|
HISTORY
OF
FRENCH LANGUAGE
|
|
"The American arrives in Paris with a few
French phrases he has culled from a conversational guide or
picked up from a friend who owns a beret."
Fred Allen (1894-1957), U.S. radio
comic.
|
|
|
RECOMMENDED:
BUY IT HERE AT 20%
OFF
|
|
|
NTC's Dictionary of French Faux Pas
Common Errors of English-Speakers in French and How to Avoid Them
by Ann Crowe, Maureen Wesolowski, Anne Crowe, Marueen Wesolowski (Contributor)
Usually ships within 24 hours.
Hardcover - 256 pages
Published September 1993 by National Textbook Company
List Price: $14.95
Our Price: $10.46
You Save: $4.49 (30%)
ISBN: 0844214655
|
This quick, handy tool focuses on everyday communication, including common blunders,
false cognates, and anglicisms, offering French equivalents for hard-to-translate
English concepts.
|
|
|
|
|
The Romance
languages are a group of closely related vernaculars descended from
the LATIN LANGUAGE, a member of the Italic branch of INDO-EUROPEAN
LANGUAGES. The designation Romance is derived from the Latin phrase
romanica loqui, "to speak in Roman fashion," which attests to the
popular, rather than literary, origins of the languages.
The Romance
languages that have acquired national standing as the official
tongues of their countries are French, with approximately 98
million speakers living principally in France, Belgium,
Switzerland, Canada, and parts of Africa; Italian, with 65 million
speakers in Italy, Switzerland, and parts of Africa; Portuguese, with
137 million speakers in Portugal, Brazil, and parts of Africa and
Asia; Spanish, with 231 million speakers in Spain, Latin America, and
parts of the Caribbean; and Romanian, with 25 million speakers in
Romania and other parts of the Balkans.
Several distinct
Romance languages function as non-national, regional vernaculars.
Among these are Rheto-Romance, or Rhaetian, which consists of a group
of related languages spoken in Switzerland, where they are called
Romansch, and in northern Italy, where they are called Ladin or
Friulian. In southern France, Provençal, or
Occitan, is spoken by about 12 million people. Formerly more unified
as a literary language, Provençal now consists of a
series of local dialects.
Romance creoles,
whose origins are found in PIDGINS or simplified trade languages,
have also sprung up around the world. Haitian and Louisiana
French are such languages, as are the varieties of Portuguese
found in Macao and Goa.
From the evidence of
Latin grammarians, popular playwrights, and inscriptions, it is
apparent that in Republican Rome the spoken language of the lower
classes was undergoing modifications in pronunciation and grammar
that ultimately were to differentiate it from the written language
and the language of the privileged. During the period of empire and
Roman expansion, it was this Latin of the people, so-called Vulgar
Latin, that was carried to the far-flung provinces by soldiers,
merchants, and colonists.
Not all provinces
were Romanized at the same time, however. Sicily and Sardinia were
colonized as early as 238 BC, while Dacia--modern Romania--did not
come under Roman occupation until about AD 100. In the provinces,
Vulgar Latin underwent further modification by the subjugated
peoples, who brought to it their own speech habits and pronunciation
influenced by their own indigenous languages. The Iberians, for
example, pronounced Latin one way, whereas the Gauls
pronounced it another.
The collapse of the
empire's frontiers during the 5th century under the thrust of
Germanic tribes left Rome cut off from the provinces, and the outer
regions drifted apart as each modified its form of spoken Latin in
unique ways. In every region of the former Latin-speaking world, the
emerging Romance languages then in turn began to break up among
themselves.
French and Provençal
In Gallo-Roman
France, a split occurred between north and south, assisted by
incursions of Germanic-speaking Franks--whence the name
"France"--into the north. Here, too, further dialectalization
occurred throughout the Middle Ages, resulting in a multitude of
speech forms such as Francien, Picard, Norman, Lorrain, and Walloon.
Southern French, or Provençal, split into Languedocien,
Auvergnat, and many other dialects. The dialect of Paris
gradually became the national language, however, because of the
political prestige of the capital and today is accepted as the model
for the French language.
