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99-589: Gaël ( Gallo : Gaèu , Breton : Gwazel ) is a commune in the Ille-et-Vilaine department in Brittany in northwestern France . It lies southwest of Rennes between Saint-Méen-le-Grand and Mauron . In the 18th century, a fair was held twice a year in August and October. Old versions of the place-name include Guadel in 799, Wadel in 816, Vadel in 851, Wael in 1096, Gael as soon as 1112. Its Breton name

198-500: A langue d'oïl , Gallo forms part of a dialect continuum which includes Norman, Picard , and the Poitevin dialect among others. One of the features that distinguish it from Norman is the absence of Old Norse influence. There is some limited mutual intelligibility with adjacent varieties of the Norman language along the linguistic frontier and with Guernésiais and Jèrriais . However, as

297-490: A Celtic language descended from Old Irish. Gallo is typically not mutually intelligible with French, primarily due to its differing phonology and vocabulary. This is in spite of what Paul Sébillot wrote in 1878: "[Gallo] is a dialect of French (...): it contains a considerable quantity of old words, a very small amount of words borrowed from Breton, and is, except for several local expressions (...) very easy to understand." The study of language has evolved considerably since

396-570: A French keyboard (ó, ú and r̃). The Vantyé spelling system was developed again by the Bertègn Galèzz association in the early 1980s, and is notable for its attempt to be closer to Breton . The letters k and w are not native to French, which prefers q and o plus a vowel to represent [k] and [w], respectively. Breton, however, uses k and w regularly, so the Vantyé system does as well. For example, ke ("that') and wézyaw ("bird"), compared to

495-546: A baseline and adjusting it to fit Gallo’s unique phonetic features, such as using lh to indicate palatalization and ë to represent schwa. Since then, other systems have emerged, such as ELG, MOGA, ABCD, and BAP. The ELG system (short for " écrire le gallo ", French for “write the Gallo [language]”), the oldest system, was proposed in 1978 by Alan-Joseph Raude and completely eschews French orthography. Raude based his writing system on medieval texts written in Gallo, therefore creating

594-576: A characteristic shared with the Channel Islands. The Channel Islands are considered culturally and historically a part of Normandy. However, they are British Crown Dependencies , and are not part of the modern French administrative region of Normandy . Although the British surrendered claims to mainland Normandy, France, and other French possessions in 1801, the monarch of the United Kingdom retains

693-604: A constant use of Old Norse during four or five generations in certain parts of Normandy. They then became the Normans – a Norman French -speaking mixture of Norsemen and indigenous Gallo-Franks. Rollo's descendant William became king of England in 1066 after defeating Harold Godwinson , the last of the Anglo-Saxon kings , at the Battle of Hastings , while retaining the fiefdom of Normandy for himself and his descendants. Aside from

792-738: A direct consequence of the Revolution. During this time, the Jacobins viewed regional languages as a way in which the structural inequalities of France were perpetuated. Accordingly, they sought to eradicate the regional languages to free their speakers of unconstitutional inequalities. Under the Third Republic , public education became universal and mandatory in France, and was conducted exclusively in French; students who spoke other languages were punished. Well into

891-439: A group which also includes, among others, Catalan , Italian , Spanish , Portuguese and Romanian . Gallo has not just borrowed words from Breton, but also aspects of grammar; the use of the preposition pour as an auxiliary verb is said to be of Celtic origin. The relationship between the two is comparable to that of the two languages of Scotland: Scots , an Anglic language closely related to English, and Scottish Gaelic ,

990-540: A large number of phonemes varying from word to word and region to region. The many pronunciations of mai , from the Latin mé , illustrate this diversity: [maj], [ma], [me], [mɛ], etc. The pronunciation of Latin [o]/[u] in closed stressed syllables is more authentic in Gallo than in other langues d’oïl. Gùla , for example, is pronounced [gul] in Gallo, but [gœl] in French. Some terms, however, are influenced by neighboring langues d'oïl, and astour [astuʁ] ("now", from Latin hóra )

1089-453: A play La fille de la Brunelas (1901). In the 1920's, Jeanne Malivel wrote Les Sept Frères , a story which was inspired by her grand-mother and was written in Gallo. This, in part, inspired the creation of the artistic movement Seiz Breur . It was in the 1970s that a concerted effort to promote Gallo literature started. In 1979 Alan J. Raude published a proposed standardised orthography for Gallo. The consonants in Gallo are almost

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1188-487: 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. Gallo is a language of oral tradition, whose history is rich with stories, fables, and legends. Gallese legends frequently address recurring characters, such as Gargantua and Morgan le Fay , or questions of how

