   #copyright

French language

2007 Schools Wikipedia Selection. Related subjects: Languages

   French
   français
   Pronunciation: IPA: [fʁɑ̃sɛ]
   Spoken in: France, Switzerland,Canada,Belgium, Luxembourg, Monaco,
   Morocco, Algeria,Tunisia, Ivory Coast, Equatorial Guinea, Guinea,
   Democratic Republic of the Congo, Niger, Senegal, Haiti, Lebanon,
   Martinique, Vietnam, Central Africa, Tchad, Madagascar, Cameroun,
   Gabon, and other countries.
   Region: Africa, Europe, Americas, Pacific
   Total speakers: 128 million native or fluent
   Ranking: 9
   Language family: Indo-European
     Italic
      Romance
       Italo-Western
       Western
         Gallo-Iberian
          Gallo-Romance
          Gallo-Rhaetian
            Oïl
            French
   Official status
   Official language of: 30 countries
   Regulated by: Académie française (France) Office québécois de la langue
   française (Quebec, Canada)
   Language codes
   ISO 639-1: fr
   ISO 639-2: fre (B)  fra (T)
   ISO/FDIS 639-3: fra

                        Map of the Francophone world
      Dark blue: French-speaking; blue: official language; Light blue:
                    language of culture; green: minority


   Note: This page may contain IPA phonetic symbols in Unicode. See IPA
   chart for English for an English-​based pronunciation key.

   This article is part of the series on:

   French language
     * Dialects and History
     * Orthography
          + Reforms
          + Use of the circumflex
     * Phonology and Pronunciation
          + Liaison
          + Elision
     * Grammar
          + Verbs
               o Conjugation
               o Verb morphology
          + Articles and determiners
          + Adverbs
          + Pronouns
               o Personal Pronouns

   French is a Romance language spoken originally in France, Belgium, and
   Switzerland, and today by about 130 million people around the world as
   a mother tongue or fluent second language, with significant populations
   in 54 countries.

   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. It has borrowed substantial amounts of vocabulary as
   well, historically from Ancient Greek in particular.

   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.

   From the 18th century well into the 20th century, French was the
   leading international language of culture and diplomacy, and knowledge
   of French was considered a requirement for better-educated classes
   around the world as late as the 1970s. Due to this legacy -- and
   ongoing strenuous efforts by the French government -- it retains
   significant use today in international affairs despite its replacement
   by English as the "world language".

   It is an official or administrative language of the African Union, the
   European Broadcasting Union, ESA, the European Union, FIA, FIFA, FINA,
   IHO, the International Bureau of Weights and Measures, the
   International Court of Justice, the International Olympic Committee,
   the International Political Science Association, the International
   Secretariat for Water, Interpol, NATO, the UCI, the United Nations and
   all its agencies (including the Universal Postal Union), the World
   Anti-Doping Agency, and the World Trade Organization.

Geographic distribution

Legal status in France

   Per the Constitution of France, French has been the official language
   since 1992 (although previous legal text have made it official since
   1539, see ordinance of Villers-Cotterêts). 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.

   Contrary to a common misunderstanding both in the American and British
   media, France does not prohibit the use of foreign words in websites
   nor in any other private publication, as that would violate the
   constitutional right of 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.

   In addition to French, there are also a variety of languages spoken by
   minorities, though France has not signed the European Charter for
   Regional Languages yet.

Legal status in Canada

   About 5.2% of the world's francophones are Canadian, and French is one
   of Canada's two official languages (the other being English). Various
   provisions of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms deal with
   Canadians' right to access services in both languages. 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 these languages, and all Canadian products must have
   bilingual labels. Overall, about 13% of Canadians have knowledge of
   French only, while 18% have knowledge of both English and French.

   In contrast, over 80% of the population of Quebec speaks French (the
   largest French-speaking city besides Paris is Montréal). It has been
   the sole official language of Québec since 1974; this was reiterated in
   law with the 1977 adoption of the Charter of the French Language
   (popularly referred to as Bill 101), which guarantees that every person
   has a right to have the civil administration, the health and social
   services, corporations, and enterprises in Quebec communicate with him
   in French. Although some arrangements of the Charter allow the use of
   English in order to respect the freedoms and rights of Québec's
   anglophone minority (such as access to health and social services),
   French is widely promoted.

