Breton grammar

Breton is a Brittonic Celtic language in the Indo-European family, and its grammar has many traits in common with these languages. Like most Indo-European languages it has grammatical gender, grammatical number, articles and inflections and, like the other Celtic languages, Breton has mutations. In addition to the singular–plural system, it also has a singulative–collective system, similar to Welsh. Unlike the other Brittonic languages, Breton has both a definite and indefinite article, whereas Welsh and Cornish lack an indefinite article and unlike the other extant Celtic languages, Breton has been influenced by French.

Nouns

Gender

Like in most other Indo-European languages, Breton nouns belong to distinct grammatical genders/noun classes: masculine (gourel) and feminine (gwregel). The neuter (nepreizh), which existed in Breton's ancestor, Brittonic, survives in a few words, such as tra (thing), which takes and causes the mutations of a feminine noun but in all other grammatical respects behaves as if it were masculine.

The gender of a noun is hard to predict, and for some words can even vary from dialect to dialect. However, certain semantic groups of word tend to belong to a particular gender. For example, names of countries and cites often are feminine, whereas most divisions of time are masculine. Some suffixes denote the same gender:

• Masculine suffixes include: -ach, -adur, -aj, -er, -lec'h, -our, -ti, -va.
• Feminine suffixes include: -eg, -ell, -enn (see "singulative" below), -enti, -er, -ez, -ezh, -ezon, -i.

Number

Nouns may exist in as many as four numbers: collective / singulative (see below) or singular / plural. Most plural forms are formed with the addition of a suffix, often -ed for animate nouns and -(i)où for inanimates, for example, Breton "Breton" to Bretoned "Bretons", levr "book" to levroù, although some nouns referring to people take -où, such as test "witness" becoming testoù. Other suffixes also occur, for example, Saoz "Englishman" to Saozaon, ti "house" to tiez. A few nouns form their plural via vowel alternation, such as kastell "castle" to kestell, maen "stone" to mein, the combination of a suffix and vowel alternation, such as bran "crow" to brini, gad "hare" to geden while others are irregular, like den "person" to tud, ki "dog" to either kon or chas.

As well as having a regular plural form, certain parts of the body display relics of a dual system, prefixing daou- to masculine nouns and di(v)- to feminine nouns. An example of this is singular lagad "eye", plural lagadoù "eyes", dual daoulagad "(pair of) eyes". Dual forms themselves can have a plural form, for example, daoulagadoù "(pairs of) eyes".

Singulative

A distinctive and unusual feature of Brythonic languages is a singulative marker, which in Breton is marked with the feminine suffix -enn. While the collective noun gwez, for instance, means "trees (collectively)", the singulative gwezenn means "(a single) tree". The latter can even be made into a regular plural gwezennoù with the meaning "several trees (individually)".

Diminutive

Breton forms diminutive nouns using the suffix -ig with the plural formed by reduplication of the suffix -où, for example, prad "meadow", pradig "little meadow", pradouigoù "little meadows" (cf. non-diminutive plural pradoù "meadows").

Articles

In Breton, the article has both definite and indefinite forms. This is unlike other Celtic languages, which have only definite articles. The definite article is an before dentals, vowels and unpronounced h, al before l and ar elsewhere. Examples of this include an tan "the fire", al logodenn "the mouse", ar gador "the chair". The indefinite article, derived from the number un "one", follows the same pattern of final consonants: un tan "a fire", ul logodenn "a mouse", ur gador "a chair".

The definite article may contract with preceding prepositions, for instance e "in" + an gives en "in the".

Adjectives

Adjectives can be inflected for comparison with the suffixes -oc'h (comparative) and -añ (superlative). These suffixes cause preceding consonants to undergo provection (see gleb "wet" and ruz "red" in the table). Mat "good" and drouk "bad" are examples of adjectives that can have irregular forms.

positive	comparative	superlative
bras "big"	brasoc'h "bigger"	brasañ "biggest"
gleb "wet"	glepoc'h "wetter"	glepañ "wettest"
ruz "red"	rusoc'h "redder"	rusañ "reddest"
mat "good"	gwell(oc'h) "better"	gwellañ "best"
drouk "bad"	droukoc'h, gwashoc'h "worse"	droukañ, gwashañ "worst"

In addition to the above forms, some adjectives can have separate equative forms, for example, kement "as big", koulz "as good", ken gwazh "as bad". More regular equatives are formed with ken "as", for example, ken gleb "as wet", ken drouk "as bad". Breton also possesses an exclamative suffix -at, as in brasat "(how) big!", glepat "(how) wet!", gwellat "(how) good!", but this is obsolete except in certain expressions.

