Michel Jules Alfred Bréal (; 26 March 183225 November 1915), French

philologist Philology () is the study of language in oral and written historical sources; it is the intersection of textual criticism, literary criticism, history, and linguistics (with especially strong ties to etymology). Philology is also defined ...

, was born at

Landau Landau ( pfl, Landach), officially Landau in der Pfalz, is an autonomous (''kreisfrei'') town surrounded by the Südliche Weinstraße ("Southern Wine Route") district of southern Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. It is a university town (since 1990 ...

in Rhenish Palatinate. He is often identified as a founder of modern

semantics Semantics (from grc, σημαντικός ''sēmantikós'', "significant") is the study of reference, meaning, or truth. The term can be used to refer to subfields of several distinct disciplines, including philosophy, linguistics and comput ...

Life and career

Michel Bréal was born at

in Germany of French-Jewish parents.Michel Bréal (1832–1915), A forgotten precursor of enunciation and subjectivity Arnaud Fournet After studying at

Wissembourg Wissembourg (; South Franconian: ''Weisseburch'' ; German: ''Weißenburg'' ) is a commune in the Bas-Rhin department in Grand Est in northeastern France. It is situated on the little river Lauter close to the border between France and Germany a ...

Metz Metz ( , , lat, Divodurum Mediomatricorum, then ) is a city in northeast France located at the confluence of the Moselle and the Seille rivers. Metz is the prefecture of the Moselle department and the seat of the parliament of the Grand ...

and

Paris Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. Si ...

, he entered the

École Normale Supérieure 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, S ...

in 1852. In 1857 he went to Berlin, where he studied

Sanskrit Sanskrit (; attributively , ; nominally , , ) is a classical language belonging to the Indo-Aryan languages, Indo-Aryan branch of the Indo-European languages. It arose in South Asia after its predecessor languages had Trans-cultural diffusion ...

under

Franz Bopp Franz Bopp (; 14 September 1791 – 23 October 1867) was a German linguist known for extensive and pioneering comparative work on Indo-European languages. Early life Bopp was born in Mainz, but the political disarray in the Republic of Mai ...

and

Albrecht Weber Friedrich Albrecht Weber (; 17 February 1825 – 30 November 1901) was a Prussian - German Indologist and historian who studied the history of Jainism in India. Some older sources have the first and middle names interchanged. Weber was born in B ...

. On his return to France he obtained an appointment in the department of oriental manuscripts at the Bibliothèque Impériale. In 1864 he became professor of

comparative grammar Comparative linguistics, or comparative-historical linguistics (formerly comparative philology) is a branch of historical linguistics that is concerned with comparing languages to establish their historical relatedness. Genetic relatedness ...

at the

Collège de France The Collège de France (), formerly known as the ''Collège Royal'' or as the ''Collège impérial'' founded in 1530 by François I, is a higher education and research establishment ('' grand établissement'') in France. It is located in Paris n ...

, in 1875 member of the

Académie des Inscriptions et Belles-lettres The Académie des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres () is a French learned society devoted to history, founded in February 1663 as one of the five academies of the Institut de France. The academy's scope was the study of ancient inscriptions (epigr ...

, in 1879 ''inspecteur général'' for higher education until the abolition of the office in 1888. In 1890 he was made commander of the

Legion of Honour The National Order of the Legion of Honour (french: Ordre national de la Légion d'honneur), formerly the Royal Order of the Legion of Honour ('), is the highest French order of merit, both military and civil. Established in 1802 by Napoleo ...

. He resigned his chair in 1905, and died in Paris. In 1883, Bréal coined the term

in the article “Les lois intellectuelles du langage. Fragment de sémantique” published in the journal ''Annuaire de l'association des études grecques en France'' (page 133).Michel Bréal, “Les lois intellectuelles du langage. Fragment de sémantique”, ''Annuaire de l'association des études grecques en France'' 17 (1883) 132-142
Text on JSTOR
/ref>

