French language (original) (raw)
French (la langue fran�aise) 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).
French
Spoken in: | France and 53 other countries. |
---|---|
Region: | |
Total speakers: | 77 Million |
Ranking: | 11 |
Geneticclassification: | Indo-European Italic Romance Italo-Western Western Gallo-Iberian Gallo-Romance Gallo-Rhaetian O�l French |
Official status | |
Official language of: | France and 24 other countries |
Regulated by: | Acad�mie fran�aise |
Language codes | |
ISO 639-1: | fr |
ISO 639-2(B): | fre |
ISO 639-2(T): | fra |
SIL: | FRN |
History
Although in the past many Frenchmen liked to refer to their descent from Gallic ancestors ("Nos anc�tres 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'O�l dialects, like Picard, Valon, etc.), Occitan dialects (Gascon, Proven�al, 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.
Geographic distribution
French is an official language in the following countries:
| country | native speakers | population | pop. dens. | area |
| -------------- | ---------------- | ---------- | ---------- | ---- | | | (rough est.) | (July 2003 est.) | (/km2) | (km2) | |
France (Metropolitan)
60,000,000
60,180,600
105
547,030
Democratic Republic of the Congo
55,225,478
24
2,345,410
6,700,000
32,207,000
3
9,976,140
16,979,900
-
587,040
16,962,500
-
322,460
15,746,200
-
422,277
13,228,500
-
274,200
11,626,300
-
1,240,000
10,580,400
-
196,190
4,000,000
10,290,000
-
30,510
7,810,100
-
26,338
7,527,800
-
27,750
(millions)
7,318,638
-
41,290
6,096,156
-
27,830
5,429,300
-
56,785
3,683,600
-
622,984
2,954,300
-
342,000
1,321,500
-
267,667
632,948
-
2,170
457,130
-
23,000
100,000
454,157
171
2,586
442,200
-
1,780
390,200
-
1,100
200,000
-
12,200
80,469
-
455
Although not official, French is the major second language in the following countries.
country | population | pop. dens. | area |
---|---|---|---|
(July 2003 est.) | (/km2) | (km2) |
32,810,500
-
2,381,440
9,924,800
-
163,610
1,210,500
-
2,040
31,689,600
-
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.
Legal status in France
France mandates the use of French in official government publications, education (though these dispositions are often ignored) and legal contracts; advertisements 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.
Legal status in 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 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.
French is an official language of New Brunswick, the Northwest Territories, and Nunavut, and is the sole official language of Quebec. See Charter of the French Language.
Dialects of French
- Belgian French
- Swiss French
- Qu�b�cois French
- Acadian French
- Cajun French
- Parisian French
- Marseillais French
Languages derived from French
- Haitian Creole
- Michif
Sounds
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" become silent and cause 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.
Vowels
Oral vowels of French (in IPA):
Traditionally, French is described as having four distinct nasal vowels: [ɛ~], [ɑ~], [ɔ~], and [œ~]; however, many speakers have merged [œ~] and [ɛ~].
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/
i | si | si | 'if' |
---|---|---|---|
e | se | ses | 'his, hers' (pl) |
ɛ | sɛ | sait | 'knows' |
sɛʁ | serre | 'greenhouse' | |
y | sy | su | 'known' |
ø | sø | ceux | 'these' |
œ | sœʁ | soeur | 'sister' |
ə | sə | ce | 'this' |
a | sa | sa | 'his, hers' (f) |
u | su | sous | 'under' |
o | so | sot | 'silly' |
ɔ | sɔʁ | sort | 'fate' |
ɑ~ | sɑ~ | sans | 'without' |
ɔ~ | sɔ~ | son | 'his, hers' (m sg) |
ɛ~ | sɛ~ | saint | 'saint' |
Consonants
Bilabial | Labio-dental | Dental | Palato-alveolar | Palatal | Velar | Uvular |
---|
p b
t d
k g
m
n
ɲ
(ŋ)
f v
s z
ʃ ʒ
ʁ
l
Palatal | Labial-Palatal | Labial-Velar |
---|
j
ɥ
w
Grammar
The verb
There are three main verb categories, verbs ending in -er, -ir and -re.
French verbs are commonly conjugated in five simple tenses and five compound tenses. They are also conjugated in the "literary" or "historic" tenses, each of which have a commonly used equivalent tense. These literary tenses are used often in literature and history. There are two simple literary tenses and three compound literary tenses.
