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French languageFrom Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia(Redirected from French Language)
  French (français, pronounced [fʁɑ̃ˈsɛ]) is a Romance language spoken originally in France, Belgium, Luxembourg and Switzerland, and today by about 175 million people around the world as a mother tongue or fluent second language,[1] with significant populations in 54 countries. Descended from the Latin of the Roman Empire, along with languages such as Spanish, Italian, Romanian and Portuguese, its development was influenced by the native Celtic languages of Roman Gaul (particularly in pronunciation), and by the Germanic language of the post-Roman Frankish invaders. This is one of the reasons why certain French sounds and spellings are distinctly different from those of Spanish and Italian, for example, and why Spanish and Italian sound more similar to one another than French does to either one of them. It is an official language in 41 countries, most of which form what is called in French La Francophonie, the community of French-speaking nations. French as a foreign language is the second most frequently taught language in the world after English.[2] It is an official or administrative language of the African Union, the European Broadcasting Union, ESA, the European Union, the Council of Europe, FIA, FIFA, ICUP, FINA, IHO, the International Bureau of Weights and Measures, the International Court of Justice, the International Olympic Committee, the International Political Science Association, the International Secretariat for Water, Interpol, NATO, the UCI, the United Nations and all its agencies (including the Universal Postal Union), the World Anti-Doping Agency, and the World Trade Organization. Along with English, it is perhaps the most used language in the European Commission.
Geographic distributionLegal status in France
Per the Constitution of France, French has been the official language since 1992 [1] (although previous legal text have made it official since 1539, see ordinance of Villers-Cotterêts). France mandates the use of French in official government publications, public education outside of specific cases (though these dispositions are often ignored) and legal contracts; advertisements must bear a translation of foreign words. Contrary to a common misunderstanding both in the American and British media, France does not prohibit the use of foreign words in websites nor in any other private publication, as that would violate the constitutional right of freedom of speech. The misunderstanding may have arisen from a similar prohibition in the Canadian province of Quebec which made strict application of the Charter of the French Language between 1933 and 1998, although these regulations addressed language used in advertising and the provision of commercial services offered within the province, not the language of private communication. In addition to French, there are also a variety of languages spoken by minorities, though France has not signed the European Charter for Regional Languages yet. Legal status in CanadaAbout 5.2% of the world's Francophones are Canadian, and French is Canada's secondary official language (the other being English). Various provisions of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms deal with Canadians' right to access services in both languages. By law, the federal government must operate and provide services in both English and French, proceedings of the Parliament of Canada must be translated into both these languages, and all Canadian products must have bilingual labels. Overall, about 13% of Canadians have knowledge of French only, while 18% have knowledge of both English and French. In contrast, over 80% of the population of Quebec speaks French. It has been the sole official language of Québec since 1974; this was reiterated in law with the 1977 adoption of the Charter of the French Language (popularly referred to as Bill 101), which guarantees that every person has a right to have the civil administration, the health and social services, corporations, and enterprises in Quebec communicate with him in French. Although some arrangements of the Charter allow the use of English in order to respect the freedoms and rights of Québec's anglophone minority (such as access to health and social services), French is widely promoted. The provision of Bill 101 that has arguably had the least significant impact mandates French-language education unless a child's parents or siblings have received the majority of their own education in English within Canada. This measure has reversed a historical trend whereby a large number of immigrant children were sent to English schools. In so doing, Bill 101 has greatly contributed to the "visage français" (French face) of Montreal in spite of its growing immigrant population. Other provisions of Bill 101 have been ruled unconstitutional over the years, including those mandating French-only commercial signs, court proceedings, and debates in the legislature. Though none of these provisions are still in effect today, some continued to be on the books for a time even after courts