Anyone speaking Cornish is basically a language revival activist so I'd have expected them to be more inclined to avoid English injections. I don't think the total number of speakers is relevant per se.
I'm not. It's purification of the language by the Welsh (language) authorities. You see the same in Québec with French, Dutch in Belgium, and yes Breton in Brittany. Most ordinary people who never went through the education system, use loan words. It's a natural thing. When a language becomes a prestigious item, "specialists" start to purify it. Examples from québéc, Flandres, and Brittany are: ARRÊT (on stop signs where in France that's just STOP) duimspijker (where Dutch people use the French word punaise) Demat (deoc'h) where most natives would use bonjour (deoc'h /doh) instead.
Hey, Ellis from the video. More casual Welsh I'd speak with friends would have more English sentences/words interspersed within. In the video I standardised from my dialect somewhat and attempted to use celtic (but still modern!) vocabulary since the challenge was to see if speakers of the Celtic languages could understand each other and using English words would automatically make it easier for the other two to understand since we're all also English speakers.
I'm pretty sure they also have some pre-existing understanding of each others' languages. At 12:31 Ellis says "I've just remembered that there is a difference between Middle Cornish and Modern Cornish", so he has some pre-existing knowledge. This is not really the same as just putting total n00bs into a room I don't think. But it's intelligble to some extent anyway even to an utter n00b.
Hello, fluent welsh speaker here. I actually found this really interesting, especially listening to the cornish. It is genuinely remarkable how similar some words were, theyre similar enough that you can roughly understand about 70% of whats being said. Truly amazing!
Same here. It was as much frustrating as it was fascinating being able to understand certain words then being completely lost with others. Like reading a book with half of the words blanked out.
Love the Cornish language. Hope it comes back to its former glory. As a learner of Welsh I could pick up some meaning when I listened but not when I read the words. Next target to learn is Breton.Really enjoyed this! 👍
A lot of the issue may be the disparate orthographies in Cornish and Welsh. In Cornish in particular, spelling was never really standardized back when it was spoken pre-1800. Post revival, several different orthographies have been proposed over the years.
Świetna robota Norbercie!!! 👏👏👏 Znalezienie nosicieli tych rzadkich języków i nagranie tego odcinka to pewnie była przygoda sama w sobie. Wyszło świetnie i chcemy więcej :D Wydaje się, że w zrozumieniu Walijczyk był bliższy Kornwalijczykowi a Bretonowi przeszkadzał wpływ francuskiego , żeby móc efektywniej sie porozumiewać, choć i tak większość słów zrozumiał. Przekaż podziękowania wszystkim Panom za ten cudowny eksperyment!
I love this. As an Italian speaker it's so strange to have cognates like "lent" for slow - and there were several others. I guess it should not be strange as we are all Indo-Europeans
I think in addition to Indo-European root words, it may be due to Brythonic (the ancestor to these three languages) coexisting with Latin in Roman Britain for almost 400 years.
Aside from lent (it: lento), I heard scrifa for write (it: scrivere); guerrion for worrior (it: guerriero); sehos for thirst (it: sete); and corf for body (it: corpo).
Interesting. I didn't realize the Celtic and Italic languages shared a common sub-branch of the Indo-European language tree. Makes a lot of sense given where the Celts originated.
This was fantastic to watch. It was a particular treat to hear Late Cornish, as it isn't so often represented, and I think it is a particularly beautiful variant of Cornish. Wonderful video.
@@JesusFriedChrist I’m a native Cornishman. I’m aware the English try to claim us as there’s, but I’m saying we are not English. We were never concurred or officially annexed, a part of the Celtic nations, are a duchy (which you can’t be both a ‘county’), are a distinct Celtic people receiving official minority status, have our own Brythonic Celtic language predating English, etc etc. Essentially, they tried to illegally claim us as their own when we’re rightfully our own country as we once were. The only thing 'English' about Kernow is the fact they're endlessly mass moving here eroding our native culture and replacing the few natives left. You should look into England's ongoing history of mistreating the surrounding Keltek nations but also the truee history of Kernow. Kernow nag Pow Sows.
@@foofy14 I have heard some Cornish people describe themselves as both Cornish and English, which is an oxymoron to me. It would be like calling yourself both Welsh and English - Welsh and British, yes, but not Welsh and English.
Cool Gwened Breton (as opposed to KLT) spoken there. Appreciate the effort as it's not the "standard" Breton taught in Brittany. Next stage is to revive Cornish and Breton so that speakers get as fluent as the Welsh ones. It's political, guys.
Of the three, Welsh sounded the most authentic. The other two sounded like they had been heavily influenced by the major languages of their respective regions. That Welshman sounded like he’s been speaking that language all of his life. If he said he didn’t have a word of English, I would’ve believed him.
In Wales there is a much stronger education system in Welsh. In Cornwall sadly I believe there are very few, if any Cornish medium schools (please correct me if I'm wrong). And it's so sad what has happened to Breton. Even 70 years ago, it had a million speakers but the French deliberately strangled the language and punished children who spoke it. Diwan is helping the language to recover a bit which is great. The very best way of increasing these languages prevalence is to build schools in which the language of education is the Celtic language.
@@roberthudson3386 Welsh is stronger because so many areas of North Wales have remained strongly Welsh speaking. Demographics show that this is slowly changing so I hope the Welsh act fast to prevent those areas going into language shift to English. Once a language loses a strong base of native speakers it is very difficult for an authentic version of the language to be revived. Welsh schools are of higher quality than the schools of other Celtic languages because they have abundant native speakers to teach in them. Diwan schools produce a very inauthentic version of Breton which is really just French in disguise. Similar could be said about the Gaelscoil schools in Ireland (but English in disguise, not French obviously).
