Louis Maigret (grammarian)
Louis Meigret (* 1500 in Lyon, † after 1558 ) was a French grammarian and translator endeavors during the Renaissance and in the course of the standardization of the French language to reform the orthography.
- 4.1 Primary Sources
- 4.2 Secondary Literature
Biography
About the life of Louis Meigret little is known. Unlike contemporaries such as Pelletier, Robert Estienne, Henri Estienne, or Fauchet, which were known in addition to the linguistic research by other activities ( Pelletier was a poet and mathematician, Robert Estienne printer, Henri Estienne philologist of the Greek language and Fouchet was a historian ), can Add to Meigret no more than a relatively unlit existence as a grammarian, and translator. Not only his person is largely unknown, but his work, as they have been written in a notation which was never accepted by the public.
Because of the description of his life is confined mainly to the phenomena of his works.
Louis Meigret was born in 1500 in Lyon. He came from a wealthy family and had four brothers whose activities questioned the existence of Louis early in the shadows: Lambert ( * 1475 ) was valet and advisor to the king, Jean ( * 1478 ) made a career as one of the most famous lawyers of his time, Aimé (* 1480 ) was a doctor of theology and Laurent (* 1485 ) is also valet of the king.
Since starting his career in 1531 Meigret worked as a grammarian and translator and tried to reform the orthography of the French language. However, lose track of him in 1532: they accused Louis to have acted contrary to religious traditions together with his brother Laurent. Whether this allegation was unsubstantiated or not remains unclear. It is certain that Laurent was banished from the kingdom for five years, after two years in prison and went into exile in Geneva, never to return to France. To his brother Louis was silent now. Whether he also went into exile or remained in his homeland, is unknown. Only with the publication of his works from 1540 occurs Meigret reappear.
His next work can be summed up in three stages: the proposal of a reformed system of orthography ( Traité touchant le commun usage, published in 1545 ), the practice of this system with the first work written in reformed orthography (Translation of Lucian's Le Menteur, published 1548) and the publication of his grammar ( Trętté de la grammęre françoęze in 1550 ), also completely reformed in orthography. His writing sparked massive debates and it was followed by a series of polemical writings. After his grammar Meigret written in the field of linguistics only works to defend its Orthography.
The appearance of the Histoire work of Polybius in 1558, which includes a foreword by Louis Meigret is his last sign of life.
The language of his profession -
Work as a translator
1531 translated Meigret the books 7 and 8 of the Historia Naturalis of Pliny Secundus, Gaius, however, which initially remained unpublished because the orthography in which they were written, was far from the traditional. The printer called them unreadable and therefore also for sale. It was not until 1543 his translation was printed. It contained an important preface, concerning the orthography.
Between 1540 and 1558 he published translations of eleven authors, including four Greek ( Aristotle, Isocrates, Lucian of Samosata and Polybius ), five Latin ( Gaius Plinius Secundus, Columella, Cicero, Sallust and Porcius Latro ), an Italian ( Roberto Valturio ) and a German (Albrecht Dürer).
As a translator remained Meigret success is not lacking: most of his works experienced one or more editions.
He mainly worked on Latin texts. For the translation of Dürer him a Latin version and De re militarized of Valturio served was written in Latin. Likewise, he initially made the translations of Greek texts. However, during his career, he learned the Greek language, and used no later than the translation of Lucian, in 1548 the Greek text to the template.
The content of his translations included a wide range of topics, which included the areas of literature, history, philosophy, theology, geography, zoology and anthropology.
Meigrets notions of orthography
Initial situation
In the 16th century, the Renaissance, the result is a colorful picture of the vocabulary of literary language: to use words from other languages , older languages , neologisms, words of different social layers and words of different regions. In addition, there are two dialects ( Langues d'oc and Langues d' oïl ), whose opposition is at that time very much greater than in today's French.
Particularly important regional and individual variations, especially the vowels are concerning: it develop nasal vowels, tone and length of vowels, different gradations of e and the various diphthongs are reduced. In addition, a diacritical system with accents, apostrophes, the cedilla and diaeresis occurs. This development raises discussions about the spelling on: say amonester or admonester, sutil or subtle, calonnier or calomnier, etc.
There is also a growing divergence between spoken and written French. The situation of the imbalance and the juxtaposition of two different language systems lead to fixation and standardization of the orthography.
Positions
The goal of normalization was to raise lexical enrichment and codifying the French to the level of Latin. There were two major directions: Tory, Estienne and Ronsard supported the fixation of the language based on ancient models, that is, more Latin versions were the priority.
