Arnold Von Harff
Arnold von Harff is a German traveller of the 15th century originating in Cologne, which went in several countries in order to briefly study of them manners and the languages. It collected and put in writing all this information. In addition to the Breton one, he studied other languages during his voyage (1496-1499): the Slovenien, Turkish, the biscayen (Basque), Hebrew, the " sarrazin" (Arabic), Turkish, Albanian, Hungarian, the Syrian, Ethiopic, Armenian.
He went in Brittany, in the town of Nantes, in 1499. It is one very interesting period, because in 1491, the king of France, Charles VIII had divorced the sister of Maximilien Austria, king de Germanie, future emperor of the Saint Worsens Romain Germanique, to marry been engaged of this emperor, Anne of Brittany. The diplomatic tensions were thus important and that explains can be in party why the knight Von Harff went in the duchy of Brittany, which was to be " with the mode" at that time.
In this town of Nantes, it raised a glossary of Breton language. This glossary is very interesting for several reasons:
-
On the one hand, one learns that Nantes was a French bilingual city Breton in 1499.
- On the other hand that the Breton one, in spite of a unified orthography, had already several dialects. This excludes the theories according to which the Breton one did not have orthography with the Moyen-âge, or even according to which the Breton language would have been divided into dialects after the reunification in 1532.
- It is also learned that in Nantes, the changes (change of the first consonant of a word following various factors) known in the other Breton dialects were used very little.
- One learns that differentiation from the indefinite article one (um in front of p, b) had not been done yet in one, ur, ul. It was to be the same about it for the definite article year, amndt
- Enfin, one realizes that this Breton collected in Nantes east very close to the Breton dialect of Guérande which was spoken in Batz until the beginning about the 20th century. See the Breton article Batz-on-Sea
Quotations (translation in French):
" It is a very pretty strong, reinforced small town walls and turns. In north, there is a strong castle and, towards the west, with very strong walls, ditches provided with ramparts, and there is a strengthened and decorated door, as I saw it. It is there that king Charles of France made countryside, that it forced it and bombarded during seven weeks; that it did not succeed well, but that it had it then by the trick and the war.
" Item: this town of Nantes (Rich) is between two running water. One of them is called the Loire (To bind). Where we arrived, it was divided in six arms and on each one there is a wood bridge. A stone bridge still passes to the dessu of a bad marsh of approximately three hundred and fifty steps length. They are thus seven bridges with six arms of river before one enters the town of Nantes and above each arm of river, there is a beautiful suburb. this other river is called Erdre (Ardon) and it runs in the plain which surrounds the city ".
" Item: with this large river called the Loire the country of Poitou finishes and starts this country of Brittany which we name Britania, a particular duchy which is now very French. "
" Item: inside this city, close to the castle, they built a pretty cathedral at Saint Pierre, one évêché. In this church much body of saints rests. The names were us unknown ".
" Item: here in Nantes one makes very good blades of knives ".
" Item: in this city and all Brittany the women commonly wear two long cornets surrounded by fabric on the head, one with the dessu of each ear in this manner ".(then there is an illustration)
Glossary Breton low-German
" Item, the Breton ones, or in Brittany, they have an own language of which I retained some words, as it is written Ci-dessous" :
Note: the Breton medieval one is noted in German low orthography.
Ci below of the current expressions:
Route from Nantes to Rennes
Item of Nantes with Héric, a village, troies miles.
Item of Héric with Nosay, a frankness, four miles.
Item of Nozay with Mouais, a village, three miles.
Item of Mouais with Bain (of Brittany) a large village, three miles.
Item of Bath with Poligné, a village, one mile.
Item of Poligné to Pont-Péan, a village, three mile.
Item from Pont-Pean to Rennes, two miles.
The town of Rennes
It is a very beautiful city located in Brittany, subjected to the crown of France. Through the city a small river named passes the Unpleasant one (Vilanga). Here, inside the city, there are a beautiful cathedral Saint Pierre, one évêché. Item, towards the east at the end of the city, close to the door, there is a beautiful convent of noble girls, name of Georges saint. In the sacristy one shows the bones of Georges Saint and much of other crowned objects. And this town of reindeers has many suburbs.
Route of Rennes towards Normandy
Item of Rennes with Saint-Gregoire, a village, one mile.
Item of Saint-Gregoire with Aubigné, a village, three miles.
Item of Aubigné with Bazouges, a village, three miles.
De Bazouges with Pontorson, three Miles.
We passed by a forest of a half-thousand length. It is a small town: a river the cross-piece, called Couesnon (Sqwanum). And here the duchy of Brittany finishes, named Britania. And further, it is the duchy of Normandy, subjected to the crown of France.
| Random links: | 1299 | Glucosa | Florence Pelly | Marie (film, 1985) | Dorothy Allison | Aerocomp Comp Air 7 | Justice_environnementale |