@@cigh7445 Indeed one could argue that Welsh is unfortunately slowly dying, not by ceasing to exist altogether, but by English influence on the language which is threatening to turn it into more of a dialect within a few generations. You only have to compare the Welsh spoken by the older generation who learned it as a first language to those who speak it as a second language having learned it in schools where English is the language of education. All schools in Wales should aim to be Welsh medium schools. This is the only way to preserve the language as children will learn it and everyone will therefore speak it. English will be picked up easily through media, culture and common use, so there is no risk of English standards declining by doing this. I can speak both well because my education was in Welsh. If I hadn't had this advantage it would be very difficult to learn as an adult. I can't comment on Breton except to say that French-influenced Breton is still better than no Breton, and Diwan at least gives it a chance to survive in a heavily altered form. If not for Diwan it would die out or be on the brink within a few decades.
Would totally love to learn a celtic language! I'm so in love with Welsh, hoping one day I can acess better their very rich tradition on poetry and song,
This is mighty interesting! Having hardly any knowledge at all about Celtic languages (Which is a shame because my ancesters came from Roazon, Breizh), listening carefully with a mind that knows about Dutch, English, And some Latin languages like Italian, there were several words môy po le, that I could decipher! Which is so satisfying!! It's obvious all of these languages are based on Indo-European Thanks a lot of sharing this on YT!!!
I live in the Isle of Man and I know some Manx . Not in any way has this helped me with this. Not a clue what’s going on. It’s also weird hearing how Breton is spoken with a French accent . Unlike the other Gaelic/Celtic languages which all have their own distinct and to me defining accents and ways of pronunciations . Like I can hear a Scottish Gaelic speaker and a northern Irish one and totally tell them apart . . If I wasn’t paying attention properly to this , I would think Breton was a dialect of French
@@littlemy1773a true native Breton speaker does not sound French. Unfortunately there are now few around. Look at old videos of Breton speakers on UA-cam. It's a rolled 'r' not a French one and they don't sound French.
On Anglicisation, Dan's Late Cornish is revived from when English influence was stronger. Middle Cornish varieties tend to be closer to Middle Welsh. Cornish was also heavily influenced by Norman and therefore cognates with English are common coincidences. Naturally, no period of Cornish is better or more authentic, it's all our history.
I can't speak Cornish or Breton and I only have a little Welsh. I'm a little surprised that I'd watched the first three minutes of this before I thought to put the subtitles on. After doing this I found it much easier to understand.
1:53 "He was a warrior, or warrior, or warrior" was just hilarious to me as a translation. As a Welsh speaker I feel like I can get a very rough grasp on a handful of the Cornish words but I'm getting barely any of the Breton
I'm amazed how authentic Ellis' Welsh sounds! I can hardly detect any English influence in his pronunciation, whereas in the case of Daniel it basically sounds like a native French speaker who's learning a foreign language. It would be interesting to know how often they use their respective language in everyday life. My guess is that Ellis grew up in a Welsh speaking family/environment whereas Daniel hardly ever uses Breton in his daily life. And kudos to Dan for learning Cornish and putting the effort to speak it as authentically as possible!👍
I wouldn't be so quick to doubt the authenticity of Daniel's Breton. Breton has been influenced by French for centuries, even before Breton became endangered, so it also has nasal vowels, "eu" /ø/ and "u" /y/ vowels, French loanwords, etc.
You just say this from an English perspective… For me its the other way around, with Ellis still sounding very British even in a pure Welsh accent… Having seen Daniel in other videos, I can say he is very proficient in Breton, and its just his unique way of thinking that makes him stutter and talk repetitively a bit… And in addition he speaks the closest variety to French phonetically - that being the Vannes / Vannetais Breton (he’s from Lorient) .
@@ryanchon8702 It's not about the nasal or rounded vowels at all, these have indeed been part of Breton for centuries and in the case of /ø/ and /y/ most probably native developments, it's about the general accentuation and intonation. I've heard native speakers of Breton who acquired it from their parents that were speaking Breton at home (unfortunately most are now 70 and older) and they sound(ed) drastically different. A world apart from how Daniel sounds in this video. Besides, if you watch carefully, you will notice that contrary to Ellis, Daniel only generates relatively short and simple sentences, is sometimes searching for words, and lacks the fluidity with which Ellis is speaking. It's not a personal critique of Daniel, I think it's great that he tries to maintain the language, but I also think it's important for viewers to realise that this is NOT how Breton used to sound a few generations ago.
@@GeoCrusader I wish I could provide an English perspective, but as a Frenchman I'm afraid I can only offer a French one ;-) I have no doubt that Daniel is very proficient and knows a lot of vocabulary, besides, he seems to be quite knowledgeable about other dialects, but you have to agree with me that his delivery in this video (I cannot judge elsewhere) is neither very fluid nor sophisticated. Oui, au delà du fait qu'il précise qu'il est de Lorient au début, j'ai tout de suite remarqué l'accent et sa façon de ne pas prononcer le /z/ qui trahi tout de suite la Vannetais ;-)
I've heard Breton before, and it's always sounded to me like French except that I can't understand it. There are some French words in Daniel's Breton, like "alors", which I do understand.
