Talk:Brittany

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Politically, there are only four departments in Brittany. The Loire-Atlantique (not Loire-Maritime) actually belongs to the region Pays de Loire. Rod

I love Brittany!!!!Italic text

Heres the response to a question I asked - worthy of a wider audence, I think.

Andy, in response to your question, "Is this right? Domnonia & Cornouaille sound very like Dumnonia and Cornwall - part of the Brythonic culture but not part of Brittany." -- tres bizarre, but true! My source is Myles Dillon & Nora Chadwick, The Celtic Realms, but I've seen these names of the Breton kingdoms in other places. If I understand the scholarship correctly, this has spawned disagreements over the origins of these names: were they Medieval English (i.e., the Sassons from beyond the River Tamar & River Severn) coinages, or derived from earlier, prehistoric Celtic names, or perchance the Breton kingdoms borrowed the names currently in use from beyond the Channel? The only certainty in this dispute is that there are far more opinions than evidence. -- User:llywrch 04:43, 9 Aug 2003 (UTC)

Andy G 18:28, 11 Aug 2003 (UTC)

That Domnonia & Cornouaille sound like Dumnonia and Cornwall isn't surprising since the Bretons are settlers who migrated from Dumnonia and Cornwall and even after they settled retained close (trading) links with their ancestral kingdoms.-- DZ

I agree. The Channel was first a way of communication, not a border. For instance, an abbey in Côtes d'Armor, l'abbaye de Beauport owned four parishes on the Continent and two in Devon, England, until George the VIIIth ; the monks built a harbour to cross over frequently. "Devon" comes from "Domnonae", the eponym of an ancient kingdom in North Brittany. And Cornwall is close to the Breton Cornouaille, even more in their respective language (Kernew in cornish and Kernev in Breton). Gwalarn


Contents

[edit] Historical region or administrative region ?

There's an ambiguity in this article which should be resolved. Is it about the historical region (which includes Loire-Atlantique) or the administrative one (excluding Loire-Atlantique) ? _R_ 12:28, 9 Aug 2004 (UTC)

[edit] Prehistory

I feel the section on prehistory is getting too long with respect to the rest of the article. IMHO its content should be transferred on an appropriate page with a sum-up here. _R_ 12:36, 9 Aug 2004 (UTC)

[edit] Origin of the term 'Great Britain'

In the article I read between the lines that 'Great Britain' was at first just 'Britain'. Then 'Little Britain' was created and as a consequence the original Britain recieved the name 'Great Braitain' to make the distinction clearer. Right? DirkvdM 07:48, 21 September 2005 (UTC)

Quite right. The name of Britain followed its people in Armorica (named New Britain or Little Britain, then Brittany). The name of England erased this of Britain (if not in latin) till the XVIIth century.

In breton (Breizh), italien (Bretagna), spanish (Bretana), french (Bretagne)... there is no difference between the name of the island and the one of the peninsula. Le gludic 01:52, 7 November 2005 (UTC)

In Latin, the island was called "Britannia major" while the peninsula's name was "Britannia minor". In relation with those names, some people state that, in English, "Brittany" is a diminutive of "Britain", an other way to say "little Britain". Is that right ? Gwalarn 20:10, 12 November 2005 (UTC)
Not likely -- Brittany AFAIK is an anglicization of the French name. If you spelled the premodern pronounciation of Bretagne according to English phonetics you'd get something like Brettanye. Both English and French no longer pronounce most terminal schwas (written <e>)... Brettanye could easily become Brittanye by contamination with Britain (referring in English to insular Britania. Tkinias 18:59, 11 May 2006 (UTC)
I thought Great Britain came from it being the largest (greatest) island in the British Isles which also constitutes the bulk of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland? Mammal4 11:19, 8 June 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Reference Question

Does anyone know the name of a waterway that is two words long? Each word is five letters so _____ _____ The name will most likely fit these letters _i_e_ r_n_e

Lotsofissues 05:13, 12 December 2005 (UTC)

Rance River or River Rance? Man vyi 08:04, 12 December 2005 (UTC)

[edit] Infobox

Copied the infobox from Wales. - FrancisTyers 13:13, 27 January 2006 (UTC)

Please Man vyi do not change the spelling of my anthem: Bro Gozh Ma Zadoù is its only correct spelling. I know a few things about my country, and this is one of them. The "no-toll roads" reason is just a legend, which tends to prove that Brittany is "land of legends" just like Wales is "land of songs". Broladre.

Pipe the link to Bro Goz ma Zadoù if you want and make it Bro Gozh Ma Zadoù, just don't break the link. Man vyi 18:40, 16 February 2006 (UTC)
I have deleted the infobox. FYI Brittany is neither an independent country, nor a federal or administrative entity (unlike Wales). There is already an infobox at Bretagne for the administrative région of Bretagne. Brittany as it is presented in this article is only an historical and cultural entity, it has no official or administrative recognition. Hardouin 01:30, 16 March 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Quite personal

The sentence "The origin of the name Brittany is Dutch; fur traders from Holland settling in France named the region" has been removed. It seems to be a personal belief only.

