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French
français
Pronunciationfʁɑ̃sɛ
Native toFrance, including French Overseas Departments, Communities and Territories; Canada especially in Quebec and New Brunswick; Belgium; Switzerland; Luxembourg; Monaco; many Western and Central African nations such as Ivory Coast, Republic of the Congo, Niger, Senegal and Tunisia; Haiti; some Asian countries such as Laos and Vietnam; and the U.S. states of Louisiana and Maine.
RegionAfrica, Europe, Americas, Pacific
Native speakers
120 million native, 210 million total [1]
Official status
Official language in
29 countries
Regulated byAcadémie française
Language codes
ISO 639-1fr
ISO 639-2fre (B)
fra (T)
ISO 639-3fra

Map of the Francophone world

French (French: français) is the second largest of the Romance languages in terms of number of native speakers, after Spanish, being spoken by about 120 million people as a mother tongue, and altogether by some 210 million people, which includes second-language speakers who use French for daily communication.

French is thus among the 10 most widely spoken languages in the world. It is one of the leading languages in the academic, scientific, legal, diplomatic and journalistic worlds. It is an official language in 29 countries, and is spoken in no less than 52 countries spread on all five continents.

French is also an official or administrative language in many communities and international organisations (such as the European Union, International Olympic Committee, World Trade Organization, FINA, FIA, World Anti-Doping Agency, United Nations, International Court of Justice, Internation Secretariat for Water, International Association of Political Science, International Bureau of Weigths and Measurements, European Broadcasting Union, Universal Postal Union, Interpol and so on), which makes French the only language, with English, that has a real international status. [2]

History

The Roman invasion of Gaul

The French language is a Romance language, meaning that it is descended from Latin. Before the Roman invasion of what is modern-day France by Julius Cæsar (58–52 BC), France was inhabited largely by a Celtic people that the Romans referred to as Gauls, although there were also other linguistic/ethnic groups in France at this time, such as the Iberians in southern France and Spain, the Ligurians on the Mediterranean coast, Greek colonies such as Massalia (i.e. present-day Marseille), Phoenician outposts, and the Vascons on the Spanish/French border.

Although in the past many Frenchmen liked to refer to their descent from Gallic ancestors (nos ancêtres les Gaulois), perhaps fewer than 200 words with a Celtic etymological origin remain in French today (largely place and plant names and words dealing with rural life and the earth). In the reverse direction, some words for Gallic objects which were new to the Romans and for which there were no words in Latin were imported into Latin – for example, clothing items such as les braies. Latin quickly became the lingua franca of the entire Gallic region for mercantile, official and educational purposes, yet it should be remembered that this was Vulgar Latin, the colloquial dialect spoken by the Roman army and its agents and not the literary dialect of Cicero.

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 Visigoths 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 Dante, writing in Latin in his De vulgari eloquentia, classified the Romance languages into three groups: "nam alii oc, alii si, alii vero dicunt oil" ("some say oc, others say si, others say oïl"), thereby defining oïl languages (in northern France); oc languages (in southern France) and si languages (in Italy and Iberia). Modern linguists typically divide the languages spoken in medieval France into three geographical subgroups: Langue d'oïl and Langue d'oc are the two major groups; the third group, Franco-Provençal, is considered a transitional language between the two other groups. The Oïl–Oc divide may be broadly compared to the divide illustrated by the use of "yes" in English and "aye" 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 Bretagne (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 Pyrénées, 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 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. 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 Académie française (French Academy) in 1634 by Cardinal Richelieu created an official body whose goal has been the purification and preservation of the French language. This group of 40 members is known as the Immortals, not, as some erroneously believe, because they are chosen to serve for the extent of their lives (which they are), but because of the inscription engraved on the official seal given to them by their founder Richelieu—"À l'immortalité" ("to the Immortality (of the French language)"). The foundation still exists and contributes to the policing of the language and the adaptation of foreign words and expressions. Some recent modifications include the change from software to logiciel, packet-boat to paquebot, and riding-coat to redingote. The word ordinateur for computer was however not created by the Académie, but by a linguist appointed by IBM (see fr:ordinateur).

