Boucher-Durand (2024)

• Boucher-Durand, Myrzinn Armaelle. 2024. On Pourroit les Multiplier Presque Jusqu’au Nombre des Paroisses: A Study of the Dialects in Middle Breton, Doctoral dissertation, Harvard University Graduate School of Arts and Sciences. texte.

 Abstract:
 "This dissertation approaches the question of the existence of dialectal variation in Middle Breton by conducting a systematic study of the language found in the literature from that period. Middle Breton is a language that was used from the twelfth century to 1659, and was long thought to have had no dialects. I demonstrate not only that dialects existed in this stage of the language, but also that traces of them can be found, in spite of the use of a written standard.
 The first chapter surveyed the existing literature, discussing past and present theories regarding the existence of dialects in Middle Breton. It concluded that dialects must have existed in Middle Breton as they do in all languages throughout the world. The surviving Middle Breton texts show, however, a relatively unified form of the language. The purpose of this study was to examine Middle Breton texts to see if any dialect traces could be perceived through the uniform spelling.
 The second chapter analysed documents of the Middle and Early Modern Breton period discussing dialects. These shed light on the perception of the language and its dialects. Its conclusion was that people were aware of dialectal variation, and that there were four dialects, Leon, Kerne, Treger, Gwened, the same four found in Early Modern and Modern Breton. These appear to have also followed the diocese borders, as they do in Early Modern and Modern Breton.
 The third chapter first discussed the validity of using Early Modern dictionaries and modern dialect studies to analyse older, Middle Breton, material. I thus present each dialectal feature found in Middle Breton in turn, showing evidence from Early Modern and Modern sources for its dialectal spread and variation. I then examine each Early Middle Breton text in turn. This showed that dialectal features existed in written Early Middle Breton. They were not common, but were the same features found in Classical and Late Middle Breton texts, as well as in Early Modern Breton texts.
 The fourth chapter looked at the Classical Middle Breton texts and examined them in turn, based on the dialectal baseline established in Chapter Three. I found that there were plenty of dialectal features in each text, though expectedly more in longer texts. These features were dialectally consistent throughout the texts and matched well with the modern dialect maps. I also found that a remarkable proportion of the texts came from the same area: the city of Morlaix. When reading the texts from this period, it gives the impression that they are very similar in language, though not necessarily because of a standardized language.
 The fifth chapter looked at the Late Middle Breton texts. I found that the texts in this chapter contained more dialect features than the earlier ones, though the same ones appearing more often, and more consistently. Late MB texts also came primarily from the area around Morlaix giving the impression that the language was quite standardized, with a few odd texts: those that were not from Morlaix."