I speak English and French but I don’t speak any Welsh or Breton or Cornish. Breton always throws me for a loop because it sounds like French at first and then, after you’ve listened and almost given yourself a headache, you realize you don’t understand a single word being said.
That was wonderful. Irish speaker here, but I really enjoyed the level of bemusement experienced amongst the speakers on hearing words in cousin languages which would have reflected some of their own. I would recommend INTRODUCING the while thing in English first, in order to explain to natives of ALL languages who still understand English, exactly what is happening, and what language is being spoken by each speaker. Still, go raibh míle maith again go léir. Thank ye all very much! 🙏☘🇮🇪🏴🏴🏴🇨🇵🇩🇪🇺🇸🙏
I am Welsh. I can understand approximately 30% of Cornish, but Breton is very hard in spoken form because of the French influence on the accent. But there is a fair amount of shared vocabulary. Interestingly, with Cornish, there are cognates with both Welsh and English, so I can understand both! I think all three languages should be universally taught (alongside English or French) in the three countries.
@@melysmelys2622 It is more common in older speakers who learned as a first language. Really the Diwan schools that teach the language should try to teach the language with an authentic, traditional accent, even though that is hard when the teachers likely grew up speaking French as a first language.
I heard old recordings of breton spoken by monolinguals, and I heard how those who worked in England sounded like. First, their pronounciation was very different and welsh speakers would understand much more (there is a story of Bretons and Welsh meeting on Guernsey in 1950s and understanding eachothers) . Interestingly those Bretons who went to work in England spoke english in such way that they were often asked from which part of Wales they came. Unfortunately French republic in 60ties and 70ties strongly fought to destroy Breton, Basque, Occitan and other local languages
I know this is probably the product of subconscious cultural biases on my part but I’ve always thought that Celtic languages sound so friendly and warm. I don’t know why but I always get grandmother vibes.
Interesting stuff! Some subtitles for us English speakers would be nice. Guessed the Cornish and Welsh speakers by their accents and I knew the word for Breton from holiday to Brittany :-)
Breton sounds exactly like French, but with different words altogether. It’s like French being written and then read aloud backwards or perhaps what French sounds to people who don’t speak neither French, nor a language that bears some resemblance to it (like Italian or German)
The original Breton accent was in large extent covered by the French accent. Nevertheless don't forget that the French accent has still elements of the old Gaulish one.
It's the way it's being pronounced by a native french speaker. Same for basque - these days most speakers have a strong Spanish accent, but the language itself is completely unrelated and probably sounded nowhere close to Spanish ....
@@claudioristagno6460 indeed. As someone who speaks Portuguese, Spanish and French, I can easily notice how French itself sounds completely odd compared to other Romance language. French accent doesn’t sound Latin at all. Rather, it seems like a Germanic-Celtic language with 80% Romance vocabulary and Latinised structures. That’s why people who speak Portuguese, Spanish and Italian can often hold a conversation (to some extent) without learning each other’s languages, whilst all of them struggle to understand anything about French without prior exposure.
@@EquuleusPictor that’s true, perhaps the original accent used to sound closer to Welsh. However, we must bear in mind that French phonology was highly influenced by Celtic and Germanic languages, as I said above
If you find Breton from the mid-20th century, when there were still large numbers of first-language speakers, the accent sounds less French. It's really a shame the way the French tried to kill it off. And for no reason other than their insistence that everything be bound into one national identity that was really just a myth to begin with. France has always been a country of ethnically and linguistically diverse regions.
Brythonic Celts, together with the Goidelic Celts (Ireland, Scotland and the Isle of Mann) are the last descendants of the Celtic legacy, well, without forgetting the Celtic nations of Spain (Asturias, Galicia and Cantabria) and northern Portugal, although unfortunately they do not have a spoken Celtic language.
@@baronmeduse Cumbria became part of Northumbria in the 7th century, actually. So it was ruled by Angles. But it is notable that Cumbric is the only dead Celtic language that survived for longer than Pictish, although Cumbric still died about 600 years before Cornish did.
@@autumnphillips151 This was never total rule, not even extensive. It is constantly referred to throughout history as 'Northumbria AND Cumbria. The further west the weaker it was. By the 9th century it was dominated by Vikings not Angles.
The French or ethnically Celtic for the most part as well. Especially the ones in the south where Occitan is historically the spoken language. Gaul, you know.
Dear Norbert, could you please do a video on Wymysorys Language? Apparently its some kind of weird medival german only spoken in Wilamowice in Poland and on the brink of being extinct since only old people know it. For some unknown reason, it appeared on my UA-cam Tineline and now I want to know more. I hope you have the time for it. Kind regards, Rainer
It’s funny and cute, but also kind of sad how each Celtic language is so influence by the English or French goddess because you can tell which person is from which region by the accent they have and the Celtic language because of the English, the Scottish and the French, but this is all happening
It's cognate with the Welsh word 'mynnu' (to insist/desire) which in the third person singular is 'myn'. Late Cornish then underwent a process called pre-oclusion where 'n' would get a 'd' in front of it.
I would be interested to see a video on Middle French (15th century C.E. to 16th century C.E.) For example, "Middle French: Can French, Quebecois, and Cajun speakers understand it?"
