84-557: Rennes ( French pronunciation: [ʁɛn] ; Breton : Roazhon [ˈrwɑːõn] ; Gallo : Resnn ; Latin : Condate Redonum ) is a city in the east of Brittany in Northwestern France at the confluence of the rivers Ille and Vilaine . Rennes is the prefecture of the Brittany region and Ille-et-Vilaine department . In 2017, its urban area had a population of 357,327 inhabitants, while
168-499: A botanical garden and collections (the Jardin botanique de l'Université de Rennes ). The local economy is based on car manufacturing, telecommunications, the digital sector and agrifood. The telecommunications firm Orange (ex-France Telecom) is the largest private employer in the metropolitan area of Rennes with a workforce of 4,800 people. PSA Peugeot Citroën is the second largest private employer, with 3,000 employees. PSA opened
252-604: A botanical garden on 10 hectares of land, built between 1860 and 1867. 17th century promenade "la Motte à Madame", and a monumental stairway overlooking the Rue de Paris entrance to the Thabor. The south city centre is a mix of old buildings and 19th and 20th century constructions. The Fine Arts Museum is situated on Quai Émile Zola, by the Vilaine River. Les Champs Libres is a building on Esplanade Charles de Gaulle, and
336-540: 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
420-501: 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 was not concerned with the minority languages of France , spoken by
504-819: A manufacturing plant at La Janais in Chartres-de-Bretagne in 1961. Technicolor , one of the biggest TV and cinema broadcasting firms in the world, employs over 500 people. Rennes has the second largest concentration of digital and ICT firms in France after Paris (with well-known companies and startups like Atos , Google , Neosoft, Orange S.A., Thales , Ericsson , Harmonic France , STmicroelectronics , Technicolor R&D , Ubisoft , Regionsjob, Capgemini , OVH , Dassault Systèmes , Delta Dore, Canon , Artefacto, Enensys Technologies, Exfo, Mitsubishi Electric R&D Europe , Digitaleo, Kelbillet , Klaxoon , Sopra Group , Niji, and Airbus Cybersecurity ). Rennes
588-477: 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
672-593: A terrible fire in 1994 that may have been caused by a flare fired by a protester during a demonstration. It houses the Rennes Court of Appeal . The surrounding plaza is built in the classical style. In the west, the Place de la Mairie (City Hall Plaza, Plasenn Ti Kêr): In the east, at the end of the Rue Saint-Georges with traditional half-timbered houses: In the south-east: The Place des Lices
756-571: 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 the Duchy of Brittany was Latin , switching to French in the 15th century. There exists
840-516: A tradition of asserting its autonomy in dealings with the French authorities and even with the local Breton authorities. From 1590 to 1594, Saint-Malo declared itself to be an independent republic, when ' la république de Saint-Malo' (Saint Malo Republic) functioned as a de facto city-state , and from whence the town takes its defiant motto "not French, not Breton, but Malouin" (‘ Ni Français, ni Breton, Malouin suis ’). Saint-Malo became notorious as
924-412: 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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#17327733394471008-963: Is a historic French port in Ille-et-Vilaine , Brittany . The walled city on the English Channel coast had a long history of piracy, earning much wealth from local extortion and overseas adventures. In 1944, the Allies heavily bombed Saint-Malo. The city changed into a popular tourist centre, with a ferry terminal serving the Channel Islands of Jersey and Guernsey , as well as the Southern English settlements of Portsmouth , Hampshire and Poole , Dorset . The famous transatlantic single-handed yacht race Route du Rhum , which takes place every four years in November,
1092-402: 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
1176-605: Is between Saint Malo and Pointe-à-Pitre in Guadeloupe . The population in 2017 was 46,097 – though this can increase to up to 300,000 in the summer tourist season. With the suburbs included, the metropolitan area's population is approximately 133,000 (2017). The population of the commune more than doubled in 1967 with the merging of three communes: Saint-Malo, Saint-Servan (population 14,963 in 1962) and Paramé (population 8,811 in 1962). Inhabitants of Saint-Malo are called Malouins in French. The population data in
