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|name=French |nativename=français |familycolor=Indo-European |pronunciation=fʁɑ̃sɛ |states= France , including French Overseas Departments , Communities and Territories ; Canada especially in Quebec and New Brunswick ; Belgium ; Switzerland ; Lebanon ; Luxembourg ; Monaco ; Morocco ; Algeria ; Tunisia ; many Western and Central Africa n nations such as Ivory Coast , Republic Of The Congo , Niger and Senegal ; Haiti ; Mauritius ; some Asian countries such as Laos and Vietnam ; and the U.S. states of Louisiana , Maine , and New Hampshire . |region= Africa , Europe , Americas , Pacific |speakers=109 million native 264 million total [http://www.diplomatie.gouv.fr/fr/actions-france_830/francophonie-langue-francaise_1040/francophonie_3026/francais-dans-monde_11936/index.html |rank= 10th native (5th total) |fam1= Indo-European |fam2= Italic |fam3= Romance |fam4= Italo-Western |fam5=Western |fam6= Gallo-Iberian |fam7= Gallo-Romance |fam8= Gallo-Rhaetian |fam9= Oïl |nation=29 countries |agency= Académie Française (France) Office Québécois De La Langue Française (Quebec) |iso1=fr|iso2b=fre|iso2t=fra|iso3=fra|map= French (''français'') is the third largest of the Romance Languages in terms of number of native speakers, after Spanish and Portuguese , being spoken by about 109 Million people as a Mother Tongue and altogether by some 264 million people [http://www.diplomatie.gouv.fr/fr/actions-france_830/francophonie-langue-francaise_1040/francophonie_3026/francais-dans-monde_11936/index.html (including second-language speakers and learners). French is thus the 10th most spoken language in the world by number of native speakers, and 5th in terms of daily speakers. It is an Official Language in 29 countries. French is also an official or administrative language in several communities and international Organisation s (such as the European Union , International Olympic Committee , World Trade Organization , FINA , FIA , World Anti-Doping Agency , United Nations , African Union , International Court Of Justice , Internation Secretariat For Water , International Association Of Political Science , International Bureau Of Weights And Measures , European Broadcasting Union , Universal Postal Union , Interpol and so on) and one of the six ''working'' languages of the United Nations . History See Also: History of the French language The Franks From the third century on, Western Europe was invaded by Germanic tribes from the east, and some of these groups settled in Gaul. For the history of the French language, the most important of these groups are the Franks in northern France, the Alemanni in the German/French border, the Burgundians in the Rhone valley and the Visigoth s in the Aquitaine region and Spain. These Germanic-speaking groups had a profound effect on the Latin spoken in their respective regions, altering both the pronunciation and the syntax. They also introduced a number of new words: perhaps as much as 15% of modern French comes from Germanic words, including many terms and expressions associated with their social structure and military tactics. Langue d'Oïl The medieval Italian poet and Langue D'oc are the two major groups; the third group, Franco-Provençal , displays features in common with both other groups, without belonging to either. The Oïl–Oc divide may be broadly compared to the divide illustrated by the use of "yes" in English in southern England and "aye" in dialects of northern England and in Scots . The Romance language group in the north of France is that of the langue d'oïl, the languages which use ''oïl'' (in modern usage, ''oui'') for "yes". These languages, like Picard , Walloon , Francien and Norman , were influenced by the Germanic Languages spoken by the Frankish invaders. From the time period Clovis I on, the Franks extended their rule over northern Gaul. Over time, the French language developed from either the Oïl language found around Paris (the Francien theory) or from a standard administrative language based on common characteristics found in all Oïl languages (the Lingua Franca theory). Oïl derives from the Latin ''hoc ille'' ("that is it"). Langue d'oc, the languages which use ''oc'' for "yes", is the language group in the south of France and northern Spain . These languages, such as Gascon and Provençal , have relatively little Frankish influence. Oc/òc derive from the Latin ''hoc''. Modern French has two words for "yes", ''oui'' and ''si''; the latter is used to contradict negative statements or respond to negative questions. ''Si'' derives from Latin ''sic'' ("thus"), and is cognate to the word for "yes" in Spanish, Italian, and Catalan. Foreign language groups The early middle ages also saw the influence of other linguistic groups on the dialects of France: From the 5th to the 8th centuries, Celtic-speaking peoples from southwestern Britain ( Wales , Cornwall , Devon ) travelled across the English Channel , both for reasons of trade and as a result of the Anglo-Saxon invasions of England. They established themselves in Brittany . Their language was a dialect of the Brythonic Languages , which has been named Breton in more recent centuries. It is part of the larger Celtic Language family, though the modern dialects reflect a noticeable influence from French in their vocabulary. From the 6th to the 7th centuries, the Vascons crossed over the Pyrenees , a mountain range in the south of France. Their presence influenced the Occitan Language spoken in southwestern France, resulting in the dialect called Gascon . Scandinavian Vikings invaded France from the 9th Century onwards and established themselves in what would come to be called Normandie (Normandy). They took up the Langue D'oïl spoken there and contributed many words to French related to maritime activities, amongst other things. With their Conquest of England in 1066 , the Normans brought Their Language . The dialect that developed there as a language of administration and literature is referred to as Anglo-Norman . Anglo-Norman served as the language of the ruling classes and commerce in England from the time of the conquest until 1362 , when the use of English became dominant again. Because of the Norman Conquest, the English Language has borrowed a considerable amount of its vocabulary from French. The Arab peoples also supplied many words to French around this time period, including words for luxury goods, Spices , trade stuffs, sciences and Mathematics . Modern French For the period up to around 1300 , some linguists refer to the Oïl Languages collectively as Old French (''ancien français''). The earliest extant text in French is the Oaths Of Strasbourg from 842 ; Old French became a Literary Language with the '' Chansons De Geste '' that told tales of the Paladin s of Charlemagne and the Hero es of the Crusade s. 