Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-vdxz6 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-25T23:54:16.308Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Mutation in Breton verbs: Pertinacity across generations1

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  13 November 2015

HOLLY J. KENNARD  and
ADITI LAHIRI
HOLLY J. KENNARD*
Affiliation:
University of Oxford
ADITI LAHIRI*
Affiliation:
University of Oxford
*
Author’s address: Faculty of Linguistics, Philology & Phonetics, University of Oxford,Clarendon Press Centre, Walton Street,Oxford OX1 2HG, UK [email protected]
Author’s address: [email protected]
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Although word-initial consonants are highly salient cross-linguistically, the process of initial-consonant mutation has nonetheless continued to affect them in the Celtic languages. This paper investigates the use of the mixed mutation (MM) in Breton, following the progressive particle. Like all mutation, it naturally affects the phonology, but also gives (redundant) information for morphosyntax. Mutation is generally presumed to be a regular process, but as there has been a gap in the transmission of Breton, the extent to which this phono-syntactic phenomenon is consistent across generations remains open to discussion. It has been claimed that younger speakers, being strongly French-dominant, do not use mutation correctly. We tested this examining both distribution of usage and acoustic measurements of the consonants in question. Data from original fieldwork indicate that young adults use MM in the same way as older speakers, but children attending Breton-medium schooling are less proficient. Mixed mutation is difficult to acquire, the crucial factor being sustained Breton input beyond the early teenage years. Acoustically, there is no difference in the production of MM cross-generationally. The difference between the two generations is in the use of the progressive particle itself, omitted by the older generation, but retained by younger speakers.

