Armorican

Armorican is an adjective and noun related to Armorica, the ancient region along the Atlantic coast of Gaul that roughly corresponds to present-day Brittany in northwestern France. In classical sources, Armorica denotes this coastal area and its inhabitants, extending to nearby coastal zones.

Geographically, Armorica covered the northwestern Gaulish shoreline and its interior, a zone that over time came to be associated with the region of Brittany. The people living there were referred to by the term Armorici in ancient writings, and the area later became part of Roman Gaul. In the medieval period, Brittany emerged as a distinct political and cultural entity, preserving a Celtic heritage that remains central to the region’s identity.

In linguistics, Armorican has been used to describe the Gaulish language varieties spoken in Armorica during antiquity. With the influx of Brittonic-speaking settlers from Great Britain in the early medieval era, Brittany developed the Breton language, a living member of the Brittonic branch of the Celtic family. Breton arose in Brittany and is not a direct continuation of Gaulish, though it is part of the same broader Celtic heritage. In historical discussions, Armorican may be referenced as a historical linguistic label for the region’s earlier language varieties, even as modern scholarship distinguishes between Gaulish, Breton, and other Celtic languages.

Today, Armorican is primarily a historical and geographical term. It appears in historical geography, archaeology, and some linguistic literature describing the region’s Celtic inheritance. Breton remains the contemporary language most closely associated with Brittany, while Armorican as a language classification is largely of historical interest.