Louis DUPUY (1709-1795) Hellenist, editor of the Journal des savants. L.A.S. as Secrétaire perpétuel de l'Académie des Belles-Lettres, May 10, 1780, [to Jacques Le Brigant]; 4pages in-4. Long polemical letter on the subject of the original language. [The linguist and Celticist Jacques Le Brigant (1720-1804) wanted to see in the Celtic language the "primitive language". Dupuy, not without a sense of humor, disagrees, pointing out his correspondent's errors. He doesn't think "that the Breton idiom is the oldest known language", citing words in Syriac and Chaldean... He puts a firm end to their exchange: "En voilà bien assé sur un objet auxquels je ne reviendrai plus, ayant d'autres occupations plus essentielles, et j'espere que vous n'essayezerez plus de me donner une grande idée de votre langue originelle"...

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