceritas granting the Canary islands in perpetuity Luis de la Cerda and his heirs, granting him the sovereign title of "Prince of Fortuna", with attendant rights to mint coinage and other royal privileges. In return, Cerda promised to convert the natives and render the papacy an annual tribute of 400 gold florins , due yearly on the feast of Saints Peter and Paul (29 June). Eleven islands were cited in

4802-399: The bull by the ancient (and fantastical) names given by Pliny : Canaria, Ningaria, Plumaria, Capraria, Junonia, Embronea, Atlantica, Hesperida, Cernae, Gorgona and Galeta. Upon receiving the crown and sceptre from the hands of the pope, a cavalcade was sent around the streets of Avignon , announcing Luis de la Cerda as the newly created king of the islands. Luis de la Cerda quickly acquired

4900-403: The changes associated with -er / -ier are less predictable. Various nouns instead form their plural merely with ablaut : a or o in the stem being changed to e : askell "wing" → eskell "wings"; dant "tooth" → dent "teeth"; kordenn "rope" → kerdenn "ropes". Luis de la Cerda Luis de la Cerda was the second son of Alfonso de la Cerda ,

4998-642: The church found itself in the midst of the French Revolution . It suffered little damage, other than to the windows. However, the Revolution led to major structural changes, since, in 1792, the status of Collegiate Church was abolished and the canons exiled to Spain. In 1840, following the creation of the National Historical Monuments commission, the church's true value was realised and it was listed. The works undertaken by

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5096-577: The city walls and pushed back the Chouans without much difficulty. Guerande was part of the Saint-Nazaire pocket during 1944 and 1945. In 2008, 2.02% of the children attended bilingual schools (in French and Breton) in primary education. Guérande is twinned with: Listed building in 1877. The names of the four gates are: The ramparts are not the only element of defense of the old city. Also found are: Listed building in 1853. One of

5194-1156: The comic, the Gaulish village where Asterix lives is in the Armorica peninsula , which is now Brittany. Some other popular comics have also been translated into Breton, including The Adventures of Tintin , Spirou , Titeuf , Hägar the Horrible , Peanuts and Yakari . Some original media are created in Breton. The sitcom, Ken Tuch , is in Breton. Radio Kerne , broadcasting from Finistère , has exclusively Breton programming. Some movies ( Lancelot du Lac , Shakespeare in Love , Marion du Faouet , Sezneg ) and TV series ( Columbo , Perry Mason ) have also been translated and broadcast in Breton. Poets, singers, linguists, and writers who have written in Breton, including Yann-Ber Kallocʼh , Roparz Hemon , Añjela Duval , Xavier de Langlais , Pêr-Jakez Helias , Youenn Gwernig , Glenmor , Vefa de Saint-Pierre and Alan Stivell are now known internationally. Today, Breton

5292-880: The consideration of the Breton language in Microsoft products. In October 2014, Facebook added Breton as one of its 121 languages after three years of talks between the Ofis and Facebook. France has twice chosen to enter the Eurovision Song Contest with songs in Breton; once in 1996 in Oslo with " Diwanit bugale " by Dan Ar Braz and the fifty piece band Héritage des Celtes , and most recently in 2022 in Turin with " Fulenn " by Alvan Morvan Rosius and vocal trio Ahez . These are two of five times France has chosen songs in one of its minority languages for

5390-568: The contest, the others being in 1992 (bilingual French and Antillean Creole ), 1993 (bilingual French and Corsican ), and 2011 (Corsican). Breton is spoken mainly in Lower Brittany, but also in a more dispersed way in Upper Brittany (where it is spoken alongside Gallo and French), and in areas around the world that have Breton emigrants. The four traditional dialects of Breton correspond to medieval bishoprics rather than to linguistic divisions. They are leoneg ( léonard , of

5488-545: The defenders killed their own captain and opened the gates. Luis then crossed the width of Brittany to besiege the commercial town of Guérande . Luis used his Spanish and Genoese mercenaries to attack all sides at once. Without giving quarter to the inhabitants, they engaged in plunder, not even respecting the churches, five of which were desecrated and burned. When Charles heard of these excesses, he ordered Luis to hang 24 principal culprits. Luis still left Guérande, loaded with loot and proceeded to join Charles, still in front of

