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80-458: The port is named after Saint Goustan , the patron saint of sailors and fishermen. In the early 17th century, the town of Auray decided to build a port on the left bank of the Loc'h. Quays and ramps were constructed to allow for the unloading of trade ships where previously vessels had used cruder pontoon structures to dock at the side of the river. An examination of port taxation in 1537 illustrates

160-498: A dam was constructed in 1967, stopping the flow. The city is 503 kilometres (313 mi) south-west of Paris , 153 kilometres (95 mi) south-west of Rennes and 158 kilometres (98 mi) north-west of Nantes . The city comprises different neighbourhoods: Adjacent towns: Under the Köppen climate classification , Lorient experiences an oceanic climate (Cfb), with mild winters and cool to warm summers. Precipitation

240-560: 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

320-580: A base there in 1690, under the command of Colbert de Seignelay , who inherited his father 's position as Secretary of State of the Navy . At the same time, privateers from Saint-Malo took shelter there. In 1700, the town grew out of l'Enclot following a law forcing people to leave the domain to move to the Faouédic heath. In 1702, there were about 6,000 inhabitants in Lorient, though activities slowed, and

400-471: A carousel and other seasonal activities, as well as sailing instruction. A boat tour to the islands sails from here and an old rigged ship is permanently docked there too. The latter contains a small museum which includes a replica of Saint-Goustan. The port has been painted by many artists, including Odilon Redon and Mathurin Méheut . The port became a marina containing approximately 155 moorings next to

480-714: A complex of bomb-proof submarine pens , their largest U-boat base , which would house the 2nd and the 10th U-boat flotillas for the bulk of the Battle of the Atlantic . Karl Dönitz , then supreme commander of the U-boat Arm , moved his staff into the Kernevel villa, just across the water from Keroman, in Larmor-Plage . In 1943–1944, Lorient was nearly razed to the ground by Allied bombing , which failed to destroy

560-540: 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

640-528: A local TV channel covering Morbihan through DTT . Catholic churches are among the main religious landmarks of Lorient. While the Church of Our Lady of the Assumption was built in 1850 in a revivalist neo-Gothic style, the church of Saint Joan of Arc was built in a neo-Roman style in the 1930s by French architect Jean Desbois and a few years later in 1955, and the modernist church of Notre-Dame-de-Victoire

720-461: 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

800-477: 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

880-412: 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

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960-662: 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

1040-657: Is also a substantial industrial base in Keroman to support the fishing fleet. Lorient South Brittany Airport is situated just west of the city at Lann Bihoue. It operates charter flights and regular flights to Toulouse. It used to operate direct flights to Paris and Lyon all year long and other city such as London and Porto in the Summer. The Gare de Lorient is the railway station, offering connections to Quimper, Nantes, Rennes, Paris (less than three hours by TGV) and several regional destinations. Schools in Lorient belong to

1120-402: 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

1200-524: Is evenly distributed throughout the year. Frost is rare in winter, as are days over 30 °C (86 °F) during summer. In 2017, Lorient had a population of 57,149. In 2017, its intercommunality Lorient Agglomération had 203,309 inhabitants. Lorient is the most populous commune in Morbihan département , although the préfecture is the slightly smaller commune of Vannes . Inhabitants of Lorient are called Lorientais . The population data in

1280-406: 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

1360-422: 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

1440-609: 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

1520-589: 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

1600-527: Is promoted by the Department of the Environment. 47°39′55″N 2°58′38″W  /  47.66528°N 2.97722°W  / 47.66528; -2.97722 Lorient Lorient ( French: [lɔʁjɑ̃] ; Breton : An Oriant ) is a town ( commune ) and seaport in the Morbihan department of Brittany in western France . Beginning around 3000 BC, settlements in

1680-602: Is the highest point of Lorient with its 4-meter-high concrete bell tower though the population never really accepted this new style. Major Catholic festivals such as Christmas, Carnaval, Easter and the Pardon are celebrated as major feasts of the city. The most popular club in Lorient is FC Lorient , which currently play in Ligue 1 , after winning Ligue 2 in 2020. They are nicknamed les Merlus . They play their home fixtures at Stade du Moustoir . Christian Gourcuff has managed

