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The 'Bretons' are a distinct ethnic group located in the region of Brittany in France . They trace much of their heritage to groups of Brythons who settled the area from south western Britain in the 4th-6th centuries. The region of Brittany is named after them and many speak ''Brezhoneg'', a Brythonic language closely related to Cornish and a bit more distantly to Welsh. The Breton language as such is part of the Insular Celtic language group. In eastern Brittany, a regional ''langue d'oïl'' named Gallo developed; it shares certain points of vocabulary, idiom, and pronunciation with Breton.
Neither language has official status under French law; however, some still use Breton as an everyday language (particularly those of the older generation, around 5% of the current population of modern Bretagne) and bilingual road signs are common in the west of Brittany. During the first half of the 20th Century, Breton was strongly discouraged by the French state and it was often looked down upon in schools and churches.
Today, the Breton ethnicity is not recognised by the French Republic, nor by the European Union or any other official body, which is why there are no specific statistics on that population. However, it is reported that hundreds of thousands of people in France claim Breton ethnicity, including a few celebrities such as Patrick Le Lay or Patrick Poivre d'Arvor.
The Breton people are predominantly Roman Catholic, with Protestant and non-affiliated minorities, and Brittany is one of the most staunchly Catholic regions in all of France. Although the influence of the Catholic Church has decreased and actual practice, e.g. attendance of Sunday Mass dropped during the 1970's and the 1980's, the tradition of pilgrimage has experienced a revival, including, for example, the ''Tro Breizh'' which takes in the shrines of the seven founding saints of Breton Christianity.
Brittany was a quasi-independent kingdom and Duchy during the Middle Ages, and an important object of contention between the kingdoms of England and France. The War of the Breton Succession was a central component of the Hundred Years' War.
Bretons are thought to have played a key, though nebulous, part in the transmission of Arthurian legend into wider European literature. Geoffrey of Monmouth was himself a Welshman of Breton descent.
Bretons have emigrated around the world, at various points in their history. One wing of William the Conqueror's army in 1066 was Breton, as were many of the 'Normans' who took part in the conquest and colonization of England, Wales, Ireland, Sicily, and other lands. Breton ports became key points of departure during the French colonization of the Americas (particularly Nantes, Saint-Malo, and later Lorient and Brest). Bretons furnished a significant proportion of the French colonists in present-day Québec; on a less savoury note, they also played an important role in the French slave trade and buccaneering. For a long time, Catholic priests in Haiti were recruited primarily from Brittany (this was during a period when the church was reluctant to ordain black Haitians as priests). There is also a substantial Breton community in Paris.
Breton nationalism has a limited audience in Brittany today, but the province's regional identity remains moderately strong.

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See also

See also

★ Brutus of Troy

★ King Arthur

★ Honour of Richmond

★ Celtic nations

★ Brythons

★ Breton language

★ list of Breton authors

★ list of Breton poets

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