Roparz Hemon

Roparz Hemon , at the registry office Louis Paul Némo (another journalistic signature: Pendaran ) (November 18th 1900 Brest - June 29th 1978) was a linguist, Romancier, journalist and poet French of language Breton and of Irish citizenship on the end of its life .

Youth

It was born in Brest, second of the six children of a family of civils servant: his/her father is mechanical engineer of the National marine and his/her mother, Julie Foricher, were teacher.

It is in contact with the popular Breton language thanks to his maternal grandmother and with the employees of house.

After the baccalaureat, it leaves in scientific class to the Lycée Saint-Louis Paris, but ends up choosing the study of the English, while following the Celtic language classes (of Breton, primarily) of the Sorbonne. It leaves to the Université Leeds and obtains the English aggregation before being named teaching in Brest.

Breton-speaking combat

Incorporated English, it is devoted starting from 1923 and until its death to the defense of the Breton language and to the combat to give him a Littérature which it dreamed with equal of the other international literatures. Having an unquestionable culture, Roparz Hemon was interested very early in the problems of the national minorities in Europe and in the world, being subject to even the influence of Tagore and Gandhi as of the Twenties (see also Subhash Chandra Bose).

It does it at the same time as a linguist (it wrote many articles and of studies on the Breton one), and as a writer. At its beginnings it had a command of the Breton language very badly, unconsciously copying its expression on French or English, but it involved in its wake of true Breton-speaking writers who them knew the Breton language of birth, primarily Jakez Riou, Yves Drézen (Youenn Drezen) and Jakez Kerrien.

More grammairien that linguist, Hemon started to study the old language and historical grammar only after the Second world war, when it starts to work with his historical Dictionnaire and its historical Grammaire .

The Gwalarn review

It creates the review Gwalarn in 1925, in collaboration with Olivier Mordrel. It is initially only the literary supplement of Breiz Atao , newspaper which counts then less than 200 subscribers. Quickly, the review becomes independent.
In Gwalarn , Roparz Hemon refuses the influences of the popular Breton, wanting to create a new Breton language with new words for the modern concepts, and a grammar standardisée.
According to Ronan Calvez, as of this time, the writings of Roparz Hemon propagate a totalitarian, exciting ideology the purity of the race, the conscience to belong to an elite, and the will to create a new man. The review mother, Breiz Atao, profit during the Twenties and Thirties, of financing of the German secret services (initially, under the Weimar Republic, thanks to civils servant belonging to associations main road-Socialists, then by the Nazi Germany).

Among the givers of Gwalarn , one of most regular and more important is Leo Perutz, writer Jewish Austrian (then Israeli), interdict in Allemagne.

In its studies or reports of the languages of less diffusion or minorized, it gives like example to follow the combat carried out by the Czech Danish and to counter the germanisation of these countries.

The linguist

He noted that the Bretons passed to French for three reasons:

It was the only vector of social advancement (any other language that French being drawn aside by the centralizing system of the administration),
It was the means of communicating with the French,
French by consequence was imposed by the school, the military service, and the administration, where any use of the Breton language was banished.

Roparz Hemon was a man of the writing. Strict, it did not accept drift compared to the orthography instituted by “the Agreement of the Writers” of 1908 (and which was found in work of François Vallée), and it renacla to adopt the Orthographe unified of Breton the of 1941 (it is only after war that he was solved to adopt it). However, Gwalarn published books in C-W communication vannetaise, like Prinsezig in Deur with the use of the children, in 1928.

Its project is directed towards the elite of the population: Roparz Hemon studied only the written language. However, conscious of the weaknesses of this attitude, it compiled a collection of popular expressions (republished by Hor Yezh).

In addition, it composes of many works in " brezhoneg eeun" (Breton simplified, whose vocabulary is tiny room to words among most current) to facilitate the access to the written language.

All along its life, Roparz Hemon was a fervent supporter of the Esperanto, only means according to him of doing without the “imperial languages”; and the Esperanto, according to him, always having been fought by the totalitarian modes. As of 1928, it publishes a review in Esperanto, North-Okcidento, and carries out a small grammar of Esperanto in 1928, and a small Esperanto-Breton dictionary in 1930.

Hemon and Breton people

Roparz Hemon was not indifferent to people who spoke the Breton popular one, quite to the contrary. It is near the domestic employees of his/her parents that he learned the Breton one. Shortly after the creation of Gwalarn, it created Kannadig Gwalarn, for any public, with Breton simpler and “as one speaks it in the countryside”.

But what interested it in the highest degree, it is the education of the people by his own language, like had made N.F.S. Gruntvig with the Denmark with its “popular academies”, with “works of quality”. To touch the people, and in particular the children, was also the goal of its foundation/collection rear Brezoneg vugale, which distributed books into Breton to the children.

In this spirit, the " brezhoneg eeun" is a powerful tool of training of the language.

It is also him which is interested in first in the study of the Prononciation of the Breton.

Second world war

Fights in the French Army

Mobilized, it is affected with the Center of the interpreters of the army with Auxi-the-Castle (Somme). It is wounded by a Lance-flame close to Crécy-in-Ponthieu the May 23rd 1940.

