Gallo language

Gallo
Galo
Native to	France
Native speakers	28,000  (date missing)
Language family	Indo-European Italic Romance Western Gallo-Romance Oïl Gallo
Language codes
ISO 639-3	–
Linguist List	fra-gal
Linguasphere	51-AAA-hb
The Gallo language area (in grey) corresponding to Upper Brittany (in colours, Lower Brittany)

Gallo is a regional language of France. Gallo is a Romance language, one of the Oïl languages. It is the historic language of the region of Upper Brittany and some neighboring portions of Normandy, but today is spoken by only a small minority of the population, having been largely superseded by French.

Gallo was originally spoken in the Marches of Neustria, which now corresponds to the border lands of Brittany and Normandy and its former heart in Le Mans, Maine. As an Oïl language, it forms part of a dialect continuum which includes Norman, Picard and Poitevin, among others. One of the features that distinguishes it from Norman is the absence of Norse influence. There is some limited intercomprehension with adjacent varieties of the Norman language along the linguistic frontier and with Dgèrnésiais and Jèrriais. However, as the dialect continuum shades towards Mayennais, there is a less clear isogloss. The clearest isogloss is that distinguishing Gallo from Breton, a Celtic language traditionally spoken in the western territory of Brittany.

In the west, the vocabulary of Gallo has been influenced by contact with Breton, but remains overwhelmingly Latinate. The influence of Breton decreases eastwards across Gallo-speaking territory.

As of 1980, Gallo's western extent stretches from Plouha (Plóha), in Côtes-d'Armor, south of Paimpol (Paimpol), passing through Châtelaudren (Châtié), Corlay (Corlaè), Loudéac (Loudia), Pontivy (Pontivy), Locminé (Lominoec), Vannes (Vannes) and ending in the south on the Rhuys peninsula, in Morbihan.

Status

The town of Loudéac displays its Gallo name, Loudia, on signage

One of the metro stations of the Breton capital, Rennes, has bilingual signage in French and Gallo, but generally the Gallo language is not as visibly high-profile as the Breton language, even in its traditional heartland of the Pays Gallo, which includes the two historical capitals of Rennes (Gallo Resnn, Breton Roazhon) and Nantes (Gallo Nauntt, Breton Naoned).

Different dialects of Gallo are distinguished, although there is a movement for standardisation on the model of the dialect of Upper Brittany.

Literature

Although a written literary tradition exists, Gallo is more noted for extemporised story-telling and theatrical presentations. Given Brittany's rich musical heritage, contemporary performers produce a range of music sung in Gallo (see Music of Brittany).

The roots of written Gallo literature are traced back to Le Livre des Manières written in 1178 by Etienne de Fougères, a poetical text of 336 quatrains and the earliest known Romance text from Brittany, and to Le Roman d'Aquin, an anonymous 12th century chanson de geste transcribed in the 15th century but which nevertheless retains features typical of the mediaeval Romance of Brittany. In the 19th century oral literature was collected by researchers and folklorists such as Paul Sébillot, Adolphe Orain, Amand Dagnet and Georges Dottin. Amand Dagnet (1857-1933) also wrote a number of original works in Gallo, including a play La fille de la Brunelas (1901).

It was in the 1960s that a concerted effort to stimulate Gallo literature started. In 1979 Alan J. Raude published a proposed standardised orthography for Gallo.

A Gallo sign in the Rennes metro

Examples

English	Gallo	French
afternoon	vêpré	après-midi (archaic: vêprée)
apple tree	pommieu	pommier
bee	avètt	abeille
cider	cit	cidre
chair	chaérr	chaise
cheese	fórmaij	fromage
exit	desort	sortie
to fall	cheir	tomber (archaic: choir)
goat	biq	chèvre (slang: bique)
him	li	lui
house	ostèu	maison (archaic: hostel)
kid	garsaille	gosse
lip	lip	lèvre (or "lippe")
maybe	vantiet	peut-être
mouth	góll	bouche (gueule = jaw)
now	astour	maintenant (à cette heure)
number	limerot	numéro
pear	peirr	poire
school	escoll	école
squirrel	chat-de-boéz (lit. "woods cat")	écureuil
star	esteill	étoile
timetable	oryaer	horaire
to smoke	betunae	fumer (archaic: pétuner)
today	anoet	aujourd'hui (archaic: hui)
to whistle	sublae	siffler
with	ô or côteu avek	avec

Films

Bilingual signage in the Rennes metro

• Of Pipers and Wrens (1997). Produced and directed by Gei Zantzinger, in collaboration with Dastum. Lois V. Kuter, ethnomusicological consultant. Devault, Pennsylvania: Constant Spring Productions.

External links

• http://bertaeyn-galeizz.com/