1260-484: Is divided into 6 cantons (populations as of 2019): Rennes is divided into 12 quarters : The current mayor of Rennes is Nathalie Appéré . A member of the Socialist Party , she replaced retiring Socialist incumbent Daniel Delaveau , in office from 2008 to 2014. Among previous well-known mayors are: The mairie ( city hall ) is right in the centre of Rennes. The French Prison Service operates
1344-406: 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
1428-614: Is lined by hôtels particuliers . Along with the Place Rallier-du-Baty, it is the location of the weekly big market, the marché des Lices. Near the Rennes Cathedral (cathédrale Saint-Pierre de Rennes) is the Rue du Chapitre: Also in this area are the former St. Yves chapel, which is now the tourist office and a local historical museum, and the Basilica Saint-Sauveur. Built from the 3rd to
1512-620: Is located in a restored building on Rue du Pré-Botté, which is the former office of Ouest-Éclair, and then of Ouest-France , France's leading daily regional newspaper. There are large mills at Rue Duhamel, constructed on each side of the south branch of the Vilaine in 1895 and 1902. To the northwest of Rennes, near Rue de Saint-Malo, are the locks of the Canal d'Ille-et-Rance , opened in 1843. Two locations for Oberthür Printing Works were built by Marthenot between 1870 and 1895 on Rue de Paris in
1596-422: 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
1680-527: Is now a significant digital innovation centre in France. In 2002, Rennes became the smallest city in the world to have a Metro line. Labeled a city of art and history, it has preserved an important medieval and classical heritage within its historic center, with over 90 buildings protected as historic monuments. Home to more than 66,000 students in 2016, it is also the eighth-largest university campus of France. In 2018, L'Express named Rennes as "the most liveable city in France". Since 2015, Rennes
1764-589: 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
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#17327733394471848-546: 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
1932-405: 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)
2016-551: Is well-equipped with musical facilities: Breton language Breton ( / ˈ b r ɛ t ə n / , BRET -ən , French: [bʁətɔ̃] ; endonym : brezhoneg [bʁeˈzɔ̃ːnɛk] or [bɾəhɔ̃ˈnek] in Morbihan ) 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
2100-445: 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
2184-552: 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 a national culture. Teachers humiliated students for using their regional languages, and such practices prevailed until
2268-631: The Centre pénitentiaire de Rennes , the largest women's prison in France. The ancient centre of the town is built on a hill, with the north side being more elevated than the south side. It is at the confluence of two rivers: the Ille and the Vilaine . Rennes is located on the European atlantic arc , 50 km from the English Channel (near Saint-Malo , Dinard , and Mont Saint-Michel ). Rennes has
2352-607: The Channel Islands operated by Condor Ferries . It also has a railway station, Gare de Saint-Malo , offering direct TGV service to Rennes, Paris and several regional destinations. There is a bus service provided by Keolis. The town is served by the Dinard–Pleurtuit–Saint-Malo Airport around 5 kilometres (3 miles) to the south. Now inseparably attached to the mainland , Saint-Malo is the most visited place in Brittany. Sites of interest include: Saint-Malo
2436-640: The French Revolution , Rennes was a parliamentary, administrative and garrison city of the historic province of Brittany in the Kingdom of France , as evidenced by its 17th-century Parliament's Palace . Rennes played an important role in the Stamped Paper Revolt ( Revolt of the papier timbré ) in 1675. After the destructive fire of 1720, the medieval wooden center of the city was partially rebuilt in stone. Remaining mostly rural until
2520-835: The Gulf Stream and the range of average temperatures between winter and summer is very low (from 6.1°C in January to 17.8°C in August) with an average temperature of 11.6°C. Saint-Malo is part of Ille-et-Vilaine's 7th constituency , and is currently represented in the National Assembly by Republicans Member of Parliament , Jean-Luc Bourgeaux . Schools include: Saint-Malo has a terminal for ferry services with daily departures to Portsmouth operated by Brittany Ferries , and services on most days to Poole in England via
