Breton language and school: 1499-1794, analysis of a failure. Or, why Breton did not become a language of schooling

Abstract

Although Breton has long been a language of instruction, it has never become a vehicle for mass education. The hypothesis defended here is that the idea of Breton's inability to fulfil this educational function is rooted in its failure to embrace Modernity in the 16th century – a mutation entirely captured by French. Breton then remained the language of an oral civilisation, with medieval characteristics: low standardisation, low diffusion of writing and dependence on French (instead of Latin). The second phase of Modernity, that of the Catholic Reformation, certainly provided it with effective tools of literacy. But with contradictory consequences: the pastoral and utilitarian intentions did not aim at literacy per se. They only allowed the emergence, not the flowering of a written culture in Breton. The action of the Church thus led to the confinement of Breton in a certain archaism, which increasingly disqualified it in the eyes of the elites.