French language

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French
français
Spoken in Africa, Europe, Americas, PacificFrance, including French Overseas Departments, Communities and Territories; Canada especially in Quebec, New Brunswick and parts of Ontario; Belgium; Switzerland; Lebanon; Luxembourg; Monaco; Morocco; Algeria; Tunisia; many Western and Central African nations such as Ivory Coast, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Niger and Senegal; Haiti; Mauritius; some Asian countries such as Laos, Cambodia, and Vietnam; Mexico; and the U.S. states of Louisiana, New Hampshire, and Maine.
Total speakers 270 million, of which 120 million are native or fluent[1]
Language family Indo-European
 Italic
  Romance
   Italo-Western
    Western
     Gallo-Iberian
      Gallo-Romance
       Gallo-Rhaetian
        Oïl
Language codes
ISO 639-1 fr
ISO 639-3 fra
Note: This page may contain IPA phonetic symbols in Unicode. See IPA chart for English for an English-​based pronunciation key.

French (français) is the third-largest of the Romance languages in terms of number of native speakers, after Spanish and Portuguese. It is spoken by about 175 million people as a mother tongue or fluently, mainly in Europe, Canada and Africa. It is an official language in 41 countries, most of which form what is called in French La Francophonie, the community of French-speaking nations.

Descended from the Latin of the Roman Empire, its development was influenced by the native Celtic languages of Roman Gaul (particularly in pronunciation), and by the Germanic language of the post-Roman Frankish invaders. This is one of the reasons why certain French sounds and spellings are distinctly different from those of other Romance languages such as Spanish and Italian and why Spanish and Italian sound more similar to one another than French does to either one of them.

A lingua franca in Europe in the 17th and 18th centuries, its international role then declined to the benefit of English. It has kept some international recognition however, being one of the two official languages of NATO and IOC, and one of the two working languages of the UN Secretariat

History

French changed through the centuries. This section is not a systematic History of French, its only purpose is to mention some historical evolutions that account for the form of modern French.

By the middle of the first century BCE, the part of Gaul that was to become France was completely conquered by the Romans. Latin, and especially Vulgar Latin (i.e the popular language) progressively replaced the local Gaulish languages. The raimnants of Gaulish languages are to be found in some phonological features and in a few words mostly dealing with rural life.

Germanic tribes settled in Gaul during the Migration Period,. The most important, that of the Franks, gave its name to France. Germanic presence in France caused some changes in pronunciation and grammar, especially in the Nothern half of Gaul. It evolved into a number of mutually intelligible Oïl languages. Though a variety of dialects remained for long, a common juridical and literary languages arose during the High Middle Ages. By the late 13th century, this common language was called interlingua Gallica (French common language). It progressively extended to Occitan languages-speaking areas in the South of France. 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 was still in use in official texts.

The 16th century was a period of intense reflection on language. It may partly be explained by the fact that linguistic unity was still very incomplete. Many dialects were still used even among the cultivated, Italian had a great cultural prestige and most scholars used latin that could be read throughout Europe. The situation largely changed in the the 17th century. In 1635, the Académie française was founnded. Its aim was to promote and refine a national model for the French language Cite error: Closing </ref> missing for <ref> tag. The vowel quality is identical to é /e/.

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

Samples

Template:Inline audio

English French IPA pronunciation
French français Template:Audio-IPA-nohelp
English anglais Template:Audio-IPA-nohelp
Yes Oui Template:Audio-IPA-nohelp
No Non Template:Audio-IPA-nohelp
Hello! Bonjour ! Template:Audio-IPA-nohelp
Good evening! Bonsoir ! Template:Audio-IPA-nohelp
Good night! Bonne nuit ! Template:Audio-IPA-nohelp
Goodbye! Au revoir ! Template:Audio-IPA-nohelp
Have a good day! Bonne journée ! Template:Audio-IPA-nohelp
Please S'il vous plaît Template:Audio-IPA-nohelp
Thank you Merci Template:Audio-IPA-nohelp
Sorry Pardon / désolé (if male) / désolée (if female) Template:Audio-IPA-nohelp / Template:Audio-IPA
Who? Qui ? Template:Audio-IPA-nohelp
What? Quoi ? Template:Audio-IPA-nohelp
When? Quand ? Template:Audio-IPA-nohelp
Where? Où ? Template:Audio-IPA-nohelp
Why? Pourquoi ? Template:Audio-IPA-nohelp
Because Parce que Template:Audio-IPA-nohelp
How? Comment ? Template:Audio-IPA-nohelp
How much? Combien ? Template:Audio-IPA-nohelp
I do not understand. Je ne comprends pas. Template:Audio-IPA-nohelp
Yes, I understand. Oui, je comprends. Template:Audio-IPA-nohelp
Help! Au secours !! (à l'aide !) Template:Audio-IPA-nohelp
Where are the toilets? Où sont les toilettes ? Template:Audio-IPA-nohelp
Do you speak English? Parlez-vous anglais ? Template:Audio-IPA-nohelp

Note: In these example audio files, you will hear a Canadian French accent.

Notes

References

  • Walter, Henriette and Gérard, Dictionnaire des mots d'origine étrangère, 1998.
  1. ↑ The French language in the world: an expanding community, Accessed June 14

See also


External links

Template:Wiktionarylang Template:InterWiki Template:Wikibookspar Template:Commonscat

Template:Official UN languages Template:Official EU languages Template:Romance languages

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