Keywords

Bretoninitial-consonant mutationmorphophonological alternationspreverbal particles
Type
Research Article
Information
Journal of Linguistics , Volume 53 , Issue 1 , 01 February 2017 , pp. 113 - 145
Check for updates
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2015 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Andersen, Henning(ed.). 1986. Sandhi phenomena in the languages of Europe. Berlin, New York & Amsterdam: Mouton de Gruyter.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Awbery, Gwenllian M. 1986. Moves towards a simpler, binary mutation system in Welsh. In Andersen (ed.), 161–166.Google Scholar
Ball, Martin J. 1993. Initial-consonant mutation in modern spoken Welsh. Multilingua – Journal of Cross-Cultural and Interlanguage Communication 12.2, 189–206.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Baxter, Robert Neal. 2009. New technologies and terminological pressure in lesser-used languages: The Breton Wikipedia; from terminology consumer to potential terminology provider. Language Problems and Language Planning 33.1, 60–80.Google Scholar
Boersma, Paul & Weenink, David. 2014. Praat: Doing phonetics by computer [computer program], version 5.3.75. Retrieved from http://www.praat.org/.Google Scholar
Bothorel, André. 1982. Etude phonétique et phonologique du breton parlé à Argol (Finistère-Sud). Lille: Atelier national réproduction des thèses, Université de Lille III.Google Scholar
Broudic, Fañch. 2009. Parler breton au XXIe siècle: Le nouveau sondage de TMO-Régions. Brest: Emgleo Breiz.Google Scholar
Broudic, Fañch. 2010. L’enseignement du et en breton: Rapport à Monsieur le Recteur de l’Académie de Rennes. Brest: Emgleo Breiz.Google Scholar
Cheveau, Loı̈c. 2006. Les mutations consonantiques en Breton Vannetais Littéraire et en Breton Lorientais. Journal of Celtic Linguistics 10, 1–15.Google Scholar
Costaouec, Denis. 1998. A propos des ‘mutations consonantiques’ du breton. La Linguistique 34.1, 87–106.Google Scholar
Costaouec, Denis. 2010. Contraintes et libertés en phonologie: neutralisations et faits d’assimilation en breton. La Bretagne Linguistique 15, 123–145.Google Scholar
Davalan, Nikolaz. 1999. Interférences linguistiques chez des enfants scolarisés en breton. Klask 5, 97–118.Google Scholar
Denis, Pierre. 1977. Etude structurale d’un parler breton. Doctorat ès lettres, Université de Haute Bretagne.Google Scholar
Dorian, Nancy C. 1973. Grammatical change in a dying dialect. Language 49.2, 413–438.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dorian, Nancy C. 1977. The problem of the semi-speaker in language death. International Journal of the Sociology of Language 12, 23–32.Google Scholar
Dorian, Nancy C. 1980. Language shift in community and individual: The phenomenon of the laggard semi-speaker. International Journal of the Sociology of Language 25, 85–94.Google Scholar
Dresher, Elan & Lahiri, Aditi. 2005. Main stress left in Early Middle English. In Fortescue, Michael, Jensen, Eva Skafte, Mogensen, Jens Erik & Schøsler, Lene (eds.), Historical Linguistics 2003: Selected papers from the 16th International Conference on Historical Linguistics, Copenhagen, 11–15 August 2003, 75–85. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dressler, Wolfgang U. 1972. On the phonology of language death. Chicago Linguistics Society (CLS) 8, 448–457.Google Scholar
Dressler, Wolfgang U. 1991. The sociolinguistic and patholinguistic attrition of Breton phonology, morphology and morphonology. In Seliger, Herbert W. & Vago, Robert Michael (eds.), First language attrition, 99–112. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Dressler, Wolfgang U. & Hufgard, Josef. 1980. Études phonologiques sur le breton sud-bigouden. Wien: Verlag der Österreichischen Akademie der Wissenschaften.Google Scholar
Fagyal, Zsuzsanna, Kibbee, Douglas & Jenkins, Fred. 2006. French: A linguistic introduction. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Falc’hun, Franc¸ois. 1951. Le système consonantique du breton; avec une étude comparative de phonétique expérimentale. Rennes: Plihon.Google Scholar
Falc’hun, Franc¸ois. 2005. Études sur la langue bretonne: système consonantique, mutations et accentuation. Ploudalmézeau: Éditions Label LN.Google Scholar
Favereau, Francis. 1984. Langue quotidienne, langue technique et langue littéraire dans le parler et la tradition orale de Poullaouen. Doctorat d’état, Université de Rennes II.Google Scholar
Favereau, Francis. 1997. Grammaire du breton contemporain. Morlaix: Skol Vreizh.Google Scholar
Gathercole, Virginia C. Mueller & Thomas, Enlli M. N.. 2005. Minority language survival: Input factors influencing the acquisition of Welsh. In Cohen, James, McAlister, Kara T., Rolstad, Kellie & MacSwan, Jeff (eds.), ISB4 Proceedings of the 4th International Symposium on Bilingualism, 852–874. Somerville, MA: Cascadilla Press.Google Scholar
Gathercole, Virginia C. Mueller & Thomas, Enlli M. N.. 2009. Bilingual first-language development: Dominant language takeover, threatened minority language take-up. Bilingualism: Language and Cognition 12.2, 213–237.Google Scholar
German, Gary. 2007. Language shift, diglossia and dialectal variation in Western Brittany: The case of Southern Cornouaille. In Tristram, Hildegard L. C. (ed.), The Celtic languages in contact: Papers from the workshop within the Framework of the XIII International Congress of Celtic Studies, Bonn, 26–27 July 2007, 146–192. Potsdam: Potsdam University Press.Google Scholar
Hannahs, S. J. 2011. Celtic mutations. In van Oostendorp, Marc, Ewen, Colin J., Hume, Elizabeth & Rice, Keren (eds.), The Blackwell companion to phonology, vol. V, 2807–2830. Oxford: Blackwell.Google Scholar
Hennessey, John S. Jr. 1990. Spirantization to lenition in Breton: Interpretation of morphophonological variability. In Ball, Martin J., Fife, James, Poppe, Erich & Rowland, Jenny (eds.), Ieithyddiaeth Geltaidd/Celtic linguistics: Readings in the Brythonic languages. Festschrift for T. Arywn Watkins, 209–224. Amsterdam & Philadelphia, PA: John Benjamins.Google Scholar
Hornsby, Michael. 2005. Néo breton and questions of authenticity. Estudios de Sociolingüística 6.2, 191–218.Google Scholar
Jackson, Kenneth Hurlstone. 1967. A historical phonology of Breton. Dublin: Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies.Google Scholar
Jones, Mari C. 1998. Language obsolescence and revitalization: Linguistic change in two sociolinguistically contrasting Welsh communities. Oxford: Clarendon Press.Google Scholar
Kennard, Holly J. 2014. The persistence of verb second in negative utterances in Breton. Journal of Historical Linguistics 4.1, 1–39.Google Scholar
Ladefoged, Peter. 2005. Vowels and consonants. Oxford: Blackwell.Google Scholar
Le Dû, Jean. 1986. A sandhi survey of the Breton language. In Andersen(ed.), 435–450.Google Scholar
Le Roux, Pierre. 1924–1963. Atlas linguistique de la Basse Bretagne. Paris: Champion.Google Scholar
Lisker, Leigh & Abramson, Arthur S.. 1964. A cross-language study of voicing in initial stops: Acoustical measurements. Word 20.3, 384–422.Google Scholar
Mikuteit, Simone & Reetz, Henning. 2007. Caught in the ACT: The timing of aspiration and voicing in East Bengali. Language and Speech 50.2, 247–277.Google Scholar
Ofis Publik ar Brezhoneg. 2014. L’enseignement bilingue en 2013. Retrieved from http://www.fr.opab-oplb.org/47-enseignement.htm (19 March 2015).Google Scholar
Press, J. Ian. 1986. A grammar of Modern Breton. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter.Google Scholar
Press, J. Ian. 2009. Breton. In Ball, Martin J. & Müller, Nicole (eds.), The Celtic languages, 2nd edn., 427–487. London & New York: Routledge.Google Scholar
Reetz, Henning & Jongman, Allard. 2009. Phonetics: Transcription, production, acoustics, and perception. Oxford: Wiley-Blackwell.Google Scholar
Stephens, Janig. 1993. Breton. In Ball, Martin J. & Fife, James (eds.), The Celtic languages, 349–409. London: Routledge.Google Scholar
Ternes, Elmar. 1992. The Breton language. In MacAulay, Donald (ed.), The Celtic languages, 371–452. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Thomas, Enlli M. N. & Gathercole, Virginia C. Mueller. 2007. Children’s productive command of grammatical gender and mutation in Welsh: An alternative to rule-based learning. First Language 27.3, 251–278.Google Scholar
Thomas, Enlli M. N. & Mayr, Robert. 2010. Children’s acquisition of Welsh in a bilingual setting: A psycholinguistic perspective. In Morris, Delyth (ed.), Welsh in the twenty-first century, 99–117. Cardiff: University of Wales Press.Google Scholar
Timm, Lenora A. 1985. Breton mutations: Literary vs. vernacular usages. Word 35, 95–107.Google Scholar
Wmffre, Iwan. 1998. Central Breton. Unterschliessheim: Lincom Europa.Google Scholar