had ruled them unconstitutional as a result of the government's decision to invoke the so-called notwithstanding clause of the Canadian constitution to override constitutional requirements. In 1993, the Charter was rewritten to allow signage in other languages so long as French was markedly "predominant." The only other province that recognizes French as an official language is New Brunswick, which is officially bilingual like the nation as a whole. Outside of Quebec, the highest number of Francophones in North America reside in Ontario, whereas New Brunswick, home to the Acadians, has the highest percentage of Francophones after Quebec. In Ontario, Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island, and Manitoba, French does not have full official status, although the provincial governments do provide some French-language services in all communities where significant numbers of Francophones live. Canada's three northern territories (Yukon, Northwest Territories, and Nunavut) all recognize French as an official language as well. All provinces make some effort to accommodate the needs of their Francophone citizens, although the level and quality of French-language service varies significantly from province to province. The Ontario French Language Services Act, adopted in 1986, guarantees French language services in that province where the Francophone population exceeds 5% of the total population; this has the most effect in the north and east of the province, as well as in other larger centres such as Ottawa, Toronto, Hamilton, Mississauga, London, Kitchener, St. Catharines, Greater Sudbury and Windsor. However, the French Language Services Act does not confer the status of "official bilingualism" on these cities, as that designation carries with it implications which go beyond the provision of services in both languages. The City of Ottawa's language policy (by-law 2001-170) has two criteria which would allow employees to work in the language of choice and be supervised in the language of choice; this policy is being challenged by an organization called Canadians for Language Fairness. A law similar to the Ontario French Language Services Act came into effect in Nova Scotia in 2004. Canada has the status of member state in the Francophonie, while the provinces of Québec and New Brunswick are recognized as participating governments. Ontario is currently seeking to become a full member on its own. EuropeFrench is an official language in Switzerland. It is spoken in the part of Switzerland called Romandie. In Belgium, it is the official language of the Walloon Region (excluding the East Cantons, which are German-speaking) and one of the two official languages of the capital, Brussels, along with Dutch. Officially Dutch and French have parity in Brussels. However, in practice the French language is more dominant among the city's residents. Conversely the Dutch language dominates among the city's largely non-resident (in Brussels) workforce. It should be noted that French is not an official language or even a recognised minority language in Flanders, although there are some districts in Belgium along linguistic borders that have special compromise linguistic regimes. It is one of the official languages in Luxembourg, along with German and Luxembourgish(or Letzebuergesh), which is a Germanic dialect. It is also an official language, along with Italian, in Valle d'Aosta, Italy. It is the official language of the principality of Monaco and is spoken by a minority in the principality of Andorra, in the Isle of Jersey and the Isle of Guernsey. The AmericasIn the Americas, French is an official language of Haiti, although it is mostly spoken by the upperclass and well educated while Haitian Creole is more widely used. French is also the official language in France's overseas territories of French Guiana, Guadeloupe, Martinique, Saint Barthelemy, St. Martin, Saint-Pierre and Miquelon. It is also an administrative language of Dominica and the U.S. states of Louisiana and Maine. AfricaFrench is an official language of many African countries, many of them former French or Belgian colonies: 
In addition, French is an administrative language of Mauritania and is commonly understood (though not official) in Algeria, Morocco, and Tunisia. AsiaIn Asia, French is an administrative language in Laos and Lebanon, and is used unofficially in parts of Cambodia, India (, Mahé, Karikal and Yanam), Syria and Vietnam. French has official status in Union Territory of Pondicherry, along with the region's Tamil. It is also the official language ofMayotte and Réunion, two French territories located in the Indian Ocean. OceaniaFrench is also an official language of the Pacific Island nation of Vanuatu, along with France's territories of French Polynesia, Wallis & Futuna and New Caledonia. Dialects and creolesRegional varieties
Derived languages
HistorySound system
Although there are many French regional accents, only one version of the language is normally chosen as a model for foreign learners. This is the educated standard variety of Paris, which has no commonly used special name, but has been termed "français neutre" (neutral French).