It is made prisoner the May 24th 1940 and is led to the hospital of Saint-Ricquier (Pas-de-Calais) then to that of Berck-Beach. It is then interned in the prison camp of war of Alexisdorf then in a camp close to Berlin, in a sector where the Germans gather certain Breton prisoners, having then for project to support the minorities in order to sap the French State, project given up after the Accord of Montoire.

Cultural and political collaboration

It is released within the framework of this project at the end of August 1940 and returns to Brest. It takes again then the publication of the review Gwalarn . As of November, he proclaims collaboration unique opportunity to release from the French yoke and engages in the Collaboration with the occupant.

The Easter Monday 1941, its apartment (12 place de la Tour d'Auvergne) is destroyed by an air raid. Hemon then leaves to settle with Guingamp (7 rue des Salles). July 1st 1941, it settles with Rennes where he is announcer on Radio Rennes Brittany, of which he becomes later director of the programs. It there works under the authority and the ideological control of the Germans and animates the first emissions into Breton with the radio, which had not been possible previously because of linguistic policy of France.

It directs the weekly magazine Arvor , which appears starting from 1941. In this newspaper, he is the author of several declarations anti-semites.

In October 1941, it is associated with other intellectuals by Leo Weisgerber with creation with Rennes of the Celtic Institut of Brittany. Hemon becomes the director about it. This Institute seems to be inspired by the Deustche Forschungsgemeinschaft (during German of French CNRS).

He collaborates also politically with the occupant, taking part in the constitution of the file against the Ripert prefect.

According to Olier Mordrel and Jean Fouéré, he would have been also member of the “ Kuzul Meur ”, committee secret which gathered various parties or nationalist associations, of which the Breton national Parti. When the Bezen Perrot is folded up in Germany, he flees in one of his trucks, as well as other nationalists in August 1944. In January 1945, it is still the subject of an eulogistic report/ratio of professor Weisgerber, who underlines his engagement germanophile, in order to decree the Prix Ossian to him.

Release

With the Release, one reproaches him writings anti-republicans and anti-French, published during the war, and his nationalist standpoint, sometimes anti-Frenchwomen, of pre-war period. It as of 1931 had however taken its distances with some of its writings published between 1923 and 1929.

Decree, it is continued for reached with safety external of the State . The final indictment specifies that Roparz Hemon declared “I declare itself being held on the strictly cultural ground which is ours, in favor of a honest collaboration with the people which work under my eyes New Europe. ” at a public meeting of the Celtic Institute with the municipal theater of Rennes.

It makes one year of preventive detention before its lawsuit which opens the March 15th 1946 with Rennes.

According to a article published in the review Preder in 1961, and mentioned by Michel Denis, it obtains the payment for one of the counts of indictment, at the end of a lawsuit which stirred up the international opinion, but is condemned the May 31st 1946 to a sorrow of ten years national unworthiness. It loses by consequence its statute of teacher of the public office.

The June 3rd 1946 the government commissioner close the Court of justice pays to the public prosecutor close the Court of Appeal of Rennes (quoted by Ronan Calvez): Shown of attack to safety external of the State, he was discharged from this chief and only declared in a state of national unworthiness for one 10 years duration.
This décison seems to me justified, the debates having revealed only the activity of Louis Némo, who however appeared to me to have to be evoked in a public sitting, had been exerted in a direction anti-French.

Ireland

After having lived sparely with Paris some time, it leaves for the Ireland in July 1947. It settles with Dublin where it teaches the Breton one with the Institute for Advanced Studies (School of the High Celtic Studies). It continues to write in all the kinds (poetry, theater, novels, grammar, dictionaries, tests, books for youth, etc). It writes since the exile the review Ar Bed keltiek and collaborates in the literary review Al Liamm (directed by Ronan Huon) which had took the relai Gwalarn . It publishes in the editions Al Liamm a great number of books touching all the kinds.

Towards the end of its life, for certain Breton militants, Roparz Hemon seems the uncontested leader, considered as the true pope of the language Breton, so much the respect, admiration in its connection remains large. Olier Mordrel, in its proclamation " For a new linguistic policy " (real Brittany) depicts Hemon like having " of the opinions in the form of ukases whose simple examination was regarded by excessively pious people followers as curling the sacrilege ".

In 1950 it writes: (…) it occurred a miracle: during four years, from 1940 to 1944, a wind of freedom passed on Brittany; each Breton truth could work almost without worry, and the life of the spirit flowers. During these four years the Breton conscious ones learned that they were able to deal with their country alone, a lesson which they are not ready to forget. .

He dies in Dublin the June 29th 1978. Its body is repatriated in Brest where it is buried the July 10th 1978.

Its influence is large on many writers, who like Pierre-Jakez Hélias, had a certain admiration for the work of Gwalarn .

Recent homages and controversies on its attitude during the war

The Breton-speaking cultural institutions paid several homages to him recognizing its enormous work for the Breton language. The newspaper Brittany of the books published several articles laudators about it.

