, e.g. Mid. Br. _moe_, Mod. Br. _moue_,
"mane," W. _mwng_, Ir. _mong_. The language betrays a fondness for
nasalized vowels, and in this connexion it may be noted that v
representing an original m (W. f, Ir. mh), though generally written ff
in Middle Breton, now frequently appears as nv; Mid. Br. _claff_, Mod.
Br. _klanv_, "sick, ill," W. _claf_, M. Ir. _clam_. Final g after r
and l and sometimes in monosyllables after a vowel is represented in
Breton by _c'h_, whilst in Welsh in the one case we find a vowel and
in the other nil, e.g. Br. _erc'h_, "snow," W. _eiry_, _eira_; Br.
_lec'h_, "place," W. _lle_. In Welsh mb, nd immediately preceding the
stress appear in the modern language as mm, nn but in Breton we find
mp, nl, e.g. Br. _kantol_, "candle," W. _cannwyll_, Lat. _candela_;
Br. _kemper_, "confluence" (in place names), W. _cymmer_, Ir.
_combor_.

With regard to the extent of country over which Breton is spoken we
shall do well to note the seats of the old Breton bishoprics. These
were Quimper, St Pol de Leon, Treguier, St Brieuc, St Malo, Dol and
Vannes. Under Count Nominoe the Bretons succeeded in throwing off the
Frankish yoke (841-845) and founded an independent state. At this time
of greatest political expansion the language boundary was formed by a
line which started roughly a little to the west of Mont St Michel at
the mouth of the Couesnon, and stretched to the mouth of the Loire.
During the next three centuries, however, in consequence of political
events which cannot be enumerated here, we find French encroaching
rapidly on Breton, and the old dioceses of Dol, St Malo, St Brieuc,
and in part Vannes became Romance-speaking (cp. J. Loth, _Revue
celtique_, xxviii. 374-403). So that since the 13th and 14th centuries
the boundary between French and Breton begins in the north about
Plouha (west of St Brieuc Bay), and stretches to the mouth of the
Vilaine in the south. That is to say, the Breton speakers are confined
to the department of Finistere and the west of the departments
Cotes-du-Nord and Morbihan. Lower Brittany contains a population of
1,360,000, of whom roughly 1,250,000 speak Breton. The number of
monoglot Bretons is stated to have been 768,000 in 1878, 679,000 in
1885, and over 500,000 in 1898. There is an infinity of dialects and
subdialects in Brittany, but it is usual to divide them into four
groups. These are the dialects of