Am 12. Dezember 2023 organisierte die Abteilung für Keltologie (IAAK) den Vortrag in memoriam Rudolf Thurneysen. In diesem Jahr durften wir Dr. Tanguy Solliec (Lacito/CNRS, CRBC/UBO) mit dem Beitrag "Breton language history: filling the gaps. Some new prospects based on quantitative analysis of modern dialectal data" begrüßen. Basierend auf seiner Doktorarbeit stellte er innovative Herangehensweisen an die Untersuchung der Dialektdaten vor, durch die neue Erkenntnisse zur Geschichte der Bretagne und ihrer Sprache gewonnen werden. Die Doktorarbeit wurde 2022 mit dem Johann-Kaspar-Zeuß-Preis der Societas Celtologica Europaea ausgezeichnet. In der langen Geschichte der Thurneysen-Vorträge war es der erste Beitrag zum Bretonischen.

Breton language history: filling the gaps.
Some new prospects based on quantitative analysis of modern dialectal data

The first records written in Old Breton appear in the form of glosses and date back to the early Middle Ages. However, during the Middle Breton period, documentation remains scarce until the 15th century. A commonly expressed view proposes that Breton evolved continuously from a relatively uniform language into a multitude of local dialects from the 16th–17th centuries onwards.

This variation was documented in the 20th century in the form of two different linguistic atlases. The first was the Atlas Linguistique de la Basse Bretagne (Le Roux 1924–1963). A dialectometric or quantitative analysis of material based on the most recent of these, the Nouvel Atlas Linguistique de la Basse-Bretagne (Le Dû 2001) was undertaken as part of a PhD thesis (Solliec 2021). This work has yielded results that offer new perspectives for reassessing the emergence of the Breton dialects as well as a number of later historical developments.

Le Dû, Jean. 2001. Nouvel Atlas Linguistique de la Basse-Bretagne. Brest: CRBC.

Le Roux, Pierre. 1924–1963. Atlas Linguistique de la Basse-Bretagne. Rennes: Plihon et Hommay.

Solliec, Tanguy. 2021. Distance linguistique et dialectométrie, une application à la langue bretonne. Enjeux, méthodologie et interprétations. Brest: Université de Bretagne Occidentale. PhD dissertation.

Prof. Dr. Elena Parina