Its attitude during the war was minimized a long time, even forgotten, as that was the case for many French collaborationnists (there still until a relatively recent time where the requirement of memory involved good number of actions against high French collaborators placed: former prefects, etc).

This until the revelations of the Duck connected inter alia:

In 1998, the section of MRAP of Ille-et-Vilaine, solicited with this intention by Francoise Morvan, protested against the homage paid to Hemon by the cultural Institut of Brittany, by pointing out its activities under the Occupation.
the first Breton college created in 1988 by Diwan with the Relecq-Kerhuon, had received its name. It was débaptisé twelve years after, following a protest campaign.
the first Breton dictionary of Year Young stag, subsidized by the cultural Institute of Brittany, was dedicated to him. This dedication was it also withdrawn following the Affaire of the Breton dictionary déchenchée by the Canard Enchaîné.

Works of Roparz Hemon

Translations

Works of Roparz Hemon were translated into English, Cornique, Esperanto, French, Frison, Welsh, Irish and Dutch.

Publications

Roparz Hemon had collected the expressions of the popular speech (collection republished by Hor Yezh).
An Den has will netra ( a man of nothing ), play (1927)
Plac' hig vihan rear Mor Brest, Kenta Mouladour Moulerez - 1928, translation of Hans Andersen.
Precise of Breton grammar . Brest, Will mould rear Stread It hastell, 1928
the Breton orthography . Brest, Will mould rear Stread It hastell, 1929
elementary Cours of Breton , Rennes, 1932, ISBN B0000DV 9R 9,
Kleier Eured Brest Gwalarn - 1934 collection of news on the life of the common peoples in Brest, ISBN 2-9511721-8-4
Breton Grammaire, Suivie Breton pronunciation Brest Gwalarn - 1941,
An Aotrou Bimbochet E Breiz , Brest, Skridou Breizh, 1942,
the words of Breton usual classified according to the direction , Edts of Brittany, Brest, 1942 , ISBN B0000DPLFZ,
fast Method of Breton , 1942, ISBN B0000DUM0V
the Breton language and its combat . La Baule, Edition of Brittany, 1947
Geriadur istorel rear brezhoneg (historical dictionary of Breton) NEMO - 14 Booklets N° 1 to 14, 1959 with 1967
Alc' hwez rear brezhoneg eeun , ISBN 2868631266,
Yezhadur istorel rear brezhoneg , Hor Yezh, ISBN 2910699366,
Geriadur istorel (historical Dictionary), Preder, ISBN 2901383017
Mari Vorgan , Al Liamm, 1962; translated into French: " The Marie-Morgane" , 1981, Presses of today; translated into Welsh: Morforwyn , University off Wales, Aberystwyth, Center for Educational Studies
has Historical Morphology and Syntax off Breton , Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies, May 1975,
Christmas Hymns in the Vannes Dialect off Breton (December 1956),
Three poems into means-Breton translated and annotated by R. Hémon. Tremenuan year ytron Maria - Pemzec leuenez Maris - Buhez mab den , Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies, School off Celtic Studies, Dublin, 1962, ISBN 1855000636,
Ar Varn diwezhañ , Skol, 1998
Breton Grammaire , Al Liamm, 1963, ISBN B0000DOXNQ,
the Fragments of the Destruction of Jerusalem And the Loves Of the Old man (Texts into Means-Breton), Traduits And Annotate , Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies 1969,
Ho kervel has rin in noz ha marvailhoù all . Brest, Al Liamm, 1970,
Tangi Kerviler . Al Liamm, 1971, in-12, 169 p.
elementary Course of Breton , 1975, ISBN B0000DRE3H,
Doctrin year Christenien , Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies, School off Celtic Studies, December 1977,
rear Troioù-kaer baron pouf , Year Young stag, 1986, ISBN 2868430368,
Gaovan hag year den gwer , Year Young stag, 1988, ISBN 286843052X,
Furnez ha faltazi , Hor Yezh, 1998, ISBN 2910699269,
An Ti has drizek siminal , Hor Yezh, 1998, ISBN 2910699277,
Nenn Jani , Al Liamm, 1974; French translation, Coop Breizh, 1998, ISBN 2843460379,
: In Nenn Jani, its last novel, published four years before its death, Roparz Hemon seems to have found, with Brest of its childhood, interior peace. It is a calm good-bye in the world, in the love of a city and humble folk which were its youth. Humble folk crushed by the work conditions but which, through fight against poverty and misery, can sometimes cut its small share of happiness. Fresco of the popular life in Brest before 1914? Undoubtedly. But with Nenn Jani, which opens its door with the young wounded workman, threatened by the load of the dragons, it is the account of a victory, that of courage and kindness on selfishness and the destiny.
Santez Dahud , Hor Yezh, 1998, ISBN 2910699293,
Eñvorennoù , Al Liamm, 1998, ISBN 2-7368-00-53-2
Barzhaz dianav ha barzhaz troet , Hor Yezh, 1997, ISBN 2-910699-21-8

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