#breizh

loubatas:

beautiful-basque-country:

loubatas:

beautiful-basque-country:

loubatas:

beautiful-basque-country:

conneyes:

Listen I wont be annoying for too long but the fact that France send in a group that sings in Breton is so fucking important to me like.

We are talking about a language that the french higher ups have ALWAYS tried to get rid off !! They banished it from being talked in schools in the late 19th and early 20th century. But also generally as the Bretagne (Brittany) part of France have always been looked down upon and that region was always treated as some kind of experiment base.

The fact that the group is actually a bunch of bretons singing in breton is truly making my heart happy

Fuck you to all the people who tried to demolish this language. It will keep shining.

We have mixed feelings regarding this.

Of course it’s awesome that a song in Breton was at the ESC, and it’s not the first time and hopefully, neither the last. We wish Basque had the same chance just once! Minoritized languages need more representation and Eurovision is a huge platform.

HOWEVER

What’s the point in showing a minoritized language to the world if you’re still putting every obstacle and more for people to use it? To 100% live in it? To recover it? To promote it? In the real world, that is. For actual people? Up until two years ago it wasn’t allowed to put letter Ñ in Breton names because that letter doesn’t belong to the French alphabet, ffs.

Particularly France is an expert in showing Europe its regionallanguages as bonus points for diversity and tolerance and what not. They’re shown as an oddity or as a way to whitewash the crimes French governments commited - and commit - against these languages and their speakers. Minoritized languages like Breton, Euskara, Català, Corsican, etc have survived despiteFrance, not thanks to.

Yay for the minoritized languages.
But let’s not forget France’s blatant hypocrisy.

But it’s precisely because our own goverment is still doing all it can to erase our languages and cultures that we were overhyped to see a Breton song at Eurovision

It was the occasion to show the French ruling class & cultural elite that we’re still here, our languages and cultures are still there, living, thriving even. That we have our place on the international cultural scene. That we aren’t a sub-culture, like they still think we are

I honestly don’t know where you get the idea that “France is an expert in showing Europe its regionallanguages as bonus points for diversity and tolerance” ? I guess that’s a mask France officials put up for international relationships, because inside the country there’s no doubts about France’s stance on its minority languages and cultures : their only place is inside their historical regions (good luck trying to learn a regional language outside of it), and out of the tourists’ sorry, public’s eye. They’re not living cultures, just folklore.

Every time a regional language makes it to the international scene, French officials are pissed.
This year didn’t make exception: all newspapers reporting the win of Fulenn at the selection asked at least once the question “is a Breton song fit to represent France ?” (a question that is never asked when when we’re sending the Nth Parisian ballad)
Many people said regional languages had no legitimacy being in an international event, even adding “and what would be next ? Occitan ? Basque ? Corsican?” (despite having already presented a Corsican song at the Eurovision in 2011)
French people watching the French transmission said the commentators were salty that our song wasn’t in French

I can’t vouch for that last one because I watched the Breton transmission of the event. Because, yes, for the first time ever we had the Eurovision covered in Breton. TV coverage of an international event. Not a local one. In Breton
And sure, France has been its usual arsehole with trying to keep it inside its region (the Breton transmission was only available on TV in Brittany. Currently living in Burgundy I had to watch it on the Internet)
But that’s still a step more for the everyday use of our language, something we got thanks to a Breton group going to the Eurovision, not from a desire from France to show off its regional languages but despite the French elite despising being represented by a minority language

Something we probably won’t have again thanks to the fiasco that was this year. Because I have no doubt the French elite is blaming our second-to-last place to the fact that the song was in Breton

It was our chance to prove to our own state that it is wrong. That our languages are fit for the international scene. That we do not belong only in our regions. That we aren’t a subculture

I’m not sure I’ll forgive the Eurovision jury for taking that away from us

I honestly don’t know where you get the idea that “France is an expert in showing Europe its regionallanguages as bonus points for diversity and tolerance” ?

Because they do with Basque too. The tourist guides are a joke: Basque culture this, Basque language that, blah blah blah, and then reality strikes and there’s drama almost every year with the bac in Basque, for example. Or Basque speakers being beaten just for speaking Basque. Basque culture - and change Basque for Breton, Corsican, whatever - is a tourist grabbing oddity, nothing more.

