<199409221420.AA26978@world.std.com> Some discussion of Breton on ENGANGERED-LANGUAGES-L. Michael Everson School of Architecture, UCD; Richview, Clonskeagh; Dublin 14; E/ire Phone: +353 1 706-2745 Fax: +353 1 283-7778 Home: +353 1 478-2597 ----------------------------Original message---------------------------- From: Wechsler@world.std.com (Allan C Wechsler) > I'm interested in hearing more about the current status of Breton. Is > there a good-sized population of young speakers? From a recent inquiry there would be around 23000 people, below 16 years old, understanding the language. Among them 11000 can speak it, 6000 being quite good speakers, 5000 can read it, and 4000 quite good readers. On this population, only 1500 are native speakers, and 7000 have learnt it in school. This makes quite small proportion upon a total of around 500000 young bretons. The two main movements for breton in school have an objective of 10000 pupils each, in bilingual and immersion schools, for the year 2000. The main difficulty for this task is not the support and adhesion of people, but the formation of the 800 needed teachers. From the same inquiry, the total number of breton speakers would be around 500000, with two thirds being over 60 years old. The native speakers being 260000, with 200000 of them being over 60 y.o. and 2000 below 30 y.o. a.c.