Upper Brittany: Difference between revisions

The well-knownprincipal distinction between the two parts of Brittany is that Lower Brittany is the historic realm of the [[Breton language]], while Upper Brittany is that of [[Gallo language|Gallo]], closely related to [[French language|French]]. The isolation of Brittany from the mainsteammainstream of French lifesociety was always less acute in Upper than in Lower Brittany, largely thanks to languagethe languages they spoke.<ref name=choquette>Leslie Choquette, ''Frenchmen into peasants: modernity and tradition in the peopling of French Canada'' (1997), [httphttps://books.google.com/books?id=bsRsw0HBW58C&pg=PA56#v=onepage&q=&f=false p. 56] online</ref> [[File:Galette kichijoji.jpg|thumb|A galette]] Together with other factors, this has led to other differences throughout history. The [[Revolt of the papier timbré|Revolt of the ''Papier Timbré'']] of 1675 was more ferocious in Lower Brittany than in Upper, but the ''[[Chouannerie]]'', a [[House of Bourbon|royalist]] uprising in the west of France against the [[French Revolution]], the [[First French Republic|Republic]], and the [[First French Empire|First Empire]], enjoyed more support in Upper Brittany than in Lower.<ref>Donald Sutherland, ''The Chouans: the social origins of popular counter-revolution in Upper Brittany, 1770-1796'' (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1982)</ref><ref>Donald Sutherland, 'Chouannerie and popular royalism: the survival of the counter-revolutionary tradition in Upper Brittany', in ''Social History'', v. 9 (1984), pp. 351-360</ref><ref>[[Roger Dupuy]], 'Chouans/Chouannerie', in [[Albert Soboul]] (ed.), ''Dictionnaire historique de la Révolution française'' (1989), p. 217</ref> Upper Brittany accounted for some sixty per cent of the province's emigrants to [[French Canada]], with especially high rates of emigration from [[Nantes]] and [[Ille-et-Vilaine]],<ref name=choquette/> despite having a lowersmaller population than Lower Brittany until the middle of the 20th century.

In mostmuch of Upper Brittany, [[Breton language|Breton]] has been little spoken, and indeed in some parts it may never have been the principleprincipal means of communication. Instead, the population historically spoke [[Gallo language|Gallo]], and later a mixture of Gallo and [[French language|French]].<ref name=McDonald>Maryon McDonald, ''"We are not French!": language, culture, and identity in Brittany‎Brittany'' (1989), [httphttps://books.google.com/books?id=4z4OAAAAQAAJ&pg=PA16#v=onepage&q=&f=false p. 16] online</ref> However, in both ancient and modern times the larger towns of Upper Brittany have drawn in large numbers of Breton speakers from Lower Brittany, and most of them have at some time contained various institutions supporting thethat language and its culture.<ref name=cc/> At the beginning of the 21st century, it was estimated that about one -tenth of Brittany's Breton speakers lived in Upper Brittany.<ref name=kelly>Helen Kelly-Holmes, ''Minority language broadcasting: Breton and Irish'' (2001) [httphttps://books.google.com/books?id=5cI4wWJjTisC&pg=PA32#v=onepage&q=&f=false p. 32] online</ref>

The Gallo language of Upper Brittany, like the Breton language, was until recently highly [[social stigma|stigmatized]], and its use declined steeply during the 20th century. Attempts are now made to revitalize it, with schools playing a role in this, but it is largely seenviewed as a rural language of older people.<ref>John Shaun Nolan, 'School and Extended Family in the Transmission and Revitalisation of Gallo in Upper-Brittany', in ''Journal of Multilingual and Multicultural Development'', vol. 29, issue 3 (May 2008), pp. 216-234</ref>

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