5586-476: The disinherited and Matilde of Brienne-Eu (daughter of John II of Brienne ). Alfonso had been chosen to inherit the Kingdom of León from his grandfather King Alfonso X of Castile-León , but was deposed and driven into exile in 1284 by his uncle, Sancho IV . As a result, most of Alfonso's children, including Luis de la Cerda, were born and raised in France mainly because his grandmother was Blanche of France ,

5684-456: The first Bishop of Nantes . The Bretons of the prince of "Vannes" ( Waroch II (577–594)) may have built the first parish. Waroch is supposed to have created a baptistery in place of the actual choir of the collegiate church "Saint-Aubin". Around 848, under the reign of Nominoe , 1st King of Brittany, the city became the head of a temporary bishopric. Salomon ("Selyfan", "Salaun", "Tudwal Mwyn Fawr", "3rd King of Brittany", "857–874",) built

5782-676: The first decade of the 21st century, Breton is classified as "severely endangered" by the UNESCO Atlas of the World's Languages in Danger . However, the number of children attending bilingual classes rose 33% between 2006 and 2012 to 14,709. Breton is spoken in Lower Brittany ( Breton : Breizh-Izel ), roughly to the west of a line linking Plouha (west of Saint-Brieuc ) and La Roche-Bernard (east of Vannes ). It comes from

5880-577: The growing numbers of school-age speakers of Breton. The schools have also gained fame from their high level of results in school exams, including those on French language and literature. Breton-language schools do not receive funding from the national government, though the Brittany Region may fund them. Another teaching method is a bilingual approach by Div Yezh ("Two Languages") in the State schools, created in 1979. Dihun ("Awakening")

5978-681: The growth of the movement. In 2007, some 4,500 to 5,000 adults followed an evening or correspondence one Breton-language course. The transmission of Breton in 1999 was estimated to be 3 percent. In addition to bilingual education (including Breton-medium education) the region has introduced the Breton language in primary education, mainly in the department of Finistère. These "initiation" sessions are generally one to three hours per week, and consist of songs and games. Schools in secondary education ( collèges and lycées ) offer some courses in Breton. In 2010, nearly 5,000 students in Brittany were reported to be taking this option. Additionally,

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6076-541: The heritage of France ). The European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages , which obliges signatory states to recognize minority and regional languages, was signed by France in 1999 but has not been ratified. On 27 October 2015, the Senate rejected a draft constitutional law ratifying the charter. Regional and departmental authorities use Breton to a very limited extent. Some bilingual signage has also been installed, such as street name signs in Breton towns. Under

6174-578: The high altar of Saint Aubin, ( Albinus of Angers ) on Holy Saturday in 1365. In this the first Treaty of Guérande, Joanna of Penthièvre abdicated her disputed claims to the Dukedom in favour of John V of the House of Montfort. A modified form of Salic law was introduced in Brittany as a result. The second Treaty of Guérande (1381) established Brittany's neutrality in the Anglo-French conflict, and

6272-665: The house of the Counts (and later Dukes) of Medinacelli . Although it is reported that the papal-conferred title of Prince of Fortuna automatically expired after five years with no expedition, the De la Cerda-Medinacelli family continued to press their claim for the lordship of the islands. In 1306, Luis de la Cerda married Leonor de Guzmán, daughter of Alonso Pérez de Guzmán and María Alfonso Coronel. Offspring from this marriage: After his first wife's death, Luis de la Cerda married Guiote D'Uzès, daughter of Robert I, Viscount of Uzès . There

6370-404: The islands accelerated quickly following a 1341 mapping expedition sponsored by Afonso IV of Portugal , which supplied detailed descriptions of the ' Guanches ', the primeval aboriginal inhabitants of the islands. The prospect of new and easy slave-raiding grounds whet the appetites of European merchants. Majorcan expeditions, organized by private commercial consortiums, set out immediately for

6468-450: The latter pluralizer is used only for inanimate nouns. Certain formations have been lexicalized to have meanings other than that which might be predicted solely from the morphology: dour "water" pluralized forms dourioù which means not "waters" but instead "rivers", while doureier now has come to mean "running waters after a storm". Certain forms have lost the singular from their paradigm: keloù means "news" and * kel

