Le je(u) de chaises musicales du breton

Abstract

The loss of lexis in Breton along the centuries, which Fleuriot tried to list in his dictionary of Old Breton, is revisited here according to a double perspective: horizontal first through variation as it has been studied in the twentieth century and also vertical as diachrony is better known nowadays. Homophony seems to be the main cause of what seems to be an impoverishment of sorts, which was first of all a desambiguation of some short words (often monosyllables) that an ear can easily mix up, unless they be used in a more precise context, as is shown here in many examples.

Keywords

• Breton (language)
• linguistic
• variation
• homophony
• lexis
• desambiguation