Arradon is a commune on the shore of south Brittany, located close to Vannes. Breton has been the language of quite its whole population right up the 20th century. Accounts from some native Breton speakers show how lively was its practice until the 2nd world war : in the daily life, through the oral culture (tales, songs, rhymes etc.) and more rarely in written uses. However, since the end of the 1st world war a break happened in the transmission of the language. Therefore the linguistic divide which was sociological became a divide between generations. Breton language had negative connotations : at the beginning of the century, associated with powerty because economic elites were French speakers and with ignorance because French was the only language allowed at school ; later, it seemed tied up to the past and the vanishing traditional rural civilization. After the 2nd world war, only old people can speak Breton and the demographic jump of the commune since 1965 increased their different being. At the end of the XXth century, Breton is getting more consideration in the public sphere but the gap between the local dialect and the standard makes difficult the links between popular practice often enclosed to oral uses and scholar practice influenced by the written norm. Historic context and comparison of different points of view on this linguistic major change let highlight its causes and process, and also think wider about the place of languages at globalization time.
Breton language in Arradon during the XXth century : a sociolinguistic reflection about the history of Breton through a particular example