Dom Louis Le Pelletier (1663,
Le Mans
Le Mans (, ) is a city in northwestern France on the Sarthe River where it meets the Huisne. Traditionally the capital of the province of Maine, it is now the capital of the Sarthe department and the seat of the Roman Catholic diocese of Le Man ...
– 1733,
Landévennec
Landévennec (; ) is a commune in the Finistère department of Brittany in north-western France. Population
Geography
Landévennec is located on the Crozon peninsula, southeast of Brest.The river Aulne forms a natural boundary to the east. ...
) was a Franco-Breton
linguist
Linguistics is the scientific study of human language. It is called a scientific study because it entails a comprehensive, systematic, objective, and precise analysis of all aspects of language, particularly its nature and structure. Linguis ...
.
He became a religious in
Saumur
Saumur () is a commune in the Maine-et-Loire department in western France.
The town is located between the Loire and Thouet rivers, and is surrounded by the vineyards of Saumur itself, Chinon, Bourgueil, Coteaux du Layon, etc.. Saumur statio ...
and followed the rule of
Benedict of Nursia
Benedict of Nursia ( la, Benedictus Nursiae; it, Benedetto da Norcia; 2 March AD 480 – 21 March AD 548) was an Italian Christian monk, writer, and theologian who is venerated in the Catholic Church, the Eastern Orthodox Church, the Orient ...
. Noted for his ability to study languages, he took advantage of his stay in the
Abbaye Saint-Mathieu de Fine-Terre
The Abbey of Saint-Mathieu de Fine-Terre (french: Abbaye Saint-Mathieu de Fine-Terre; br, Abati Lokmazhe Penn-ar-Bed) is a former Breton monastery, whose ruins are found in the territory of what is now the commune of Plougonvelin on Pointe Sain ...
to familiarize himself with 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 ...
.
Publications
''Dictionnaire de la Langue Bretonne, où l’on voit son Antiquité, son Affinité avec les anciennes langues, l’Explication de plusieurs passages de l’Ecriture Sainte, et des Auteurs profanes, avec l’Etymologie de plusieurs mots des autres langues'' François Delaguette editor, Paris, written in 1716, published in 1752. This dictionary was published under the auspices and at the cost of the
Estates of Brittany
The Estates of Brittany was the States Provincial for the province of Brittany. It gathered members of the high clergy, a large number of nobles and delegates from the 42 towns and cities of Brittany. In 1788 it included nearly 1,000 nobles as opp ...
. He devoted 25 years to the composition of his dictionary, the result of an immense research to which Leon Roussel, whom he called his ''oracle'', collaborated. He compares armoricains words to those in Wales using the Davies dictionary. For the etymology, he cites
Hebrew
Hebrew (; ; ) is a Northwest Semitic language of the Afroasiatic language family. Historically, it is one of the spoken languages of the Israelites and their longest-surviving descendants, the Jews and Samaritans. It was largely preserved ...
and
Ancient Greek
Ancient Greek includes the forms of the Greek language used in ancient Greece and the ancient world from around 1500 BC to 300 BC. It is often roughly divided into the following periods: Mycenaean Greek (), Dark Ages (), the Archaic peri ...
words.
{{DEFAULTSORT:Le Pelletier, Louis
Linguists from France
French lexicographers
18th-century French writers
18th-century French male writers
1663 births
1733 deaths
People from Le Mans
Congregation of Saint-Maur