   The provision of Bill 101 that has arguably had the most significant
   impact mandates French-language education unless a child's parents or
   siblings have received the majority of their own education in English
   within Canada. This measure has reversed a historical trend whereby a
   large number of immigrant children were sent to English schools. In so
   doing, Bill 101 has greatly contributed to the "visage français"
   (French face) of Montreal in spite of its growing immigrant population.
   Other provisions of Bill 101 have been ruled unconstitutional over the
   years, including those mandating French-only commercial signs, court
   proceedings, and debates in the legislature. Though none of these
   provisions are still in effect today, some continued to be on the books
   for a time even after courts had ruled them unconstitutional as a
   result of the government's decision to invoke the so-called
   notwithstanding clause of the Canadian constitution to override
   constitutional requirements. In 1993, the Charter was rewritten to
   allow signage in other languages so long as French was markedly
   "predominant."

   The only other province that recognizes French as an official language
   is New Brunswick, which is officially bilingual like the nation as a
   whole. Outside of Québec, the highest number of francophones in North
   America reside in Ontario, whereas New Brunswick, home to the Acadians,
   has the highest percentage of francophones after Quebec. In Ontario,
   Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island, 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 three northern territories (
   Yukon, Northwest Territories, and Nunavut) all recognize French as an
   official language as well.

   All provinces 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. The Ontario
   French Language Services Act, adopted in 1986, guarantees French
   language services in that province where the francophone population
   exceeds 5% of the total population; this has the most effect in the
   north and east of the province, as well as in other larger centres such
   as Ottawa, Toronto, Hamilton, Mississauga, London, Kitchener, St.
   Catharines, Greater Sudbury and Windsor. However, the French Language
   Services Act does not confer the status of "official bilingualism" on
   these cities, as that designation carries with it implications which go
   beyond the provision of services in both languages. The City of
   Ottawa's language policy (by-law 2001-170) has two criteria which would
   allow employees to work in the language of choice and be supervised in
   the language of choice; this policy is being challenged by an
   organization called Canadians for Language Fairness. A law similar to
   the Ontario French Language Services Act came into effect in Nova
   Scotia in 2004.

   Canada has the status of member state in the Francophonie, while the
   provinces of Québec and New Brunswick are recognized as participating
   governments. Ontario is currently seeking to become a full member on
   its own.

Other nations

   French is an official language in Switzerland. It is spoken in the part
   of Switzerland called Romandie. In Belgium, it is the official language
   of the Walloon Region (excluding the East Cantons, which are
   German-speaking) and one of the two official languages of the capital,
   Brussels, along with Dutch. Officially Dutch and French have parity in
   Brussels. However, in practice the French language is more dominant
   among the city's residents. Conversely the Dutch language dominates
   among the city's largely non-resident (in Brussels) workforce. It
   should be noted that French is not an official language or even a
   recognised minority language in Flanders, although there are some
   districts in Belgium along linguistic borders that have special
   compromise linguistic regimes. It is one of the official languages in
   Luxembourg, along with German and Luxembourgish. It is also an official
   language, along with Italian, in Valle d'Aosta, Italy. It is the
   official language of the principality of Monaco and is spoken by a
   small minority in the principality of Andorra.

   In the Americas, French is an official language of Haiti, although it
   is mostly spoken by the upperclass and well educated while Haitian
   Creole is more widely used. French is also the official language in
   France's overseas territories of French Guiana, Guadeloupe, Martinique,
   Saint Barthelemy, St. Martin, Saint-Pierre and Miquelon. It is also an
   administrative language of Dominica and the U.S. states of Louisiana
   and Maine.

   French is an official language of many African countries, many of them
   former French or Belgian colonies:
     * Benin
     * Burkina Faso
     * Burundi
     * Cameroon
     * Central African Republic
     * Chad
     * Comoros
     * Congo (Brazzaville)
     * Côte d'Ivoire
     * Democratic Republic of the Congo
     * Djibouti
     * Equatorial Guinea (former colony of Spain)
     * Gabon
     * Guinea
     * Madagascar
     * Mali
     * Mauritius
     * Niger
     * Rwanda
     * Senegal
     * Seychelles
     * Togo

   In addition, French is an administrative language of Mauritania and is
   commonly understood (though not official) in Algeria, Morocco, and
   Tunisia.