6566-600: The likes of the Viscount de Rohan and lords of Avaugour , Olivier IV de Clisson and Beaumanoir . During the siege of Nantes where the opposing forces were stationed, the starving civilians seized a convoy of food outside the walls and subsequently were attacked by Luis, pursued to the foot of the walls, where a furious melee ensued. Half of these people found themselves cornered on the ramparts, were killed or taken prisoner. Luis resigned as admiral in March 1341, no record

6664-407: The main sites of interest in the medieval town. Very little is known about the succession of religious buildings on the site of the original baptistery built by Prince Waroch. Dedicated to Saint Aubin, Bishop of Angers in the 6th century and a native of the peninsula, the church became a collegiate church in the 9th century following the foundation of a chapter of canons attributed to King Salomon. It

6762-408: The middle of the 19th century, a gradual decline started for different reasons : competition from a salt mine, lower consumption of salt as a product of conservation and improvement of transport by land. The salt of Guérande used to be traded throughout Brittany, tax free until Emperor Napoleon Bonaparte decided to tax it resulting in the beginning of a decline of salt activity. Certain parts of

6860-502: The mill, Yves placed a statue of the Virgin Mary on top of it. The Devil vanished instantly into thin air and never returned. Yves got his mill and kept his soul. The salterns of Guérande are a swamp of salt water about 1 700 hectares in size. The current saltmarshes began before the 9th century and lasted for several centuries. Around the year 1500, the marshes reached 80% of the current surface. The latest were built around 1800. In

6958-589: The next. Gwenedeg , however, requires a little study to be intelligible with most of the other dialects. French is the sole official language of France . Supporters of Breton and other minority languages continue to argue for their recognition, and for their place in education, public schools, and public life. In July 2008, the legislature amended the French Constitution , adding article 75-1: les langues régionales appartiennent au patrimoine de la France (the regional languages belong to

7056-457: The other Celtic languages as well as across the Romance languages. Certain suffixes ( -ach/-aj, -(a)dur, -er, -lecʼh, -our, -ti, -va ) are masculine, while others ( -enti, -er, -ez, -ezh, -ezon, -i , -eg , -ell , and the singulative -enn ) are feminine. The suffix -eg can be masculine or feminine. There are certain non-determinant factors that influence gender assignment. Biological sex

7154-519: The peasant masses under-informed. In 1794, Bertrand Barère submitted his "report on the patois " to the Committee of Public Safety in which he said that "federalism and superstition speak Breton". Since the 19th century, under the Third , Fourth and now Fifth Republics , the French government has attempted to stamp out minority languages—including Breton—in state schools, in an effort to build

7252-478: The plural: bugelig means "little child", but the doubly pluralized bug ale ig où means "little children"; bag boat has a singular diminutive bagig and a simple plural bagoù , thus its diminutive plural is the doubly pluralized bag où ig où . As seen elsewhere in many Celtic languages, the formation of the plural can be hard to predict, being determined by a mix of semantic, morphological and lexical factors. The most common plural marker

7350-662: The popular appellation of Infante de la Fortuna . Pope Clement VI followed this up with another bull, Prouenit ex tue in January 1345, giving the Cerda conquest the character of a crusade , granting indulgences to any who participated. Papal letters were dispatched to the rulers of Portugal, Castile, Aragon, France, Sicily, Vienne and Genoa, demanding recognition of Cerda's title and urging them to provide material assistance to Cerda's upcoming expedition (projected within three years). The Portuguese king Afonso IV immediately lodged

7448-410: The prefixation of the number two. The dual is no longer productive, and has merely been lexicalized in these cases rather than remaining a part of Breton grammar. The (etymologically) already dual words for eyes ( daoulagad ) and ears ( divskouarn ) can be pluralized "again" to form daoulagad où and diskouarn où . Like other Brythonic languages, Breton has a singulative suffix that

7546-459: The rent that the lord demanded. Therefore, he decided he had to build his own mill, but he couldn't do it alone. The Devil offered him a deal. Yves agreed to give his soul to the Devil in exchange for the mill. His wife was not pleased about that deal but she didn't know Yves had a cunning plan. Yves watched the Devil closely while he was building the mill. At the last moment the Devil finished building