1287-404: A purpose, which means that the silent h and double consonants are eliminated, except in certain specific cases (ll to indicate palatalization, etc.). Aneit has the same difficulties as ELG, since a speaker with a different pronunciation needs to know the standardized spelling to be able to decipher the written system. Another problem faced by Aneit is its use of diacritics not easily accessible on

1386-422: A schwa ([ ə ]) in most regions. This distinction between [e] and [eː] makes it possible to differentiate past participles by gender and number. While in standard French, chassé , chassée, and chassés are all pronounced the same, most Gallo speakers make a phonemic distinction between the masculine chassé [ʃasə] and the feminine chassée or plural chassés [ʃase]. In this example, the pronunciation of é

1485-433: A schwa, and elsewhere it's a [ɛ] or an [e] (the geographical distribution is the same as for [e]/[eː]). The Latin [o] in open stressed syllables became a ue , then monophthonged in both French and Gallo around the 12th century, becoming [ œ ] in French, [ə] in Gallo. Cór thus became qheur . The evolution of the Latin [e] in closed stressed syllables is much more diverse, and the original diphthong éi has been replaced by

1584-550: A system authentic to the language without reference to other modern writing systems. Regional differences were less pronounced during the Medieval era, meaning ELG’s spelling choices are based on a more standardized form. In the words for finger, evening, and me (in French: doigt, soir, moi), which display regional pronunciation differences, the “oi” found in French is written as “ei”, giving the forms: deit, seir, mei, though [ei] will not be

1683-530: A tendency to underestimate their competence and choose thus to not report speaking it. This makes estimates of the number of speakers vary widely. 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 Étienne de Fougères,

1782-598: A visually distinct system for Gallo, but it requires learning and is not immediately intuitive for Gallo speakers, who may not even recognize it as Gallo upon first seeing it. ELG is used in some public places, such as for bilingual signage in the Rennes metro system. The Aneit system was introduced in 1984 by the Bertègn Galèzz Association, successor to the organization Friends of the Gallo Language. The system

1881-410: Is Charles III and each have an appointed Lieutenant-Governor . The Bailiwick of Guernsey comprises three separate jurisdictions: Guernsey , Alderney and Sark . Administratively, Herm forms part of Guernsey . Much of Normandy is predominantly agricultural in character, with cattle breeding the most important sector (although in decline from the peak levels of the 1970s and 1980s). The bocage

1980-607: Is Gwazel , that comes directly from Wadel > Gwadel > Gwazel , in Breton intervocalic [d] becomes [z], like in mezo ″drunk″, Welsh meddw ″drunk″. In French intervocalic [d] disappears totally : Wadel > Wael (Latin cadena > French chaine > English chain ) and initial Germanic w- became gu- [gʷ] (+ -a ) before becoming simply [g] : Guadel > Gael (cf. Old French guarder > French garder , English guard ). The symbol ë means in Modern French that

2079-463: Is a movement for standardisation on the model of the dialect of Upper Brittany . It is difficult to record the exact number of Gallo speakers today. Gallo and vernacular French share a sort of continuum, so speakers may have difficulty determining exactly which language they are speaking. Many people speak Gallo while using a considerable amount of French words and phrases, thus confounding the language question further. Moreover, Gallo speakers may have

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2178-647: Is a patchwork of small fields with high hedges, typical of western areas. Areas near the Seine (the former Upper Normandy region) contain a higher concentration of industry. Normandy is a significant cider -producing region, and also produces calvados , a distilled cider or apple brandy . Other activities of economic importance are dairy produce, flax (60% of production in France), horse breeding (including two French national stud farms), fishing, seafood, and tourism. The region contains three French nuclear power stations . There

2277-559: Is also easy access to and from the UK using the ports of Cherbourg , Caen ( Ouistreham ), Le Havre and Dieppe . Jersey and Guernsey are often considered to be tax havens, due to having large financial services sectors and low tax rates. In January 2006 the population of French Normandy (including the part of Perche which lies inside the Orne département but excluding the Channel Islands )

2376-616: Is also used to make a syllabic [l] and [ʁ], as in berton [bʁˌtɔ̃]. Like all langues d'oïl , Gallo underwent the vowel shift known as Bartsch's law , according to which the Latin [a] in open stressed syllables, when preceded by a palatal consonant, became ie , as in cápra , which became chieuvr . As in French, the sound [j] represented by the letter i disappeared around the Renaissance, giving chèvre and cheuv , though this sound can still be observed in Côtes-d'Armor . In eastern Brittany,

2475-404: Is also used. The very common diphthong [aw] most often is the result of the disappearance of a consonant that existed in Latin. For example, fagu ("beech") became fao , and what once was two consecutive, separately pronounced vowels, [fau], has become a diphthong: [faw]. In some words, such as talpa , the [l] became a vowel, [u], and then [w], so [al] thus became [aw]: [tawp], while in French,

