“This language is worth fighting for” Tanguy Gicquel, receives the Hervé Le Menn prize, in Begard

It was in Bgard – his hometown – that Tanguy Gicquel received the Hervé Le Menn prize, Saturday September 28, 2024, for all of his action for the benefit of the Breton language. This prize, created in 1988 by the Breton Cultural Entente, rewards people or associations who promote and safeguard the culture and heritage of Brittany.

This is precisely what Tanguy Gicquel has been working on for 15 years now. I collect and highlight Tregor Breton as it is spoken in Bgard and in the surrounding communities he specifies. Helped by Riwal Jorjilin, secretary and Juluan ar C’hozh, treasurer – present since the creation of the association – he goes to meet the elders. I went to 116 communes and carried out more than 400 hours of interviews with native Breton speakers. This represents 5,000 hours of work. I have visited twenty nursing homes and the kilometers and phone calls are counted in the thousands… A Benedictine job that requires me to work every day, every evening, Sunday and public holidays,” he concluded with a smile on his lips.

Read also: La Roche-Bernard. Hervé Dréan, 2023 winner of the Hervé Le Menn prize

A family transmission

This passion was passed on to him by his parents, as he emphasized during his speech. My father was always interested in Breton. He took lessons. And I started after my baccalaureate, I hadn’t had the opportunity before. It was my father, I think, who planted the first seed.

Also read: Tregor. Dastum Bro Dreger celebrates 50 years of collecting: “We saved what there was to save”

He made this passion a reality by creating the Hent don association in 2012. Simultaneously, with the two other founding members, he developed a website (Brezhoneg bro-vear) where written and audio documents are collected, as well as a alphabetical dictionary with 5,000 entries and 70,000 sentences. There are also stories, songs and proverbs to listen to.

How far we’ve come

Today the site has become a reference for people who study Breton. To the point that CNRS teacher-researchers asked us to save our recordings on their servers. Enough to keep the members of the association busy for about two years.

With the presentation of this award, it is finally, he says, the consecration of work of around fifteen years .

A long work that the president of the association and its members will continue, because, he concludes, this language is worth fighting for… when you know that it has arrived here continuously for 1,500 years .