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. With the imposition of a standardised chancery dialect and the loss of the declension system, the dialect is referred to as Middle French (''moyen français''). Following a period of unification, regulation and purification, the French of the 17th to the 18th Centuries is sometimes referred to as Classical French (''français classique''), although many linguists simply refer to French language from the 17th century to today as Modern French (''français moderne''). The foundation of the ). From the 17th to the 19th Centuries , France was the leading power of Europe; thanks to this, together with the influence of the Enlightenment , French was the Lingua Franca of educated Europe, especially with regards to the arts, literature, and Diplomacy ; monarchs like Frederick II Of Prussia and Catherine The Great of Russia could both speak and write in French. Through the Académie, public education, centuries of official control and the role of media, a unified official French language has been forged, but there remains a great deal of diversity today in terms of regional accents and words. For some critics, the "best" pronunciation of the French language is considered to be the one used in Touraine (around Tours and the Loire River valley), but such value judgments are fraught with problems, and with the ever increasing loss of lifelong attachments to a specific region and the growing importance of the national media, the future of specific "regional" accents is often difficult to predict. Modern issues There is some debate in today's France about the preservation of the French language and the influence of English (see Franglais ), especially with regard to international business, the sciences and popular culture. There have been laws (see Toubon Law ) enacted which require that all print ads and billboards with foreign expressions include a French translation and which require quotas of French-language songs (at least 40%) on the radio. There is also pressure, in differing degrees, from some regions as well as minority political or cultural groups for a measure of recognition and support for their Regional Language s. Geographic distribution La Francophonie is an international organization of French-speaking countries and governments. Legal status in France Per the Constitution Of France , French is the official language of the Republic since 1992 {Link without Title} . France mandates the use of French in official government publications, public Education outside of specific cases (though these dispositions are often ignored) and legal Contract s; Advertisement s must bear a translation of foreign words. ''See Toubon Law ''. Contrary to a Misunderstanding common in the American and British Media , France does not prohibit the use of foreign words in Websites or any other private publication, which would anyway contradict Constitutional guarantees on 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 1977 and 1993, although these regulations addressed language used in advertising and the provision of commercial services offered within the province, not the language of private communication. There exist in addition to French a variety of languages spoken in France by minorities; see Languages Of France . Legal status in Canada About 12% of the world's francophones are Canadian, and 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 English and French all across Canada. 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. Overall about 22% of Canadians speak French as a first language and 18% are bilingual. French has been the only official language of Quebec since 1974 , although it is commonly (and incorrectly) believed that the designation of French as the sole official language occurred in 1977 with the adoption of the Charter Of The French Language (which is popularly referred to as ''Bill 101''). By far the provision of Bill 101 with the most significant impact has been that which mandates French-language Education , unless a child's parents or siblings have received the major part of their own education in English within Canada. That provision has reversed a historical trend whereby a large number of immigrant children were being sent to English schools by their parents. In so doing, Bill 101 has greatly contributed to the "visage français" (French face) of Quebec. Other provisions of Bill 101, on the other hand, have been ruled unconstitutional over the years, including those mandating French-only commercial signs, court proceedings, and debates in the legislature. Some of those provisions have remained in effect, for a while, using the constitutional "notwithstanding" clause that permits a non-compliant law to temporarily remain. (No "notwithstanding provision" is currently in effect). In 1993 the Charter was changed to allow signage in other languages so long as French is markedly "predominant". The Charter also provides for a measure of access by Anglophones to health and social services in their own language. The only other province which has French as an official language is New Brunswick . The highest number of Francophones in North America , outside Quebec , reside in Ontario whereas New Brunswick has the highest percentage of Francophones after Quebec . In Ontario , Nova Scotia and