Faut-il être ancien pour être légitime ? Le conflit des rhétoriques de l’authenticité dans les préfaces de dictionnaires bretons

• Published in: La Bretagne Linguistique Vol. 21; pp. 239 - 267
• Main Author: Malo Morvan
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: French
• Published: Université de Bretagne Occidentale – UBO 01-05-2017
• Subjects: authenticity; Breton (language); dictionaries; paratext; polemics; sociolinguistics
• ISSN: 1270-2412; 2727-9383
• DOI: 10.4000/lbl.298

This article presents an analysis of how the values of ‘past’ and ‘present’ are mobilised in debates on the ‘proper’ Breton language that have appeared in the paratexts of Breton dictionaries. It begins by taking a critical step back from these debates in order to analyse their presuppositions. The conflicting positions that emerge are then explained by sociohistorical elements, leading to an opposition between a ‘continuist’ discourse and a ‘radically reformist’ discourse. Finally, the article discusses the persuasive techniques used by each of these discourses to propose a meliorative conception of ‘past’ and ‘present’ values for the language practices that they defend and to negatively convert these same values in their antagonists.