French pronunciation follows strict rules based on spelling, but French spelling is often based more on history than phonology. The rules for pronunciation vary between dialects, but the standard rules are:
Orthography
Grammar
French grammar shares several notable features with most other Romance languages, including:
French word order is Subject Verb Object, except when the object is a pronoun, in which case the word order is Subject Object Verb. Some rare archaisms allow for different word orders. VocabularyThe majority of French words derive from Vulgar Latin or were constructed from Latin or Greek roots. There are often pairs of words, one form being popular (noun) and the other one savant (adjective), both originating from Latin. Example:
The last example, Saint-Étienne/Stéphanois, illustrates common practice for gentilics throughout France. In some examples there is a common word from "vulgar" Latin and a more savant word from classical Latin or even Greek.
The French words which have developed from Latin are usually less recognisable than Italian words of Latin origin because as French developed into a separate language from Vulgar Latin, the unstressed final syllable of many words was dropped or elided into the following word. It is estimated that 12 percent (4,200) of common French words found in a typical dictionary such as the Petit Larousse or Micro-Robert Plus (35,000 words) are of foreign origin. About 25 percent (1,054) of these foreign words come from English and are fairly recent borrowings. The others are some 707 words from Italian, 550 from ancient Germanic languages, 481 from ancient Gallo-Romance languages, 215 from Arabic, 164 from German, 160 from Celtic languages, 159 from Spanish, 153 from Dutch, 112 from Persian and Sanskrit, 101 from Native American languages, 89 from other Asian languages, 56 from Afro-Asiatic languages, 55 from Slavic languages and Baltic languages, 10 for Basque and 144—about three percent—from other languages (Walter & Walter 1998). NumeralsThe French counting system is partially vigesimal: twenty (vingt) is used as a base number in the names of numbers from 60-99. The French word for 80, for example, is quatre-vingts, which literally means four twenties, and soixante-quinze (literally "sixty-fifteen") indicating 75. This reform arose after the French Revolution to unify the different counting system (vigesimal most of the time in the bordersea, due to Celtic and Viking influence). This system is comparable to the archaic English use of "score", as in "fourscore and seven" (87), or "threescore and ten" (70). Belgian French and Swiss French are different in this respect. In Belgium and Switzerland 70 and 90 are septante and nonante. In Switzerland, depending on the local dialect, 80 can be: quatre-vingts (Geneva, Neuchâtel, Jura) or huitante (Vaud, Valais, Fribourg). Octante had been used in Switzerland in the past, but is now considered archaic.[3] In Belgium, however, quatre-vingts is universally used. Writing systemFrench is written using the 26 letters of the Latin alphabet, plus five diacritics (the circumflex accent, acute accent, grave accent, diaeresis, and cedilla) and the two ligatures (œ) and (æ). French spelling, like English spelling, tends to preserve obsolete pronunciation rules. This is mainly due to extreme phonetic changes since the Old French period, without a corresponding change in spelling. Moreover, some conscious changes were made to restore Latin orthography:
As a result, it is difficult to predict the spelling on the basis of the sound alone. Final consonants are generally silent, except when the following word begins with a vowel. For example, all of these words end in a vowel sound: pied, aller, les, finit, beaux. The same words followed by a vowel, however, may sound the consonants, as they do in these examples: beaux-arts, les amis, pied-à-terre. On the other hand, a given spelling will almost always lead to a predictable sound, and the Académie française works hard to enforce and update this correspondence. In particular, a given vowel combination or diacritic predictably leads to one phoneme. The diacritics have phonetic, semantic, and etymological significance.
There are two ligatures, which have various origins.
French writing, as with any language, is affected by the spoken language. In Old French, the plural for "animal" was "animals". Common speakers pronounced a "u" before a word ending in "l" as the plural. This resulted in "animauls". As the French language evolved this vanished and the form "animaux" ("aux" pronounced /o/) was admitted. The same is true for "cheval" pluralized as "chevaux" and many others. Also "castel" pl. "castels" became "château" pl. "châteaux". Some attempts have been made to reform French spelling, but few major changes have been made over the last two centuries. |
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