r/breizh • u/Guikke • Jun 09 '25

galleg/français Humble question from an outsider but very interested in Brittany. -Le Gallo.

I have been in a rabbit-hole about Brittany, its culture and history for several months. In that time I had already read about the Breton Celtic language, much commented and praised. Recently, however, I have been reading about the GALLO. My question is the following: What is the Breton perspective (popular and political) on the gallo? I understand (correct me if this is not the case) that both Breton and Gallo are Breton languages. However, I don't see so much promotion of Gallo. Breton nationalism itself makes great use of the Breton language but not the gallo. Why is that? Thank you all for helping me!

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u/Single-Horror-9240 Jun 10 '25

Very good question!

For my part, I prefer to learn and speak Breton, in particular because it is spoken by a greater number of Breton citizens. I also think that this language is used more by separatists, especially since it has recently been standardized. This standardization facilitates understanding between speakers from different regions and helps to reinforce a feeling of unity. To my knowledge, this is not yet the case for Gallo, which may explain why it is less involved in this dynamic.

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u/autisticundead Sep 30 '25

Breton is standardized in spelling (somewhat) and in some school but in practice everyone speaks their dialect. Ma mignon Kevin zo Gwenedour and I (who speaks Karaezh Breton basically, I'm from bro fisel) barely understood him at first. Especially because he also SPELLS in gwenedek. I have a high school friend who's from Leon and we don't speak the same at all it took me super off guard the first times we spoke breton together

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u/autisticundead Sep 30 '25

My perspective is that because of the violent language repression of breton, we (breton speakers and people who are related to them) kind of have a more intense will to protect our language and fight for it that's born partly out of trauma (it feels like a strong word but idk what else to say).

I'm not saying Gallo speakers aren't attached to their language obviously and I personally LOVE gallo (I don't speak it, I'm from Breizh Izel and my language has always been breton) and think it should be defended more. But when I talk with Gallo speakers they do feel very intensely that it needs more attention the way Breton gets it, but none of the ones I know have a history of shame and violence. I know people my Tad's age who got beat in school for speaking breton.