Breton in Different Languages: 78 names for the Breton language
Breton is brezhoneg to its speakers, breton in French, Bretonisch in German, Llydaweg in Welsh and ブルトン語 (burutongo) in Japanese; the tables list its name in 78 languages and 15 writing systems.
Breton and the name it gives itself
Breton is a Celtic language of the Brittonic group, carried from Great Britain to Brittany by migrating Britons in the early Middle Ages; its closest relative is Cornish.1 Speakers call it brezhoneg, and the codes are br and bre.2
Most other languages name it after the French region instead, so the word that travels is breton, not brezhoneg. The Celtic neighbours go their own way: Welsh says Llydaweg, Irish Briotáinis and Scottish Gaelic Breatannais.
Breton in different languages written in the Latin alphabet
44 rows. Identical spellings are grouped; German keeps its long-s form Bretoniſch beside the modern one, and Azerbaijani, Bosnian, Turkmen and Uzbek reappear in Cyrillic below.
| Language · ISO 639 code | Name of Breton | Romanisation |
|---|---|---|
| English, Maltese, Tagalog · eng, mlt, tgl | Breton | |
| French, Hungarian, Interlingua · fra, hun, ina | breton | |
| Afrikaans, Dutch · afr, nld | Bretons | |
| Danish, Norwegian · dan, nor | bretonsk | |
| Galician, Spanish · glg, spa | bretón | |
| Icelandic, Swedish · isl, swe | bretonska | |
| Azerbaijani (Latin) · aze | bretonca | |
| Bosnian (Latin) · bos | bretonski | |
| Breton · bre | brezhoneg | |
| Catalan · cat | bretó | |
| Czech · ces | bretoňština | |
| Welsh · cym | Llydaweg | |
| German · deu | Bretonisch / Bretoniſch | |
| Esperanto · epo | bretona | |
| Estonian · est | bretooni | |
| Basque · eus | bretoiera | |
| Faroese · fao | bretonskt | |
| Finnish · fin | bretoni | |
| West Frisian · fry | Bretonsk | |
| Scottish Gaelic · gla | Breatannais | |
| Irish · gle | Briotáinis | |
| Guarani · grn | vyetañañe'ẽ | |
| Croatian · hrv | bretonski | |
| Indonesian · ind | bahasa Breton | |
| Italian · ita | bretone | |
| Latin · lat | britannice, aremorice | |
| Latvian · lav | bretoņu | |
| Lithuanian · lit | bretonų | |
| Malay · msa | bahasa Brittany | |
| Polish · pol | bretoński | |
| Portuguese · por | bretão | |
| Romanian · ron | bretonă | |
| Slovak · slk | bretónčina | |
| Slovene · slv | bretonščina | |
| Somali · som | bereton | |
| Albanian · sqi | bretonishte | |
| Swahili · swa | kibreton | |
| Turkmen (Latin) · tuk | bretonça | |
| Turkish · tur | Bretonca | |
| Uzbek (Latin) · uzb | bretoncha | |
| Vietnamese · vie | tiếng Breton | |
| Xhosa · xho | isi-Breton | |
| Sorani Kurdish (Latin) · ckb | brêtunî | |
| Uyghur (Latin) · uig | brétonche |
Breton in Cyrillic, Arabic, Hebrew, Ethiopic, Indic and East Asian scripts
31 rows. Sorani Kurdish and Uyghur carry no romanisation here; their Latin-alphabet spellings stand as rows of their own in the first table.
| Language · ISO 639 code | Name of Breton | Romanisation |
|---|---|---|
| Azerbaijani (Cyrillic) · aze | бретонҹа | |
| Bosnian (Cyrillic) · bos | бретонски | |
| Turkmen (Cyrillic) · tuk | бретонча | |
| Uzbek (Cyrillic) · uzb | бретонча | |
| Bulgarian, Macedonian, Serbian · bul, mkd, srp | бретонски | bretonski |
| Belarusian · bel | брэтонская | brėtonskaja |
| Kyrgyz · kir | бретончо | bretončo |
| Mongolian · mon | бретон | breton |
| Russian · rus | бретонский | bretonskij |
| Tajik (Cyrillic) · tgk | бретонӣ | bretonī |
| Tajik (Arabic script) · tgk | بریتانی | bretônī |
| Ukrainian · ukr | бретонська | bretons'ka |
| Arabic · ara | البريتونيّة | al-brītūnīyâ |
| Persian · fas | برتون | breton |
| Sorani Kurdish (Arabic script) · ckb | برێتونی | |
| Sindhi · snd | بريتون | breton |
| Uyghur (Arabic script) · uig | برېتونچه | |
| Urdu · urd | برِیٹن | breṫan |
| Amharic · amh | ብሬቶንኛ | bretonəña |
| Hebrew · heb | ברטונית | breṭōnīt |
| Yiddish · yid | ברעטאָניש | bretoniš |
| Greek · ell | βρετονικά | vretoniká |
| Armenian · hye | բրետոներեն | bretoneren |
| Georgian · kat | ბრეტონული | bretonuli |
| Hindi · hin | ब्रेटोन | breṭon |
| Tamil · tam | பிரேடொன் | pirēṭoṉ |
| Chinese · zho | 布列塔尼语 / 布列塔尼文 | bùliètǎníyù / bùliètǎníwén |
| Japanese · jpn | ブルトン語 | burutongo |
| Korean · kor | 브르통어 | beureutongeo |
| Thai · tha | ภาษาบรีตัน | pʰāsābrītân |
| Lao · lao | ພາສາບເຣີຕົງ | pʰāsāblœ̄tôṅ |
From breton to ブルトン語
The French word sits under almost every row. Spanish writes bretón, Portuguese bretão, Italian bretone; Russian бретонский (bretonskij) and Ukrainian бретонська (bretons'ka) add Slavic adjective endings, and Turkish and Uzbek attach -ca and -cha. Arabic البريتونيّة (al-brītūnīyâ) and Hebrew ברטונית (breṭōnīt) take the same stem.
A few languages start from the name of the country instead. Malay writes bahasa Brittany, Chinese 布列塔尼语 (bùliètǎníyù) is “Brittany language”, and Latin offers two forms, britannice and aremorice.
Questions about the name of Breton
What do Bretons call their language?
brezhoneg. The same ending -eg closes the Breton names of other languages on this site: arabeg, katalaneg, alamaneg, euskareg. Welsh uses it too, in Llydaweg.
Why do most languages say breton?
They took the name from French, the language of the state Brittany belongs to, and fitted it to their own endings: bretón, bretone, бретонский.
What are the ISO codes for Breton?
br in ISO 639-1 and bre in ISO 639-2 and ISO 639-3.
- 1Wikipedia, “Breton language” (native name brezhoneg; Southwestern Brittonic, Insular Celtic; brought from Great Britain to Brittany by migrating Britons; closest relative Cornish), checked 28 October 2026. ↑
- 2ISO 639-2 Registration Authority (Library of Congress), Codes for the Representation of Names of Languages, checked 28 October 2026. Breton: bre (ISO 639-2), br (ISO 639-1). ↑