Léon Fleuriot (5 April 1923 – 15 March 1987) was a French linguist and
Celtic scholar, specializing in
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 ...
and the history of Gallo-Roman and Early Medieval
Brittany
Brittany (; french: link=no, Bretagne ; br, Breizh, or ; Gallo language, Gallo: ''Bertaèyn'' ) is a peninsula, Historical region, historical country and cultural area in the west of modern France, covering the western part of what was known ...
.
Biography
Born in
Morlaix
Morlaix (; br, Montroulez) is a commune in the Finistère department of Brittany in northwestern France. It is a sub-prefecture of the department.
Leisure and tourism
The old quarter of the town has winding streets of cobbled stones and overhan ...
, Brittany, in a family originating in the region of
Quintin
Quintin (; br, Kintin) is a commune in the Cotes-d'Armor department (Brittany region) in the northwest of France from Saint-Brieuc, the department capital.
History
The area around Quintin has been occupied since the Neolithic. Early Quintin ...
and having studied
Breton
Breton most often refers to:
*anything associated with Brittany, and generally
** Breton people
** Breton language, a Southwestern Brittonic Celtic language of the Indo-European language family, spoken in Brittany
** Breton (horse), a breed
**Ga ...
in his youth, Fleuriot passed his university history ''
agrégation
In France, the ''agrégation'' () is a competitive examination for civil service in the French public education system. Candidates for the examination, or ''agrégatifs'', become ''agrégés'' once they are admitted to the position of ''professe ...
'' in 1950. He taught at ''
lycée
In France, secondary education is in two stages:
* ''Collèges'' () cater for the first four years of secondary education from the ages of 11 to 15.
* ''Lycées'' () provide a three-year course of further secondary education for children between ...
s'' and ''
collèges
In France, secondary education is in two stages:
* ''Collèges'' () cater for the first four years of secondary education from the ages of 11 to 15.
* ''Lycées'' () provide a three-year course of further secondary education for children between ...
'' in Paris and the surrounding suburbs, as well as at the
Prytanée National Militaire
The Prytanée national militaire is a French military school managed by the French military, offering regular secondary education as well as special preparatory classes, equivalent in level to the first years of university, for students who wish ...
in
La Flèche
La Flèche () is a town and commune in the French department of Sarthe, in the Pays de la Loire region in the Loire Valley. It is the sub-prefecture of the South-Sarthe, the chief district and the chief city of a canton, and the second most po ...
. He entered the
Centre national de la recherche scientifique
The French National Centre for Scientific Research (french: link=no, Centre national de la recherche scientifique, CNRS) is the French state research organisation and is the largest fundamental science
Basic research, also called pure research o ...
in 1958 and earned his doctorate at the
Sorbonne University
Sorbonne University (french: Sorbonne Université; la Sorbonne: 'the Sorbonne') is a public research university located in Paris, France. The institution's legacy reaches back to 1257 when Sorbonne College was established by Robert de Sorbon ...
in 1964, defending a thesis called ''Le vieux-breton, éléments d'une grammaire'' (''Old Breton, an Elementary Grammar''), along with a complementary thesis, ''Dictionnaire des gloses en vieux-breton'' (''Dictionary of Old Breton
Glosses'').
In 1966, Fleuriot was named chair of
Celtic studies
Celtic studies or Celtology is the academic discipline occupied with the study of any sort of cultural output relating to the Celtic-speaking peoples (i.e. speakers of Celtic languages). This ranges from linguistics, literature and art histor ...
at the
University of Rennes 2 – Upper Brittany
Rennes 2 University (UR2; french: Université Rennes 2) is a public university located in Upper Brittany, France. It is one of the four universities in the Academy of Rennes.The two others are: UBO (Brest), Western Brittany, and UBS in Lorient - ...
in
Rennes
Rennes (; br, Roazhon ; Gallo: ''Resnn''; ) is a city in the east of Brittany in northwestern France at the confluence of the Ille and the Vilaine. Rennes is the prefecture of the region of Brittany, as well as the Ille-et-Vilaine department ...
, and at the same time as research director at the
École Pratique des Hautes Études
École may refer to:
* an elementary school in the French educational stages normally followed by secondary education establishments (collège and lycée)
* École (river), a tributary of the Seine flowing in région Île-de-France
* École, Savoi ...
in Paris. He contributed greatly to the growth of Breton language teaching at the university level.
Fleuriot's book ''Les origines de la Bretagne'' defended a "two wave" model of British immigration into Brittany and argued that the legend of
King Arthur
King Arthur ( cy, Brenin Arthur, kw, Arthur Gernow, br, Roue Arzhur) is a legendary king of Britain, and a central figure in the medieval literary tradition known as the Matter of Britain.
In the earliest traditions, Arthur appears as a ...
arose from the life of Romano-British leader
Ambrosius Aurelianus
Ambrosius Aurelianus ( cy, Emrys Wledig; Anglicised as Ambrose Aurelian and called Aurelius Ambrosius in the ''Historia Regum Britanniae'' and elsewhere) was a war leader of the Romano-British who won an important battle against the Anglo-Sa ...
, who was known in Gaul as
Riothamus
Riothamus (also spelled Riutimus or Riotimus) was a Romano-British military leader, who was active circa AD 470. He fought against the Goths in alliance with the declining Western Roman Empire. He is called "King of the Britons" by the 6th-century ...
. Fleuriot came into conflict with
François Falc'hun
François Falc'hun (20 April 1901 – 13 January 1991) was a French linguist known for his theories about the origin of the Breton language. He was also an ordained Canon in the Catholic clergy.
Falc'hun was professor at the Universities of Renn ...
's claim that Breton was essentially native Gaulish, only influenced by the incoming British language. However, he accepted that Breton had been influenced by surviving local forms of Celtic.
[Glanville Price, ''The Celtic Connection'', Colin Smythe, 1994, p. 7]
Fleuriot died suddenly in Paris in 1987, aged 63, leaving much of his planned research unfinished.
Works
A bibliography has been established by
Gwennole ar Menn in ''Bretagne et pays celtiques, langues, histoire, civilisation'' (Skol, PUR, 1982), a collection of articles in honour of Léon Fleuriot.
* ''Le vieux breton: Éléments d'une grammaire''. Paris: Klincksieck, 1964.
* ''Dictionnaire des gloses en vieux breton''. Paris: Klincksieck, 1964.
** ''A Dictionary of Old Breton - Dictionnaire du vieux breton: Historical and Comparative, in two parts''. 2 vols. Toronto: Prepcorp, 1985. Part A reprints the '64 edn. while part B is a consensed, English-language version with some supplemental material.
*''Les origines de la Bretagne''. Paris: Payot, 1980.
*''Notes lexicographiques et philologiques'' (collection of articles published in the journal ''Études celtiques'', collected by Gwennole ar Menn), Skol, 1997.
* Articles in ''Annales de Bretagne, Bulletin de la Société archéologique du Finistère, Études celtiques, Hor Yezh.''
*''Récits et poèmes celtiques''. Paris: Stock, 1981.
*''L'histoire littéraire et culturelle de la Bretagne''. Vol. 1. Paris/Geneva, 1993.
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Fleuriot, Leon
1923 births
1987 deaths
People from Morlaix
Linguists from France
University of Paris alumni
École pratique des hautes études faculty
Rennes 2 University faculty
Breton historians
French male non-fiction writers
Breton-speaking people
20th-century French historians
20th-century linguists
20th-century French male writers