Manitoba , French does not have full official status, although the provincial governments do provide full French-language services in all communities where significant numbers of francophones live. Canada's capital city, Ottawa, Ontario is recognized by the government of Ontario as being officially bilingual. Sudbury and Cornwall are also officially bilingual cities in the north and east of the province, respectively. Throughout Ontario , the French Language Services Act, adopted in 1986, guarantees French language services where the Francophone population represents greater than 5%, especially in the north and east of the province, as well as in the other larger centres, apart from Ottawa, such as Toronto, Hamilton, Mississauga, London, Kitchener, St. Catharine's-Niagara and Windsor. A similar law came into effect in Nova Scotia in 2005. After having had the status of an Observer at the last meeting of the Francophonie , Ontario is now joining this organization as a full Member along with Canada, Quebec and New Brunswick . All of the other provinces do make some effort to accommodate the needs of their francophone Citizen s, although the level and quality of French-language service varies significantly from province to province. Legal status in other countries French is an official language in Switzerland . It is spoken in the part of Switzerland called '' Romandy ''. It is an official language in Belgium and is spoken in the part of the country called Wallonie and in the capital, Brussels (Bruxelles). It is one of the official languages in Luxembourg, along with German and Luxembourgish. It is also an official language, along with Italian, in Val D'Aoste , Italy . It is the official language of the principality of Monaco . It is the official or administrative language of many African countries (such as Ivory Coast, Gabon, Democratic Republic of Congo, Senegal) and of a few Asian countries (such as Laos). Regional Varieties : ''See Dialects Of The French Language ''
Derived languages Main article: French-based Creole Languages
Sound system Main article: French Phonology 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 and the north, which has no commonly used special name, but has been termed français neutre. VOICED STOPS (i.e. /b d g/) are typically produced fully voiced throughout. VOICELESS STOPS (i.e. /p t k/) are described as unaspirated; when preceding high vowels, they are often followed by a short period of aspiration and/or frication. They are never glottalised. NASALS. The velar nasal /ŋ/ occurs only in final position in borrowed (usually English) words: parking, camping, swing. The palatal nasal can occur in word initial position (e.g. gnon), but it is most frequently found in intervocalic, onset position or word-inally (e.g. montagne). FRICATIVES. French has three pairs of homorganic fricatives distinguished by voicing, i.e. labiodental /f/-/v/, dental /s/-/z/, and palato-alveolar /S/-/Z/. Notice that /s/-/z/ are dental, like the plosives /t/-/d/, and the nasal /n/. French has one rhotic whose pronunciation varies considerably among speakers and phonetic contexts. In general it is described as a voiced uvular fricative as in “roue” wheel Vowels are often lengthened before this segment. It can be reduced to an approximant, particularly in final position [e.g. “fort”) or reduced to zero in some word-final positions. For other speakers, a uvular trill is also fairly common, and an apical trill [r occurs in some dialects. LATERAL AND CENTRAL APPROXIMANTS. The lateral approximant /l/ is clear in both onset (“lire”) and coda position (“il”). The central approximants [ɥ , and each correspond to a high vowel, [u , and [i respectively. There are a few minimal pairs where the approximant and corresponding vowel contrast, but there are also many chases where they are in free variation. Contrasts between and [i occur chiefly in final position, as in abeille “bee” vs. [abei abbaye “monastery”, “abbey”. 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 Main article: French Orthography
Grammar Main article: French 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 . Vocabulary The majority of French words derive from vernacular or "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:
In some examples there is a common word from "vulgar" Latin and a more savant word from classcial 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 , and 144—about three percent—from other languages (Walter & Walter 1998). Numerals The French counting system is partially Vigesimal : Twenty (') is used as a base number in the names of numbers from 80-99. So for example, ' means 4 times 20, i.e. is the French word for 80 , and '''' (literally "sixty-fifteen") means 75. This is comparable to archaic English use of "score", as in "fourscore and seven" (87), or "threescore and ten" (70). Writing system French 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. However, some conscious changes were also made to restore Latin orthography:
As a result, it is nearly impossible 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.
The ligature œ is a mandatory contraction of ''oe'' in certain words (''sœur'' "sister" , ''œuvre'' "work art " , ''cœur'' "heart" , ''cœlacanthe'' "coelacanth" ), sometimes in words of Greek origin, spelled with an οι diphthong which became ''oe'' in Latin, pronounced in French (and other (or ''œ'' alone in ''œil'' "eye"), in words that were once written with ''eu'' digraph (which could be read or , depending on the word): ''bœuf'' "ox" (Old French ''buef'' or ''beuf''), ''mœurs'' "custom", ''œil'' "eye" , etc. In these cases, the Latin etymon must be spelled with an ''o'' where the French word has ''œu'': ''bovem'' > ''bœuf'', ''mores'' > ''mœurs'', ''oculum'' > ''œil''. The ligature æ is rare and appears in the words cæcum and nævus. The vowel quality is identical to é . Some attempts have been made to Reform French spelling, but few major changes have been made over the last two centuries. Examples of French References See also
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