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1760-546: 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

1840-405: 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)

1920-498: 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

2000-572: 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

2080-607: 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

2160-516: The Festival interceltique , bringing together artists from all the Celtic world ( Brittany , Cornwall , Scotland , Ireland , Wales , Galicia , Asturias , Australia , Acadia and Isle of Man ). Each year, a Celtic nation is chosen as honored guest. It is one of the biggest festivals in Europe by attendance (800,000 people for the 40th edition ) Lorient is home to TébéSud (formerly TyTélé),

2240-690: The Normandy landings in June 1944 and the subsequent breakout , Lorient was surrounded by Allied troops on 12 August 1944. Its usefulness as a naval base gone, Lorient was left in a state of siege, surrounded by the French Forces of the West , supported by a US Infantry Division. On 10 May 1945, the German garrison surrendered, two days after the official final unconditional surrender of Germany . In 1949,

2320-431: 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

2400-463: The physiocrats . Until the Company's closure, the city took advantage of its prosperity. In 1738, there were 14,000 inhabitants, or 20,000 considering the outlying villages of Kerentrech, Merville, La Perrière, Calvin, and Keryado, which are now neighbourhoods within the present-day city limits. In 1735, new streets were laid out and in 1738, it was granted city status. Further work was undertaken as

2480-483: The place Saint-Sauveur and continued south to the construction of the current Franklin dock. The stone moorings were placed in 1692. The creation of the Lorient port (1665–1670) and the lack of major roads connecting Saint-Goustan to the hinterland were the cause of a decline in activity in the port. This further decreased with the arrival of the railway and the creation, in 1865, of a new road to Auray which isolated

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2560-727: The roadstead . One of its directors, Denis Langlois, bought lands at the confluence of the Scorff and the Blavet rivers, and built slipways . At first, it only served as a subsidiary of Port-Louis, where offices and warehouses were located. The following years, the operation was almost abandoned, but in 1675, during the Franco-Dutch War , the French East Indies Company scrapped its base in Le Havre since it

2640-453: The steam engine allowed the ports to strengthen their output. The first locomotive reached the city in 1865. In 1861, the original drydock was enlarged as a second one was dug out. The same year, the ironclad Couronne was built on a design directly inspired by the Gloire class , though unlike her wooden-hull predecessors, she was entirely made of iron. She was followed in 1876 by

2720-491: The 12th century. Work began on the dock in 1614 and was extended in 1630. Around 1680, the dock in front of the place Saint-Sauveur was extended further and repaired in 1742. In 1791 it required further repairs which took place from June 1846 to the end of 1852. The quay pavement dates from this time. The dock deteriorated again, and in 1902 subsided more than 50 cm towards the water. The town council did not want to finance plans proposed by engineers to completely rebuild

2800-717: The Academy of Rennes . Active units based near Lorient: Lorient was the location of an extensive submarine base , built by the Germans in World War II and used subsequently by the French Navy . Head of the U-Boat Arm Karl Dönitz decided to construct the base on 28 June 1940. Between November 1940 and January 1942 a number of gigantic reinforced concrete structures were built. including three on

2880-498: 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

2960-407: The Company decided to transfer its sales headquarters from Nantes to Lorient, and asked architect Jacques Gabriel to raise new buildings out of dimension stones to host these new activities, and to embellish the L'Enclos domain. Sales began in 1734, peaking up to 25 million livres tournois . In 1769, the Company's monopoly ended with the scrapping of the company itself, under the influence of

3040-412: 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

3120-736: The Keroman peninsula. They are called K1, K2 and K3. In 1944 work began on a fourth structure. The base was capable of sheltering thirty submarines. Lorient was damaged by Allied bombing raids but the naval base survived the war. Following the German surrender the base was used by the French Navy, named for Jacques Stosskopf , a hero of the French Resistance who had worked there. The base was decommissioned in 1995 and turned over to civilian use. Each year in August since 1970, Lorient hosts

