The original message (and the duplicate) are an interesting cross-connection between mine and Heidi's. Two lines of mine are there. At least (after many attempts to start a thread) at least I can "reply" to my own thread and post the full message now - eh voila!

Arising from our annual inter-Celtic festival, Breton dances and music have become quite popular in Mann. Our ceilidh band plays various pieces of music for Breton dances, but we also sing a song that accompanies one of them. The version we sing is in French (it's from the Morbihan area, so it may be towards the boundary of Lower and Upper Brittany).

The words as we've picked them up in French are from the singing of Sonerien Sant Yann on a recording, and from Ranned Noz, a group of singers from Morbihan. Ranned Noz also sing a version in Breton - if anyone has that set of words, I'd be very pleased to hear from them.

The verse is a simple formula, running down from 10 sheep to none using this pattern -

J'ai dix ou neuf moutons dans mon village en haut
J'ai dix ou neuf moutons dans mon village en bas
Dans mon village en haut, dans mon village en bas.

Another version has "'Y a dix ou neuf moutons dans mon menage en haut", etc, whilst Yann Guegan on soc.culture.breton said he's always sung, "'Y a dix ou neuf bistrots dans mon village d'en haut", etc. However, the verse is not the problem.

Yann suggested for the chorus:

Eh change-tu, eh Marie Madelaine
Eh change-tu, eh Marie Madlon.

Unfortunately, this seems different from other versions I've heard, so my guess on the chorus has been vocables along these lines, which do appear to convey some sort of sense:

Eh charge-en-tu, Madeline, Madelaine, Charge-en-tu, Madelaine, dors-tu?

If any Mudcatters know the song, either in French or Breton, I'd be delighted to hear from them.

Trugarez,

Bobby Bob, Enez Manaw