Completely opposite opinion was Meigret: one of the few who were aware deducted from the Latin model, his interest for a radical reform of the orthography.
Meigrets Graphie
In vain he strove to unify the orthography based on the pronunciation. Meigret was willing to sacrifice the already achieved graphic identity of the word stems. In the preface to his Trętté 1550, he writes:
"(...) Each m'efforçe de deçharjer notr ' ecritture de' Lettres superflúes, ę la rendre l' lizable suiuant uzaje de la prolaçíon (depending m'efforce de notre décharger écriture et la rendre des lettres superflues lisable suivant l' usage de la Prolation ). "
"(...) I strive to relieve our notation of superfluous letters and make them more readable, adapted for the use. "
This statement not only reveals his point of view but is also exemplary for its orthography:
- Omitting numerous letters is not spoken by the complete absence ( ę = et ) or an apostrophe in ( notr '= notre )
- [s ] is written as / ç / and / s / ( efforçe = efforce )
- [ Ʒ ] is written as / j / ( deçharjer = décharger )
- [ ɛ ] is written as / ę / and is an open e is ( de ' = of ), the distinction between open and closed e done by accents
- [y ] is written as / ú / ( superflúes = superflues )
- [ u] has the phonetic values [y ], [ ɥ ], [ v] ( suiuant = suivant )
Etc.
Reasons for the failure
Meigrets conception could never prevail. For this purpose, several reasons can be highlighted: on the one hit each reformer its own system before, in which the opponents could point to contradictions. Furthermore Meigrets Graphievorschläge were inconsistent and contradictory in what the example of the above / u / with three different volume levels is especially evident. The most important reason however is a before normalization of the French still lack consistent and universally binding standard pronunciation, which is an essential prerequisite for the reform of orthography on the basis of the debate. Ultimately, the attempt of codification in the 16th century failed completely and it still existed no uniform pronunciation.
Current Actuality
Regarding the spelling of today's French language, it is clear that the traditional spelling has largely prevailed and has been preserved. The difference between spoken and written French is still present. Since Louis Meigrets attempt at spelling reform were repeatedly brought similar proposals to adapt the spelling of the pronunciation. And even today there are projects and movements that advocate a phonological spelling.
As an example of this can be named Ortograf.net. The Internet portal of the organization presents a close pronunciation spelling of the French, which undoubtedly represents a break with tradition. In contrast to Graphie Meigrets but it does not use any new alphabet, but only uses existing letters. Parallels can be found, for example, but that is not spoken letters are omitted, or is sound [ ʒ ] written as / j /.
With only six standard rules Ortograf.net promises a fast learning within 15 minutes. The distribution shall be held by mere practice this notation, so by the speaker himself.
Whether one uses this reformed spelling, each speaker himself is left.
The grammar of Meigret
Efforts to standardize the language in the 16th and 17th century led to the rise of French grammar and lexicography.
The grammar with the title Le trętté de la grammęre françoęze of Louis Meigret was the first grammar in French. In eleven books and almost 300 pages devoted to Meigret including the word classes, their number and disposition he took over after the Latin model ( noun, verb, participle, pronoun, preposition, adverb, interjection, and conjunction). The non-existent in Latin article whose assignment most grammarians of his time caused problems, he added, but did not count it as a separate word class. In many ways Meigret opened his own point of view (such as transitivity ) Regulations and triggered from the Latin model.
But the name Louis Meigret always remained connected to the attempt of a phonological notation, so that the grammar of his following works by Robert Estienne and Pierre de la Ramee rather alleged.
Le trętté de la grammęre françoęze formed as the third stage the rear of his linguistic creativity and Meigret turned back to the translation.
Works
- Traité touchant le commun de l' usage escriture francoise ( 1552, 2nd edition 1554 ) ( available at Gallica )
- Le trętté de la grammęre françoęze (1550 ) ( available at Gallica )
- Defenses de Louis Meigręt touchant son orthography françoęze contre les çęnsures ę calomnies de Glaumalis you Vezelet ę de ses adherans (1550 ) ( available at Gallica )
- La reponse de Louis Meigręt a l' Apolijíe de Jáqes Pelletier ( 1550)
- Reponse de Louis Meigręt a la dezesperée repliqe de Glaomalis de Vezelęt, transformé én Guillaome of the Aotels ( 1551 ) ( available at Gallica )