From the 17th to the 19th centuries, France was the leading power of continental 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 languages.

Geographic distribution

Dark blue: French-speaking; blue: official language; Light blue: language of culture; green: minority

La Francophonie is an international organization of French-speaking countries and governments.

Per the Constitution of France, French is the official language of the Republic since 1792 [3].

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. 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.

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 citizens, although the level and quality of French-language service varies significantly from province to province.

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 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

Sound system

Main article: French phonology and orthography
This article contains phonetic transcriptions in the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA). For an introductory guide on IPA symbols, see Help:IPA. For the distinction between [ ], / / and ⟨ ⟩, see IPA § Brackets and transcription delimiters.

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:

  • liaison or linking: Final single consonants, in particular s, x, z, t, d, n and m, are normally silent. (The final letters 'c', 'r', 'f', and 'l' however are normally pronounced.) When the following word begins with a vowel, though, a silent consonant may once again be pronounced, to provide a "link" between the two words and avoid a glottal stop between them. Some liaisons are mandatory, for example the s in les amants or vous avez; some are optional, depending on dialect and register, for example the first s in deux cents euros or euros irlandais; and some are forbidden, for example the s in beaucoup d'hommes aiment. The t of et is never pronounced and the silent final consonant of a noun is only pronounced in the plural and in set phrases like pied-à-terre. Doubling a final consonant and adding a silent e at the end of a word (e.g. Parisien → Parisienne) makes it clearly pronounced, always.
  • elision or vowel dropping: Monosyllabic words such as je or que drop their final vowel before another word beginning with a vowel. The missing vowel is replaced by an apostrophe. (e.g. je ai is instead pronounced and spelt → j'ai). This gives for example the same pronunciation for "l'homme qu'il a vu" ("the man whom he saw") and "l'homme qui l'a vu" ("the man who saw him").
  • nasal "n" and "m". When "n" or "m" follows a vowel combination, 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 allow part of the air to leave through the nostrils). Exceptions are when the "n" or "m" is doubled, or immediately followed by a vowel. The prefixes en- and em- are always nasalized. The rules get more complex than this but may vary between dialects.
  • gemination : Within words, double consonants are not spelled as geminates in modern French (but you could hear geminates in the cinema or TV news as far as the 70's). For example, "illusion" is spelled [ilyzjő] and not [illyzjõ]. But gemination occurs in sentences. For example, "il l'a bien fait" ("he did it well") is spelled [illabjɛ̃fe], whereas "il a bien fait" ("he did well") is spelled [ilabjɛ̃fe].
  • accents are used sometimes for pronunciation, sometimes to distinguish similar words, and sometimes for etymology alone.
    • Accents that affect pronunciation:
      • The acute accent (l'accent aigu), "é" (e.g.,école— school), is pronounced /e/ instead of the defaults /ɛ/ or/ə/,
      • The grave accent (l'accent grave), "è" (e.g., élève— pupil) means that the vowel is pronounced /ɛ/ (as usual),
      • The dieresis (le tréma) (e.g. naïve— foolish, Noël— Christmas) as in English, specifies that this vowel is pronounced separately from the preceding one (or following one in some cases), not combined,
      • The cedille (la cédille)"ç" (e.g., garçon— boy) means that the letter c is pronounced /s/ in front of A, O, or U. ("c" is otherwise hard /k/ before a hard vowel.)
      • The circumflex (l'accent circonflexe) "ê" (e.g., forêt— forest) shows that an e is pronounced /ɛ/ and that an o is pronounced /o/. In some dialects it also signifies a pronunciation of /ɑ/ for the letter a, but this differentiation is disappearing. In the late 19th century, the circumflex was used in place of 's' where that letter was not to be pronounced. Thus, forest became forêt and hospital became hôpital.
    • Accents with no pronunciation effect:
      • The circumflex does not affect the pronunciation of the letters i or u, and in most dialects, a as well.
      • All other accents are used only to distinguish similar words or for etymological reasons, as in the case of distinguishing the adverbs là and où ("there", "where") from the article la and the conjunction ou ("the fem. sing.", "or") respectively.

