Linguistic classification

Indo-European, Italic, Latino-Faliskan, Romance, Italo-Western, Western Romance, Gallic, North.

GEOGRAPHICAL DISTRIBUTION

French is a Romance language spoken by about 338 million people. It is the third most spoken language in Europe, after German and English, and is also spoken in parts of Africa, North America, South America, Asia and Oceania. French is an official language in Belgium, Benin, Burkina Faso, Burundi, Cameroon, Canada, Central African Republic, Chad, Comoros, Côte d'Ivoire, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Djibouti, Equatorial Guinea, France, Gabon, Guinea, Haiti, Luxembourg, Madagascar, Mali, Monaco, Niger, Republic of the Congo, Rwanda, Senegal, Seychelles, Switzerland, Togo, and Vanuatu.

In Canada, French is an official language along with English; the two main dialects of French in Canada are Quebec French and Acadian French, but also another dialect commonly grouped as Canadian French, used by Anglophones speaking French as a second language or by Francophones in Canada using a different dialect.

There are also French speakers in Algeria, Cambodia, Laos, Lebanon, Morocco, Mauritius, Mauritania, Tunisia, Vietnam, French Guiana, French Polynesia, Guadeloupe, Guernsey, Jersey, Martinique, Mayotte, New Caledonia, Saint-Barthélemy, Saint-Martin, Saint-Pierre and Miquelon, Vietnam, Wallis and Futuna, and in parts of the USA, particularly Louisiana.

In Lebanon, French was an official language until 1941 and the main dialect spoken there is Lebanese French or Levantine French.

LEXICAL SIMILARITY

89% with Italian, 80% with Sardinian, 78% with Rheto-Romance, 75% with Portuguese, Rumanian, and Spanish, 29% with German, 27% with English.

DIALECTS

French dialects are classified in 8 groups:

Langue d'oïl:

1. Central: Francien, Orléanais, Bourbonnais;

2. Northern: Picard, Northern Norman;

3. Eastern: Lorrain, Champenois, Walloon;

4. Southeastern: Bourguignon (Burgundian), Franc-Comtois;

5. Western: Norman, Gallo, Angevin, Maine;

6. Southwestern: Poitevin, Saintongeais, Angoumois;

7. Franco-Provençal: Bressan, Dauphinois, Forèzien, Jurassien, Lyonnais, Savoyard

8. Langue d'oc/Occitan: Vivaroalpenc, Auvergnat, Gascon, Provençal, Languedocien, Limousin, Nissard

Langues d'oïl

The term is based on the French use of the word “oïl”, modern – “oui”, for “yes”.

Central

Bourbonnais

· Phonology

o = ou: tonner = tounner

oi = oué, é ou è: noir = nouère, droit = drèt

er = ar: merci = marci

re = er: bredin =mse dira berdin

au = iau: couteau = coutiau

-lier = -yé: palier = pailler

-eur = -eux: meneur = meneux

ch = j: cheval = j'val

· Grammar

The pronoun adverbial Y is used in place of a personal pronoun representing an object, example, fais-le = fais-y, donne-le(la) moi = donne-moi z'y, ne le casse pas = n'y casse pas, tu me le(la) prête = tu m'y prête etc.

We note the presence of a form of gender-neutral in bourbonnais. In fact, the word "al" means both a male than a female, for the things, as well as for people. And the dog, as the dog may be designated by the pronoun "al", just like a family member, or neighbor. (example: al a tout mangé).

· Lexis

Northern

Picard

· Phonology

The evolution in Picard towards palatalization is less marked than in the central langues d'oïl in which it is particularly striking; /k/ or /ɡ/ before /j/, tonic /i/ and /e/, as well as in front of tonic /a/ and /ɔ/ (the open /o/ of the French porte) in central Old French but not in Picard:

- Picard keval ~ Old French cheval (horse; pronounced [tʃeval] rather than the modern [ʃəval]), from *kabal (vulgar Latin caballus): retaining the original /k/ in Picard before tonic /a/ and /ɔ/.

- Picard gambe ~ Old French jambe (leg; pronounced [dʒambe] rather than the modern [ʒɑ̃b] – [ʒ] is the ge sound in beige), from *gambe (vulgar Latin gamba): absence of palatalization of /ɡ/ in Picard before tonic /a/ and /ɔ/.