2574-514: Is becoming [astœʁ] in eastern Upper Brittany. In the south of Loire-Atlantique , thanks to contact with Poitevin , [ɔ] is common, and guernol [gɛʁnɔl] and parto [paʁtɔ] are heard instead of guernouille [gɛʁnuj] and partout [paʁtu]. Gallo has diphthongs, just like Latin itself, other langues d’oïl, and other Romance languages. Diphthongs in Gallo generally use the semi-vowels [w] and [j], more rarely [ɥ]: [wa], [wə], [wi], [aw], [ja], [ju], [aj], [ej], [ɛ̃i], [ɥi], [ɥɛ̃], [ɥə], etc. The triphthong [jaw]

2673-488: Is not done in all regions, and [j] is often replaced by [l]. The word pllée , for example, can be pronounced [pje] or [ple]. Germanic in origin, [ h ] generally hasn’t been pronounced since the 13th century, but it is still used in Mené, a small region around Merdrignac and Plémet . The vowel system of Gallo is close to French, but they diverged as they evolved, and Gallo has a number of phenomena not found in French, such as

2772-472: Is not yet a single writing system that is unanimously agreed upon, mainly due to regional pronunciation differences. The word for “me” could be pronounced any of the following ways: [maj], [mεj], [mej], [ma], [mε] or [me]. This large variance makes it difficult to pick a single written form that would be most suitable. If the orthography of French was used, the word could be written in countless ways: maï, maye, maille, mèï, mey, meille, ma, mé, mè , etc. However,

2871-564: Is regardless still sometimes informally referred to by the title "Duke of Normandy". The historical Duchy of Normandy was a formerly independent duchy occupying the lower Seine area, the Pays de Caux and the region to the west through the Pays d'Auge as far as the Cotentin Peninsula and Channel Islands. Western Normandy belongs to the Armorican Massif , while most of the region lies in

2970-447: Is replaced by [ ɛ ] or remains [e]. Some words do not obey the rule, such as pátre and mátre , which have become pere [peʁ] and mere [meʁ] in practically all of Upper Brittany, while [pəʁ] and [məʁ] are only heard in the center-west. The [a] in open stressed syllables before [ l ] doesn't follow the [e]/[eː] pattern either, and has evolved very differently in different regions. Sále has thus become sèl , sél , sé or seu . Schwa

3069-402: Is the result of five years' research throughout Upper Brittany, and takes its name from the brochure presenting it to the public: Nostre lenghe aneit ("our language today"). Also called "unified spelling", it follows in the footsteps of ELG in terms of its basis on etymology for its spelling. The Aneit system differs from ELG on a number of points, however. For example, every letter must have

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3168-458: The Breton word gall , meaning 'foreigner', 'French' or 'non-Breton'. The term was first used by Breton speakers, which may explain why it is used rarely by Gallo speakers themselves. Henriette Walter conducted a survey in 1986 which showed that just over 4% of Gallo speakers in Côtes-d'Armor had ever used the term, and a third of them found it "had quite a pejorative connotation". According to

3267-622: The British Isles , and often turned the women into frilla , a Scandinavian tradition which became known as more Danico , medieval Latin meaning "Danish marriage". The first counts of Rouen and the dukes of Normandy had concubines too. While very little archeological excavations about the Vikings were done in Normandy, the Norman toponymy retains a large Scandinavian and Anglo-Scandinavian heritage, due to

3366-585: The British Isles . Julius Caesar 's invasion of Armorica in 56 BC led to a sort of Romanization of the population. Gaulish continued to be spoken in this region until the 6th century CE, especially in less populated, rural areas. When the Bretons emigrated to Armorica around this time, they found a people who had retained their Celtic language and culture. The Bretons were therefore able to integrate easily. In contrast to Armorica's western countryside, Nantes and Rennes were Roman cultural centres. Following

3465-672: The Bronze Age . When Julius Caesar invaded Gaul (58–50 BC), there were nine different Celtic tribes living in this part of Gaul. The Romanisation of this region partly included in the Gallia Celtica and in the Gallia Belgica (the Seine being more or less the limit between them) was achieved by the usual methods: Roman roads and a policy of urbanisation. Classicists mention many Gallo-Roman villas and archeology found their traces in

3564-575: The Constitution of France was amended in 2008. Article 75-1 asserts that "regional languages are part of the French heritage". Moreover, Gallo is the only langue d'oïl to be recognized as a regional language by the French Ministry of Education . Nevertheless, like all of the other regional languages of France, the use of Gallo has declined since the 19th century. Similar to speakers of other regional languages, Gallo speakers began to associate French as

3663-582: The French Revolutionary Wars and the Napoleonic Wars (1792–1815), there was an economic revival that included the mechanization of textile manufacturing and the introduction of the first trains. Also, with seaside tourism in the 19th century came the advent of the first beach resorts. During the Second World War, following the armistice of 22 June 1940 , continental Normandy was part of

