Léon Fleuriot was a
FrenchThe French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
academic specializing in
Celtic languagesThe Celtic languages are descended from Proto-Celtic, or "Common Celtic"; a branch of the greater Indo-European language family...
(Old
BretonBreton is a Celtic language spoken in Brittany , France. Breton is a Brythonic language, descended from the Celtic British language brought from Great Britain to Armorica by migrating Britons during the Early Middle Ages. Like the other Brythonic languages, Welsh and Cornish, it is classified as...
,
WelshWelsh is a member of the Brythonic branch of the Celtic languages spoken natively in Wales, by some along the Welsh border in England, and in Y Wladfa...
and
IrishIrish , also known as Irish Gaelic, is a Goidelic language of the Indo-European language family, originating in Ireland and historically spoken by the Irish people. Irish is now spoken as a first language by a minority of Irish people, as well as being a second language of a larger proportion of...
) and in history, particularly that of Gallo-Roman
BrittanyBrittany is a cultural and administrative region in the north-west of France. Previously a kingdom and then a duchy, Brittany was united to the Kingdom of France in 1532 as a province. Brittany has also been referred to as Less, Lesser or Little Britain...
and of the
Early Middle AgesThe Early Middle Ages was the period of European history lasting from the 5th century to approximately 1000. The Early Middle Ages followed the decline of the Western Roman Empire and preceded the High Middle Ages...
.
Born on 5 April 1923 in
MorlaixMorlaix is a commune in the Finistère department of Brittany in northwestern France. It is a sub-prefecture of the department.-Leisure and tourism:...
, Brittany, in a family originating in the region of
QuintinQuintin is a commune in the Côtes-d'Armor department of Brittany in northwestern France.-Population:Inhabitants of Quintin are called quintinais.-External links: *...
and having studied
BretonBreton is a Celtic language spoken in Brittany , France. Breton is a Brythonic language, descended from the Celtic British language brought from Great Britain to Armorica by migrating Britons during the Early Middle Ages. Like the other Brythonic languages, Welsh and Cornish, it is classified as...
in his youth, he passed his university history
agrégationIn France, the agrégation is a civil service competitive examination for some positions in the public education system. The laureates are known as agrégés...
in 1950. He taught at
lycées and
collèges in
ParisParis is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
and the surrounding suburbs, as well as at the
Prytanée National MilitaireThe Prytanée National Militaire, originally Collège Royal Henry-Le-Grand, is a French school managed by the military, offering regular secondary education as well as special preparatory school classes, equivalent in level to the first years of university, for students who wish to enter French...
in
La FlècheLa Flèche is a municipality located in the French department of Sarthe and the region of Pays de la Loire in the Loire Valley. This is the sub-prefecture of the South-Sarthe, the chief district and the chief city of a canton. This is the second most populous city of the department. The city is part...
. He entered the
Centre national de la recherche scientifiqueThe National Center of Scientific Research is the largest governmental research organization in France and the largest fundamental science agency in Europe....
in 1958 and earned his doctorate at the Sorbonne University 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 GlossA gloss is a brief notation of the meaning of a word or wording in a text. It may be in the language of the text, or in the reader's language if that is different....
es).
In 1966, Fleuriot was named chair of Celtic studies at the University of Rennes 2 – Upper Brittany in
RennesRennes is a city in the east of Brittany in northwestern France. Rennes is the capital of the region of Brittany, as well as the Ille-et-Vilaine department.-History:...
, and at the same time research director at the
École Pratique des Hautes ÉtudesThe École pratique des hautes études is a Grand Établissement in Paris, France. It is counted among France's most prestigious research and higher education institutions....
in Paris. He strongly contributed 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 arged that the legend of
King ArthurKing Arthur is a legendary British leader of the late 5th and early 6th centuries, who, according to Medieval histories and romances, led the defence of Britain against Saxon invaders in the early 6th century. The details of Arthur's story are mainly composed of folklore and literary invention, and...
arose from the life of Romano-British leader
Ambrosius AurelianusAmbrosius Aurelianus, ; 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-Saxons in the 5th century, according to Gildas...
, who was known in Gaul as
RiothamusRiothamus was a Romano-British military leader, who was active circa AD 470. He fought against the Goths in alliance with the declining Roman Empire. He is called "King of the Britons" by the 6th-Century historian Jordanes, but the extent of his realm is unclear...
. Fleuriot came into conflict with
François Falc'hunFrançois Falc'hun was a controversial 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 Rennes and Brest...
's claim that Breton was essentially native Gaulish, only influenced by the incoming British language. However, he accepted that Breton was influenced by surviving local forms of Celtic.
He died suddenly in
ParisParis is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
on 15 March 1987, leaving much of his 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. Toronto, Prepcorp Limited, 1985. Apparently a reissue of the work appearing in 1964.
- Les origines de la Bretagne, Librairie Payot, Paris, 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 (volume1), Paris, Geneva, 1993.