She "loses a friend, a teacher, a guide ..." "If I joined Le Robert, it is for Alain, to have the immense honor of knowing him," says Bérengère Baucher, 37, editorial director at from the famous official definition provider.
This associate of modern letters, doctor of literature, will have to learn to juggle with substantives, verbs and expressions without the precious advice of her mentor Alain Rey who has just joined paradise, this "place where the souls of the just enjoy beatitude. eternal ”according to“ Le Petit Robert ”, page 1798.
The famous professor Tournesol-like linguist who, for nearly six decades, had the last word in the manufacture of homemade pavers, died on the night of Tuesday to Wednesday at the age of 92.
A shock for the young guard of experts in the French language, fed with the magic formulas of the old sage who allowed slang, city chat, the feminization of trades or names from elsewhere to earn their letters of nobility.
"A vision of the language very much in its time"
“He repeated that the dictionary is not a conservatory but an observatory of the French language.
He looked at customs with tolerance and generosity.
He had a vision of the language very much in its time, in motion.
He was the youngest of us, ”praises the lexicographer, who is also a specialist in Jean-Jacques Rousseau.
In this sense, the icon of the dicos stood out from the “Immortals” of the French Academy.
“Don't tell him he's the temple keeper.
A guardian laments the scratches of time, polishing good practice as Harpagon counts his gold coins.
However, the true richness of the language, for this patent humanist of modern times, it is its vitality ”, enthusiastically, four years ago, Bérengère Baucher, by drawing the portrait of his“ best trainer ”, then put in the spotlight.
What she also admired in this fan of suspenders who "knew how to play the detectives of language like no one else", is "his talent to make ultra-demanding knowledge accessible", "fascinating the crowds, from the quidam to the enlightened linguist. »Thanks to his eloquence.
For Alain Rey, each term had a story.
"This linguist archaeologist and geologist is the only one to have explored the hinterland of words, stripping the onion of the French language to the heart", she specifies.
A tireless worker, he was still refining, the day before his final breaths, "the great update" of his Historical Dictionary of the French language.
“He told me:
Work is what keeps me going!
He was a force of nature, he had lots of projects, ”testifies linguist Mathieu Avanzi, 39, who has just published“ As they say back home.
The great book of French in our regions ”(Le Robert), prefaced by… Alain Rey.
"Alain Rey is the second name of Robert"
The latter, "very alert", did not hesitate to bring his two cents, his storyteller and popularizer paw.
"He suggested to me:
This is too complicated, you have to remove it,
" he recalls.
Four months ago, this lecturer at the Sorbonne had met the young nonagenarian at his Parisian home.
“He was annotating piles of sheets from his
Historical Dictionary of the French Language
.
He lived in a library ”, he describes, before applauding his vision of the French language,“ plural and belonging to everyone ”.
DISAPPEARANCE.
He was one of the greatest connoisseurs of the French language and the originator of the "Le Robert" dictionary: the linguist Alain Rey died that night at the age of 92.
Portrait of him in 2006 when he featured a column on @franceinter.
#AlainRey pic.twitter.com/1MGOthnh7W
- Ina.fr (@Inafr_officiel) October 28, 2020
For him, “Alain Rey is Robert's second name”.
Mathieu Avanzi was also marked by the “humility” of “the jack-of-all-trades”, a self-taught man who studied French literature, political science and art history without collecting diplomas. .
“Despite his great knowledge, he was always very worried about what academics might think,” he notes.
"He was an insatiable vocation hunter, browsing from flower to flower to find his way", summarizes, for his part, Bérengère Baucher.
Thanks to the late Alain Rey, who can count on faithful heirs, our language is more alive than ever ... "The best tribute to pay to his work and to his work will be to continue to carry the torch", she undertakes .