Sur la francisation d’un toponyme écossais : l’« Argail » de Charles Nodier

This study opposes, on the one hand, the concept exposed by linguist and theoretician Charles Nodier (1780-1844) in his Elementary Notions in Linguistics (1834) referring to the inalterable spelling of proper nouns, and, on the other hand, his practice as a storyteller and creator in his Trilby (1822). We will also consider answering the question of the gallicization of the toponym "Argyle" (allusion to the lake region in Scotland), spelled "Argail" by Nodier in his tale, contrary to all expectations. "Argail" , beyond the mere process of transliteration and trompe-l’oeil justifications revealed by Nodier himself in the prefaceo t his book, opens up to subtle manipulations that pertain to four fields: history of language, phonetics, written formand etymology