Adjectives can also have a diminutive form in -ik, for example, bihan "small" to bihanik, bras "big" to brazik.

Adverbs

Adverbs in Breton do not inflect. Adverbs can be formed from adjectives by means of ez', as in ez' leal "loyally" from leal "loyal"

Prepositions

As in other Celtic languages, prepositions in Breton are either simple or complex and may or may not inflect for person, number and gender. Historically, inflected prepositions derive from the contraction between a preposition and a personal pronoun.

In general, simple prepositions that inflect take one of two possible groups of suffixes. The stem employed for the third person forms may be different from that of other persons. Inflected prepositions distinguish gender in the third person singular.

		i endings	o endings
uninflected		gant "with"	evit "for"
1sg		ganin "with me"	evidon "for me"
2sg		ganit "with you"	evidout "for you"
3sg	m.	gantañ "with him"	evitañ "for him"
	f.	ganti "with her"	eviti "for her"
1pl		ganimp "with us"	evidomp "for us"
2pl		ganeoc'h "with you"	evidoc'h "for you"
3pl		ganto, gante "with them"	evito, evite "for them"
impersonal		ganeor "with one"	evidor "for one"

Simple prepositions that do not inflect include eus and deus "from", kent "before" and goude "after".

Complex prepositions inflect by means of interfixes, whereby the nominal second element is preceded by a pronominal form. This is similar to how instead can become in my stead in archaic English. Mutations may be triggered following the various pronominal forms.

uninflected		diwar-ben "about"	e-kichen "near"
1sg		diwar ma fenn "about me"	em c'hichen "near me"
2sg		diwar da benn "about you"	ez kichen "near you"
3sg	m.	diwar e benn "about him"	en e gichen "near him"
	f.	diwar he fenn "about her"	en he c'hichen "near her"
1pl		diwar hor penn "about us"	en hor c'hichen "near us"
2pl		diwar ho penn "about you"	en ho kichenn "near you"
3pl		diwar o fenn "about them"	en o c'hichen "near them"
impersonal		diwar ar penn "about one"	er c'hichen "near one"

Conjunctions

Certain conjunctions have an additional form used when followed by a vowel, such as ha "and" becoming hag and na "than" becoming nag. A conjunction is usually followed by the particle e when preceding a verb, for example, hag e kouezhas "and he fell", peogwir e varvas "because he fell", although this is not the case for ma "that, if", mar "if", pa "if, when, because".

Pronouns

Personal

Personal pronouns may be strong, post-clitic head or pre-clitic head. Strong pronouns have the same distribution as a full noun phrase and may be subjects, objects or prepositional objects. Post-clitic head pronouns tend to follow finite verbs, nouns or inflected prepositions. Pre-clitic head pronouns function as object pronouns preceding verb phrases and possessive determiners preceding noun phrases.

		strong	post-clitic head	pre-clitic head	partitive paraphrase
1sg		me	me	ma, am (’m)	ac'hanon
2sg		te	te	az’ (’z’), da	ac'hanout
3sg	m.	eñ	eñ	e	anezhañ
	f.	hi	hi	he	anezhi
1pl		ni	ni	hon, hol, hor	ac'hanomp
2pl		c'hwi	hu, c'hwi	ho, hoc'h	ac'hanoc'h
3pl		int	i, int	o	anezho

As in Welsh and French, the second person plural pronoun is used in the singular to show politeness. A large part of central Brittany has lost the second person singular te altogether and uses c'hwi for all second person reference. The partitive paraphrase has replaced the traditional post-clitic object pronoun in every dialect except Gwenedeg (Vannetais), except when object is fronted for emphasis. The inflected forms of the preposition a ‘of’ placed after the verb are substituted for the traditional object pronoun, e.g. E kêr e welas Yannig anezho ‘Yannig saw them in town’, more literally ‘In the town Yannig saw of them’, and occasionally function as subjects (with intransitive, usually negative, verbs).

