VENDRYES, Joseph (Joseph Jean-Baptiste-Marie V.). Paris 13.1.1875 — Paris 30.1.1960. French IE, Celtic and General Linguist. Professor in Paris. Son of a civil servant, Albert Vendryes and Marguerite Lambert. School in Paris (Lycée Louis-le-Grand). Studies in Paris under Meillet et al. (Sanskrit under V. Henry and S. Lévi). Agrégé de grammaire 1896, Licencié 1894. In 1898-99 further studies at Freiburg i. Br. under Thurneysen. Ph.D. 1901 (diss. on Latin). In 1902-06 taught Greek at Clermont-Ferrand, 1906-07 at Caen. Succeeding Henry chargé de cours at Faculté des lettres from 1907, 1919 professeur adjoint and 1923 professeur titulaire de linguistique. Also taught Celtic languages and literature at É.P.H.É. from 1926, and linguistics in 1920-36 at École normale superieure. Served in WW I as officer. During WW II declined from collaboration and was briefly arrested in 1944. Retired 1946, but taught at É.P.H.É. until 1952. Member of A.I.B.L. 1931. Hon. dr. National University of Ireland 1925, Trinity College, Dublin 1932, Scottish unversities 1937, Birmingham 1949, Aarhus 1953, Oslo 1956.  Married 1906 Germaine Prevost (1885–1981), two sons and one daughter.

Publications: Diss. Recherches sur l’histoire et les effets de l’intensité initiale en latin. 14+348 p. P. 1902; diss. II. De hibernicis vocabulis quae a lingua latina originem duxerunt. P. 1902.

– Much on general linguistics, Celtic, Greek and Latin, also on Celtic literature and culture, and numerous reviews, especially in Revue celtique, Études celtiques, BSL and MSL; edited Old Irish texts.

– Traité d’accentuation grecque. 18+275 p. P. 1904 and many editions; Grammaire du vieil-irlandais. 10+408 p. P. 1908, English transl. 1946; Le Langage. 28+447 p. P. 1921, also English transl.; Lexique étymologique de l’irlandais ancien. Fasc. 1-2. P. 1959-60 (continued by others).

– “Le type verbal en -*sk^e/_o– de l’indo-iranien”, Mélanges S. Lévi 1911, 173-182; “Correspondances de vocabulaire entre l’indo-iranien et l’italo-celtique”, MSL 20, 1917, 265-285.

– With A. Meillet: Traité de grammaire comparée des langues classiques. 14+684 p. P. 1924, rev. ed. 1948.

– Choix d’études linguistiques et celtiques. 352 p. P. 1952 (with partial bibliography, 333-350).

Sources: Éd. Bachellery, Annuaire de l’É.P.H.É. 1961, 19-29; E. Benveniste, *BSL 55, 1960, 1-9 (republ. in Sebeok 1966:2, 385-393); *Charle, Les professeurs de la Faculté des lettres. 2. 197?; *P. Desmet & P. Swiggers, Lex. Gramm. 1996, 962-964; *F.B.J. Kuiper, Jaarboek K.N.A.W. 1960–61, 369-374; A. Merlin, CRAI 104, 1960, 374-381; *J. Pokorny, Zeitschr. für celtische Philol. 28, 1961, 338f.; Wikipedia briefly, with photo (more in French version); parents and family in gw.geneanet.org; photo in BSL 55, 1960 and CRAI 1960.

*P.-Y. Testenoire, “À l’ombre de deux maîtres: la correspondance Bally–Vendryes”, V. Chepiga & E. Sofia (eds.), Correspondance entre linguistes. Louvain-la-Neuve 2017, 45-63.