ABSTRACT
Introduction Breton is the only one of the modern Celtic languages to have developed outside British hegemony and to be subjected to the invasive pressure of a language other than English. On a general level very many characteristics of minority status, affecting both the sociocultural role and the structure of the language will be recognized as familiar universals, while more specific features can only be understood with reference to Breton and French history. One consequence of this is the virtual absence, for Brittany, of the statistical documentation which forms such a prominent and essential part of any presentation of other Celtic languages. The present chapter, may, in comparison with the rest of this book appear unduly historical in its approach and consequently perhaps rather speculative. In addition to being generally light on hard, sustained documentation, much of the literature is excessively partisan, expressing uncritical support for French centralism on the one hand or Breton particularism on the other.
