Breton Mutations - Orthography of Mutations

Orthography of Mutations

In Old and Middle Breton, it was extremely rare to write the consonant mutations. Around the 17th century, the Jesuits started to learn Breton and introduced the writing of mutations.

Sometimes, the mutated letter is written before the radical letter in the style of the Gaelic languages, to make recognition easier. This is largely confined to proper nouns (e.g. Itron vMaria "the virgin Maria" is pronounced /ˈitˌrõn ˈvarˌja/.

Some processes which are properly part of external sandhi have become crystalised in the written language, whilst others havent.