Demonstrative

Demonstrative pronouns display three degrees of proximity as well as gender and number.

	masculine singular	feminine singular	common plural
near the speaker	hemañ	houmañ	ar re-mañ
near the listener	hennezh	hounnezh	ar re-se
far from speaker and listener	henhont	hounhont	ar re-hont

Demonstrative determiners are post-head clitics used in conjunction with the definite article.

	clitic	example
near the speaker	-mañ "here"	ar stêr-mañ "this river"
near the listener	-se "there"	an ti bihan-se "that little house"
far from speaker and listener	-hont "over there, yonder"	al lent-hont "that lake over there"

Indefinite

Indefinite pronouns may be positive, such as re "some, ones" and holl "all" and negative, such as netra "nothing" and neblec'h "nowhere", and may be preceded by a determiner, for example an re "some" ("the ones") and da re "your" ("your ones").

Verbs

Regular conjugation

Breton verbs can be conjugated to show tense, aspect, mood, person and number by adding suffixes to the verbal stem, seen in the following table.

		singular			plural			impers.
		1st	2nd	3rd	1st	2nd	3rd
Indicative	Present	-an	-ez	no ending	-omp	-it	-ont	-er
	Imperfect	-en	-es	-e	-emp	-ec'h	-ent	-ed
	Preterite	-is	-jout	-as	-jomp	-joc'h	-jont	-jod
	Future	-in	-i	-o	-imp	-ot	-int	-or
Conditional	Present	-fen	-fes	-fe	-femp	-fec'h	-fent	-fed
	Imperfect	-jen	-jes	-je	-jemp	-jec'h	-jent	-jed
Imperative		—	no ending	-et	-omp	-it	-ent	—

Additional suffixes may form the verbal noun. The most common of these are:

• -out as in lavarout "say", gallout "can, be able", klevout "hear, smell"
• -añ as in evañ "drink", gwiskañ "dress", skrivañ "write"
• -iñ as in debriñ "eat", deskiñ "learn", reiñ "give"

For other verbs, the stem itself is also the verbnoun, for example, gortoz "wait", lenn "read", kompren "understand".

Verbs also have a past participle formed with a suffix and a present participle form comprising the verbal noun preceded by the particle o, which causes a mixed mutation.

Most verbs are regular and stray little from the usual patterns. The table shows and example of the regular verb debriñ "eat" (verbal stem debr-).

		singular			plural			impers.
		1st	2nd	3rd	1st	2nd	3rd
Indicative	Present	debran	debrez	debr	debromp	debrit	debront	debrer
	Imperfect	debren	debres	debre	debremp	debrec'h	debrent	debred
	Preterite	debris	debrjout	debras	debrjomp	debrjoc'h	debrjont	debrjod
	Future	debrin	debri	debro	debrimp	debrot	debrint	debror
Conditional	Present	debrfen	debrfes	debrfe	debrfemp	debrfec'h	debrfent	debrfed
	Imperfect	debrjen	debrjes	debrje	debrjemp	debrjec'h	debrjent	debrjed
Imperative		—	debr	debret	debromp	debrit	debrent	—

Verbal noun	Present participle	Past participle
debriñ	o tebriñ	debret

Irregular conjugation

A few common verbs are irregular, including ober "do".

		singular			plural			0
		1st	2nd	3rd	1st	2nd	3rd
Indicative	Present	gran	grez	gra	greomp	grit	greont	greer
	Imperfect	graen	graes	grae	graemp	graec'h	graent	graed
	Preterite	gris	grejout	greas	grejomp	grejoc'h	grejont	grejod
	Future	grin	gri	gray, graio	graimp	greot	graint	greor
Conditional	Present	grafen	grafes	grafe	grafemp	grafec'h	grafent	grafed
	Imperfect	grajen	grajes	graje	grajemp	grajec'h	grajent	grajed
Imperative		—	gra	graet	greomp	grit	graent	—

Verbal noun	Present participle	Past participle
ober, gober	oc'h ober	graet

Mont "go" has irregular conjugation.