Diddorol - ron in deall mwyafrif o’r Gernyweg ac eitha tipyn o’r Llydaweg. Understood the majority of the Cornish and quite a bit of the Breton. Interesting how Cornish uses ‘clappya’ for speak….also used in south wales eg ‘cae dy glap!’ Naturally Breton has been influenced by French, so you have to think a bit. Also, the ‘dd’ sound has changed to a ‘z’ eg mynydd - menez, craidd- kreiz
"Get c'hwi"? "Get me"? 😲 😭 Ur pezh a fari diget ur c'helenner, e gwirionez. Ur vezh! "Genoc'h" ha "genin" 'vez lâret en hor yezh get rac'h an dud er vro Gwened!
Dwi'n siarad Cymraeg, mae mor diddorol sut mae'r ieithoedd yn similar. Roedd fi'n teulu'n dod o Llydaw yn wreiddiol. S'dim erioed yn gwrando iaith Kernow cyn nawr. Mae'n hyfryd iawn.
@@mihanich cornish had a lot of influence and loanwords from english, and breton the same from its neighboring languages. Welsh was isolated, and has not had that kind of cultural exchange. Especially in the north, for the past few thousand years, its had a far greater degree of relative isolation that any of the other languages of the british isles (except gaelic)
@@randomperson2526 It's not really accurate to say that Welsh was isolated, and more casual Welsh would have more loans in it. Welsh dialects all across Wales have been adopting English (and French/Norman) words from very early on.
I'm a Welsh learner. I tend to think Welsh did borrow some English words. But it's very interesting that it uses fewer Greek-Latin words than other European languages. Like most European languages say "politics, politika", Welsh says "gwleidyddiaeth". Of course, it did import some Latin words during the Roman Britain period.
Cornish bears a lot of resemblance to Welsh in all honesty. Although there are English loan words a lot of the words here were just about intelligible to a Welsh speaker.
3:25 Judging from subtitles, he's speaking of knights, but the problem is, he's misinformed about them. There _are_ knights today. In the 10th and 11th CC. they didn't have heavy armour yet. They did have that in the 14th and esp. 15th CC. and even then they were not about to end. Though their military importance was.
Far too complex. This video should have started off with people speaking less complicated things like 'good morning', 'good night', 'open the door', 'where are you from' etc
These languages must be encouraged and preserved.
MUST!
It's stunning how few Anglicisms are in the Welsh language, in comparison to Cornish and, respectively, Gallicisms in Breton.
Massive difference in the number of speakers. A smaller language will have a harder time maintaining a full set of words.
Anyone speaking Cornish is basically a language revival activist so I'd have expected them to be more inclined to avoid English injections. I don't think the total number of speakers is relevant per se.
@@tomaszgarbino2774Language activist doesn’t necessarily mean language purist… ;-)
I'm not. It's purification of the language by the Welsh (language) authorities. You see the same in Québec with French, Dutch in Belgium, and yes Breton in Brittany. Most ordinary people who never went through the education system, use loan words. It's a natural thing. When a language becomes a prestigious item, "specialists" start to purify it. Examples from québéc, Flandres, and Brittany are:
ARRÊT (on stop signs where in France that's just STOP)
duimspijker (where Dutch people
use the French word punaise)
Demat (deoc'h) where most natives would use bonjour (deoc'h /doh) instead.
Hey, Ellis from the video. More casual Welsh I'd speak with friends would have more English sentences/words interspersed within. In the video I standardised from my dialect somewhat and attempted to use celtic (but still modern!) vocabulary since the challenge was to see if speakers of the Celtic languages could understand each other and using English words would automatically make it easier for the other two to understand since we're all also English speakers.
I was amazed how much they seemed to understand eachother. Seems the different pronunciations and orthographies mask very similar words and grammars.
I'm pretty sure they also have some pre-existing understanding of each others' languages. At 12:31 Ellis says "I've just remembered that there is a difference between Middle Cornish and Modern Cornish", so he has some pre-existing knowledge. This is not really the same as just putting total n00bs into a room I don't think. But it's intelligble to some extent anyway even to an utter n00b.
Oh shit he's alive!!! Glad you're uploading again! I'd love to see another video on Classical Latin like you did with Luke Ranieri!
One of my favourite channels is back! And back with one of Europe's most interesting and under represented language families
Hello, fluent welsh speaker here. I actually found this really interesting, especially listening to the cornish. It is genuinely remarkable how similar some words were, theyre similar enough that you can roughly understand about 70% of whats being said. Truly amazing!
Cytuno.
Same here. It was as much frustrating as it was fascinating being able to understand certain words then being completely lost with others. Like reading a book with half of the words blanked out.
Can we see a comparison of Irish, Scottish Gaelic & Manx next 🙏 please
Yes!!!
This'll be great.
Manx?
@@Computer_Gig Celtic language spoken in the isle of mann
@@Computer_Gig Manx is the language of the Isle of Man 🇮🇲
Love the Cornish language. Hope it comes back to its former glory. As a learner of Welsh I could pick up some meaning when I listened but not when I read the words. Next target to learn is Breton.Really enjoyed this! 👍
A lot of the issue may be the disparate orthographies in Cornish and Welsh. In Cornish in particular, spelling was never really standardized back when it was spoken pre-1800. Post revival, several different orthographies have been proposed over the years.
@@bradwilliams7198 Good point. Thanks for clarifying that .
Dan's pronunciation is just so clear and paused, truly he must be an excelent teacher to learn from!
Świetna robota Norbercie!!! 👏👏👏 Znalezienie nosicieli tych rzadkich języków i nagranie tego odcinka to pewnie była przygoda sama w sobie. Wyszło świetnie i chcemy więcej :D Wydaje się, że w zrozumieniu Walijczyk był bliższy Kornwalijczykowi a Bretonowi przeszkadzał wpływ francuskiego , żeby móc efektywniej sie porozumiewać, choć i tak większość słów zrozumiał. Przekaż podziękowania wszystkim Panom za ten cudowny eksperyment!