2604-642: The Raid on Saint-Malo saw a British expedition land, intending to capture the town. However, the British made no attempt on Saint-Malo and instead occupied the nearby town of Saint-Servan, where they destroyed 30 privateers before departing. In World War II , during fighting in late August and early September 1944, the historic walled city of Saint-Malo was almost totally destroyed by American shelling and bombing. The beaches of nearby Dinard had been heavily fortified against possible Allied commando raids. Artillery at
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2688-483: The Saint Lawrence River , visiting the villages of Stadacona and Hochelaga that would later become the sites of present-day Quebec City and Montreal respectively. As the first European to encounter these sites and learning the local word "Kanata" (meaning a group of houses), Cartier is credited as the discoverer of Canada . Inhabitants of Saint-Malo are called Malouins in French. From this came
2772-495: The Second World War , Rennes underwent significant development in the twentieth century. Since the 1950s, Rennes has grown in importance through rural flight and modern industrial development, partly in the automotive sector. The city developed extensive building plans to accommodate upwards of 200,000 inhabitants. During the 1980s, Rennes became one of the main centres in telecommunications and high-tech industry. It
2856-431: 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
2940-517: The 12th centuries, the ramparts were largely destroyed between the beginning of the 16th century and the 1860s. In the south-west of the area, La Rue Saint-Michel nicknamed Rue de La Soif ( Road of Thirst ), is known for its many bars. Meanwhile, in the south-east, the Place du Champ-Jacquet features Renaissance buildings and a statue of mayor Jean Leperdit ripping up a conscription list. Area of Saint-Melaine square Jardin botanique du Thabor (formal French garden, orangerie, rose garden, aviary)
3024-539: 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
3108-498: 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
3192-525: The Channel. The modern Saint-Malo traces its origins to a monastic settlement founded by Saint Aaron and Saint Brendan early in the sixth century. Its name is derived from a man said to have been a follower of Brendan the Navigator , Saint Malo or Maclou , an immigrant from what is now Wales . Saint-Malo is the setting of Marie de France 's poem " Laüstic ," a 12th-century love story. The city had
3276-557: 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 the Early Middle Ages , making it an Insular Celtic language . Breton is most closely related to Cornish , another Southwestern Brittonic language. Welsh and
3360-549: The French agrifood industry, with many firms in this field ( Lactalis , Triballat Sojasun, Coralis, Panavi, Bridor , Groupe Avril, Loïc Raison, Groupe Roullier, Sanders, etc.), an agro campus (Agrocampus Ouest) and a large international and professional expo, SPACE (held every September). Other large firms located in Rennes include the restaurant conglomerate Groupe Le Duff (owners of Brioche Dorée , Bruegger's , La Madeleine , Mimi's Cafe , Timothy's World Coffee ), Ouest-France,
3444-412: 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
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3528-593: The Spanish name Islas Malvinas for the archipelago known in English as the Falkland Islands. Islas Malvinas derives from the 1764 name Îles Malouines , given to the islands by French explorer Louis-Antoine de Bougainville . Bougainville, who founded the archipelago's first settlement, named the islands after the inhabitants of Saint-Malo, the point of departure for his ships and colonists. In 1758,
3612-720: 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 a Brittonic language community that once extended from Great Britain to Armorica (present-day Brittany) and had even established
3696-510: 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
3780-479: 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
3864-539: 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". Saint-Malo Saint-Malo ( UK : / s æ̃ ˈ m ɑː l oʊ / , US : / ˌ s æ̃ m ə ˈ l oʊ / , French: [sɛ̃ malo] ; Gallo : Saent-Malô ; Breton : Sant-Maloù )
3948-1156: 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
4032-880: 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
4116-568: 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
4200-484: The country. During the 1980s, Rennes was often cited as a hub of rock and new wave music in France. Les Champs Libres is the largest cultural institution in Brittany. They welcome more than a million visitors each year. Organized in a six-story pyramid with views over the city, the library offers 120,000 documents for loan, and there we can find as well the Museum of Brittany , Espace des Sciences and Planetarium. Rennes