And we said they’re experts because they’ve sent seeeeeveral songs to the ESC in languages other than French: 

Kali (1992) who sang in Haitian creole.
Patrick Fiori (1993) who sang in French and Corsican
Dan ar Braz & L’héritage des Celtes (1996) who sang in Breton
Amaury Vassili (2011) who sang in Corsican
This year’s Alvan & Ahez, in Breton

They sell their diversity before Europe. Oh France, how progressive you are! 

We don’t know if French officials get pissed, but you get to get them pissed quite ofter if we might say so respectfully. We Basques have never had the chance to send a song in Basque; in fact, Spain has NEVER sent a song in a minoritized language.

And I’m telling you, it’s an act. French officials aren’t proud to flaunt their minority languages to the world. French officials do not want to see our minority languages make it to the international scene. They have to put up with our choice of songs, but if it were up to them no song in a minority language would ever make it to the Eurovision, or in any international event

Yes the state use our languages as a tourist attraction: as I said, it’s somewhat okay with them as long as they never get out of their region, as long as they stay folklore for the tourists rather than flourish as cultures. Because the state knows our languages will die if we keep them that way

I get you’re angry that you’ve never been able to send a song in Basque or any of Spain’s minority language, but believe it or not, French people do not need to be reminded by strangers how much our country hates our cultures and languages. We see it everyday
I’ve seen it my whole life

We suspected it was an act! That’s why we said what we said about France’s hipocrisy, because Spain at least refuses to send anything that isn’t in Spanish or English and keeps on being an ass, but France puts up this act.

Listen, we’re not at war with you or any of our Breton, Corsican or Catalan buddies, not at all. We all have faced and face the same sh*t - we’re not strange to that - and you know we respect you. We’re not angry there hasn’t been any song in Basque, whatever, there are bigger issues; but we didn’t mean either to remind you how things are because you know better than we do. We just wanted to tell whoever didn’t know that France sadly isn’t actually promoting and protecting and encouraging its minoritized languages as some may think by seeing songs in regional languages at the ESC. We didn’t want to offend Breton people or diminish how important it was to have a song in Breton for the 2nd time in history.

Sorry if we sounded angry or disrespectful, our goal was just to tell outsiders not to be fooled.

Hope we’re cool.

It’s okay! You’re right to tell everyone that France isn’t a champion of diversity (far from it) and is still actively trying to eradicate its native languages, because that’s still 100% true!

But even when France is trying to exploit its regional cultures on the international scene, it’s a win for us, and a double-edged sword for the state. I’ve seen a lot of people, especially American, asking what was the language in Fulenn, saying they had no idea France had other languages than French, wanting to learn more about it.
It brings international attention to our languages, but also to the way France treats them, which is never a good idea when you’re trying to commit cultural genocide

This is why Alvan & Ahez at the Eurovision was 100% a win for Breton & French minority languages and why we were so happy for them to be there

France is an hypocrite country - and if we’re lucky it’ll cause the downfall of its imperialist attitude.

I’ve seen a lot of people, especially American, asking what was the language in Fulenn, saying they had no idea France had other languages than French, wanting to learn more about it.

We couldn’t be happier to know this!! We didn’t want to rain on your parade at all with our comment, let’s see if France governments change their ways once and for all with these little steps.

And it’s also a shame France didn’t rank better. However there’s being more drama now with the points of 6 countries - the EBU seemingly gave their points the way EBU wanted - so if this goes further rankings may change? We’ll see.

Oh, and regarding your tags: yes, there’s always drama with Eurovision .

Surf in BZH - longboard perfect style

Les trois frères MORVAN originaires du village de Botcol, dans la commune de Saint-Nicodème (Côtes-d'Armor), au côté de leur mère Augustine Le Creff (1896-1976) qui leur apprend leur répertoire

Le trio se compose de François (1923-2012), Henri (né en 1931) et Yvon (né en 1934). Au départ, ils étaient quatre avec Yves (1919-1984)