3200-510: 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

3280-495: The aid of the Heritage Foundation to gather donations to restore the dock. The quasi-estuary location and the aid of the presence of mudflats mean that the port and the valley host many species of seabirds. The docks are covered with kelp and local oysters. The river Auray plays an important part as a natural route for fish and birds. As such it is one of the components of the national environmental framework which

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3360-404: The area of Lorient are attested by the presence of megalithic architecture . Ruins of Roman roads (linking Vannes to Quimper and Port-Louis to Carhaix ) confirm Gallo-Roman presence. In 1664, Jean-Baptiste Colbert founded the French East Indies Company . In June 1666, an ordinance of Louis XIV granted lands of Port-Louis to the company, along with Faouédic on the other side of

3440-479: 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

3520-718: The city evolved into a full-scale naval base for the Royal Navy when the King bought out the Company's infrastructures for 17,500,000 livres tournois . From 1775 on, the American Revolutionary War brought a surge in activity, as many privateers hailed from Lorient. When the war ended, transatlantic lines opened to the United States , and in 1785, a new commercial company started under Calonne 's tutelage (then Controller-General of Finances ) with

3600-737: The city of Lorient was awarded the Legion of Honour and the Croix de guerre 1939–1945 . In April 1945, the Reconstruction Ministry advocated the use of temporary wooden shacks. These shelters were shipped as a kit to be built on site. In 1948, there were 28 settlements under the city's authority, and 20 more in the urban area , distributed among the neighboring towns of Ploemeur , Lanester , Hennebont and Quéven . Each of these neighbourhoods could hold up to 280 houses. This temporary housing would stand from 10 to 40 years depending on

3680-408: The city was more of an administrative center. The first secondary school opened in 1822, a lazaretto in 1823, and barracks in 1839. The city began to modernize in the second quarter of the century; in 1825, a roofed slipway and a drydock were added to the shipyards. A sardine cannery opened the same year. The first gasworks was built in 1845. In the second half of the 19th century,

3760-1156: 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

3840-492: The commercial activity in Saint-Goustan. The city imports wine, salt, leather, iron and Biscay steel. Conversely, wheat, rye, oats, butter, meat, fish, cloth and fabric are exported. The Auray region was a surplus producer of grain at that time. The development of the larger Auray port in 1641 was completed with the construction of a wharf and two ramps between the old pier which had been built in 1615. This work included

3920-880: 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

4000-568: 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

4080-473: The dock. It was classified as a departmental port and now receives over 1300 visitors vessels per year (as of 2007). During the 20th century Saint-Goustan became one of the most popular tourist areas in the Auray area as a result of its picturesqueness and the timbered houses in the town centre. However, the large granite stones of the wharf are gradually disintegrating and tidal erosion has created pockets behind

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4160-676: 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

4240-577: 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")

4320-681: 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,

4400-541: 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

4480-559: The ironclad Redoutable , the first ship in the world with a steel structure. In 1889, fishing expanded following the creation of the municipal fish market, and the arrival of steam-powered fishing trawlers in 1900. The Keroman fishing port construction started in 1920. In 1941, the Germans , then occupying France , chose to establish a U-boat base at Lorient. The submarine facilities quickly became targets of constant bombing from Allied air forces. The Germans decided to build

4560-450: 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

4640-477: The location. The last shack in the largest settlement, Soye, was torn down in 1991. Today, only a few buildings dating to the 18th century still stand. Lorient is located on the south coast of Brittany , where the rivers Scorff and Blavet join to form the roadstead of Lorient , before discharging into the Atlantic Ocean . The river Ter used to flow into the estuary to the south of the city, however,

4720-589: 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

4800-457: 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

4880-519: 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

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4960-478: 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

5040-582: The port and further reduced its trade. The only activity on the Franklin wharf in the early 20th century was the transport of wooden beams for coal mines in Wales . The name of this wharf is a tribute to Benjamin Franklin , the famous diplomat , physicist and engineer who landed at Auray on 3 December 1776 to ask for French aid in the War of Independence . The port, dates back much further, however, to at least

5120-410: 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

5200-456: The retaining wall. At the end of 2008 part of the wharf had subsided and was in danger of collapse. This area is important for the stability of the houses bordering and had to be consolidated with an emergency embankment of large stones. This part of the wharf now need major repairs costing 1.88M Euros which should be undertaken in January 2009. In December 2008, an association was created with