		singular			plural			0
		1st	2nd	3rd	1st	2nd	3rd
Indicative	Present	an	ez	a, ya	eomp	it	eont	eer
	Imperfect	aen	aes	ae, yae	aemp	aec'h	aent	aed
	Preterite	is	ejout	eas, yeas	ejomp	ejoc'h	ejont	ejod
	Future	in	i	ay, aio, yelo	aimp	eot	aint	eor
Conditional	Present	afen	afes	afe, yafe	afemp	afec'h	afent	afed
	Imperfect	ajen	ajes	aje, yaje	ajemp	ajec'h	ajent	ajed
Imperative		—	a, kae	aet	eomp, demp	it, kit	aent	—

Verbal noun	Present participle	Past participle
mont	o vont	aet

The verb gouzout "know" is also irregular. In addition to the forms below, it also has a number of other possible variant roots.

		singular			plural			0
		1st	2nd	3rd	1st	2nd	3rd
Indicative	Present	gouzon	gouzout	gour	gouzomp	gouzont	gouzont	gouzer
	Imperfect	gouien	gouies	gouie	gouiemp	gouiec'h	gouient	gouied
	Preterite	gouezis	gouejout	gouezas	gouejomp	gouejoc'h	gouejont	gouejod
	Future	gouezin	gouezi	gouezo	gouezimp	gouezot	gouezint	gouezor
Conditional	Present	goufen	goufes	goufe	goufemp	goufec'h	goufent	goufed
	Imperfect	gouijen	gouijes	gouije	gouijemp	gouijec'h	gouijent	gouijed
Imperative		—	gouez	gouezet	gouezomp	gouezit	gouezent	—

Verbal noun	Present participle	Past participle
gouzout	o c'houzout	gouezet

Bezañ "be" is another irregular verb, which is conjugated for additional tense or aspect distinctions.

		singular			plural			0
		1st	2nd	3rd	1st	2nd	3rd
Indicative	Present	on	out	zo, eo, eus	omp	oc'h	int	oar, eur
	Present (situative)	emaon	emaout	emañ	emaomp	emaoc'h	emaint	emeur
	Present (habitual)	bezan	bezez	bez	bezomp	bezit	bezont	bezer
	Future	bin, bezin	bi, bezi	bo, bezo	bimp, bezimp	biot, bioc'h	bent, bezint	bior
	Imperfect	oan	oas	oa	oamp	oac'h	oant	oad
	Imperfect (situative)	edon	edos	edo	edomp	edoc'h	edont	edod
	Imperfect (habitual)	bezen	bezes	beze	bezemp	bezec'h	bezent	bezed
	Preterite	boen	boes	boe	boemp	boec'h	boent	boed
Conditional	Present	befen, ben	befes, bes	befe, be	befemp, bemp	befec'h, bec'h	befent, bent	befed
	Imperfect	bijen	bijes	bije	bijemp	bijec'h	bijent	bijed
Imperative		—	bez	bezet	bezomp	bezit	bezent	—

Verbal noun	Present participle	Past participle
bezañ, older: bout, bezout	o vezañ	bet

Another common irregular verb is eus "have", which combines a person marker with the tensed form. Eus is historically derived from bezañ and a similar development is seen in Cornish.

		singular			plural			0
		1st	2nd	3rd	1st	2nd	3rd
Indicative	Present	am eus, meus	az peus, ac'h eus[8], teus	en deus, neus	he deus, neus	hon neus, oneus	hoc'h eus, peus	o deus, deus
	Present (habitual)	am bez, mez	az pez, pez	en devez, nez	he devez, dez	hor bez, obez	ho pez, pez	o devez, dez
	Future	am bo, mo, am vezo	az po, to, az pezo	en devo, no, en devezo	he devo, do, he devezo	hor bo, obo, hor bezo	ho po, po, ho pezo	o devo, do, o devezo
	Imperfect	am boa, moa	az poa, toa	en doa, noa	he doa, doa	hor boa, oboa	ho poa, poa	o doa, doa
	Imperfect (habitual)	am boa, moa	az poa, toa	en devoa, noa	he devoa, doa	hor boa, oboa	ho poa, poa	o devoa, doa
	Preterite	am boe, moe	az poe, toe	en devoe, noe	he devoe, doe	hor boe, boe	ho poe, poe	o devoe, doe
Conditional	Present	am bije, mije	az pije, tije	en devije, nije	he devije, dije	hor bije, obije	ho pije, pije	o devije, dije
	Imperfect	am befe, mefe	az pefe, tefe	en devefe, nefe	he devefe, defe	hor befe, obefe	ho pefe, pefe	o devefe, defe

Verbal noun	Present participle
endevout or kaout	o kaout

Compound tenses

Ober, bezañ and eus can all be used as auxiliary verbs.