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:

  • brother: frère (brother) / fraternel
  • finger: doigt / digital
  • faith: foi (faith) / fidèle
  • cold: froid / frigide
  • eye: œil / oculaire

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 (vingt) is used as a base number in the names of numbers from 70-99. So for example, quatre-vingts means 4 times 20, i.e. is the French word for 80, and soixante quinze (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).

Belgian French and Swiss French are different in this respect.

Writing system

French is written using the Latin alphabet, plus five diacritics (the circumflex accent, acute accent, grave accent, diaeresis, and cedilla) and one ligature (œ).

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:

  • Old French doit > French doigt "finger" (Latin digitum)
  • Old French pie > French pied "foot" (Latin pedem)

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.

  • grave accent (à, è, ù): Over a or u, used only to distinguish homophones: à ("to") vs. a ("has"), ou ("or") vs. où ("where"). Over an e, indicates the sound /ɛ/.
  • acute accent (é): Over an e, indicates the sound /e/, the ai sound in such words as English hay or neigh. It often indicates the historical deletion of a following consonant (usually an s): écouter < escouter.
  • circumflex (â, ê, î, ô, û): Over an e or o, indicates the sound /ɛ/ or /o/, respectively. Most often indicates the historical deletion of an adjacent letter (usually an s or a vowel): château < castel, fête < feste, sûr < seur, dîner < disner. By extension, it has also come to be used to distinguish homophones: du ("of the") vs. dû (past participle of devoir "to owe"; note that dû is in fact written thus because of a dropped e: deu).
  • diaeresis or tréma (ë, ï, ü): Indicates that a vowel is to be pronounced separately from the preceding one: naïve, Noël. Diaeresis on ÿ only occurs in some proper names (such as l'Haÿ-les-Roses) and in modern editions of old French texts. Since the 1990 orthographic rectifications, the diaeresis in words containing guë (such as aiguë or ciguë) should be moved onto the u: aigüe, cigüe. Words coming from German retain the old Umlaut if applicable but uses French pronounciation, such as kärcher(trade mark of a pressure washer).
  • cedilla (ç): Indicates that an etymological c is pronounced /s/ when it would otherwise be pronounced /k/. Thus je lance "I throw" (with c = [s] before e), je lançais "I was throwing" (c would be pronounced [k] before a without the cedilla).

The ligature œ is a mandatory contraction of oe in certain words (sœur "sister" /sœʁ/, œuvre "work [of art]" /œvʁ/, cœur "heart" /kœʁ/, cœlacanthe "Coelacanth" /selakɑ̃t/), sometimes in words of Greek origin, spelled with an οι /oj/ diphthong which became oe in Latin, pronounced /e/ in French (and other Romance languages): oesophage /ezɔfaʒ/, œnologie /enɔlɔʒi/. It may also appear in œu digraph (or œ alone in œil "eye"), in words that were once written with eu digraph (which could be read /y/ or /œ/, depending on the word): bœuf "ox" /bœf/ (Old French buef or beuf), mœurs /mœʁ/ "custom", œil "eye" /œj/, 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.

Some attempts have been made to reform French spelling, but few major changes have been made over the last two centuries.

Examples of French

English French
French Français
English Anglais
Yes Oui
No Non
Hello, hi Bonjour
Good afternoon/good evening Bon après-midi / bonsoir
Good night! Bonne nuit !
Goodbye Au revoir
Please S'il-vous-plaît
Thank you Merci
Sorry Pardon / désolé (if male) / désolée (if female)
Because Parce que
Why? Pourquoi ?
Who? Qui ?
What? Quoi ?
When? Quand ?
Where? Où ?
How? Comment ?
How much? Combien ?
I do not understand Je ne comprends pas
Help me! Aidez-moi !
Where's the bathroom? Où sont les toilettes ?
Do you speak English? Parlez-vous anglais ?

References

See also

French edition of Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The Wikibook [[wikibooks:|]] has a page on the topic of: French
Wikimedia Commons has media related to French.
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