4284-440: The distinction of having a significant Green Belt around its ring road. This Green Belt is a protected area between the city proper (rather dense) and the rest of its urban area (rather rural). Rennes features an oceanic climate . Precipitation in Rennes is considerably less abundant than in the western parts of Brittany, reaching only half of the levels of, e.g., the city of Quimper , which makes rainfall in Rennes comparable to
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#17327733394474368-474: The eastern part of the city. Oberthür Park is the second biggest garden in the city. The 17th century manor of Haute-Chalais, a granite château, is situated to the south of the city in Blosne Quarter (Bréquigny). Parc du Thabor contains a compact but significant botanical garden , the Jardin botanique du Thabor . The University of Rennes 1 , with a campus in the city's eastern section, also contains
4452-463: 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 the first decade of the 21st century, Breton is classified as "severely endangered" by
4536-693: The frontiers. According to the Notitia Dignitatum , the fort was garrisoned by the militum Martensium under a dux (commander) of the Tractus Armoricanus et Nervicanus section of the litus Saxonicum . During the decline of the Western Roman Empire , Armorica (modern-day Brittany) rebelled from Roman rule under the Bagaudae and in the 5th and 6th centuries received many Celtic Britons fleeing instability across
4620-577: 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")
4704-681: 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,
4788-541: 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
4872-533: The home of the corsairs , French privateers and sometimes pirates . In the 19th century, this "piratical" notoriety was portrayed in Jean Richepin 's play Le flibustier and in César Cui 's eponymous opera . The corsairs of Saint-Malo not only forced English ships passing up the Channel to pay tribute but also brought wealth from further afield. Jacques Cartier lived in, and sailed from, Saint-Malo to
4956-533: The island of Cezembre were out of reach of American ground forces. German garrisons on the Channel Islands of Jersey , Guernsey , and Alderney were able to use small craft to bring in water and remove the wounded from the battle. On 13 August, the walled city was on fire and a short truce was declared to allow French civilians to flee the city. Outlying German positions at St. Ideuc and La Varde fell to infantry attacks. This fighting ended resistance on
5040-464: The larger metropolitan area had a population of 739,974. The inhabitants of Rennes are called Rennais (masculine) and Rennaises (feminine) in French . Rennes's history goes back more than 2,000 years to a time when it was a small Gallic village named Condate. Together with Vannes and Nantes , it was one of the major cities of the ancient Duchy of Brittany . From the early sixteenth century until
5124-563: The last man even if the last man had to be himself". The first American attack was launched by the 83rd Infantry Division on 5 August 1944. German positions at Châteauneuf quickly fell. Cancale was abandoned and occupied by the Americans on the 6th. In the same way and on the same day, Dinan fell to Free French forces. The Germans shortened their lines and drew closer to the ancient citadel at St. Servan-sur-Mer , now reinforced with concrete. Effective German artillery emplacements on
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#17327733394475208-411: 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 is now classified as an endangered language . At the beginning of
5292-450: 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
5376-435: The levels of large parts of western Germany. Sunshine hours range between 1,700 and 1,850 annually, which is about the amount of sunshine received by the city of Lausanne . In 2018, the inner population of the city was 221,272. The Rennes intercommunal structure connecting Rennes with 42 nearby suburbs (named Rennes Métropole ) had 450,593 inhabitants and the metropolitan area had a population of nearly 750,000. Rennes has
5460-483: 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 the peasant masses under-informed. In 1794, Bertrand Barère submitted his "report on
