Jean François Marie Le Gonidec de Kerdaniel (Breton: Yann-Frañsez ar Gonideg) (4 September 1775 – 12 October 1838) was a Breton grammarian who codified the

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

. He played an important role in the history of his native language by initiating a reform of its

orthography An orthography is a set of convention (norm), conventions for writing a language, including norms of spelling, punctuation, Word#Word boundaries, word boundaries, capitalization, hyphenation, and Emphasis (typography), emphasis. Most national ...

, producing an orderly grammar and making the first Breton translation of the

New Testament The New Testament (NT) is the second division of the Christian biblical canon. It discusses the teachings and person of Jesus in Christianity, Jesus, as well as events relating to Christianity in the 1st century, first-century Christianit ...

. He is sometimes called "Reizher ar brezhoneg" (Restorer of the Breton language).

Life

Le Gonidec was born in Le Conquet to a family of the

petty nobility The minor or petty nobility is the lower nobility classes. Finland Petty nobility in Finland is dated at least back to the 13th century and was formed by nobles around their strategic interests. The idea was more capable peasants with leader role ...

. He studied in the college at Tréguier from 1787 to 1791. After the French Revolution he participated in the Royalist Catholic uprising known as the

Chouannerie The Chouannerie (; from the Chouan brothers, two of its leaders) was a House of Bourbon, royalist uprising or counter-revolutionary, counter-revolution in twelve of the western departments of France, ''départements'' of France, particularly in ...

. After 1804, he joined Napoleon's Naval administration (''Marine de guerre''), and was commissioned to administer the forests with a view to manage the production of wood for ship building. He lived in several towns:

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of France. With an estimated population of 2,048,472 residents in January 2025 in an area of more than , Paris is the List of ci ...

, Hambourg, Nancy and Moulins, settling in

Angoulême Angoulême (; Poitevin-Saintongeais: ''Engoulaeme''; ) is a small city in the southwestern French Departments of France, department of Charente, of which it is the Prefectures of France, prefecture. Located on a plateau overlooking a meander of ...

where he lived for many years. Louis-Marie Dujardin. ''La vie et les œuvres de Jean-François-Marie-Maurice-Agathe Le Gonidec, grammairien et lexicographe breton, 1775–1838''. Préf. P. Le Roux. Brest, Impr. Comm. & adm. 1949. He occupied his spare time reforming the orthography of Breton and the codification of its grammar. In 1807, he published a (Grammar of Breton Celtic) which sought to delineate the syntactical system of the language. It was the second notable work of its type after Father Julien Maunoir's 1657 grammar published by the . Le Gonidec wished to purify Breton, minimising French loan words used in vernacular speech and clarifying its relationship to its closest living relative Welsh. He became a member of the short-lived , founded in Paris in 1803, which was soon renamed the . In 1821, he published a . In 1833, he moved to Paris and joined the , founded by a fellow Breton. In 1837, he produced a . He died in the following year. The second edition of his was published shortly after his death. He was buried in Brittany, in the cemetery of Lochrist, near his birthplace of Le Conquet,

Finistère Finistère (, ; ) is a Departments of France, department of France in the extreme west of Brittany. Its prefecture is Quimper and its largest city is Brest, France, Brest. In 2019, it had a population of 915,090.British and Foreign Bible Society The British and Foreign Bible Society, often known in England and Wales as simply the Bible Society, is a non-denominational Christian Bible society with charity status whose purpose is to make the Bible available throughout the world. The ...

, who had been lobbied to support Le Gonidec by the champion of

Welsh language Welsh ( or ) is a Celtic languages, Celtic language of the Brittonic languages, Brittonic subgroup that is native to the Welsh people. Welsh is spoken natively in Wales by about 18% of the population, by some in England, and in (the Welsh c ...

publications, Thomas Price (known as "Carnhuanawc"). The resulting "Protestant" translation was placed on the Index of Banned Books by the Catholic Church.

Influence

The influence of Le Gonidec's work in Brittany was enormous, since his reforms allowed the creation of a "literary" Breton. They were adopted immediately by

Théodore Hersart de la Villemarqué Théodore is the French version of the masculine given name Theodore. Given name * Théodore Caruelle d'Aligny (1798–1871), French landscape painter and engraver * Théodore Anne (1892–1917), French playwright, librettist, and novelist * Théo ...

(1815–1895) and Auguste Brizeux (1803–1858), whose works, especially the former's

Barzaz Breiz ''Barzaz Breiz'' (in modern spelling ''Barzhaz Breizh'', meaning "Ballads of Brittany": ''barzh'' is the equivalent of "bard" and ''Breizh'' means "Brittany") is a collection of Breton popular songs collected by Théodore Hersart de la Villemar ...

, founded modern Breton literature. Several clerical scholars also followed his path.

Notes

*''interwiki'' Breton wp article "Bible" section "Bible in Breton": Ar Bibl e brezhoneg {{DEFAULTSORT:Le Gonidec, Jean-Francois People from Finistère Writers from Brittany Linguists from France French lexicographers Translators of the Bible into Breton 1775 births 1838 deaths