Words and Phonetics
The main thrust of his book
"La Vraie Langue Celtique" is undoubtedly that of words and the sounds they make in other languages. He attempts to
show that the sound of one word actually has similar if not identical sounding words in
other languages and additionally that they have similar meanings. The list of words
he cites in this book is huge and certainly for a good few of them both sounds and meanings in the
languages he mentions do in fact correspond to a degree. In most other cases the
comparable sounds and meanings are either tenuous or completely wrong. Nevertheless it is clear
that he attributes great importance to these words. So much so in fact that they are
repeated over and over again throughout the book. He is also very anxious to attach
geographical inferences to many words and goes to almost the same lengths to prove his
case. This is particularly true with his book "Le Livre D'Axat"
Note 1. There is little
doubt that Henri Boudet was a linguist with command of a good few languages. After reading
through his book and studying the various words he quotes, some of the phonetic
pronunciations he gives are absolutely spot on with regard to the English language. This
would lead me to believe that not only did he speak English fluently but actually spoke
the language with little or no accent. Something quite rare in most linguists. What is so
surprising therefore is that when examining the meaning of the words he provides, some of
these are slightly wrong, others are very wrong and in some cases the meanings have
absolutely nothing to do with the original word whatsoever. For a French person reading his book with
little or no fluency in English, such errors would make little difference. For someone
with a knowledge of both languages the errors would be unmistakable, in fact
they would strike you in the face by their very inaccuracy. Why therefore did he
decide to use these two languages? What was the fascination with the English language? Why
not use Latin or Greek, both of which must have been like a native tongue to him?
The possibilities are that:-
He had an excellent command of English and this
was the guiding force behind his choice.
The English language has a rich vocabulary which
provided him with a wealth of material to exploit.
Since quite a bit of the English
language is actually derived from French and the Romanesque languages the fact that he had a ready source
of valuable phonetic material must have proved an irresistible temptation.
He meant the book to be disseminated amongst
people who were also fluent in English.
The book was actually intended for pure English
speakers.
If his intention was to pass
on the whereabouts of some hidden treasure he perhaps did not want to make
the task of finding it overly difficult by using such languages as Latin or
Greek. Possibly, on the other hand, Latin and Greek simply did not provide
the necessary phonetic permutations he required.
Finally it must not be
overlooked that he may have used classical encryption techniques within his
book/s. If this is the case then he would have used everything which would
have aided the encryption process.
One explanation for his
incorrect definitions is that these are what he wants the reader to see and by inference
what he wants the reader to use for some specific purpose. By providing slightly
inaccurate translations he is forcing us to stop and say "Hold on a minute, that's
not right" and by doing so he is making us walk the path he has so carefully
constructed. An excellent example of this is the word list appearing on pages 19, 20 and
21. Within this list he offers Anglo Saxon words, their Languedocien counterparts and what he
considers to be their French meaning. However on reading through the list it quickly
becomes apparent that all is not right.
To Beck - Faire signe de la
tete (To gesture with a head movement). The verb To Beck is archaic and its modern
equivalent is To Beckon which is defined as "To signal or summon by means of a
gesture". No mention of a head movement, although I suppose you could use your head.
Braw
(Presumably he
meant Brow) - Front, Air. The French word Air is used in the sense of a look or
appearance which is inappropriate.
Flag - Tomber de faiblesse.
While To Flag does imply weakness or lack of energy it really cannot be construed as
"To fall down with weakness". In a rather old French dictionary I own, one
meaning of Flag is given as "Laisser Tomber", to let fall or to drop. It is
possible Boudet linked weakness with this description in order to provide the meaning he
specifically wanted the reader to see.
Mire - Lie. Lie in French
means Dregs or scum whereas Mire means swampy ground or a bog.
Road - Baie, Rade. In this
instance Boudet takes the maritime meaning of the word and translates it as a Bay or a
Road (Roadstead). In this connection Road means the stretch of water near a shore where
ships can lie at anchor. Road has literally dozens of meanings but of all these he chose
to use the maritime one which also happens the be the more obscure.
Scalfeto. Here he cites the Languedocien
word meaning a foot warmer. He next offers the English derivation of this word
which breaks down as To Scald and Feet. To Scald is translated as chauffer meaning to
warm and the word Feet is translated normally. The word immediately following this is To Scald
which he now translates correctly as Echauder. You can see the ambiguity he is creating.
Scout - Espion. Here the
word Scout is translated as 'Spy' which is not at all correct.
Sot Cour - Nettoyer. This is one of the more strange occurrences. He spells the word phonetically as Skaour which leads us to believe
that the word he indicates as 'Sot Cour' should in fact be 'Scour'. This word he loosely
translates as 'To Clean'. However what is interesting is that he has chosen to show the
word as 'Sot Cour'. By pronouncing these two words together 'So-Cow'r' you can just about
arrive at the word it should be, namely 'Scour'. In this instance it is as though he is
trying to teach the reader some new way of looking at words.
Senshorno - Here he shows us
the Languedocien word meaning "Without intelligence" and then provides the
Anglo-Saxon derivation as 'Sense' and 'Horn'. Sense he translates as
"Intelligence" which is fine and Horn he translates as "Deprived of"
which is completely inaccurate.
Shake - Tomber en pieces. To
fall to pieces. Again not the correct translation.
To Seel - Fermer les yeux.
This is an old word that is definitely not much used these days. His translation is almost
correct, it should actually be 'Fermer les yeux a' to close one's eyes to something. The
verb to Seel also has numerous other meanings, to Blink, to sew shut the eyes of a bird of
prey, to cover the head with something, to comb someone's hair, to mislead, to be
infatuated with, Time, occasion, opportunity, (In reference to harvests) - Haymaking time,
etc.
Trull - Perdue de moeurs. He
translates this word as being of little virtue, loose morals, without manners or having forgotten one's manners,
etc. In fact Trull means a girl, female runner or a prostitute. One rather
interesting aspect of this particular word was pointed out by a reader. The
French meaning given by Boudet "Perdue de Moeurs" can be
reinterpreted as "Demeure due per" or Demeure du Père, the house
of the father. If this type of rearrangement is perhaps one of the means
Boudet intended to be used in deciphering his messages then this particular
phrase seems to point directly to the church or more exactly a particular
church.
I would now like to take you
back briefly to the very start of his word list which he begins with Alder - Aune, (The
Alder tree). His translation here is quite correct. However on page 12 of his book he
states:-
"Le nom Francais de
l'aune, essence d'arbres, se dit en Languedocien Bergne, en Breton et en Gallois Gwern, en
Ecossais et Irlandais, Fearn".
"The French name
Alder, type of tree, is pronounced in Languedocien as Bergne, in Breton and Welsh as
Gwern, in Scottish and Irish as Fearn."
The inference being that
Fern and Alder are somehow one and the same. Notice also his spelling of the word
Fern, FEARN.
Regrettably I have no way
of checking the 'Dialecte Languedocien' quoted in the book. It would be interesting to
note if the meanings are at variance there too.
Since all the vocabulary
listed in Boudet's book appears to be central to his theories, I have transcribed all the
words together with the phonetic pronunciations he gives, his French meanings and my
translation of his French meanings. The words are presented in the two tables below
for you to examine.
Please note, each table
is about 300Kb and will take at least 1-3 Minutes to load in your browser. If you prefer you
can download both documents in a single zipped file after which you will be able to review
them at your leisure. See below for formats.
Words As they
Appear in the Book
Words in
Sorted Order
Download
Files - Select Your Preferred Format