I love this. As an Italian speaker it's so strange to have cognates like "lent" for slow - and there were several others. I guess it should not be strange as we are all Indo-Europeans
I think in addition to Indo-European root words, it may be due to Brythonic (the ancestor to these three languages) coexisting with Latin in Roman Britain for almost 400 years.
And Celtic and Latin languages are closer related than other separate groups eg. Germanic, Slavic.
Aside from lent (it: lento), I heard scrifa for write (it: scrivere); guerrion for worrior (it: guerriero); sehos for thirst (it: sete); and corf for body (it: corpo).
Celtic and Italic languages are particularly close regardless
Interesting. I didn't realize the Celtic and Italic languages shared a common sub-branch of the Indo-European language tree. Makes a lot of sense given where the Celts originated.
This was fantastic to watch. It was a particular treat to hear Late Cornish, as it isn't so often represented, and I think it is a particularly beautiful variant of Cornish. Wonderful video.
Man, I'm loving these episodes so much
Cornish: English Welsh
Breton: French Welsh
We’re Cornish, not English.
@@foofy14 Cornwall is in England.
@@JesusFriedChrist I’m a native Cornishman. I’m aware the English try to claim us as there’s, but I’m saying we are not English. We were never concurred or officially annexed, a part of the Celtic nations, are a duchy (which you can’t be both a ‘county’), are a distinct Celtic people receiving official minority status, have our own Brythonic Celtic language predating English, etc etc. Essentially, they tried to illegally claim us as their own when we’re rightfully our own country as we once were. The only thing 'English' about Kernow is the fact they're endlessly mass moving here eroding our native culture and replacing the few natives left. You should look into England's ongoing history of mistreating the surrounding Keltek nations but also the truee history of Kernow.
Kernow nag Pow Sows.
@@foofy14 I have heard some Cornish people describe themselves as both Cornish and English, which is an oxymoron to me. It would be like calling yourself both Welsh and English - Welsh and British, yes, but not Welsh and English.
@@JesusFriedChrist Cornish individuals are considered a minority by law. Culturally very different.
Interesting. At the end I would have liked to hear some more comments about their opinions on similarities and differencies.
Cool Gwened Breton (as opposed to KLT) spoken there. Appreciate the effort as it's not the "standard" Breton taught in Brittany.
Next stage is to revive Cornish and Breton so that speakers get as fluent as the Welsh ones.
It's political, guys.
Yeah I noticed that he seems to have made an effort to learn it properly, unlike the Diwan school Breton which is just French in disguise.
Of the three, Welsh sounded the most authentic. The other two sounded like they had been heavily influenced by the major languages of their respective regions. That Welshman sounded like he’s been speaking that language all of his life. If he said he didn’t have a word of English, I would’ve believed him.
In Wales there is a much stronger education system in Welsh. In Cornwall sadly I believe there are very few, if any Cornish medium schools (please correct me if I'm wrong). And it's so sad what has happened to Breton. Even 70 years ago, it had a million speakers but the French deliberately strangled the language and punished children who spoke it. Diwan is helping the language to recover a bit which is great. The very best way of increasing these languages prevalence is to build schools in which the language of education is the Celtic language.
@@roberthudson3386 Welsh is stronger because so many areas of North Wales have remained strongly Welsh speaking. Demographics show that this is slowly changing so I hope the Welsh act fast to prevent those areas going into language shift to English.
Once a language loses a strong base of native speakers it is very difficult for an authentic version of the language to be revived. Welsh schools are of higher quality than the schools of other Celtic languages because they have abundant native speakers to teach in them.
Diwan schools produce a very inauthentic version of Breton which is really just French in disguise. Similar could be said about the Gaelscoil schools in Ireland (but English in disguise, not French obviously).
@@cigh7445 Indeed one could argue that Welsh is unfortunately slowly dying, not by ceasing to exist altogether, but by English influence on the language which is threatening to turn it into more of a dialect within a few generations. You only have to compare the Welsh spoken by the older generation who learned it as a first language to those who speak it as a second language having learned it in schools where English is the language of education.
All schools in Wales should aim to be Welsh medium schools. This is the only way to preserve the language as children will learn it and everyone will therefore speak it. English will be picked up easily through media, culture and common use, so there is no risk of English standards declining by doing this. I can speak both well because my education was in Welsh. If I hadn't had this advantage it would be very difficult to learn as an adult.
I can't comment on Breton except to say that French-influenced Breton is still better than no Breton, and Diwan at least gives it a chance to survive in a heavily altered form. If not for Diwan it would die out or be on the brink within a few decades.
Would totally love to learn a celtic language! I'm so in love with Welsh, hoping one day I can acess better their very rich tradition on poetry and song,
Glad you’re back, missed you so so much!!!!
This is mighty interesting! Having hardly any knowledge at all about Celtic languages (Which is a shame because my ancesters came from Roazon, Breizh), listening carefully with a mind that knows about Dutch, English, And some Latin languages like Italian, there were several words môy po le, that I could decipher! Which is so satisfying!!
It's obvious all of these languages are based on Indo-European
Thanks a lot of sharing this on YT!!!
