René Debrie

René Debrie was a French linguist. He was born in Warloy-Baillon on 4 July 1920, and died in Amiens on 1 August 1989

Life

Debrie obtained his degree in literature in 1944 and his PhD at the Sorbonne in 1960.
He began his research career in 1950. From the 1960s to the 1980s, he became one of the experts of the dialect of the Picard language, greatly expanding knowledge in that area. He published numerous books and lexicons of dialectology. In 1975, he became an assistant professor at the University of Picardy and was appointed a full professor in 1979.
He encouraged many of his students to publish lexicons and dictionaries of regional languages. He was the founder of the Centre d'études picardes of the University of Picardy.
In 1966, he created the cultural association Éklitra with Pierre Garnier and Rene Vaillant.

Works in collaboration

René Debrie collaborated on several books, including: La Picardie, Ed. d'Organisation, Paris, La Forêt Invisible. Au nord de la littérature française, le picard, anthologie de la littérature d’expression picarde, Jacques Darras,, René Debrie, Pierre Ivart, éd. des Trois-Cailloux, Amiens,

''Bibliographie des Dictionnaires patois de Wartburg, Keller et Geuljans''