5544-490: The most-read French-language newspaper in the world (with a circulation of 800,000 daily copies), and Samsic Service (cleanliness, industrial safety, job search, etc.). Rennes is known as one of the most festive cities in France. It invests heavily in arts and culture and a number of its festivals such as the music festival Les Transmusicales , Les Tombées de la Nuit , Mythos , Stunfest ( fighting game competition) and Travelling (a film festival) are well known throughout
5628-589: 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
5712-407: The north shore of the peninsula. Only the citadel remained. Surrounded by American artillery and under frequent air attack, this last holdout surrendered on the afternoon of 17 August. Cezembre surrendered on 2 September when the three-hundred-man garrison ran out of drinking water. The Americans had taken more than ten thousand prisoners during the two-week fight, von Aulock among them. Saint-Malo
5796-424: The northern part of the city. The rebuilding was done in stone, on a grid plan. The poorer southern part was not rebuilt. Due to the presence of the parlement de Bretagne , many " hôtels particuliers " were built in the northern part, the richer half of Rennes in the 18th century. Most of the city's monuments historiques can be found there. Colourful traditional half-timbered houses are situated primarily along
5880-457: 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
5964-478: 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
6048-410: 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
6132-405: The roads of Saint-Sauveur, Saint-Georges, de Saint-Malo, Saint-Guillaume, des Dames, du Chapitre, Vasselot, Saint-Michel, de la Psallette and around the plazas of Champ-Jacquet, des Lices, Saint-Anne and Rallier-du-Baty. The Parlement de Bretagne (Administrative and judicial centre of Brittany, Breton : Breujoù Breizh ) is the most famous 17th century building in Rennes. It was rebuilt after
6216-405: The second fastest-growing metropolitan area in France after Toulouse and ahead of Montpellier , Bordeaux and Nantes . Rennes is classified as a city of art and history. The historic centre is located on the former plan of the ramparts. There is a difference between the northern city centre and the southern city centre due to the 1720 fire, which destroyed most of the timber-framed houses in
6300-512: 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");
6384-597: The table and graph below refer to the commune of Saint-Malo proper in its geography for the given years. Founded by Gauls in the 1st century BC, the ancient town on the site of Saint-Malo was known as the Roman Reginca or Aletum . By the late 4th century AD, the Saint-Servan district was the site of a major Saxon Shore promontory fort that protected the Rance estuary from seaborne raiders from beyond
6468-625: The two locations provided mutual support. The fortification complex was garrisoned by more than twelve thousand German troops from different services and units as well as stragglers from other battles in the Cotentin . About eight thousand Germans were in Saint-Malo itself when the battle began. Colonel Andreas von Aulock , the German commander, refused to surrender when asked to do so by the town's authorities. He said he "would defend St. Malo to
6552-570: 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
6636-804: 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
6720-701: 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
6804-517: Was designed by the architect Christian de Portzamparc . It houses the Brittany Museum (Musée de Bretagne), the regional library Bibliothèque de Rennes Métropole with six floors, and the Espace des Sciences science centre with a planetarium. At Place Honoré Commeurec is Les Halles Centrales, a covered market from 1922, with one part converted into contemporary art gallery. The Mercure Hotel
6888-404: Was one of the first French cities to receive French Tech accreditation, in November 2014. Moreover, Rennes has the third highest public research potential in the digital and ICT sectors in France, after Paris and Grenoble, with 3,000 people working in 10 laboratories, including the well-known IRISA, IETR, IRMAR, DGA-MI (cyberdefense), and SATIE. It also has the third highest innovation potential in
6972-489: 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
7056-427: Was rebuilt over a 12-year period from 1948 to 1960. It is a subprefecture of the Ille-et-Vilaine . The commune of Saint-Servan was merged with Paramé, and became the commune of Saint-Malo in 1967. Saint-Malo was the site of an Anglo-French summit in 1998 that led to a significant agreement regarding European defence policy . The Gulf of Saint-Malo has an oceanic temperate climate. Temperatures are softened by
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