One language relay race ends and another begins: Ar Redadeg takes over in Brittany

The Correllengua Agermanat came to an end this week in Alghero after covering 1,500 kilometres over 17 days and passing through more than 500 towns and villages across all Catalan-speaking territories. Just three days later, on 8 May, a new edition of Ar Redadeg got under way in Brittany, with the major grassroots mobilisation for the Breton language effectively taking up the baton from the Correllengua in the Catalan Countries.

The relay race will cross Brittany’s five departments between Lannion and Nantes until 16 May. Over eight days, thousands of participants will carry a flame and a secret message inside a baton, to be revealed only at the finish line. Inspired by the Basque Korrika and the Catalan Correllengua, Ar Redadeg – literally “the race” – has established itself since 2008 as one of Brittany’s leading language revitalisation initiatives.

Covering 2,226 kilometres, Ar Redadeg combines political advocacy, culture and popular celebration to raise the profile of the Breton language (brezhoneg) and fund educational, social and cultural projects linked to its promotion. As with other language relay movements across Europe, runners symbolically buy the kilometres they complete in order to finance language initiatives.

From Alghero to Brittany

The start of Ar Redadeg comes immediately after the conclusion of the Correllengua Agermanat, which this year mobilised around 180,000 people and 30,000 torchbearers in one of the largest language mobilisation campaigns seen in the Catalan Countries in recent years. The initiative travelled across all Catalan-speaking territories, from Prada to Alghero, with the aim of drawing attention to the linguistic emergency facing Catalan and calling for a shared future for the language.

According to Josep Buades, spokesperson for Joves de Mallorca per la Llengua, the Correllengua Agermanat represents “the people’s determination to emerge from the linguistic emergency and begin moving towards the full normalisation of the Catalan language”. Organisers also stressed that the mobilisation “was not simply a relay race, but a collective cry” in defence of the language, demonstrating that “the language is alive because there is a people willing to defend it”.

One of the most significant moments of the route was the international stage organised by CIEMEN in Barcelona on 21 April, bringing together representatives of several stateless nations in an act of linguistic and cultural solidarity. The initiative strengthened ties between European movements facing similar challenges in defending minoritised languages.

The next stop for the Correllengua Agermanat flame will be Brussels, where campaigners will call for Catalan to become an official language of the European Union institutions.

A European network of linguistic resistance

The handover between the Correllengua and Ar Redadeg symbolises the vitality of a wider European movement in defence of linguistic diversity. From the Catalan Countries to Brittany, via The Basque Country and Galicia, these popular relay races have become tools of social mobilisation and national affirmation for stateless linguistic communities.

In Brittany, Breton still lacks co-official status and its institutional and educational use remains limited. Even so, initiatives such as Ar Redadeg highlight the ability of Breton civil society to keep the language alive and pass it on to new generations.

As the flame of the Correllengua Agermanat is extinguished in Alghero, another is lit in Brittany. A symbolic relay crossing borders and connecting European peoples in defence of their languages and collective rights.

https://www.nationalia.info/new/11760/one-language-relay-race-ends-and-another-begins-ar-redadeg-takes-over-in-brittany