Fernand Mossé (25 May 1892 – 10 July 1956) was a 20th-century French

philologist Philology () is the study of language in oral and written historical sources. It is the intersection of textual criticism, literary criticism, history, and linguistics with strong ties to etymology. Philology is also defined as the study of ...

and historian, specialized in

Germanic languages The Germanic languages are a branch of the Indo-European languages, Indo-European language family spoken natively by a population of about 515 million people mainly in Europe, North America, Oceania, and Southern Africa. The most widely spoke ...

and

German literature German literature () comprises those literature, literary texts written in the German language. This includes literature written in Germany, Austria, the German parts of Switzerland and Belgium, Liechtenstein, Luxembourg, South Tyrol in Italy ...

Biography

An agrégé of English, Fernand Mossé was a

lecturer Lecturer is an academic rank within many universities, though the meaning of the term varies somewhat from country to country. It generally denotes an academic expert who is hired to teach on a full- or part-time basis. They may also conduct re ...

at the

Bangor University Bangor University () is a Public university, public Research university, research university in Bangor, Gwynedd, Wales. It was established by Royal charter, Royal Charter in 1885 as the University College of North Wales (UCNW; ), and in 1893 ...

in Wales. He later taught in lycées in Nice and Nancy. In 1926, he was appointed at the

École pratique des hautes études The (), abbreviated EPHE, is a French postgraduate top level educational institution, a . EPHE is a constituent college of the Université PSL (together with ENS Ulm, Paris Dauphine or Ecole des Mines). The college is closely linked to É ...

. In 1938, he defended his doctoral dissertation, devoted to

periphrastic In linguistics and literature, periphrasis () is the use of a larger number of words, with an implicit comparison to the possibility of using fewer. The comparison may be within a language or between languages. For example, "more happy" is periph ...

forms of English. In 1949 he was appointed to the chair of languages and literatures of Germanic origin at the

Collège de France The (), formerly known as the or as the ''Collège impérial'' founded in 1530 by François I, is a higher education and research establishment () in France. It is located in Paris near La Sorbonne. The has been considered to be France's most ...

Selected bibliography

*1914: ''La Laxdoela Saga : légende historique islandaise'', Paris, Alcan (translation) *1933: ''La Saga de Grettir'', Paris, Aubier Montaigne (translation) *1938: ''Histoire de la forme périphrastique être + participe présent en germanique'', Paris, Klincksieck *1942: ''Manuel de la langue gotique'', Paris, Aubier Montaigne *1942: ''Manuel de l'allemand du Moyen Âge, des origines au XIVe siècle'' (with Alfred Jolivet), Paris, Aubier Montaigne *1946: ''Manuel de l'anglais du Moyen Âge, des origines au XIVe siècle'', 4 vol., Paris, Aubier Montaigne *1947: ''Esquisse d'une histoire de la langue anglaise'' *1959: ''Histoire de la littérature allemande'' (ed), Aubier

External links

Fernand Mossé
on data.bnf.fr
''Manuel de l'anglais du Moyen Age des origines au 14e'' siècle
o
Persée
{{DEFAULTSORT:Mosse, Fernand French philologists French Germanists Academic staff of the Collège de France Academic staff of the École pratique des hautes études Linguists of Germanic languages Writers from Marseille 1892 births 1956 deaths Corresponding Fellows of the Medieval Academy of America 20th-century French philologists Academics of Bangor University