7644-563: The river Vilaine (north) to the Loire estuary (south). Guérande is in the heart of the peninsula called "Presqu'île guérandaise", along with other towns, such as La Baule, Le Croisic, Pornichet, Batz-sur-Mer, Le Pouliguen, or Piriac. According to the classification established by the INSEE in 1999, Guérande is now classified as an urban district, 1 out of 9 forming the urban area of Saint-Nazaire. Guérande in figures : -32 towns and villages,

7742-487: The salt marshes. These salterns are also classified as " remarkable Sites of taste ". The principle is simple. Channels that feed the water reservoirs with sea water, use the tides. Salty water then evaporates in different dams till there are only a few centimeters of sea water left. The last step is where the salt crystallizes and produces the fleur de sel and coarse salt. Brière is a territory of 490 km (189.19 sq mi) of which 170 km (65.64 sq mi)

7840-418: The spot twenty-four of the principal culprits. Jean of Montfort, ( John IV ) Duke of Brittany, demanded that the town be properly protected, by improving its fortifications. Work started soon after and continued for more than a century, with the town's architecture adapted to reflect the latest developments in siege and artillery. At the end of the Breton War of Succession , peace was finally concluded before

7938-624: The stronghold of Aiguillon. According to Froissart, Luis later distinguished himself by finally braking through the walls of this fortress. Although known since classical antiquity , there had been practically no European contact with the Canary islands (known then as the Fortunate Islands ) until the early 14th century, when Genoese captain Lanceloto Malocello stumbled on the island of Lanzarote . European interest in

8036-512: The suffix -ien , with a range of variants including -on , -ion , -an and -ian . The rare pluralizing suffixes -er / -ier and -i are used for a few nouns. When they are appended, they also trigger a change in the vowel of the root: -i triggers a vowel harmony effect whereby some or all preceding vowels are changed to i ( kenderv "cousin" → kindirvi "cousins"; bran "crow" → brini "crows"; klujur "partridge" → klujiri "partridges");

8134-535: The swamps and "Traict" are classified as a Nature Reserve (major stage for migratory birds) and is managed by the Conservatoire du littoral . The "Traict" and swamps have also been classified as "site Natura" since 2000. These swamps have also been registered since 1971 on the list of protected wet-lands under the Ramsar Convention . The salterns of Guérande include two salicoles ponds: They are

8232-488: The tent of Charles de Blois, and in front of other lords, begged him to grant him a grace in reward for his services. Charles did not attach much importance and agreed to this request. Luis apparently then asked to be given two captured Anglo-Breton knights, Jean le Bouteiller and Hubert de Frenay. Luis apparently then added that he wanted them beheaded in front of the city’s ramparts. Charles was astonished, telling Luis that these prisoners were Christians, not Moors and that such

8330-451: The town and destroyed one of the siege weapons. In a council with his principal lieutenants, Luis resolved to lift the siege and join the rest of Franco-Breton army attacking Auray . Luis then moved on Dinan which had no defenses other than the Rance river and palisades. To make the river crossing, Luis ordered rafts be built, but these preparations were moot, for at the end of four days,

8428-457: The town from all sides. Without giving a quarter to the inhabitants, they engaged in frenzied plunder and did not respect even the churches, five of which were desecrated and burned, while approximately 8000 inhabitants were massacred in the streets, burned in their homes or in the Church of Saint Aubin. Charles was not impressed as Luis had exceeded the measure of his command and was made to hang on

8526-570: The use of the Spilhennig to let speakers identify each other. The office also started an Internationalization and localization policy asking Google , Firefox and SPIP to develop their interfaces in Breton. In 2004, the Breton Misplaced Pages started, which counts more than 85,000 articles as of August 2024. In March 2007, the Ofis ar Brezhoneg signed a tripartite agreement with Regional Council of Brittany and Microsoft for

8624-474: The walls of Auray. Luis with his mercenaries, then set sail for Quimper and Quimperlé to continue pillaging. As news of the devastation reached the Anglo-Bretons under de Mauny , he left Hennebont for Quimperlé where Luis’s forces were still ashore. De Mauny damaged badly-guarded vessels before disembarking his own troops, dividing them into 3 groups and began to search for the looters. His vanguard