The Case System
Broadly speaking,
the trend or direction of change in the Romance languages has been to
reduce the Latin case system through elimination of the distinctive
endings. The Latin word porta, "door," for instance, had three
singular forms: nominative, vocative, and ablative porta; accusative
portam; and genitive and dative portae. Modern Romance languages,
however, use only one singular form: French porte, Italian and
Portuguese porta, and Spanish puerta. Other modern Romance linguistic
features include the elimination of neuter gender, the development of
the definite article, greater use of prepositions, stricter word
order, and the emergence of auxiliary verbs to express tense.
Verb Paradigms
French leveled the
verb paradigms to such an extent that subject pronouns became
mandatory (contrast French je chante, "I sing," with Italian canto);
but in general the Latin paradigm has remained intact.
Notable in phonology
was the loss of opposition between Latin long and short vowels, the
voicing of intervocalic voiceless consonants, and in some languages
the loss of syllable- and word-final s. The emergence of accentual
patterns led to the reduction or loss of many unstressed vowels in
the more heavily accented languages such as Gallo-Roman and Old
French, and to the diphthongization of some stressed vowels in most
of the Romance languages. Only in French and Portuguese, however, did
vowels before a nasal consonant undergo nasalization--compare French
main, "hand," with Portuguese mao and Spanish and Italian mano.
James M. Anderson
Source: The New Grolier
Multimedia Encyclopedia, Release #8, ©1996
Bibliography: Anderson, James M.,
and Rochet, Bernard, Historical Romance Morphology (1978); Auerbach,
Erich, Introduction to Romance Languages and Literature (1961);
Elcock, W. D., The Romance Languages (1960); Grandgent, C. H., An
Introduction to Vulgar Latin (1907); Hall, Robert, External History
of the Romance Languages (1974); Harris, M., and Vincent N., eds.,
The Romance Languages (1990); Heatwole, O. W., A Comparative
Practical Grammar of French, Spanish, and Italian (1956); Iordan,
Iorgu, and Orr, John, An Introduction to Romance Linguistics, Its
Schools and Scholars, 2d ed. (1970); Posner, R., The Romance
Languages: A Linguistic Introduction (1970); Pountain, C. J.,
Structures and Transformations: The Romance Verb (1983).
Basque
Basque, or Euskara, is a language spoken by about a million people
in northern Spain and southwestern France. Although attempts have
been made to link it to ancient Iberian, the Hamito-Semitic group,
and Caucasian, its origins remain uncertain.
The sound pattern resembles that of Spanish, with its five pure
vowels and such peculiarities as a trilled r and palatal n and l. In
spite of this, and the presence of numerous Latinate loanwords,
Basque has maintained its distinctiveness throughout two millennia of
external contacts. For example, it still places a unique emphasis on
suffixes to denote case and number and to form new words.
Basque is the only language remaining of those spoken in
southwestern Europe before the Roman conquest. Since the 10th
century, it has gradually been supplanted by Castilian Spanish, and
under the Franco regime its use in Spain was outlawed altogether. The
ethnic insularity of the Basques, however, has fostered revivals.
Attempts are now being made to standardize the orthography.
Source: The New Grolier
Multimedia Encyclopedia, Release #8, ©1996
Bibliography: Russell, H., et al.,
Basque Essay (1974); Tovar, Antonio, The Basque Language (1957);
Vallie, F., Literature of the Basques (1974).
Creole
Creole languages are fully formed languages that develop from a
PIDGIN language and gradually become the primary language of a
linguistic community. As the domains of the use of the pidgin
language expand, often with the development of a LINGUA FRANCA used
for communication between different groups, it develops lexically and
becomes phonologically and grammatically more complex. When the
pidgin replaces the community's original language, it is called a
creole.
Widely distributed throughout the world, creolized languages are
native to between 10 and 15 million people. Different creoles share
many common features, such as an outward simplicity and regularity
that is believed to reflect universal linguistic processes.
