Talk: Brittany

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Politically, there are only four departments in Brittany. The Loire-Atlantique (not Loire-Maritime) actually belongs to the region Pays de Loire. Rod

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Heres the response to a question I asked - worthy of a wider audence, I think.

Andy, in response to your question, "Is this right? Domnonia & Cornouaille sound very like Dumnonia and Cornwall - part of the Brythonic culture but not part of Brittany." -- tres bizarre, but true! My source is Myles Dillon & Nora Chadwick, The Celtic Realms, but I've seen these names of the Breton kingdoms in other places. If I understand the scholarship correctly, this has spawned disagreements over the origins of these names: were they Medieval English (i.e., the Sassons from beyond the River Tamar & River Severn) coinages, or derived from earlier, prehistoric Celtic names, or perchance the Breton kingdoms borrowed the names currently in use from beyond the Channel? The only certainty in this dispute is that there are far more opinions than evidence. -- User:llywrch 04:43, 9 Aug 2003 (UTC)

Andy G 18:28, 11 Aug 2003 (UTC)

That Domnonia & Cornouaille sound like Dumnonia and Cornwall isn't surprising since the Bretons are settlers who migrated from Dumnonia and Cornwall and even after they settled retained close (trading) links with their ancestral kingdoms.-- DZ

I agree. The Channel was first a way of communication, not a border. For instance, an abbey in Côtes d'Armor, l'abbaye de Beauport owned four parishes on the Continent and two in Devon, England, until George the VIIIth ; the monks built a harbour to cross over frequently. "Devon" comes from "Domnonae", the eponym of an ancient kingdom in North Brittany. And Cornwall is close to the Breton Cornouaille, even more in their respective language (Kernew in cornish and Kernev in Breton). Gwalarn

Historical region or administrative region ?

There's an ambiguity in this article which should be resolved. Is it about the historical region (which includes Loire-Atlantique) or the administrative one (excluding Loire-Atlantique) ? _R_ 12:28, 9 Aug 2004 (UTC)

Prehistory

I feel the section on prehistory is getting too long with respect to the rest of the article. IMHO its content should be transferred on an appropriate page with a sum-up here. _R_ 12:36, 9 Aug 2004 (UTC)