Good call, anon. Tkinias 19:00, 11 May 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Breton langage

how about line about the breton wikipedia ? polo


What about the Vannetais language( Golfe du Morbihan)?... The Cornwall and the Gallo languages are not the only ones . Thomas

Vannetais is most often considered a dialect of Breton. _R_ 16:21, 25 May 2006 (UTC)

Added some info on the rate of decline of the Breton language in the last 50 years (down by 1 million speakers). Jefight 11:49, 7 April 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Crêpes etc.

I deleted the random [citation needed] in the section about crêpes. As there are no sources cited anywhere else in the article that one implies that there is something debatable about crêpes being Breton. I've not been to Bretagne, but in Paris it seems to be taken as a given that crêpes/gallettes are a Breton thing. Tkinias 19:05, 11 May 2006 (UTC)

Yeah, I've seen that connection being made in Belgium too. A source would be good however. Piet 19:49, 11 May 2006 (UTC)
I think the ṃ referred to the distinction between crêpe de sarrazin and galette de sarrazin. I'm Breton and I can't tell whether this lexical distinction has a sharp or a diffuse boundary, nor where this boundary lies precisely, nor whether it's tied to differences in the recipe. I'll put it back in. _R_ 16:51, 25 May 2006 (UTC)
I've been all over Brittany, "Crêperies" are everywhere 81.153.161.222 14:45, 26 August 2006 (UTC)
"Citation needed" template removed again. I think any further re-appearance should be treated as mild vandalism. ---Vernon White 22:58, 18 October 2006 (UTC)


[edit] Privileges

I removed the following from the article:

However one privilège remains to this day. When the Duchy passed into French hands one condition was that "no toll shall ever be levied on either road or bridge." The E-50 highway from Paris to Brest is comprised in part of the expensive A11 and A81 motorways as far as the Breton frontier, which is the last toll booth before the road continues on to Rennes as the Route Nationale 157. The A84 motorway from Caen in Normandy to Rennes is likewise a toll free road.

If the Act of Union really still applied, the A11 would be toll-free between Ancenis and Nantes, which is not the case. It's true that all roads are toll-free in the administrative région Bretagne, but this particularity arose in the 60s, not in 1532. _R_ 16:15, 25 May 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Is this article a good idea?

I'm really not sure I like the idea of an article about current day France based on purely historical borders. So much of the information here would be better off at Bretagne. In particular, grouping "sights" in Brittany is a poor idea: sights are necessarily either in Bretagne, Loir-et-Atlantique, etc. What is gained by keeping them here? The section on languages is similar: it makes more sense to discuss which languages are spoken in which regions, rather than in which historical duchies...Discussing the modern day climate of a historical region is similarly bizarre, it's like discussing the climate of Van Dieman's land, of the USSR or of Gaul. How did this come to be this way? Stevage 06:01, 24 October 2006 (UTC)

As a French, I think an article about historical Brittany is relevant, because while provinces have been replaced long ago as administrative territorial divisions, the concept is still alive and widely used in France. When we say "I'm spending my vacations in Bretagne", we think about the province, not the region.125.225.69.173 01:33, 9 February 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Post-Roman history

This:

"With the collapse of the Roman empire, Britton troups from across the Channel moved to people Armorica, emissary in the area, in the process granting him power over the Marches of Nantes and Rennes. At the emperor's death, he was crowned king and his decendants ruled Brittany until the Viking Invasions."

does not make a great deal of sense and appears to disagree with the History of Brittany article.
=== Vernon White (talk) 22:47, 18 November 2006 (UTC)

I have tried to improve this part. Siswrn 21:57, 27 December 2006 (UTC)

[edit] External Links

Mindnet 13:19, 2 January 2007 (UTC) Mindnet There are already some links on the page for accommodation in Brittany. I think adding www.gites-brittany.com would be beneficial as it has many gites and B&B's throughout Brittany that are all privately owned. I'm sure many people reading up on Brittany are interested in finding accommodation for their holidays etc.

I can't see that commercial links for property/holidays have any encyclopaedic value whatsoever. Linkspam > delete. Man vyi 13:46, 2 January 2007 (UTC)

I am quite unsure of how this all works but I am guessing that no-one has yet noticed the rather obvious vandalism under the trivia sub-heading (e.g. - Brittany Adair of round rock texas: is a spoiled brat). Inasmuch as I don't know procedure for editing or reporting I will trust that my adding to this page will trigger someone's attention who is familiar with procedures... from A WP fan

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