Gwened, Bro-Gwened () or Vannetais () is a historic realm and county of

Brittany Brittany ( ) is a peninsula, historical country and cultural area in the north-west of modern France, covering the western part of what was known as Armorica in Roman Gaul. It became an Kingdom of Brittany, independent kingdom and then a Duch ...

France France, officially the French Republic, is a country located primarily in Western Europe. Overseas France, Its overseas regions and territories include French Guiana in South America, Saint Pierre and Miquelon in the Atlantic Ocean#North Atlan ...

. It is considered part of Lower Brittany."AM"
"Gwened (Vannes/Vannetais)" in ''Celtic Culture: A Historical Encyclopedia'', Vol. I, p. 860
ABC-CLIO ( Sta. Barbara), 2006. Bro-Gwened was an early medieval principality or kingdom around

Vannes Vannes (; , , ) is a Communes of France, commune in the Departments of France, French department of Morbihan, Brittany (administrative region), Brittany, northwestern mainland France. It was founded over 2,000 years ago. History Celtic ...

Armorica In ancient times, Armorica or Aremorica (Gaulish: ; ; ) was a region of Gaul between the Seine and the Loire that includes the Brittany Peninsula, and much of historical Normandy. Name The name ''Armorica'' is a Latinized form of the Gauli ...

(

), lasting from around AD 490 to around 635. It was peopled by Christianized Britons fleeing the Saxon invasions of Britain, who displaced or assimilated the remaining

pagan Paganism (, later 'civilian') is a term first used in the fourth century by early Christians for people in the Roman Empire who practiced polytheism, or ethnic religions other than Christianity, Judaism, and Samaritanism. In the time of the ...

Veneti

Gauls The Gauls (; , ''Galátai'') were a group of Celts, Celtic peoples of mainland Europe in the Iron Age Europe, Iron Age and the Roman Gaul, Roman period (roughly 5th century BC to 5th century AD). Their homeland was known as Gaul (''Gallia''). Th ...

. Its

bishop A bishop is an ordained member of the clergy who is entrusted with a position of Episcopal polity, authority and oversight in a religious institution. In Christianity, bishops are normally responsible for the governance and administration of di ...

and (usually) court was at Gwened, the site of the former Roman settlement of Darioritum and the present French city of

. The territories are included within the modern

French department In the administrative divisions of France, the department (, ) is one of the three levels of government under the national level (" territorial collectivities"), between the administrative regions and the communes. There are a total of 101 ...

Morbihan The Morbihan ( , ; ) is a departments of France, department in the administrative region of Brittany (administrative region), Brittany, situated in the northwest of France. It is named after the Gulf of Morbihan, Morbihan (''small sea'' in Breton ...

Name

The Breton placename-element ' () initially meant a

tribe The term tribe is used in many different contexts to refer to a category of human social group. The predominant worldwide use of the term in English is in the discipline of anthropology. The definition is contested, in part due to conflict ...

, but came to signify its territory as well. The standard Breton form of the name mutates Gwened, the Breton name for

, while the local dialect leaves it unchanged as "Bro-Gwened". The modern French name derives from

adjectival form An adjective (abbreviations, abbreviated ) is a word that describes or defines a noun or noun phrase. Its semantic role is to change information given by the noun. Traditionally, adjectives are considered one of the main part of speech, parts of ...

. Both ' and ' reflect separate developments of the

Latin Latin ( or ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic languages, Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally spoken by the Latins (Italic tribe), Latins in Latium (now known as Lazio), the lower Tiber area aroun ...

', the Romans' name for the

Gaulish Gaulish is an extinct Celtic languages, Celtic language spoken in parts of Continental Europe before and during the period of the Roman Empire. In the narrow sense, Gaulish was the language of the Celts of Gaul (now France, Luxembourg, Belgium, ...

tribe in the area. (It is unrelated to the Welsh realm and county of

Gwynedd Gwynedd () is a county in the north-west of Wales. It borders Anglesey across the Menai Strait to the north, Conwy, Denbighshire, and Powys to the east, Ceredigion over the Dyfi estuary to the south, and the Irish Sea to the west. The ci ...

, which developed from

'.) The historic realm was also known as Bro Erec (, "land of Gwereg") or Bro Waroch (from the gallicisation of the same name) or by numerous variant spellings, although it is unclear whether the namesake Gwereg was Waroch I or II.

History

The land was allegedly founded by Caradog Strongarm. In the early 6th century, Macliau served as one of the earliest bishops of Vannes prior to usurping his nephew's inheritance in neighboring Cornouaille. He may have also been king of Broerec or simply the refugee guest of Conmor.Baring-Gould, Sabine
''The Lives of the Saints'', Vol. XVI, "The Celtic Church and its Saints", p. 103
Longmans, Green, & Co. (New York), 1898. Major settlements at this time included Gwened (

) and Lokmaria ( Locmaria). In the mid-7th century, Bro Gwened was united with Domnonia under its king Saint Judicaël, who was descended from a daughter of Budic II. Domnonia's rulers thenceforth reigned as the high kings of

, with Bro Gwened forming part of their lands.

Dialect

The

dialect A dialect is a Variety (linguistics), variety of language spoken by a particular group of people. This may include dominant and standard language, standardized varieties as well as Vernacular language, vernacular, unwritten, or non-standardize ...

of Gwened's present inhabitants is known in Breton as ' and in French as '. It is distinct from that of the other regions of Brittany to the point of near unintelligibility.Kergoat, Lukian
"Breton Dialects" in ''Celtic Culture'', Vol. I, pp. 250 ff
A primary distinction is that the Gwened dialect has paralleled Gaelic in developing earlier into rather than ; , meanwhile, has disappeared completely rather than merge with as in Leon although there are certain parts of Gwened (e.g. the city

Baud In telecommunications and electronics, baud (; symbol: Bd) is a common unit of measurement of symbol rate, which is one of the components that determine the speed of communication over a data channel. It is the unit for symbol rate or modulat ...

) where it is still used as an initial mutation of ''d'' and ''t'' and sometimes in the middle and end of a word as a retainment of Middle Breton or θ where the other dialects substituted ''d'' or ''z'' (e.g. in ''hiddiù'' iːðiw("today") which would be ''hiziv'' iːziwor ''hidiv'' iːdivin the other dialects (cf. Welsh ''heddiw'' ɛðɪu̯). The dialect also has a tendency to

close vowel A close vowel, also known as a high vowel (in U.S. terminology), is any in a class of vowel sounds used in many spoken languages. The defining characteristic of a close vowel is that the tongue is positioned approximately as close as possible to ...

s, places stress on the final syllables of words (as in French and Middle Breton), rather than on the penultimate syllable (as in other Breton dialects and Welsh), and (like English) has completely lost its original 2nd person singular pronoun.

Tartan

As a historic Breton county, ''Bro-Wened'' is registered as an official

tartan Tartan or plaid ( ) is a patterned cloth consisting of crossing horizontal and vertical bands in multiple colours, forming repeating symmetrical patterns known as ''setts''. Originating in woven wool, tartan is most strongly associated wi ...

with the British government.The Scottish Register of Tartans.
Tartan Details—Bro-Wened
". National Records of Scotland (Edinburgh), 2014.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:BRO GWENED States and territories established in the 490s States and territories disestablished in the 7th century Geography of Brittany Medieval Brittany Barbarian kingdoms History of Morbihan

Name

History

Dialect

Tartan

See also

References