Bretons

The Bretons are a Celtic people native to Brittany in northwestern France, descended in part from Britons who migrated across the English Channel from Britain during the fifth and sixth centuries CE, fleeing Anglo-Saxon expansion, and in part from the earlier Gaulish population of the peninsula. Traditional Breton, a Brittonic Celtic language closely related to Welsh and Cornish, was once spoken across much of Brittany but has been in sharp decline for over a century under pressure from French, though it survives through Diwan immersion schools and a modern cultural revival movement. Breton identity remains expressed through distinctive music, notably the bagad pipe bands and fest-noz dance gatherings, both recognized by UNESCO as intangible cultural heritage, and through Brittany's historic status as an independent duchy before its union with the Kingdom of France in 1532.