I live in the Isle of Man and I know some Manx . Not in any way has this helped me with this. Not a clue what’s going on. It’s also weird hearing how Breton is spoken with a French accent . Unlike the other Gaelic/Celtic languages which all have their own distinct and to me defining accents and ways of pronunciations . Like I can hear a Scottish Gaelic speaker and a northern Irish one and totally tell them apart . . If I wasn’t paying attention properly to this , I would think Breton was a dialect of French
@@littlemy1773a true native Breton speaker does not sound French. Unfortunately there are now few around. Look at old videos of Breton speakers on UA-cam. It's a rolled 'r' not a French one and they don't sound French.
Love reading your video descriptions 🤗
They love being read! 😄
I had it on speaker and both my dragons woke up. Archhnagglesq!
On Anglicisation, Dan's Late Cornish is revived from when English influence was stronger. Middle Cornish varieties tend to be closer to Middle Welsh. Cornish was also heavily influenced by Norman and therefore cognates with English are common coincidences. Naturally, no period of Cornish is better or more authentic, it's all our history.
Konačno si ponovo s nama. Dobrodošao opet!
Glad you're back!
If I had to ask for my most desired Ecolinguist challenge it would be exactly this! ❤
I can't speak Cornish or Breton and I only have a little Welsh. I'm a little surprised that I'd watched the first three minutes of this before I thought to put the subtitles on. After doing this I found it much easier to understand.
Brythonic languages are the best!👍
Brythoniaid am byth
Ken gwir eo 👍
Que idiomas más extraños! Me encanta. Parece que estoy escuchando Klingón.
Tiene Klingon más aprendidos en duolingo que Gales....necesitamos más aprendides de Gales!
1:53 "He was a warrior, or warrior, or warrior" was just hilarious to me as a translation.
As a Welsh speaker I feel like I can get a very rough grasp on a handful of the Cornish words but I'm getting barely any of the Breton
I am studying Dutch and German but was able to guess a few words, from similarities.
So much fun to try and to learn!
Great to see a fresh upload from you, Norbert 💚
Dankon! 🤗
Literally one of my favourite channels on UA-cam. I would love to participate if you ever need another Brazilian Portuguese speaker.
Wow! I'm learning Welsh. I always want to know to what degree the three are mutual intelligible.
It's fantastic!
Nareszcie jest nowy film ❤️
I'm amazed how authentic Ellis' Welsh sounds! I can hardly detect any English influence in his pronunciation, whereas in the case of Daniel it basically sounds like a native French speaker who's learning a foreign language. It would be interesting to know how often they use their respective language in everyday life. My guess is that Ellis grew up in a Welsh speaking family/environment whereas Daniel hardly ever uses Breton in his daily life.
And kudos to Dan for learning Cornish and putting the effort to speak it as authentically as possible!👍
I wouldn't be so quick to doubt the authenticity of Daniel's Breton. Breton has been influenced by French for centuries, even before Breton became endangered, so it also has nasal vowels, "eu" /ø/ and "u" /y/ vowels, French loanwords, etc.
You just say this from an English perspective… For me its the other way around, with Ellis still sounding very British even in a pure Welsh accent… Having seen Daniel in other videos, I can say he is very proficient in Breton, and its just his unique way of thinking that makes him stutter and talk repetitively a bit… And in addition he speaks the closest variety to French phonetically - that being the Vannes / Vannetais Breton (he’s from Lorient) .
@@ryanchon8702 It's not about the nasal or rounded vowels at all, these have indeed been part of Breton for centuries and in the case of /ø/ and /y/ most probably native developments, it's about the general accentuation and intonation. I've heard native speakers of Breton who acquired it from their parents that were speaking Breton at home (unfortunately most are now 70 and older) and they sound(ed) drastically different. A world apart from how Daniel sounds in this video. Besides, if you watch carefully, you will notice that contrary to Ellis, Daniel only generates relatively short and simple sentences, is sometimes searching for words, and lacks the fluidity with which Ellis is speaking. It's not a personal critique of Daniel, I think it's great that he tries to maintain the language, but I also think it's important for viewers to realise that this is NOT how Breton used to sound a few generations ago.
@@GeoCrusader I wish I could provide an English perspective, but as a Frenchman I'm afraid I can only offer a French one ;-)
I have no doubt that Daniel is very proficient and knows a lot of vocabulary, besides, he seems to be quite knowledgeable about other dialects, but you have to agree with me that his delivery in this video (I cannot judge elsewhere) is neither very fluid nor sophisticated.
Oui, au delà du fait qu'il précise qu'il est de Lorient au début, j'ai tout de suite remarqué l'accent et sa façon de ne pas prononcer le /z/ qui trahi tout de suite la Vannetais ;-)
I've heard Breton before, and it's always sounded to me like French except that I can't understand it. There are some French words in Daniel's Breton, like "alors", which I do understand.
Native English, fluent French and basic Welsh speaker here - this really threw my brain for a loop - very fun, thanks!
I speak English and French but I don’t speak any Welsh or Breton or Cornish. Breton always throws me for a loop because it sounds like French at first and then, after you’ve listened and almost given yourself a headache, you realize you don’t understand a single word being said.
That was wonderful. Irish speaker here, but I really enjoyed the level of bemusement experienced amongst the speakers on hearing words in cousin languages which would have reflected some of their own.
I would recommend INTRODUCING the while thing in English first, in order to explain to natives of ALL languages who still understand English, exactly what is happening, and what language is being spoken by each speaker.
Still, go raibh míle maith again go léir. Thank ye all very much!
🙏☘🇮🇪🏴🏴🏴🇨🇵🇩🇪🇺🇸🙏
I sometimes hear a Welsh accent and an Irish accent in the Cornish speaker.
