igh, 1870); W.
Spurrell, _Welsh-English and English-Welsh Dictionary_ (Carmarthen^6,
1904); a smaller one by W. Richards in 2 vols. (Wrexham, n.d.), and
many others. A dictionary on a large scale was planned by D. Silvan
Evans and subsidized by the government. Only A-Dd has, however,
appeared (Carmarthen, 1893-1906), cp. J. Loth in _Archiv. f. celt.
Lex._ vol. i. for additions and corrections. A survey of Welsh
periodical literature is contained in T.M. Jones's _Llenyddiaeth fy
Ngwlad_ (Treffynnon, 1893). For Welsh folklore see J. Rhys, _Celtic
Folklore, Welsh and Manx_ (Oxford, 1901). H.H. Vaughan, _Welsh
Proverbs_ (London, 1889), also _Rev. celt._ iii. 419 ff. See also G.
Dottin, _Revue de synthese historique_, vi. 317 ff.; H. Zimmer and
L.C. Stern in _Kultur der Gegenwart_, Teil 1, Abt. xi. 1.
(E. C. Q.)

(b) _Breton_.--Breton (_Brezonek_) is the name given to the language
spoken by those Britons who fled from the south-west of England to
Armorica (see BRITTANY) in the 5th and 6th centuries of our era to avoid
being harassed by the Saxons. The first migration probably took place
about 450. The Dumnonii and Cornovii founded small states in Brittany,
or Britannia Minor, as it was termed, and were followed in the second
half of the 6th and into the 7th century by a long stream of refugees
(cf. J. Loth, _L'Emigration bretonne_, Paris, 1883; A. de la Borderie,
_Histoire de la Bretagne^2_, vol. i., 1905).

In the earliest stages it is difficult to distinguish Breton from
Welsh. The history of the language may be divided into Old Breton from
the 7th to the 11th centuries, Middle Breton from the 11th to the 17th
centuries, and Modern Breton. In Old Breton the only material we
possess consists of glosses and names occurring in lives of saints,
Frankish authors, and charters. However, we find a few characteristics
which serve to show that the old glosses are really Breton and not
Welsh. Thus, an original a never becomes a diphthong (au, aw) in Old
Breton, but remains o. In Bret, gn becomes gr. Further, in O.W.
pretonic u is weakened to an indeterminate sound written i and later
y, a phenomenon which does not occur in Breton, e.g. Lat. _culcita_
appears in O.W. as _cilcet_, but in O. Br. as _colcet_. A marked
characteristic of Breton is the confusion of i and e, e.g. Ir. _lis_,
"court," W. _llys_, Br. _les_. In Old Breton as in Old Welsh neither
the initial nor the