Most creole languages have vocabularies derived from major
European languages. French-based Creole is found in Haiti, Mauritius,
the French Overseas Departments of Guadeloupe, Martinique, Reunion,
and Guyana, in Dominica and St. Lucia, and, although disappearing, in
various British-influenced Caribbean islands and in southwestern
Louisiana.
When creole coexists with the language on which it is lexically
based, it blends with the base language to form a decreolization
continuum. Except for Tok Pisin, which has semiofficial status in
Papua New Guinea, and Creole, endowed with a semicodified orthography
in Haiti, creoles still bear the stigma of their pidgin origin and
their association with slavery and social inferiority. They are
vernaculars that are not thought appropriate for administrative,
educational, and literary functions.
Albert Valdman
Source: The New Grolier
Multimedia Encyclopedia, Release #8, ©1996
Bibliography: Byrne, Francis, and
Holm, John, eds., Atlantic Meets Pacific (1992); Gilbert, G. G., ed.,
Pidgin and Creole Languages, 2 vols. (1980-87); Lalla, Barbara, and
D'Costa, Jean, Language in Exile: Three Hundred Years of Jamaican
Creole (1990); Holm, John A., Pidgins and Creoles, 2 vols. (1988-89);
Muhlhausler, Peter, Pidgin and Creole Linguistics (1986); Taylor, D.
M., Languages of the West Indies (1977).
SEE ALSO:
Alsatian ||
Auvergnat ||
Breton ||
Caló ||
Catalan ||
Corsican ||
Dutch
Franco-Provençal ||
French Sign Language ||
Gascon ||
Greek ||
Italian
Languedocien ||
Ligurian ||
Limousin ||
Lyons Sign Language
Portuguese ||
Provençal ||
Romani ||
Shuadit ||
Spanish ||
Zarphatic
|
French Language Links:
|
|
ePALS Classroom Exchange
Meet and correspond with over 7,500 international K-12 students, schools, teachers,
keypals and pen pals. ePALS are educational and FUN!
|
|
French In Action (as seen on PBS)
This video series uses active participation to increase your fluency in French
and help you experience French culture. Pierre Capretz's proven language immersion
method places you into a humorous teleplay with native speakers of all ages and
backgrounds. [Produced by
Yale University and WGBH/Boston with Wellesley College.]
|
|
French Language at About.com
Laura K. Lawless, an adult-education
French teacher and freelance translator currently pursuing a Master's degree in
French, is your Guide to French Language at About.com, providing a host of helpful
articles and links.
|
|
Virtual Writer (L'écrivain public virtuel)
Need to write a business letter? Invitation, note of congratulations, or a solicitation
of employment? This site provides a variety of ready-to-use templates which will assure
you the correct elements of style for a number of purposes; or you can consult their
list of writers at your disposal.
|
|
Translate this page into French
[Warning: results may be hilarious!]
AltaVista provides a translation feature
which will re-load this page in French. Machines and software are far from perfect,
as you will see, because idiomatic expressions and even certain aspects of text formatting
can confuse them terribly. However, at the very least, you may get a good laugh or even be
amazed at what "artificially intelligent" programs can do these days!
|
|
|
FOREIGN LANGUAGE TEACHING Discussion List
The Foreign Language Teaching Forum
List, FLTEACH, is intended to serve as a forum for communication among foreign language teachers
at the high school and college levels. Our aim is to improve communication among the professionals
involved in teaching languages and training student teachers. On a local level we are concerned with
certification in language teaching in New York State. The FLTEACH audience includes Methodologists,
University Supervisors, Cooperating Teachers in junior high and high school, Student Teachers, and
all language teachers involved in developing or implementing a FL curriculum or engaged in the
certification process. The need for such a forum has often been expressed in meetings of NYSAFLT in
the context of articulation, bridging the gap between secondary and post-secondary teachers.
Although our initial focus was on language teaching in New York State, FLTEACH has developed a
much broader base. We hope that the subscribers will use FLTEACH as a tool to solve problems together
in a regional, national, and even international forum.
Jean LeLoup and
Robert Ponterio, Co-Managers, International Communications and Culture, SUNY-Cortland, Cortland,
NY 13045
|
|