I was just thinking Dan sounded Irish, maybe Northern Irish?
Me too, sometimes English, sometimes Irish, sometimes (well, often) Welsh!
Also some of the vocabulary looks like some Scandinavian language!
Cornish soundrd so great to me. Greetings from a Pole and Hungarian in one person.
I am Welsh. I can understand approximately 30% of Cornish, but Breton is very hard in spoken form because of the French influence on the accent. But there is a fair amount of shared vocabulary. Interestingly, with Cornish, there are cognates with both Welsh and English, so I can understand both! I think all three languages should be universally taught (alongside English or French) in the three countries.
I agree re French accent. I have heard a Breton speaker who didn't have a French accent though.
@@melysmelys2622 It is more common in older speakers who learned as a first language. Really the Diwan schools that teach the language should try to teach the language with an authentic, traditional accent, even though that is hard when the teachers likely grew up speaking French as a first language.
I heard old recordings of breton spoken by monolinguals, and I heard how those who worked in England sounded like. First, their pronounciation was very different and welsh speakers would understand much more (there is a story of Bretons and Welsh meeting on Guernsey in 1950s and understanding eachothers) . Interestingly those Bretons who went to work in England spoke english in such way that they were often asked from which part of Wales they came. Unfortunately French republic in 60ties and 70ties strongly fought to destroy Breton, Basque, Occitan and other local languages
very pleasantly surprised by the amount of cornish i understood!
I know this is probably the product of subconscious cultural biases on my part but I’ve always thought that Celtic languages sound so friendly and warm. I don’t know why but I always get grandmother vibes.
Interesting stuff! Some subtitles for us English speakers would be nice. Guessed the Cornish and Welsh speakers by their accents and I knew the word for Breton from holiday to Brittany :-)
You can turn on English subtitles in a video player.
Breton sounds exactly like French, but with different words altogether. It’s like French being written and then read aloud backwards or perhaps what French sounds to people who don’t speak neither French, nor a language that bears some resemblance to it (like Italian or German)
The original Breton accent was in large extent covered by the French accent. Nevertheless don't forget that the French accent has still elements of the old Gaulish one.
It's the way it's being pronounced by a native french speaker. Same for basque - these days most speakers have a strong Spanish accent, but the language itself is completely unrelated and probably sounded nowhere close to Spanish ....
@@claudioristagno6460 indeed. As someone who speaks Portuguese, Spanish and French, I can easily notice how French itself sounds completely odd compared to other Romance language. French accent doesn’t sound Latin at all. Rather, it seems like a Germanic-Celtic language with 80% Romance vocabulary and Latinised structures. That’s why people who speak Portuguese, Spanish and Italian can often hold a conversation (to some extent) without learning each other’s languages, whilst all of them struggle to understand anything about French without prior exposure.
@@EquuleusPictor that’s true, perhaps the original accent used to sound closer to Welsh. However, we must bear in mind that French phonology was highly influenced by Celtic and Germanic languages, as I said above
If you find Breton from the mid-20th century, when there were still large numbers of first-language speakers, the accent sounds less French. It's really a shame the way the French tried to kill it off. And for no reason other than their insistence that everything be bound into one national identity that was really just a myth to begin with. France has always been a country of ethnically and linguistically diverse regions.
Brythonic Celts, together with the Goidelic Celts (Ireland, Scotland and the Isle of Mann) are the last descendants of the Celtic legacy, well, without forgetting the Celtic nations of Spain (Asturias, Galicia and Cantabria) and northern Portugal, although unfortunately they do not have a spoken Celtic language.
And we in Cumbria also lost our Brythonic language. We were also among those NOT under Anglo-Saxon rule!
@@baronmeduse Cumbria became part of Northumbria in the 7th century, actually. So it was ruled by Angles.
But it is notable that Cumbric is the only dead Celtic language that survived for longer than Pictish, although Cumbric still died about 600 years before Cornish did.
@@autumnphillips151 This was never total rule, not even extensive. It is constantly referred to throughout history as 'Northumbria AND Cumbria. The further west the weaker it was. By the 9th century it was dominated by Vikings not Angles.
yea but these languages are nothing like the old Celtic languages they changed even more than the change between Latin and Spanish
The French or ethnically Celtic for the most part as well. Especially the ones in the south where Occitan is historically the spoken language. Gaul, you know.
Ober da! Da yw genev Kernewek
Dear Norbert, could you please do a video on Wymysorys Language? Apparently its some kind of weird medival german only spoken in Wilamowice in Poland and on the brink of being extinct since only old people know it. For some unknown reason, it appeared on my UA-cam Tineline and now I want to know more. I hope you have the time for it. Kind regards, Rainer
I had no idea Robert Webb's "Welsh" was that spot on! Now I keep thinking about padlocks...
Also, can we have one with Flemish, Frisian and English.
długo czekałem na kolejny film
I speak welsh, very fluently went i was young. Not as good anymore but that first guy on the left, i could definitely understand some of it
Much respect for the Cornish-revival movement.
Now you need to get the other branch of the Celtic tree (Irish, Scottish Gaelic, and Manx). That would be really interesting.
Could we get a mutual intelligibility challenge with Leonese or Walloon? That would be very very interesting
It’s funny and cute, but also kind of sad how each Celtic language is so influence by the English or French goddess because you can tell which person is from which region by the accent they have and the Celtic language because of the English, the Scottish and the French, but this is all happening
Helo Ellis, neis dy weld di ar y fideo hon. Gyda llaw, dwi'n siarad yr un tafodiaith Llydaweg â Daniel.