   In Asia, French is an administrative language in Laos and Lebanon, and
   is used unofficially in parts of Cambodia, India ( Pondicherry, Mahé,
   Karikal and Yanam), Syria and Vietnam. But, French has official
   language status in Union Territory of Pondicherry along with the
   region's de facto Language Tamil.It is an official language in the
   French territories of Mayotte and Réunion both located in the Indian
   Ocean.

   French is also an official language of the Pacific Island nation of
   Vanuatu, along with France's territories of French Polynesia, Wallis &
   Futuna and New Caledonia.

Regional varieties

     * Acadian French
     * African French
     * Aostan French
     * Belgian French
     * Cajun French
     * Canadian French
     * Cambodian French
     * Guyana French (see French Guiana)
     * Indian French
     * Jersey Legal French
     * Lao French
     * Levantine French
     * Maghreb French (see also North African French)
     * Meridional French
     * Metropolitan French
     * New Caledonian French
     * Newfoundland French
     * North American French
     * Oceanic French
     * Quebec French
     * South East Asian French
     * Swiss French
     * Vietnamese French
     * West Indian French

Derived languages

     * Antillean Creole
     * Chiac
     * Haitian Creole
     * Lanc-Patuá
     * Mauritian Creole
     * Michif
     * Louisiana Creole French
     * Réunionese Creole
     * Seychellois Creole
     * Tay Boi

History

Sound system

   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, 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. They can
       be unreleased utterance-finally.

     * 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-finally (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 /ʃ/–/ʒ/. 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 [ʁu]. 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
       unvelarized in both onset (“lire”) and coda position (“il”). In the
       onset, the central approximants [w], [ɥ], and [j] each correspond
       to a high vowel, /u/, /y/, and /i/ respectively. There are a few
       minimal pairs where the approximant and corresponding vowel
       contrast, but there are also many cases where they are in free
       variation. Contrasts between /j/ and /i/ occur in final position as
       in /abɛj/ abeille “bee” vs. /abɛi/ 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:
     * final consonants: 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 liaison
            or "link" between the two words. 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 'n' and adding a silent e at the end of a
            word (e.g. Parisien → Parisienne) makes it clearly pronounced.
            Doubling a final 'l' and adding a silent 'e' (e.g. "gentil" ->
            "gentille") adds an [j] sound.

     * elision or vowel dropping: Some monosyllabic function words ending
       in a or e, such as je and que, drop their final vowel when placed
       before a word that begins with a vowel sound (thus avoiding a
       hiatus). 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").

Orthography

     * nasal " n" and " m". When "n" or "m" follows a vowel or diphthong,
       the "n" or "m" becomes silent and causes 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 non-silent vowel. The prefixes en- and
       em- are always nasalized. The rules get more complex than this but
       may vary between dialects.
     * digraphs French does not introduce extra letters or diacritics to
       specify its large range of vowel sounds and diphthongs, rather it
       uses specific combinations of vowels, sometimes with following
       consonants, to show which sound is intended.
     * gemination : Within words, double consonants are generally not
       pronounced as geminates in modern French (but you can hear
       geminates in the cinema or TV news as far as the 70's, and in very
       refined elocution they still may occur). For example, "illusion" is
       pronounced [ilyzjő] and not [illyzjõ]. But gemination does occur
       between words. For example, "une info" ("a news") is pronounced
       [ynẽfo], whereas "une nympho" ("a nympho") is pronounced [ynnẽfo].
     * accents are used sometimes for pronunciation, sometimes to
       distinguish similar words, and sometimes for etymology alone.

     *
          + Accents that affect pronunciation:
               o The acute accent (l'accent aigu), "é" (e.g., école—
                 school), means that the vowel is pronounced /e/ instead
                 of the default /ə/,
               o The grave accent (l'accent grave), "è" (e.g., élève—
                 pupil) means that the vowel is pronounced /ɛ/ instead of
                 the default /ə/,
               o The diaeresis (le tréma) (e.g. naïve— foolish, Noël—
                 Christmas) as in English, specifies that this vowel is
                 pronounced separately from the preceding one, not
                 combined,
               o The cedilla (la cédille) "ç" (e.g., garçon— boy) means
                 that the letter c is pronounced /s/ in front of the hard
                 vowels A, O, and U. ("c" is otherwise /k/ before a hard
                 vowel.) C is always pronounced /s/ in front of the soft
                 vowels E, I, and Y, thus ç is never found in front of
                 soft vowels,
               o 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 standard French 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:
               o The circumflex does not affect the pronunciation of the
                 letters i or u, and in most dialects, a as well (the
                 circumflex on i and u is no longer compulsory : boite,
                 chaine, Ile-de-France). It usually indicates that an s
                 came after it long ago, as in hôtel.
               o All other accents are used only to distinguish similar
                 words, 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

