Jean Le Dû (28 March 1938 – 6 May 2020) was a French linguist of the

Breton language Breton (, ; or in Morbihan) is a Southwestern Brittonic language of the Celtic language family spoken in Brittany, part of modern-day France. It is the only Celtic language still widely in use on the European mainland, albeit as a member of t ...

Biography

For fifty years, Le Dû collected documents on the Breton language in

Plougrescant Plougrescant (; br, Plougouskant) is a commune in the Côtes-d'Armor department of Brittany in northwestern France. Population Inhabitants of Plougrescant are called ''plougrescantais'' in French. Sights * The Saint-Gonéry chapel and its ...

. In 2012, he published a dictionary for Breton and French translations, titled ''Le trégorrois à Plougrescant''. His discovery of the language came during his childhood in Dieppe. Le Dû held a doctoral degree in phonetic English. He worked at the

University of Rennes The University of Rennes is a public research university which will be officially reconstituted on 1 January 2023 and located in the city of Rennes, in Upper Brittany, France. The University of Rennes has been divided for almost 50 years, before ...

and taught courses in Breton, Irish, and other

Celtic languages The Celtic languages ( usually , but sometimes ) are a group of related languages descended from Proto-Celtic. They form a branch of the Indo-European language family. The term "Celtic" was first used to describe this language group by Edward ...

. He was a professor emeritus at the

University of Western Brittany The University of Western Brittany (french: Université de Bretagne-Occidentale; UBO) is a French university, located in Brest, in the Academy of Rennes. On a national scale, in terms of graduate employability, the university oscillates between 1 ...

. Le Dû was the Director of Research Group 9 of the French National Centre for Scientific Research from 1988 to 1996. Le Dû was a member of the

French Communist Party The French Communist Party (french: Parti communiste français, ''PCF'' ; ) is a political party in France which advocates the principles of communism. The PCF is a member of the Party of the European Left, and its MEPs sit in the European Unit ...

. He was married to a professor of physics and chemistry, and had two daughters named Mai and Donaig. 0He died on 6 May 2020 at the age of 82 in Saint-Quay-Portrieux.

Works

*''Dictionnaire pratique français-breton'' (1976) *''Ar brezoneg dre zelled, kleved, komz ha lenn'' (1993) *''Nouvel atlas linguistique de la Basse-Bretagne'' (2001) *''Proverbes et Dictions de Basse-Bretagne'' *''Anthologie des expressions de Basse-Bretagne'' (1999) *''Du café vous aurez?'' (2002) *''Une vie irlandaise du Connemara à Ráth Chairn, histoire de la vie de Micil Chonraí'' (2010) *''Le trégorrois à Plougrescant. Dictionnaire breton français'' (2012) *''Le trégorrois à Plougrescant. Dictionnaire français breton'' (2012)

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Le Dû, Jean Linguists from France Linguists of Breton 1938 births 2020 deaths People from Dieppe, Seine-Maritime French Communist Party members