In the present, Breton (like Cornish and Irish but unlike the other Celtic languages) distinguishes between the simple and progressive present. The simple present is formed by either conjugating the verb or using the verbal noun with the present of ober. The progressive present, on the other hand, is formed with the present situative of bezañ combined with present participle. In addition to these two aspectual distinctions, Breton has a habitual present which utilises the present habitual of bezañ and the present participle. Combining the past participle with either endevout or bezañ is the usual way of forming the past tense, the conjugated forms being restricted to more literary language. The choice between eus or bezañ depends on whether the past participle is that of a transitive or intransitive verb respectively (similar to the passé composé of French), for instance, kavout "find" takes endevout to give kavet en deus "he has found" whereas kouezhañ "fall" takes bezañ to give kouezhet eo "he has fallen".

Negation

Non-tensed verbs are negated with bipartite ne ... ket either side of the main verb, for example, ne skrivan ket "I do not write", or auxiliary, for example, ne voe ket lazhet "he was not killed". Ne is replaced with na in imperatives, relative clauses, after ken "before" and evit "for, so" and in expressions of fear, for instance, na ganit ket "do not sing", un dra na c'houalennen ket "a thing which I did not ask", evit na welo ket ac'hanoc'h "so that he does not see you".

Unable to be negated by the previous structure, infinitives can be expressed negatively by means of a compound phrases, so that, for instance, debriñ "eat" may become tremen hep debriñ "not eat" (literally, "pass without eating") and redek "run" mirout a redek "not run" (literally, "keep from running"). Na ... (ket) is occasionally used, however, to negate infinitives.

Numbers

Cardinal numbers

Similar to other Celtic languages, Breton has an underlying vigesimal counting system. "One" is un, ul, ur before a noun (the same as the indefinite article). "Two", "three" and "four" and derivative numbers have separate masculine and feminine forms. Interesting irregularities in the system are triwec'h "eighteen", literally "three sixes", and hanter kant "fifty", literally "half a hundred" (compare Welsh deunaw "two nines" and hanner cant "half a hundred").

0	zero, mann, netra
1	unan	11	unnek	21	unan warn-ugent
2	daou (m.), div (f.)	12	daouzek	22	daou warn-ungent
3	tri (m.), teir (f.)	13	trizek	30	tregont
4	pevar (m.), peder (f.)	14	pevarzek	40	daou-ugent
5	pemp	15	pempzek	50	hanter kant
6	c'hwec'h	16	c'hwezek	60	tri-ugent
7	seizh	17	seitek	70	dek ha tri-ugent
8	eizh	18	triwec'h	80	pevar-ugent
9	nav	19	naontek	90	dek ha pevar-ugent
10	dek	20	ugent	100	kant

Ordinal numbers

A gender distinction can again be shown with some ordinal numbers.

1st	kentañ
2nd	eil, daouvet (m.), divvet (f.)
3rd	trede, trivet (m.), teirvet (f.)
4th	pevare, pevarvet (m.), pedervet (f.)
5th	pempvet
6th	c'hwec'hvet
7th	seizhvet
8th	eizhvet
9th	navvet
10th	dekvet

Mutations

Main article: Breton mutations

The main mutations cause the following changes:

Unmutated	Soft	Spirant	Hard	Mixed
p	b	f	—	—
t	d	z	—	—
k	g	c'h	—	—
b	v	—	p	v
d	z	—	t	t
g	c'h	—	k	c'h
gw	w	—	kw	w
m	v	—	—	v

References

• Jouitteau, M. (2009-now) ARBRES, Breton wiki grammar on-line, IKER, CNRS [4 823 content pages].
• Press, I. (1986) A Grammar of Modern Breton (Mouton De Gruyter)
• Denez, P. (1971) Kentelioù brezhoneg : eil derez, Al Liamm
• Denez, P. (1977) Étude structurale d'un parler breton: Douarnenez, thèse (3 vol.), Université de Rennes
• Denez, P. (1985) Geriadur brezhoneg Douarnenez, 4 vol., Mouladurioù Hor Yezh
• Denez, P. (1987) Mont war-raok gant ar brezhoneg, MHY