Works

Among his works, which deal mainly with mythological and philological subjects, may be mentioned: *''L'Étude des origines de la religion zoroastrienne'' (1862), for which a prize was awarded him by the Académie des Inscriptions *''Hercule et Cacus'' (1863), in which he disputes the principles of the symbolic school in the interpretation of myths *''Le Mythe d'Œdipe'' (1864) *''Les Tables eugubines'' (1875) *''Mélanges de mythologie et de linguistique'' (2nd. ed., 1882) *''Leçons de mots'' (1882, 1886) *''Dictionnaire étymologique latin'' (1885) *''Grammaire latine'' (1890). *''Essai de sémantique'' (1897), on the signification of words, which was translated into English by Mrs Emmeline Cust with preface by J. P. Postgate. *a translation of Bopp's ''Comparative Grammar'' (1866–1874), with introductions, which is highly valued. He also wrote pamphlets on education in France, the teaching of ancient languages, and the reform of French orthography. In 1906 he published ''Pour mieux connaitre Homère''. Michel Bréal can also be credited with the invention of the

marathon The marathon is a long-distance foot race with a distance of , usually run as a road race, but the distance can be covered on trail routes. The marathon can be completed by running or with a run/walk strategy. There are also wheelchair div ...

race. He made the suggestion to put this event on the programme of the first modern Olympics in

Athens Athens ( ; el, Αθήνα, Athína ; grc, Ἀθῆναι, Athênai (pl.) ) is both the capital and largest city of Greece. With a population close to four million, it is also the seventh largest city in the European Union. Athens dominates a ...

in 1896 to his friend

Pierre de Coubertin Charles Pierre de Frédy, Baron de Coubertin (; born Pierre de Frédy; ...

. The event was to commemorate the Greek soldier

Pheidippides Pheidippides ( grc-gre, Φειδιππίδης, , ; "Son of Pheídippos") or Philippides (Φιλιππίδης) is the central figure in the story that inspired a modern sporting event, the marathon race. Pheidippides is said to have run from ...

who, according to several legends, ran from the

Battle of Marathon The Battle of Marathon took place in 490 BC during the first Persian invasion of Greece. It was fought between the citizens of Athens, aided by Plataea, and a Persian force commanded by Datis and Artaphernes. The battle was the culmination o ...

to either Athens or Sparta. * Hans W. Giessen, Heinz-Helmut Lüger, Günther Volz (Hrsg.): Michel Bréal – Grenzüberschreitende Signaturen. Verlag Empirische Pädagogik, Landau 2007 * Hans W. Giessen & Heinz-Helmut Lüger: Ein Grenzgänger der ersten Stunde. Michel Bréal: Vom Marathon zum Pynx in: Dokumente. Zs. für den deutsch-französischen Dialog. Gesellschaft für übernationale Zusammenarbeit, Bonn. Heft 4 / 2008, pp. 59 – 62 ISSN 0012-5172 * Hans W. Giessen: Mythos Marathon. Von Herodot über Bréal bis zur Gegenwart. (= Landauer Schriften zur Kommunikations- und Kulturwissenschaft. Band 17). Verlag Empirische Pädagogik, Landau 2010, . * Heinz-Helmut Lüger (dir.), Hans W. Giessen (dir.) et Bernard Weigel (dir.), Entre la France et l'Allemagne : Michel Bréal, intellectuel engagé, Limoges, Lambert-Lucas, 2012 () * Brigitte Nerlich: Michel Bréal: mettre l’homme dans la langue. In: Penser l’histoire des savoirs linguistiques. Hommage à Sylvain Auroux. Textes réunis par Sylvie Archaimbault Jean-Marie Fournier & Valérie Raby, 611-619. Lyon: ENS, 2013. (). * Jan Noordegraaf: Salient scholars. Michel Bréal and his Dutch connections. In: Penser l’histoire des savoirs linguistiques. Hommage à Sylvain Auroux. Textes réunis par Sylvie Archaimbault Jean-Marie Fournier & Valérie Raby, 621-632. Lyon: ENS, 2013. (). http://hdl.handle.net/1871/51333

References

External links

* Michel Bréal Society
Michel-Bréal-Gesellschaft
{{DEFAULTSORT:Breal, Michel People from Landau 1832 births 1915 deaths French philologists École Normale Supérieure alumni Marathon running Commandeurs of the Légion d'honneur Collège de France faculty Members of the Académie des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres École pratique des hautes études faculty