3762-556: The German occupied zone of France . The Channel Islands were occupied by German forces between 30 June 1940 and 9 May 1945. The town of Dieppe was the site of the unsuccessful Dieppe Raid by Allied forces. The Allies coordinated a massive build-up of troops and supplies to support a large-scale invasion of Normandy in the D-Day landings on 6 June 1944 under the code name Operation Overlord . German forces dug into fortified emplacements above

3861-608: The Migration Period , these two cities, as well as regions to the east of the Vilaine , including the town Vannes , fell under Frankish rule. Thus, during the Merovingian dynasty , the population of Armorica was diverse, consisting of Gaulish tribes with assimilated Bretons, as well as Romanized cities and Germanic tribes. War between the Frank and Breton kingdoms was constant between

3960-545: The Mississippi Delta were opened up to establish Canada and Louisiana . Colonists from Normandy were among the most active in New France , comprising Acadia , Canada, and Louisiana. Honfleur and Le Havre were two of the principal slave trade ports of France. Although agriculture remained important, industries such as weaving, metallurgy, sugar refining, ceramics, and shipbuilding were introduced and developed. In

4059-647: The Paris Basin . France's oldest rocks are exposed in Jobourg, on the Cotentin peninsula. The region is bounded to the north and west by the English Channel . There are granite cliffs in the west and limestone cliffs in the east. There are also long stretches of beach in the centre of the region. The bocage typical of the western areas caused problems for the invading forces in the Battle of Normandy . A notable feature of

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4158-664: The Wars of Religion . When many Norman towns ( Alençon , Rouen, Caen , Coutances , Bayeux ) joined the Protestant Reformation , battles ensued throughout the province. In the Channel Islands, a period of Calvinism following the Reformation was suppressed when Anglicanism was imposed following the Stuart Restoration . Samuel de Champlain left the port of Honfleur in 1604 and founded Acadia . Four years later, he founded

4257-674: The regional elections in December 2015 . The Regional Council has 102 members who are elected under a system of proportional representation . The executive consists of a president and vice-presidents. Hervé Morin from the Centre party was elected president of the council in January 2016. The Channel Islands are not part of French territory, but are instead British Crown Dependencies . They are self-governing, each having its own parliament, government and legal system. The head of state of both territories

4356-574: The 10th century between King Charles III of France and the Viking jarl Rollo . For almost 150 years following the Norman conquest of England in 1066, Normandy and England were linked by having the same person reign as both Duke of Normandy and King of England . Archaeological finds, such as cave paintings , prove that humans were present in the region in prehistoric times. Normandy also has many megalithic monuments . Celts (also known as Belgae and Gauls ) have populated Normandy since at least

4455-569: The 1780s, the economic crisis and the crisis of the Ancien Régime struck Normandy as well as other parts of the nation, leading to the French Revolution . Bad harvests, technical progress and the effects of the Eden Agreement signed in 1786 affected employment and the economy of the province. Normans laboured under a heavy fiscal burden. In 1790, the five departments of Normandy replaced

4554-561: The 1990s, the main focus of the curriculum was cultural awareness of the Gallo language and identity. However, in 2002, Gallo's optional-subject status in secondary schools was withdrawn. In reaction to the 2002 decision, an effective and committed network of Gallo activists advanced Gallo's status in Brittany schools. Gallo is now taught in Upper Brittany's state schools, though the number of students enrolled in Gallo courses remains low. In

4653-650: The 19th century, however, and there is no longer any universally accepted criterion to distinguish decisively between language and dialect. The Celts settled in Armorica toward the 8th century BCE. Some of early groups mentioned in the written records of the Greeks were the Redones and the Namnetes . They spoke dialects of the Gaulish language and maintained important economic ties with

4752-464: The 2003-04 academic year, there were 569 students learning Gallo at secondary school or university. For comparison, in the same year, 3,791 students were learning Breton at the same levels of schooling. On December 17, 2004, the Regional Council of Brittany officially recognized Breton and Gallo as "the official languages of Brittany, alongside the French language." One of the metro stations of

4851-552: The 20th century, government policy focused exclusively on French. In 1962, Charles de Gaulle established the Haut Comité pour la défense et l'expansion de la langue française ; this committee's purpose was to enforce the use of French, to the detriment of minority languages. Furthermore, in 1994, the Loi Toubon declared that any governmental publications and advertisements must be in French. Gallo did not gain national recognition until

4950-444: The 6th and 9th centuries, which made the border between the two difficult to define. Before the 10th century, Breton was spoken by at least one third of the population up to the cities of Pornic and Avranches . Historically, France has been a nation with a high degree of linguistic diversity matched with relative tolerance, that is until the French Revolution . Gallo's status as a tolerated regional language of France suffered as

