Breton Grammar

Roparz Hemon

Tenth edition. Translated, adapted, and revised by Michael Everson. Dublin: Everson Gunn Teoranta, 1995. ISBN 1-899082-01-8.
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INTRODUCTION

This book is for the most part a straightforward translation of the ninth edition of Roparz Hemon's Grammaire bretonne. In preparing this edition, I found that a number of sections in the grammar had to be changed for the benefit of the English-speaking reader. Many, but not all, of my additions may be found in the notes to the various sections.

Some of these differences are terminological. For instance, I have preferred "conjugated preposition" to "prepositional pronoun" and "verbal noun" to "infinitive". The verbal and prepositional paradigms have been reorganized and altered to make them clearer; in the table following �186, for example, I have followed the delineation of the prepositional conjugations in Kervella (1976). More substantially, much of the section on the pronunciation of Breton, especially the phonology, has been revised in response to the needs of the English-speaking reader. In restructuring the detailed analysis of Breton phonology, particularly that of the vowel system, I have endeavoured to synthesize the best of Jackson (1967), Kervella (1976) Tr�pos (1980), Favereau (1992); Lagadeg and Menard (1995) has been indispensible. For the difficult question of the consonants, see the Note to �219. The International Phonetic Alphabet is used quite strictly throughout this book. As this is a teaching as well as a reference grammar, I have endeavoured to follow the spirit of Hemon's remarks in ��206-09 below in standardizing the description and transcriptions. I trust that the reader first learning Breton will be served by such standardization in preparation for encountering real Breton dialects.

The reader is asked to note the use of -z'- in this book to indicate the orthographic -z- that is not pronounced in many areas (see �224), and to note that some Gwenedeg pronunciations are indicated (e.g. /gwi:r/~/ji:r/; see �208). A bibliography has been added at the end of the book.

Thanks are due to Ronan Huon for his permission to publish this work, and to Marion Gunn, Henry Leperlier, and Jean-Michel Picard, for their assistance in its preparation. I am particularly grateful to P�r Denez and to N. J. A. Williams, who read the whole manuscript and made many valuable suggestions, and to Maurice Jouanno, who spent many hours with me discussing Breton dialects.

Michael Everson
Dublin 1995

Table of Contents

An errata page is available here.
Launch of the Breton Grammar (EGT 1995) and Roparz Hemon: konio� & hengoun lennegel ar brezhoneg (cuimhn� cinn agus stair liteartha na Briot�inise) (Coisc�im 1995), in the Palais des Congr�s, Lorient, Brittany, August 1995.
Seated: D�nall � Cuill, Marion Gunn, Helen � Murch�. Standing: Michael Everson, Eibhl�n N� Chathailriabhaigh.
Go to the EGT index
Marion Gunn, Dublin, 1999-07-25