Claude Favre de Vaugelas

Claude Favre de Vaugelas

Claude Favre de Vaugelas (born January 6, 1585 in Meximieux near Bourg-en-Bresse , † February 26, 1650 in Paris ) was a French writer and philologist . As a language normalizer, he is known to every historian of the French language.

Vaugelas was the son of a petty or new aristocratic judge in the province of Bresse, which belonged to Savoy until 1601 . In 1624 he inherited the title of "baron de Pérouges".

He received a solid classical education, mostly from his father, and entered the service of the Duc de Nemours, a cousin of the Duke of Savoy, at a young age. In his wake he traveled a lot and acquired a good knowledge of Italian and Spanish. He eventually settled in Paris, where he held changing positions, e.g. B. that of a secretary and interpreter of a French nobleman whom he accompanied to Spain, or that of a tutor in another noble family. He also had the minor ordinations granted in order to be able to get lucrative church pledges and to be able to accumulate them if possible.

At least he succeeded in gaining access to a few glamorous salons in the capital, where he seemed to have been valued, and in cultivating contacts with several recognized authors, among others. a. François de Malherbe .

As a man of letters he was only a moderately successful translator from Latin and Spanish. After all, he gained a reputation as a grammarian and linguist. In 1634, as a member of the circle around Valentin Conrart , he was one of the founding members of the Académie Française . From the very beginning he was actively involved in the most important project of the Académie, the dictionary of the French language, the concept of which he designed, whereby he was responsible for the letters A to I.

Dissatisfied with the slowness with which this and the other Académie projects progressed, especially the grammar (which only appeared in 1932 and was immediately considered out of date), he put his own thoughts on paper as Remarques sur la Langue Françoise, utiles à tous ceux qui veulent bien parler et bien escrire (Notes on the French language for the benefit of those who want to speak and write well). The book, published in 1647, was quickly reprinted several times and became a well-known authority (which Molière ironically ironizes in his comedy Les Femmes savantes ). With the Remarques , Vaugelas became the ancestor of the guardians and custodians of the French language that were so numerous in France and still very active today.

As the norm for the “good use” (le bon usage) of French, Vaugelas set the oral language used by the court nobility, who predominantly lived in Paris, and the written language used by the “good authors” (bons auteurs), ie those recognized who work in Paris and in Parisian salons frequenting writers. He thus strengthened the growing political centralism in Paris, also in the linguistic area, and initiated a development that to this day disadvantages all people who do not speak the Parisian-influenced "standard French" (français standard).

literature

• Ayres-Bennett, Wendy, Vaugelas and the development of the french language , London, MHRA, 1987. (detailed study on Vaugelas as translator and grammarian).
• Combaz, André, Claude Favre de Vaugelas, mousquetaire de la langue française , Paris, Klincksieck, 2000. (most extensive current biography of Vaugelas).
• Lagane, René, Vaugelas: Remarques sur la langue française , Paris, Larousse, 1975. (Annotated selection from the Remarques with an introduction and short biography).

Web links

Commons : Claude Favre de Vaugelas  - Collection of Images, Videos and Audio Files

• Short biography and list of works of the Académie française (French)
• Gert Pinkernell, article Vaugelas in "Names, titles and dates of French literature" (source)