French language
French (Langue Française) is one of the most important Romance languages, outnumbered only by Spanish and Portuguese. French is the 11th most spoken language in the world, spoken by about 77 million people as a mother tongue, and 128 million including second language speakers, in 1999. It is an official or administrative language in various communities and organizations (such as the European Union, IOC, United Nations and Universal Postal Union).
| Table of contents |
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2 The worldwide use of French 3 French Phonemes 4 Some common phrases 5 Legal issues 6 France 7 Canada 8 External links |
Although in the past many Frenchmen liked to refer to their descent from Gallic ancestors ("Nos ancêtres les gaulois"), very little Celtic influence seems to remain in the French of today. Most of the vocabulary is of Latin and Germanic (Frankish) origin.
Originally, many dialects and languages were spoken throughout contemporary French territory (among them were several langue d'Oïl dialects, like Picard, Valon, etc.), Occitan dialects (Gascon, Provençal, etc.), Breton, Basque, Catalan, Low German, etc., but over time the dialect of the Ile-de-France (the region around Paris), Francien, has supplanted the others and has become the basis for the official French language. The earliest text in French is the Oath of Strasbourg from 842; the period of the language up to around 1300 is called Old French, which after 1300 turned into Middle French, and ultimately, Modern French. Old French became a literary language with the chansons de geste that told tales of the paladins of Charlemagne and the heroes of the Crusades. By the Ordinance of Villers-Cotterêts, in 1539 King Francis I made French the official language of administration and court proceedings in France, ousting the Latin that had been used before then.
French is an official language in the following countries:
History
The worldwide use of French
| country | population | pop. dens. | area | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| (July 2003 est.) | (/km²) | (km²) | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
France (Metropolitan)
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Although not official, French is the major second language in the following countries.
| country | population | pop. dens. | area |
|---|---|---|---|
| (July 2003 est.) | (/km²) | (km²)
| |
| Algeria | 32,810,500 | 1,100 | 2,381,440 |
| Tunisia | 9,924,800 | 1,100 | 163,610 |
| Mauritius | 1,210,500 | 1,100 | 2,040 |
| Morocco | 31,689,600 | 1,100 | 446,550 |
Also, there are some French-speakers in Egypt, India (Pondicherry), Italy (Aosta Valley), Laos, Mauritania, United Kingdom (Channel Islands), United States of America mainly (Louisiana & New England) and Vietnam.
La Francophonie is an international organization of French-speaking countries and governments.
Historically, for nearly 300 years French was also the language of the ruling classes and commerce in England, from the time of the Norman Conquest until 1362, when the use of English was resumed.
French spelling is by no means phonetic. Terminal consonants have often become silent in most dialects, unless followed by a vowel sound (liaison) or silent altogether (e.g., "et" is never pronounced with the ending "t"). In many words, the "n" and "m" becomes silent and causes the preceding vowel to become nasalized (i.e. pronounced with the soft palate extended downward so as to cause the air to leave through the nostrils instead of through the mouth). Furthermore, French words tend to run together when spoken, with ending consonants often being chained to the start of the next word.
Rounded
i y u
e 2 o
E 9 O
a A
E~9~o~
Note: /A/ is for many speakers no longer a phoneme.
Whether /@/ (Schwa) is a phoneme of French is controversial. Some
see it as an allophone of /9/
Plosives
/p, b/
/k, g/
/t, d/
Fricatives
/s, z/
/f, v/
/S, Z/
/m, n, n_j/ For some speakers, /n_j/ is probably /n/ + /j/
/l/
Vibrant
/r/ (Uvular trill)
Semi-vowel
/j/
French is an official language of New Brunswick, the Northwest Territories, and Nunavut, and is the sole official language of Quebec. The Quebec government enforces certain laws regarding the status of French in the province, including requirements for the use of French in businesses of a certain size; precedence of French-language outdoor signs over English-language ones in commercial settings; and requirements for French-language education for children. Policy regarding the French language in Quebec is the department of the Office québécois de la langue française. French Phonemes
ã
Some common phrases
See also:
Legal issues
France
France mandates the use of French in official government publications, education (though these dispositions are often ignored) and legal contracts; avertisements must bear a translation of foreign words. Contrary to a myth common in the American and British media, France does not prohibit the use of foreign words in Web pages or any other private publication, which would anyway contradict constitutional guarantees on freedom of speech.Canada
French is one of Canada's two official languages, with English; various provisions of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms deal with the right of Canadians to access services in French. 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 English and French; and all Canadian products must be labelled in both English and French.