5049-525: 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

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5148-512: The British Channel Islands ). It covers 30,627 square kilometres (11,825 sq mi). Its population in 2017 was 3,499,280. The inhabitants of Normandy are known as Normans ; the region is the historic homeland of the Norman language . Large settlements include Rouen , Caen , Le Havre and Cherbourg . The cultural region of Normandy is roughly similar to the historical Duchy of Normandy, which includes small areas now part of

5247-400: The Channel Islands and England. Jersey and Guernsey use three leopards in their national symbols. The leopards represents the strength and courage Normandy has towards the neighbouring provinces. The unofficial anthem of the region is the song " Ma Normandie ". The Norman language, including its insular variations Jèrriais and Guernésiais , is a regional language , spoken by a minority of

5346-710: The City of Québec. From then onwards, Normans engaged in a policy of expansion in North America. They continued the exploration of the New World: René-Robert Cavelier de La Salle travelled in the area of the Great Lakes , then on the Mississippi River . Pierre Le Moyne d'Iberville and his brother Lemoyne de Bienville founded Louisiana , Biloxi , Mobile and New Orleans. Territories located between Québec and

5445-402: The French que and oiseau . Silent letters are also avoided in the Vantyé system. Normandy Normandy (French: Normandie ; Norman : Normaundie or Nouormandie ) is a geographical and cultural region in northwestern Europe, roughly coextensive with the historical Duchy of Normandy . Normandy comprises mainland Normandy (a part of France) and insular Normandy (mostly

5544-857: The Great Count progressively claimed territories in southern Italy until founding the Kingdom of Sicily in 1130. They also carved out a place for themselves and their descendants in the Crusader states of Asia Minor and the Holy Land . The 14th-century explorer Jean de Béthencourt established a kingdom in the Canary Islands in 1404. He received the title King of the Canary Islands from Pope Innocent VII but recognized Henry III of Castile as his overlord, who had provided him with military and financial aid during

5643-511: The Middle Ages to be replaced by Gallo. A main ford allowed to cross the Meu stream. It is best known to English historians as being the ancestral seat of Ralph de Guader the first earl of Norfolk and Suffolk in post-Conquest England circa 1070 A.D. This is an ancient Breton parish to the west of Rennes , whose boundaries formerly stretched to include the territories of Bran, Muel , Saint-Onen , Crouais , Saint-Méen-le-Grand , Concoret and Loscouët-sur-Meu . The parish of Gaël (Guadel)

5742-474: The [al] merged into [o]: taupe [top]. In northern Upper Brittany, diphthongs are used to express plurals: un martè [maʁtə], des martiaos [maʁtjaw]. In Loire-Atlantique, only the plural form is used. The nasal diphthong [ɛ̃ɔ̃], heard for example in grand ([gʁɛ̃ɔ̃] "great") is typical of western langues d’oïl and is also found in Norman , Poitevin-Saintongeais and Angevin , sometimes in slightly different forms ([aɔ̃] in Saintongeais, [ɛ̃ɑ̃] in Norman). There

5841-411: The area between the rivers Somme and Loire came under the control of the Frankish lord Clovis . Vikings started to raid along the river Seine during the middle of the 9th century. As early as 841, a Viking fleet appeared at the mouth of the Seine, the principal route by which they entered the kingdom. After attacking and destroying monasteries, including one at Jumièges , they took advantage of

5940-428: The area during this period and Rouen already had a metropolitan bishop by the 4th century. The ecclesiastical province of Rouen was based on the frame of the Roman Lugdunensis Secunda , whose limits corresponded almost exactly to the future duchy of Normandy. In 406, Germanic tribes began invading from the east, followed by dispersed settlements mainly in the Pays de Bray , Pays de Caux and Vexin . As early as 487,

6039-417: The beaches. Caen , Cherbourg , Carentan , Falaise and other Norman towns endured many casualties in the Battle of Normandy , which continued until the closing of the so-called Falaise gap between Chambois and Mont Ormel . The liberation of Le Havre followed. This was a significant turning point in the war in western Europe and led to the restoration of the French Republic. The remainder of Normandy

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6138-413: The conquest of England and the subsequent invasions of Wales and Ireland, the Normans expanded into other areas. Norman families, such as that of Tancred of Hauteville , Rainulf Drengot and Guimond de Moulins played important parts in the conquest of southern Italy and the Crusades . The Drengot lineage, de Hauteville's sons William Iron Arm , Drogo , and Humphrey , Robert Guiscard and Roger

6237-440: The conquest. In 1204, during the reign of John, King of England , mainland Normandy was captured from the English by the forces of Philip II of France , ending some 293 years of relative Norman independence from the French crown. Insular Normandy (the Channel Islands) remained under control of the English, though still attached to the ecclesiastical province of Rouen. In the 1259 Treaty of Paris , Henry III of England recognized

6336-416: The countryside was created. In the 19th century, oral literature was collected by researchers and folklorists such as Paul Sébillot, Adolphe Orain, Amand Dagnet and Georges Dottin. However, these authors frequently rewrote this literature in French. Paul Féval wrote certain dialogues in Gallo in his novel Châteaupauvre (1876). Amand Dagnet (1857-1933) also wrote a number of original works in Gallo, including

6435-575: The creation of a common writing system is important for ensuring comprehensibility of text across regions and making a dictionary. There are two main strategies that have been employed in past attempts at a writing system. One strategy proposes a single written form for words that will be pronounced differently according to the region. The other strategy proposes allowing a word to be written in multiple different ways, with different letters or letter combinations, to allow for speakers of Gallo to write according to their pronunciation. Another difference separating

6534-429: The departments of Mayenne and Sarthe . The Channel Islands (French: Îles Anglo-Normandes ) are also historically part of Normandy; they cover 194 square kilometres (75 sq mi) and comprise two bailiwicks : Guernsey and Jersey , which are British Crown Dependencies. Normandy's name comes from the settlement of the territory by Vikings (" Northmen ") starting in the 9th century, and confirmed by treaty in

6633-710: The dialect continuum shades towards Mayennais , there is a less clear isogloss . The clearest linguistic border is that distinguishing Gallo from Breton , a Brittonic 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 , passing through Châtelaudren ( Châtié ), Corlay ( Corlaè ), Loudéac ( Loudia ), east of Pontivy , Locminé ( Lominoec ), Vannes , and ending in

6732-402: The disappearance of the sound was even more dramatic than in French, and some speakers say chen (dog), while the French word remains chien (from Latin cáne ). The Latin [e] in open stressed syllables has also evolved into ie in both Gallo and French, with hĕri becoming yere , for example. In Gallo, the vowel following the y differs from region to region. In most of Upper Brittany, it's

6831-404: The former province. On 13 July 1793, the Norman Charlotte Corday assassinated Jean-Paul Marat . The Normans reacted little to the many political upheavals which characterized the 19th century. Overall, they warily accepted the changes of régime ( First French Empire , Bourbon Restoration , July Monarchy , French Second Republic , Second French Empire , French Third Republic ). Following

6930-403: The idea of rejuvenating Gallo's presences in schools. They were primarily motivated in increasing the linguistic competence of children. In 1982, Gallo was officially adopted as an optional subject in secondary schools in Brittany, even appearing on France's secondary school-exit exam, the Baccalaureat. It took years for the Gallo language to actually be incorporated into the curriculum, but by

7029-399: The landscape is created by the meanders of the Seine as it approaches its estuary. The highest point is the Signal d'Écouves (417 m), in the Armorican Massif. Normandy is sparsely forested: 12.8% of the territory is wooded, compared to a French average of 23.6%, although the proportion varies between the departments. Eure has the most cover, at 21%, while Manche has the least, at 4%,

7128-477: The language of intellectuals and social promotion, and Gallo as an impediment to their success. As a result, the rate of children learning the language has diminished, since parents struggle to see the benefit of Gallo in their children's future. Within recent history, the presence of Gallo has fluctuated in Brittany's school system. Shortly before World War II, the Regional Federation of Bretagne introduced

7227-579: The late 3rd century AD, Germanic raids devastated "Lugdunensis Secunda", as the modern area of Normandy was known at the time. The Romans built a system of coastal defences known as Saxon Shore on both sides of the English Channel. Coastal settlements were raided by Saxon pirates that finally settled mainly in the Bessin region. Modern archeology reveals their presence in different Merovingian cemeteries excavated east of Caen. Christianity also began to enter

7326-673: The left bank of the Meu , which flows southeastward through the commune. Inhabitants of Gaël are called Gaëlites . Gallo language Gallo was originally spoken in the Marches of Neustria , an area now corresponding to the border lands between Brittany, Normandy , and Maine . Gallo was a shared spoken language among many of those who took part in the Norman conquest of England , most of whom originated in Upper (i.e. eastern) Brittany and Lower (i.e. western) Normandy , and thus had its part, together with

7425-454: The legitimacy of the French possession of mainland Normandy. His successors, however, often fought to regain control of their ancient fiefdom. The Charte aux Normands granted by Louis X of France in 1315 (and later re-confirmed in 1339) – like the analogous Magna Carta granted in England in the aftermath of 1204 – guaranteed the liberties and privileges of the province of Normandy. Normandy

7524-482: The metropolitan area) and formerly the capital of Lower Normandy; Le Havre (296,773 in the metropolitan area); and Cherbourg (117,855 in the metropolitan area). The traditional provincial flag of Normandy , gules, two leopards passant or , is used in the region and its predecessors. The three-leopard version (known in the Norman language as les treis cats , "the three cats") is used by some associations and individuals, especially those who support cultural links with

7623-532: The much bigger role played by the Norman language , in the development of the Anglo-Norman variety of French which would have such a strong influence on English. Gallo continued as the everyday language of Upper Brittany, Maine, and some neighbouring portions of Normandy until the introduction of universal education across France, but is spoken today by only a small (and aging) minority of the population, having been almost entirely superseded by standard French. As

7722-549: The northern half of France. This group includes a wide variety of more or less well-defined and differentiated languages and dialects, which share a Latin origin and some Germanic influence from Frankish , the language spoken by the Franks . Gallo, like the other langues d'oïl , is neither ancient French nor a distortion of modern French. The langues d'oïl are Gallo-Romance languages , which also includes Franco-Provençal , spoken around Savoy . These are in turn Romance languages ,

7821-453: The other hand, word-final silent consonants are retained to preserve the continuity between derived forms: fauc (false) (the final c is not pronounced) is related to fauchae (to mow), where the consonant is pronounced. In French, word-final e often serves to indicate an otherwise silent consonant should be pronounced, such as in grand [grɑ̃] and grande [grɑ̃d]. ELG indicates this with a doubled consonant: graund and graundd. ELG’s choices create

7920-594: The past 30 years. In the Late Roman Empire a new province was created and called Lugdunensis Secunda , it sketched the later ecclesiastical province of Rouen , with the Metropolis civitas Rotomagensium ( Rouen ), Civitas Baiocassium ( Augustodorum , Bayeux), Civitas Abrincatum ( Ingena , Avranches), Civitas Ebroicorum ( Mediolanum , Évreux), Civitas Saiorum (Sées), Civitas Lexoviorum ( Noviomagus , Lisieux / Lieuvin) and Civitas Constantia (Coutances). In

8019-422: The pervasive use of schwa and diphthongs . In Gallo, as in French, the [ a ] of Latin in stressed syllables has evolved into [ e ] or [ eː ]. Thus, adsátis became assé [ase]. However, while French has combined [e] and [eː] into just [e], a distinction was preserved in Gallo. The [eː], manifests, for example, when [a] was followed by [s], became either an [e] or a diphthong, most often [ej]. The [e] became

8118-635: The power vacuum created by the disintegration of Charlemagne 's empire to take Northern France. The fiefdom of Normandy was created for the Viking leader Hrólfr , known in Medieval Latin as Rollo . Rollo had besieged Paris but in 911 entered vassalage to the king of the West Franks , Charles the Simple , through the Treaty of Saint-Clair-sur-Epte . In exchange for his homage and fealty , Rollo legally gained

8217-427: The preceding a has to be pronounced : Ga-el [gaɛl] (not [gɛʲl]) Nevertherless the place-name is not from Breton but from Gallo-Romance Wadellu(m) , derived of Old Low Franconian *wad ″ford″ > French gué ″ford″ (Old Norman wei > Norman vey , Picard, Walloon wez ). There were always Gallo-Romance speaking communities east of Saint-Brieuc and the Breton languages disappears totally around Gaël in

8316-520: The pronunciation everywhere. Ruczèu ("stream", in French: ruisseau) is pronounced [ʁysəw] in eastern Upper Brittany and [ʁyzəw] in the west. The ae in Bertaeyn ("Brittany"), can be pronounced [ae], [aɛ], [aə], or other possibilities. The diagraphs oe, cz, and tz are notable distinguishing elements of ELG. Word-final e ceased to be pronounced as early as the twelfth century in Gallo, several centuries before French, so Raude proposes to not write them. On

8415-510: The proposed systems is their usage of silent letters and non-phonetic spelling. Some systems try to maintain a one-to-one correspondency between letters and sounds, whereas some choose to add silent letters or diagraphs in an attempt to better represent the sounds of Gallo. The first effort to codify Gallo spelling was undertaken by the Friends of the Gallo Language ( Association des Amis du parler gallo ) in 1977. It proposed using French spelling as

8514-400: The same as in French, but there are many local variants, such as the voicing of [ s ] into [ z ] in Pays de Retz and that of [ t ] into [ d ] in Pays de la Mée . Certain consonant combinations are also characteristic of certain regions, such as the plosives [ c ] and [ ɟ ], which can be compared to [ k ] or [ g ] followed by a light [ j ] sound. The affricates [ dʒ ] and [ tʃ ] appear in

8613-510: The south, east of the Rhuys peninsula, in Morbihan . While most often spelled Gallo , the name of the language is sometimes written as Galo or Gallot . It is also referred to as langue gallèse or britto-roman in Brittany . In south Lower Normandy and in the west of Pays de la Loire it is often referred to as patois , though this is a matter of some contention. Gallo comes from

8712-444: The surrender of French possessions in 1801, and the belief that the rights of succession to that title are subject to Salic Law which excludes inheritance through female heirs. Rivers in Normandy include: And many coastal rivers: The modern region of Normandy was created by the territorial reform of French Regions in 2014 by the merger of Lower Normandy , and Upper Normandy . The new region took effect on 1 January 2016, after

8811-473: The survey, the term patois was the most common way of referring to the language. The term britto-roman was coined by the linguist Alan-Joseph Raude in 1978 to highlight the fact that Gallo is "a Romance variety spoken by Bretons". Gallo should not be confused with Gallo-Roman , a term that refers to the Romance varieties of ancient Gaul. Gallo is one of the langues d'oïl , a dialect continuum covering

8910-471: The territory that he and his Viking allies had previously conquered. The name "Normandy" reflects Rollo's Viking (" Norseman ") origins. The descendants of Rollo and his followers created an aristocracy that step by step adopted the local Gallo-Romance language , intermarried with the area's native Gallo-Frankish inhabitants, and adopted Christianity. Nevertheless, the first generations of Scandinavian and Anglo-Scandinavian settlers brought slaves, mainly from

9009-635: The title Duke of Normandy in respect to the Channel Islands. The Channel Islands (except for Chausey ) remain Crown Dependencies of the British Crown in the present era. Thus the Loyal Toast in the Channel Islands is Le Roi, notre Duc ("The King, our Duke"). The British monarch is understood to not be the Duke with regards to mainland Normandy described herein, by virtue of the Treaty of Paris of 1259 ,

9108-582: The vast forests of Poutrecouët. A royal castle from this era was sited at Meu, not far from Gaël. This later became the seat of the De Montfort family. The emplacement was captured and dismantled by De Guesclin in 1372. During World War II , the German Luftwaffe occupied an airfield near Gaël in 1941. The Allied Air Forces based in England attacked the airfield on several occasions in 1943 and 1944 before it

9207-472: The western part of Haute-Bretagne , where, for example, the word curë [kyʁe] is pronounced as [tʃyʁə], and the word ghepe as [dʒep]. Elsewhere, [cyʁə] and [ɟəp] can be heard. Qhi , meanwhile, can be pronounced [ki], [tʃi] or [ci]. These modifications result from an advancement of the place of articulation of the palatal consonants . The semi-consonant [j] is used extensively to palatalize other consonants, notably [fj], [tj], [sj] and [pj]. However, this

9306-469: Was a dependency of the Archbishopric of Saint-Malo . In the 6th and 7th centuries, Gaël was a major town in the kingdom of Domnonia . The name is alleged to derive from the word for a ford, river-crossing or river (see Guad- and Guadal-). In local myths there was a 6th-century king Hoël (possible link to King Coel) known as the forest king or "Rex Arboretanus". It is a fact that the town is situated amidst

9405-422: Was changed when the silent feminine or plural endings were added to the word. Latin verbs with infinitives ending in - are followed the same evolutionary pattern as in French. Captiáre became chasser [ʃasə] in Gallo and chasser [ʃase] in French. This evolution of the [a] in stressed syllables varies from region to region. While in central Upper Brittany , schwa has replaced [e]. In some outlying regions, it

9504-528: Was devastated by various civil wars and the Hundred Years' War . Between 1419 and 1450, the English controlled all of Normandy apart from Mont-Saint-Michel , and made Rouen the seat of their power in France. Normandy ultimately saw its population decline by three quarters as a result of the various conflicts which took place in the region during the late Middle Ages. Afterwards, prosperity returned to Normandy until

9603-438: Was estimated at 3,260,000 with an average population density of 109 inhabitants per km , just under the French national average, but rising to 147 for Upper Normandy . The population of the Channel Islands is estimated around 174,000 (2021). The main cities (population given from the 1999 census) are Rouen (518,316 in the metropolitan area), the capital since 2016 of the province and formerly of Upper Normandy; Caen (420,000 in

9702-459: Was liberated by Allied forces only on 9 May 1945 at the end of the war, when the Channel Island occupation effectively ended. Despite the renunciation of the Duke of Normandy title by Henry III of England in the 1259 Treaty of Paris , and the extinction of the duchy itself in modern-day, republican France, in the Channel Islands the monarch of the United Kingdom (whether a king or queen)

9801-577: Was seized by the United States Army in June 1944. Known as Advanced Landing Ground " A-31 ", the 354th Fighter Group based P-51 Mustang fighters at the airfield from 13 August through 17 September 1944 before moving east to Orconte in the Marne département along with the advancing Allied armies. After the war, the airfield was dismantled and the land returned to agricultural use. The village lies on

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