8722-630: Was a royalist uprising or counter-revolution in twelve of the western départements of France, particularly in the provinces of Brittany and Maine, against the First Republic during the French Revolution. Fighting took place around Guerande on June and July 1815 between the Chouans who attacked the town and the Governments 65th Infantry Regiment that defended it. The 150 men from the 65th line infantry regiment, were entrenched behind

8820-445: Was accorded between Duke John V of Brittany and King Charles VI of France . It was not until 1488, or 145 years later, that the ramparts, by then complete, were inaugurated during the reign of Francis II, Duke of Brittany (father of Anne of Brittany ), only a few months before his death. The old walled town (known in French as vieille ville ) is surrounded by nearly intact ramparts and has four fortified gates (the largest of which

8918-804: Was blocked by the French Constitutional Council based on the 1994 amendment to the Constitution that establishes French as the language of the republic. Therefore, no other language may be used as a language of instruction in state schools. The Toubon Law implemented the amendment, asserting that French is the language of public education. The Diwan schools were founded in Brittany in 1977 to teach Breton by immersion . Since their establishment, Diwan schools have provided fully immersive primary school and partially immersive secondary school instruction in Breton for thousands of students across Brittany. This has directly contributed to

9016-701: Was created in 1990 for bilingual education in the Catholic schools. In 2018, 18,337 pupils (about 2% of all students in Brittany) attended Diwan , Div Yezh and Dihun schools, and their number has increased yearly. This was short of the goal of Jean-Yves Le Drian (president of the Regional Council ), who aimed to have 20,000 students in bilingual schools by 2010, and of "their recognition" for "their place in education, public schools, and public life"; nevertheless he describes being encouraged by

9114-476: Was finally involved in a naval battle fought in the vicinity of the Island of Guernsey in 1342 between an English fleet, bringing aid to the Anglo-Bretons and a Franco-Breton fleet, consisting mainly of Luis's mercenaries. The fight which started at the end of the afternoon was interrupted by twilight, only resuming again at dawn. A storm that arose during the night forced the adversaries to part ways, but not before

9212-467: Was not concerned with the minority languages of France , spoken by the lower classes, and required the use of French for government business as part of its policy of national unity. During the French Revolution , the government introduced policies favouring French over the regional languages, which it pejoratively referred to as patois . The revolutionaries assumed that reactionary and monarchist forces preferred regional languages to try to keep

9310-489: Was published in 1995. The first edition contained about 10,000 words, and the second edition of 2001 contains 20,000 words. In the early 21st century, the Ofis Publik ar Brezhoneg ("Public Office for the Breton language") began a campaign to encourage daily use of Breton in the region by both businesses and local communes. Efforts include installing bilingual signs and posters for regional events, as well as encouraging

9408-675: Was rebuilt in about 1200, and the Romanesque pillars in the nave are evidence of that work. Very badly damaged during the Breton Wars of Succession, the Collegiate Church was restored in time for the signing of the first peace treaty in 1365. Various building projects succeeded one another until the 18th century, improving and adding new features: choir and chevet (15th–16th centuries), Baroque altarpieces and stalls (17th century). But hardly had this work been completed, than

9506-560: Was repulsed by Luis who, took to the field with one of his nephews, named Alphonse. The local peasantry also joined, and quickly routed Luis's force, killing his nephew. Luis recuperated at Rennes and after six weeks, rejoined Charles de Blois in a second attempt at capturing Hennebont. The Anglo-Breton defenders, who, aware of his recent defeat, taunted him from the ramparts. According to the chroniclers Jean Le Bel and Froissart , this mocking angered Luis so much that he sought some form of retribution. These chroniclers, state that one day in

9604-474: Was surrounded by waterways. One waterway was the river Vilaine , used by the tribes Redones and Veneti. The Loire river was used by the tribes Namnetes and Pictones , and the Atlantic Ocean was used by the tribes Veneti and by Greek traders. The many artifacts from the Gallo-Roman age demonstrates that Guérande had been home to many groups. The area was evangelized in the 3rd century by St. Clair,

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