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Author: Jean-Benoit Nadeau Publisher: Vintage Canada ISBN: 0307370496 Category : Language Arts & Disciplines Languages : en Pages : 498
Book Description
A fascinating exploration of the historical and cultural development of the French language from the bestselling authors of Sixty Million Frenchmen Can’t Be Wrong. Imagine a language that is watched over by a group of forty “Immortals,” a language with rules so complex that few people ever completely master it, whose status as the world’s lingua franca has been declining for two centuries, whose use in global institutions is waning and whose speakers are so insecure they pass laws banning the use of other languages and spend millions of tax-payers’ dollars to make sure it gets used in literature, music and film. Now imagine a language that is second only to English for the number of countries where it is spoken officially, surpassing both Spanish or Arabic, a language that is the official tongue of two G-7 countries and three European nations, that is employed alongside English in most international institutions and that is the number-two choice of language students across the planet – a language with two million teachers and 100 million students worldwide, and whose number of speakers has tripled in the last fifty years. This paradox is the backdrop for The Story of French, in which bilingual Canadian authors Jean-Benoît Nadeau and Julie Barlow unravel the mysteries of a language that has maintained its global influence in spite of the ascendancy of English. Mixing historical analysis with journalistic observation, and drawing on their experiences living in and travelling to French-speaking countries, they explore how the French language developed over the centuries, how it came to be spoken in the Americas, Africa and Asia, and how it has maintained its global appeal.
Author: Jean-Benoit Nadeau Publisher: Vintage Canada ISBN: 0307370496 Category : Language Arts & Disciplines Languages : en Pages : 498
Book Description
A fascinating exploration of the historical and cultural development of the French language from the bestselling authors of Sixty Million Frenchmen Can’t Be Wrong. Imagine a language that is watched over by a group of forty “Immortals,” a language with rules so complex that few people ever completely master it, whose status as the world’s lingua franca has been declining for two centuries, whose use in global institutions is waning and whose speakers are so insecure they pass laws banning the use of other languages and spend millions of tax-payers’ dollars to make sure it gets used in literature, music and film. Now imagine a language that is second only to English for the number of countries where it is spoken officially, surpassing both Spanish or Arabic, a language that is the official tongue of two G-7 countries and three European nations, that is employed alongside English in most international institutions and that is the number-two choice of language students across the planet – a language with two million teachers and 100 million students worldwide, and whose number of speakers has tripled in the last fifty years. This paradox is the backdrop for The Story of French, in which bilingual Canadian authors Jean-Benoît Nadeau and Julie Barlow unravel the mysteries of a language that has maintained its global influence in spite of the ascendancy of English. Mixing historical analysis with journalistic observation, and drawing on their experiences living in and travelling to French-speaking countries, they explore how the French language developed over the centuries, how it came to be spoken in the Americas, Africa and Asia, and how it has maintained its global appeal.
Author: Henriette Walter Publisher: Routledge ISBN: 1134902050 Category : Language Arts & Disciplines Languages : en Pages : 296
Book Description
In this comprehensive introduction, Henriette Walter provides the reader with a panoramic view of the development of the French language in the past, present and future. She takes the reader on a rapid and lively journey through the historical development of the language from its Latin origins to the present day. She goes on to set the language in its linguistic context by surveying its surviving and vanished dialects and regional variations of the language within France. Widening her focus, Walter examines French throughout the world, giving examples of the pronunciation and vocabulary of each region or nation. Finally she looks at French today: its structure, the effects of social change on the language, and its future in an increasingly English dominated world. This stimulating and entertaining account offers students of French a clear and accessible introduction to the language. The wealth of information it provides is reflected in the extensive bibliography, four indices and numerous world lists, maps and diagrams.
Author: Wendy Ayres-Bennett Publisher: Taylor & Francis ISBN: 1134856636 Category : Language Arts & Disciplines Languages : en Pages : 313
Book Description
This new history of the French language allows the reader to see how the language has evolved for themselves. It combines texts and extracts with a readable and detailed commentary allowing the language to be viewed both synchronically and diachronically. Core texts range from the ninth century to the present day highlight central features of the language, whilst a range of shorter texts illustrate particular points. The inclusion of non-literary, as well as literary texts serves to illustrate some of the many varieties of French whether in legal, scientific, epistolatory, administrative or liturgical or in more popular domains, including attempts to represent spoken usage. This is essential reading for the undergraduate student of French.
Author: R. Anthony Lodge Publisher: Routledge ISBN: 1134894147 Category : Foreign Language Study Languages : en Pages : 296
Book Description
Written as a text, this book looks at the external history of French from its Latin origins to the present day through some of the analytical frameworks developed by contemporary sociolinguistics. French is one of the most highly standardized of the world's languages and the author invites us to see the language as heterogenous, rather than a monolithic entity, using the model proposed by E. Haugen as a useful comparative grid to plot the development of standardization. After an introductory section which examines the dialectalization of Latin in Gaul, the four central chapters of the book are constructed around the basic processes invoved in standardization as identified by Haugen: the selection of norms, the elaboration of function, codification and acceptance. The concluding chapter deals with language variability and the wide gulf that has now developed between French used for formal purposes and that used in everyday speech, with particular reference to Occitan speaking regions. Emphasizing the ordinary speakers of the language, rather than the statesmen or great authors as agents of change, the book combines a traditional history of the language' approach with a sociolinguistic framework to provide a broad and comparative overview of the problem of language standardization.
Author: Wendy Ayres-Bennett Publisher: Oxford University Press ISBN: 0192634410 Category : Language Arts & Disciplines Languages : en Pages : 1057
Book Description
This volume provides the first comprehensive reference work in English on the French language in all its facets. It offers a wide-ranging approach to the rich, varied, and exciting research across multiple subfields, with seven broad thematic sections covering the structures of French; the history of French; axes of variation; French around the world; French in contact with other languages; second language acquisition; and French in literature, culture, arts, and the media. Each chapter presents the state of the art and directs readers to canonical studies and essential works, while also exploring cutting-edge research and outlining future directions. The Oxford Handbook of the French Language serves both as a reference work for people who are curious to know more about the French language and as a starting point for those carrying out new research on the language and its many varieties. It will appeal to undergraduate and graduate students as well as established scholars, whether they are specialists in French linguistics or researchers in a related field looking to learn more about the language. The diversity of frameworks, approaches, and scholars in the volume demonstrates above all the variety, vitality, and vibrancy of work on the French language today.
Author: Jean-Benoit Nadeau
Author: Jean-Benoit Nadeau
Author: Princeton University. Library
Author: Henriette Walter
Author: Wendy Ayres-Bennett
Author: Wendy Ayres-Bennett
Author: R. Anthony Lodge
Author: Wendy Ayres-Bennett
Author: Albert L. Meissner
Author: Princeton University. Library
Author: