Gwened, Bro-Gwened (Standard br, Bro-Wened) or Vannetais (french: Pays Vannetais) is a historic realm and county of

Brittany Brittany (; french: link=no, Bretagne ; br, Breizh, or ; Gallo: ''Bertaèyn'' ) is a peninsula, historical country and cultural area in the west of modern France, covering the western part of what was known as Armorica during the period ...

France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian Oceans. Its metropolitan area ...

. 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 (; br, Gwened) is a commune in the Morbihan department in Brittany in north-western France. It was founded over 2,000 years ago. History Celtic Era The name ''Vannes'' comes from the Veneti, a seafaring Celtic people who live ...

Armorica Armorica or Aremorica (Gaulish: ; br, Arvorig, ) is the name given in ancient times to the part of Gaul between the Seine and the Loire that includes the Brittany Peninsula, extending inland to an indeterminate point and down the Atlantic Coast ...

(

), lasting from around AD 490 to around 635. It was peopled by

Christianized Christianization ( or Christianisation) is to make Christian; to imbue with Christian principles; to become Christian. It can apply to the conversion of an individual, a practice, a place or a whole society. It began in the Roman Empire, conti ...

Britons British people or Britons, also known colloquially as Brits, are the citizens of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, the British Overseas Territories, and the Crown dependencies.: British nationality law governs mod ...

fleeing the

Saxon invasions of Britain The Anglo-Saxon settlement of Britain is the process which changed the language and culture of most of what became England from Romano-British to Germanic. The Germanic-speakers in Britain, themselves of diverse origins, eventually develope ...

, who displaced or assimilated the remaining pagan Veneti

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

. Its

bishop A bishop is an ordained clergy member who is entrusted with a position of authority and oversight in a religious institution. In Christianity, bishops are normally responsible for the governance of dioceses. The role or office of bishop is c ...

and (usually) court was at Gwened, the site of the former

Roman Roman or Romans most often refers to: *Rome, the capital city of Italy *Ancient Rome, Roman civilization from 8th century BC to 5th century AD *Roman people, the people of ancient Rome *'' Epistle to the Romans'', shortened to ''Romans'', a lette ...

settlement of Darioritum and the present French city of

. Today its territories are included within the modern French department of

Morbihan Morbihan ( , ; br, Mor-Bihan ) is a department in the administrative region of Brittany, situated in the northwest of France. It is named after the Morbihan (''small sea'' in Breton), the enclosed sea that is the principal feature of the coastl ...

Name

The Breton placename-element ' ( la, plebs) 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 usage of the term in English is in the discipline of anthropology. This definition is contested, in part due to confli ...

, 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 French ( or ) is a Romance language of the Indo-European family. It descended from the Vulgar Latin of the Roman Empire, as did all Romance languages. French evolved from Gallo-Romance, the Latin spoken in Gaul, and more specifically in No ...

name derives from

adjectival form In linguistics, an adjective (abbreviated ) is a word that generally modifies a noun or noun phrase or describes its referent. Its semantic role is to change information given by the noun. Traditionally, adjectives were considered one of the mai ...

. Both ' and ' reflect separate developments of the

Latin Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through the power of the ...

', the

Romans Roman or Romans most often refers to: *Rome, the capital city of Italy * Ancient Rome, Roman civilization from 8th century BC to 5th century AD *Roman people, the people of ancient Rome *''Epistle to the Romans'', shortened to ''Romans'', a lette ...

' name for the

Gaulish Gaulish was an ancient 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, most of Switze ...

in the area. (It is unrelated to the Welsh realm and county of Gwynedd, which developed from

'.) The historic realm was also known as Bro Erec ( br, Bro-Ereg, "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 Cornouaille (; br, Kernev, Kerne) is a historical region on the west coast of Brittany in West France. The name is cognate with Cornwall in neighbouring Great Britain. This can be explained by the settlement of Cornouaille by migrant princ ...

. He may have also been king of Broerec or simply the refugee guest of

Conmor Conomor ( ), also known as Conomerus or Conomor the Cursed, was an early medieval ruler of Brittany. His name, which has the Welsh (language), Welsh cognate Cynfawr, means "Great Dog", but could also indicate "Sea Dog" in early Brythonic languages, ...

.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 Locmaria (; br, Lokmaria-ar-Gerveur) is a commune in the Morbihan department in Brittany in north-western France. Locmaria is one of the four communes of Belle Île. Toponymy From the Breton ''loc'' which means hermitage (cf.: Locminé) and ...

). In the mid-7th century, Bro Gwened was united with Domnonia under its king

Saint Judicaël Saint Judicael or Judicaël ( – 16 December 647 or 652) ( Welsh:Ithel), also spelled Judhael (with many other variants), was the King of Domnonée, part of Brittany, in the mid-7th century and later revered as a Roman Catholic saint. Ba ...

, who was descended from a daughter of Waroch. Domnonia's rulers thenceforth reigned as the high kings of

, with Bro Gwened forming part of their lands.

Dialect

The

dialect The term dialect (from Latin , , from the Ancient Greek word , 'discourse', from , 'through' and , 'I speak') can refer to either of two distinctly different types of linguistic phenomena: One usage refers to a variety of a language that is a ...

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 Leon, Léon (French) or León (Spanish) may refer to: Places Europe * León, Spain, capital city of the Province of León * Province of León, Spain * Kingdom of León, an independent state in the Iberian Peninsula from 910 to 1230 and again f ...

although there are certain parts of Gwened (e.g. the city Baud) 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 vowels, places

stress Stress may refer to: Science and medicine * Stress (biology), an organism's response to a stressor such as an environmental condition * Stress (linguistics), relative emphasis or prominence given to a syllable in a word, or to a word in a phrase ...

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 ( gd, breacan ) is a patterned cloth consisting of criss-crossed, horizontal and vertical bands in multiple colours. Tartans originated in woven wool, but now they are made in other materials. Tartan is particularly associated with Sc ...

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