The commonly used simple tenses are: the present tense (le présent), the imperfect (l'imparfait), the future (le futur), the present subjunctive (le subjonctif) and the present conditional (le conditionnel).
The commonly conjugated compound tenses are the perfect (le passé composé), the pluperfect (le plus-que-parfait), the future perfect (le futur antérieur), the imperfect subjunctive (le subjonctif passé) and the past conditional (le conditionnel passé).
The perfect is the tense in common use used to describe actions that were started and completed in the past. The imperfect is the tense used to describe actions that were ongoing or continuous in the past or to describe habitual or repetitive action. The present and past subjunctives are used to describe doubt, emotions, possibilities and events which may or may not occur.
The simple literary tenses are the simple past or past historic (le passé simple), replaced in ordinary language by the perfect tense, and the imperfect subjunctive (l'imparfait du subjonctif), replaced in ordinary language by the present subjunctive.
The compound literary tenses are the past anterior (le passé antérieur), usually replaced by the pluperfect; the pluperfect subjunctive (le plus-que-parfait du subjonctif), usually replaced by the past subjunctive; and a second form of the past conditional.
Of the literary tenses, only the past historic tends to be used commonly any more. While grammatical distinctions were lost when the literary tenses fell out of common usage, the distinctions were not important enough for confusion to result.
Aside from these tenses, there is an imperative, a participle, and the infinitive, each of which can be inflected for tense (present and past), although the past imperative is quite rare.
Compound tense auxiliary verbs
In French, all compound tenses are formed with an auxiliary verb (either �tre "to be" or avoir "to have"). Most verbs use avoir as their auxiliary verb. The exceptions are sixteen commonly used verbs of motion and all reflexive verbs.
The distinction between the two auxiliary verbs is important for the correct formation of the compound tenses and is also essential to the agreement of the past participle.
The past participle
The past participle is used in French as both an adjective and to form all the compound tenses of the language. When it is used as an adjective, it follows all the regular agreement rules of the language, but when it is used in compound tenses, it follows special agreement rules.
-er verbs form the participle by changing the -er ending to -é, -ir verbs by changing -ir to -i, and -re verbs by changing to -u. Therefore, the past participle of parler, "to speak", is parlé; for finir, "to finish", fini, and for vendre, "to sell", vendu.
The rules of agreement for past participles differ for avoir verbs and �tre verbs (see "Compound tense auxiliary verbs"). For avoir verbs, the past participle does not agree with the subject unless the direct object comes before the verb, either in the form of a pronoun or a relative clause using que.
For the sixteen commonly used �tre verbs, the past participle always agrees with the subject. For reflexive verbs, the past participle generally agrees with the subject, unless there is a direct object to the reflexive verb.
Writing system
French is written using the Latin alphabet.
Some common phrases
- French: français /frA~ sE/ ("fron-seh")
- hello: bonjour /bO~ Zur/ ("bon-zhoor")
- good-bye: au revoir /o r@ vwar/ ("o-ruh-vwar")
- please: s'il vous pla�t /sil vu plE/ ("seel voo pleh")
- thank you: merci /mEr si/ ("mairr-see")
- you're welcome: de rien /dœ riE~/ ("deu ryeh") (France); bienvenue /bjE~v@ny/ ("byeh-venuh") (Quebec)
- that one: celui-l� ("sull-wee la") or celle-l� /s@ la/ ("cell-la")
- how much?: combien /kO~ bjE~/ ("kom-bee-an")
- English: anglais /A~ glE/ ("ahng-gleh")
- yes: oui /wi/ ("wee")
- no: non /nO~/ ("non")
- I'm sorry: Je suis désolé ("zhuh swee day-so-leh")
- I don't understand: Je ne comprends pas /Z@~ co~'pRA~ 'pa/ ("zhuh nuh comprahn pa")
- Where is the toilet?: Où sont les toilettes? /u sO~ lE twa lEt/ ("ooh song leh twa-let")
- Cheers (toast to someone's health): Tchin ("chin")
- Do you speak English?: Parlez-vous anglais ? /par lE vu A~ glE/ ("parlay voo ahng-gleh") OR "Vous parlez anglais ?" /vu par lE A~ glE/ ("voo parleh ahng-leh")
See also:
- Acad�mie Fran�aise
- French phrases used by English speakers
- French proverbs
- Common phrases in different languages
- Verlan