The Zh in Breizh, Brezhoneg and Breton Place Names

Something that always puzzled me about Breton was this 'z/zh'. It is obviously a sound shift which features only in modern Breton (not Old Breton - the one we need to use for place names), but where does it come from?

The 'zh' spelling was introduced in 1941 to merge the representation of different dialect sounds: it represents /h/ in Vannetais and /js/ in the Trégorrois, Cornouallais amd Léonard dialects.

Dialects of Brittany

Let's look at the Breton name for Brittany first - Breizh, which is pronounced 'brays' [/brejs/].

A l'Aise Breizh

It comes from a common Brittonic Prythain which can be found in Old Breton [Preden or Prydain], Welsh [(Ynys) Prydain] and Cornish [Preden].
In Latin this is Britannia and becomes, in French, Bretagne. In the old days the two Britains were Britannia Major (Great Britain) and Britannia Minor (Brittany/Little Britain/Moindre Bretagne). See here for an Irish language perspective.

Little Britain - another name for Brittany

'zh' also appears in the name for the Breton language which is Brython in Welsh and brezhoneg in Breton .

THE BRETON LANGUAGE INSTITUTE

It is here that a pattern starts to emerge.

The general rule is that single voiceless plosives (e.g. t, tt, Ɵ) and voiced plosives (e.g. d, dd, ð) become soft spirants (e.g. z, zh, v) in intervocalic positions (between vowels).

RENNES (French), ROAZHON (Breton)

Here are a few place name examples:

Rennes (Raozhon in Breton) ← Redones/Riedones (Gaulish/Latin).
Arzon (Arzhon in Breton) ← aredunum (Old Breton).
Beuzec (Beuzeg in Breton) ← Budoc (Old Breton).
Dinard (Dinarzh in Breton) ← Dinard (Old Breton).
Limerzel (Limerzher in Breton) ← Eccelesia Martyrum (Latin).
Tredaniel (Trezaniel in Breton) ← Tre-Daniel (Old Breton)

Comments

What really links place names in Brittany, Cornwall and Wales (apart from a few hundred Celtic saints)?

Place Name Elements in Breton, Welsh and Cornish (with examples and English gloss) BRETON CORNISH WELSH ENGLISH EXAMPLES C=Cornwall; W= Wales aut , alt, aod alt, als, aulz allt hill, slope, cliff Duault (22), Nansalsa (C), Allt-golau (W) ael ael ael summit, brow, ridge Hirael (35), Aelbryn (W) aval aval, avallen afal, afallen apple Availles-sur-Seiche (35), Rosevallen (C), Dolafallen (W) aon, aven auon, awan afon river Pont-Aven (29); Arrowan (C), Aberavon (W) arcae - argae dam, embankment Erquy (22), Argae Alwen (W) ard, art, arz are, ard, arth ardd hill, elevation Arzon (56); Trenarth (C), Pennard (W) arz, arzh art, arth arth bear Île-d'Arz (56), Carn Arthen (C), Aber-arth (W) ascorn - asgwrn, esgyrn bone/s Coatascorn (

The legend of Saint Gwen of Brittany and Dorset

The church of Whitchurch-Canonicorum in Dorset is dedicated to Saint-Candida (a.k.a Saint-Wite). Below the east window there is an altar tomb with three openings which allowed devotees to reach inside the shrine in the hope of a miraculous cure for whatever ailed them. On the top of this there used to be a 14th century coffin built into a slab of local marble. When the local vicar opened it in 1848 he found a stone box. Inside the stone box he discovered a Saint's relics. When the coffin was examined again in 1899 another vicar found teeth, a lot of bones resembling those of small, forty year old woman and an inscription: Here lie the relics of Saint Wite What was even more extrordinary about this find was that all relics such as these had been destroyed during the Protestant Reformation. The only other collection of saint's remains still extant were those of St Edward the Confessor in Westminster Abbey. Perhaps this shrine looked more like a tomb then a

Why all the Ermine?

The ermine ( Mustela erminea ) a.k.a. stoat or short-tailed weasel is the national emblem of Brittany. Its much sought after white winter coat was used for the cloaks, crowns and caps of the aristocracy. Ermine The eleven 'ermine spots' which form the pattern in the top left corner of the Breton flag represent the way the black-tipped tails were hung on the white fur. This heraldic ermine canton was a feature of the arms of the Dukes of Brittany. Breton flag with ermine canton The story goes that Anne de Bretagne, the last independent Breton ruler and the wife of two successive French kings, saw a group of hunters chasing after an ermine. When the ermine reached the edge of a muddy lake the ermine decided to stand up to his attackers rather than risk soiling his beautiful white fur. ANNE DE BRETAGNE Anne, it appears, was so impressed that she saved the ermine and adopted it as the emblem of her dynasty along with the motto: Plutôt la mort que la

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