Dy gyn athro Dominig Kervegant
Wel am syrpreis! Mae'n braf clywed gennych chi. Gobeithio wnaethoch chi fwynhau'r fideo 😊
I wonder if "vedn" is cognate with South Wales' "moin"?
It's cognate with the Welsh word 'mynnu' (to insist/desire) which in the third person singular is 'myn'. Late Cornish then underwent a process called pre-oclusion where 'n' would get a 'd' in front of it.
Yes. Moyn is ymofyn. Ym + gofyn. Gofyn = go + myn (so it appears to be related to mynnu.
Amazing, Celtic languages are such a gem, so sad that their speakers are a minority in their own lands, thankfully a growing one.
Cornish dude looks like a smilier Jello Biafra !
😂😂😂
I would be interested to see a video on Middle French (15th century C.E. to 16th century C.E.) For example, "Middle French: Can French, Quebecois, and Cajun speakers understand it?"
No, they can't (anymore).
But thank you for organising this.
Man, I love your channel, but those new AI-generated thumbnails are horrible. Please stop using them
Diddorol - ron in deall mwyafrif o’r Gernyweg ac eitha tipyn o’r Llydaweg. Understood the majority of the Cornish and quite a bit of the Breton. Interesting how Cornish uses ‘clappya’ for speak….also used in south wales eg ‘cae dy glap!’ Naturally Breton has been influenced by French, so you have to think a bit. Also, the ‘dd’ sound has changed to a ‘z’ eg mynydd - menez, craidd- kreiz
Gallaf ddeall eitha tipyn o'r Gernyweg ond braidd dim o'r Llydaweg
I caught something about a horse and a sword in the first word; after that I was lost.
Long live Britanny ! Down with Paris tirany!
An doare e vez distaget ar ger “setu” e Gwenedeg a zo hiniennel gant ar son “ch”
Splann
"Get c'hwi"? "Get me"? 😲 😭
Ur pezh a fari diget ur c'helenner, e gwirionez. Ur vezh!
"Genoc'h" ha "genin" 'vez lâret en hor yezh get rac'h an dud er vro Gwened!
Interesting 😃
Izvanredno!
A new video ❤❤❤
Dwi'n siarad Cymraeg, mae mor diddorol sut mae'r ieithoedd yn similar. Roedd fi'n teulu'n dod o Llydaw yn wreiddiol. S'dim erioed yn gwrando iaith Kernow cyn nawr. Mae'n hyfryd iawn.
I'm an outsider but it seemed that that Welsh guy was the only one speaking his language more or less... "pure"?
He's obv. the only native speaker of the lot, if that's what you mean by ""pure"".
@@user-hn9mt8ti3o I think "untainted" would fit better
@@mihanich cornish had a lot of influence and loanwords from english, and breton the same from its neighboring languages. Welsh was isolated, and has not had that kind of cultural exchange. Especially in the north, for the past few thousand years, its had a far greater degree of relative isolation that any of the other languages of the british isles (except gaelic)
@@randomperson2526 It's not really accurate to say that Welsh was isolated, and more casual Welsh would have more loans in it. Welsh dialects all across Wales have been adopting English (and French/Norman) words from very early on.
I'm a Welsh learner. I tend to think Welsh did borrow some English words. But it's very interesting that it uses fewer Greek-Latin words than other European languages. Like most European languages say "politics, politika", Welsh says "gwleidyddiaeth". Of course, it did import some Latin words during the Roman Britain period.
😍😍😍
Cornish sounds a little like old english or middle english gibberish, the same way Breton sounds like French gibberish.
Cornish bears a lot of resemblance to Welsh in all honesty. Although there are English loan words a lot of the words here were just about intelligible to a Welsh speaker.
Make BRITAIN BRITISH again!!!
3:25 Judging from subtitles, he's speaking of knights, but the problem is, he's misinformed about them.
There _are_ knights today. In the 10th and 11th CC. they didn't have heavy armour yet. They did have that in the 14th and esp. 15th CC. and even then they were not about to end. Though their military importance was.
Meur ras dhis rag an gwydhyow ma!
These people from this video understand irish & scottish... maybe
No, I don’t (Cornish speaker)
@@morvil73 OMFG
glaubst du er kann sich an die volksoper erinnern xd
Volks… was?!?? ;-)
Je ne comprends absolument rien
Il y a soustitres français pour le video.
WHST HAS TO DO THE UKRAINIAN FLAG ON THE SCREEN?
Pegen dedennue selaou ouzh tud a gomz ar c’hembraeg, ar brezhoneg ar c’hernveveureg er memes tra. Plijus eo.
1
Cornish this is exactly how non-english speakers perceive English. A bit 😅
It's a shame that some speakers of Cornish use a terrible English accent when speaking it
It's a modern day Cornish accent. I think it's interesting. Like hearing some pirate trying to speak Welsh!
@@jonarthritiskwanhc It's the accent. Most of the actual words either bear more resemblance to Welsh than English, or bear resemblance to neither.
How do you know what Cornish sounded like in the 17th or 18th century in order to be able to make this assessment?
Far too complex. This video should have started off with people speaking less complicated things like 'good morning', 'good night', 'open the door', 'where are you from' etc
when i hear hrrrrghzrhzrrr dhaetnhrrrrwwodrzrrrhtrz i know its celtic
You just don't understand non English vowels. 😂