5280-539: The same goal as the previous entities, i.e. conducting trade in India and China , with again Lorient standing as its operative base. The French Revolution and the subsequent Napoleonic wars put an end to trade for nearly two decades. Maritime activities slowed at the start of the 19th century. Activity at the shipyards and naval base reached a low that would last until the July Monarchy . During this period,

5360-399: The sector represented 9,600 direct jobs for a total 12,000 jobs (with indirect jobs accounted for), or 12% of local employment. From its founding, shipbuilding has always been of great importance to the city. DCNS continues the legacy of the formerly state-owned shipyards (colloquially known as l'Arsenal ) that began operation in 1690. It still builds warships, mainly frigates . There

5440-433: The streets began to be paved, wharves and slipways were built along the Faouédic river, and thatched houses were replaced with stone buildings following 18th-century classical architecture style as it was the case for l'Enclos. In 1744, the city walls were erected, and proved quickly useful as Lorient was raided in September 1746. Following the demise of the Company, the city lost one-seventh of its population. In 1769,

5520-573: The submarine pens despite 4,000 tons of bombs dropped. According to the book Steel Boats, Iron Hearts (by former U-505 crewman Hans Goebeler ), after the Allies failed to damage the U-boat bunkers the bombing shifted to the city itself to deny the Germans workers and other resources. Before the bombings, thousands of leaflets were dropped on the population instructing the inhabitants to evacuate. Between 14 January 1943 and 17 February 1943, as many as 500 high-explosive aerial bombs and more than 60,000 incendiary bombs were dropped on Lorient. After

5600-512: 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");

5680-512: The table and graph below refer to the commune of Lorient proper, in its geography at the given years. The commune of Lorient absorbed the former commune of Keryado in 1947. The municipality launched a linguistic plan through Ya d'ar brezhoneg on 25 January 2007. In 2008, 2.71% of the children attended the bilingual schools in primary education. Lorient is commonly referred to as La ville aux cinq ports ("the city of five ports"): military, fishing, commercial, passengers and yachting. In 2010,

5760-628: The team for over 20 years (aggregate years). The converted submarine base has been home port to several skippers and their sailing teams: Lorient was also a staging port during the 2011–12 Volvo Ocean Race , as well as the starting point of la Solitaire du Figaro (2009 edition). Eric Tabarly built three out of his six Pen Duick boats in Lorient. Lorient is twinned with: Breton language Breton ( / ˈ b r ɛ t ə n / , BRET -ən , French: [bʁətɔ̃] ; endonym : brezhoneg [bʁeˈzɔ̃ːnɛk] or [bɾəhɔ̃ˈnek] in Morbihan )

5840-734: The town began to decline. The town experienced a period of growth when John Law formed the Perpetual Company of the Indies by absorbing other chartered companies (including the French East India Company ), and chose Lorient as its operations base. Despite the economic bubble caused by the Company in 1720, the city was still growing as it took part in the Atlantic triangular slave trade . From 1720 to 1790, 156 ships deported an estimated 43,000 slaves. In 1732,

5920-570: 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

6000-485: The wharf 68m away. In 1935, the mayor warned that the dock continued to be a problem and in 1936, it collapsed by about 30m. It took three years before repairs were begun, but the work was completed in 1939. The dock measures 220m and is classified ZPPAUP (as a protected area) as a monument of the Gulf of Morbihan . The dock is adjacent to restaurants and hotels, and is a venue for markets, art exhibitions, sales of postcards,

6080-804: 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

6160-701: 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

6240-534: 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

6320-489: 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

6400-461: Was too exposed during wartime, and transferred its infrastructures to l'Enclot, out of which Lorient grew. The company then erected a chapel, workshops, forges, and offices, leaving Port-Louis permanently. The city's name is derived from Le Soleil d'Orient , the first ship constructed at the site, in 1669. Workers gave the site the name of the ship, which, by contraction, became simply L'Orient and finally Lorient . The French Royal Navy opened

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