   French grammar shares several notable features with most other Romance
   languages, including:
     * the loss of Latin's declensions
     * only two grammatical genders
     * the development of grammatical articles from Latin demonstratives
     * new tenses formed from auxiliaries

   French word order is Subject Verb Object, except when the object is a
   pronoun, in which case the word order is Subject Object Verb. Some rare
   archaisms allow for different word orders.

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 / fraternel < from latin FRATER
     * finger: doigt / digital < from latin DIGITVS
     * faith: foi / fidèle < from latin FIDES
     * cold: froid / frigide < from latin FRIGIDVS
     * eye: œil / oculaire < from latin OCVLVS
     * the city Saint-Étienne has as inhabitants the Stéphanois

   In some examples there is a common word from "vulgar" Latin and a more
   savant word from classical Latin or even Greek.
     * Cheval - Concours équestre - Hippodrome

   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 60-99. So for
   example, the French word for 80 is quatre-vingts, which literally means
   4 times 20, and soixante-quinze (literally "sixty-fifteen") means 75.
   This is comparable to the archaic English use of "score", as in
   "fourscore and seven" (87), or "threescore and ten" (70). Danish is
   another language with a base 20 system for counting.

   Belgian French and Swiss French are different in this respect. In
   Belgium and Switzerland 70 and 90 are septante and nonante. In
   Switzerland, depending on the local dialect, 80 can be: quatre-vingts
   (Geneva, Neuchâtel, Jura) or huitante (Vaud, Valais, Fribourg).. In
   Belgium, however, quatre-vingts is universally used.

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. Moreover, some conscious changes were 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 difficult 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. This type of accent mark is called accent aigu
       in French.
     * circumflex (â, ê, î, ô, û): Over an a, e or o, indicates the sound
       /ɑ/, /ɛ/ or /o/, respectively (the distinction a /a/ vs. â /ɑ/
       tends to disappear in many dialects). 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). (See Use of the circumflex in French)
     * diaeresis or tréma (ë, ï, ü): Indicates that a vowel is to be
       pronounced separately from the preceding one: naïve, Noël.
       Diaeresis on y only occurs in some proper names (such as
       l'Haÿ-les-Roses) and in modern editions of old French texts. The
       diaresis on ü appears only in one non proper name: Capharnaüm.
       Nevertheless, since the 1990 orthographic rectifications (which are
       not applied at all by most French people), the diaeresis in words
       containing guë (such as aiguë or ciguë) may be moved onto the u:
       aigüe, cigüe. Words coming from German retain the old Umlaut if
       applicable but use French pronunciation, 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).

   There are two ligatures, which have various origins.

     * The ligature œ is a mandatory contraction of oe in certain words.
       Some of these are native French words, with the pronunciation /œ/
       or /ø/, e.g. sœur "sister" /sœʁ/, œuvre "work [of art]" /œvʁ/. Note
       that it usually appears in the combination œu; œil is an exception.
       Many of these words were originally written with the digraph eu;
       the o in the ligature represents a sometimes artificial attempt to
       imitate the Latin spelling: Latin bovem > Old French buef/beuf >
       Modern French bœuf. Œ is also used in words of Greek origin, as the
       Latin rendering of the Greek diphthong οι, e.g. cœlacanthe
       "coelacanth". These words used to be pronounced with the vowel /e/,
       but in recent years a spelling pronunciation with /ø/ has taken
       hold, e.g. œsophage /ezɔfaʒ/ or/øzɔfaʒ/. The pronunciation with /e/
       is often seen to be more correct. The ligature œ is not used in
       some occurrences of the letter combination oe, for example, when o
       is part of a prefix (coexister).

     * The ligature æ is rare and appears in some words of Latin and Greek
       origin like ægosome, ægyrine, æschne, cæcum, nævus or uræus . 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.
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