MICHEL JULES

See also:

• ALFRED

ALFRED

See also:

• MICHEL JULES ALFRED BREAL (1832— )

BREAL (1832— )  , French philologist, was born on the 26th of March 1832, at Landau in Rhenish Bavaria, of French parents . After studying at Weissenburg, Metz and Paris, he entered the Ecole Normale in 1852 . In 1857 he went to Berlin, where he studied Sanskrit under Bopp and Weber . On his return to France he obtained an appointment in the department of oriental MSS. at the Bibliotheque Imperiale . In 1864 he became professor of comparative grammar at the College de France, in 1875 member of the Academie des Inscriptions et Belles-lettres, in 1879 inspecteurgeneral of public instruction for higher schools until the abolition of the office in 1888 . In 1890 he was made commander of the Legion of Honour . Among his works, which deal mainly with mythological and philological subjects, may be mentioned: L' Etude des origines de la religion Zoroastrienne (1862), for which a prize was awarded him by the Academie des Inscriptions; Hercule et Cacus (1863), in which he disputes the principles of the symbolic school in the interpretation of myths; Le Mythe d'CEdipe (1864); Les Tables Eugubines (1875); Melanges de mythologie et de linguistique (2nd. ed., 1882); Lecons de mots (1882, 1886), Dictionnaire etymologique latin (1885) and Grammaire latine (1890) . His Essai de Semantique (1897), on the signification of words, has been translated into English by Mrs H . Cust with preface by J . P . Postgate . His translation of Bopp's Comparative Grammar (1866-1874), with introductions, is highly valued .

He has also written

pamphlets on education in France, the teaching of ancient languages, and the reform of French orthography . In 1906 he published Pour mieux connaitre Homere .