- Picard kief ~ Old French chef (leader), from *kaf (Latin caput): less palatalization of /k/ in Picard

- Picard cherf ~ Old French cerf (stag; pronounced [tʃerf] and [tserf] respectively), from *kerf (Latin cervus): simple palatalization in Picard, palatalization then fronting in Old French[citation needed]

The effects of palatalization can be summarised as this:

/k/ and (tonic) /y/, /i/ or /e/: Picard /tʃ/ (written ch) ~ Old French /ts/ (written c)

/k/ and /ɡ/ + tonic /a/ or /ɔ/: Picard /k/ and /ɡ/ ~ Old French /tʃ/ and /dʒ/.

There are striking differences, such as Picard cachier ('to hunt') ~ Old French chacier, which later took the modern French form of chasser.

· Lexis

The majority of Picard words derive from Vulgar Latin.

Eastern

Walloon

· Phonology

- latin [ka] and [g + e, i, a] gave Walloon affricate phonemes spelled "tch" (as in cherry) and "dj" (as in joke): vatche (vs. French vache = cow), djambe (Fr. jambe = leg).

- latin [s] persisted in clusters: spene (Fr. épine = thorn, spine), fistu (wisp of straw), mwaîsse (Fr. maître = master), fiesse (Fr. fête = party, feast), tchestea (Fr. château = castle),…

- final obstruent devoicing: rodje (red) is pronounced exactly as rotche (rock).

- nasal vowels may be followed by nasal consonants, as in djonne (young), crinme (cream), mannet (dirty), etc.

- vowel length has a phonological value. It allows to distinguish cu (arse) and cû (cooked), i l' hosse (he cradles her) and i l' hôsse (he increases it), messe (mass) and mêsse (master), etc.

· Grammar

- the plural feminine adjectives before the noun take an unstressed ending "-ès" (except in the Ardenne dialect): compare li djaene foye (the yellow leaf) and les djaenès foyes (the yellow leaves).

- the adjective is often placed before the noun: compare Walloon on foirt ome (a strong man) with French un homme fort; ene blanke måjhon (a white house) and French une maison blanche.

· Lexis

- has a few Latin remnants that have disappeared from neighboring Romance languages: compare Walloon dispierter (to awake) to Spanish despertar and Romanian deștepta (all with the same meaning).

- the most distinctive feature is its number of borrowings from Germanic languages: compare Walloon flåwe to today's Dutch flauw (weak). Other common borrowings, among hundreds of others, are dringuele (tip; Dutch drinkgeld), crole (curl; Dutch krul), spiter (to spatter; same root as the English to spit, or German spützen; Dutch spuwen), li sprewe (the starling; Dutch spreeuw, or German Sperling).

Southeastern

Bourguignon

· Phonology

- a = ai: vache = vaiche, voyage = voyaige, sage = saige

- o mutes ou: oume (homme), or ou becomes o: jor (jour)

- soft consonants affects l preceded by a labial or a guttural: bliaude (blaude, blouse), pieuve (pluie)

· Grammar

- the conjugation in -ir is the only one alive, who absorbs the perfect of the indicative of verbs ending in -er: donni, chanti, airivi...

- the imperfect subjunctive is uniformly with eusse: mainjeusse, beuveusse, v'neusse, répondeusse.

· Lexis

Western

Gallo

· Phonology

- the consonants of the gallo's are virtually the same as in French. There are local variations, such as the voicing of [s] into [z] in le Pays de Retz, and that of [t] into [d] in le Pays de la Mée.

- vowels: as in French, the [a] tonic latin, evolved into [e] or [eː].

· Grammar

- the articles in gallo are virtually the same as in French: le, la, les, eun, eune, des.. The article partitif du the there is also.

- the order of the personal pronouns complements in the sentence may differ from the French. In fact, if there are two object pronouns in a proposal, a direct object, the other indirect object, the latter is placed first. Thus, in gallo, you say je li l'ai donnë for «je le lui ai donné». This rule is also valid for the imperative: donne maï le for «donne-le moi».

- as in French, the names in gallo can be male or female, singular or plural

· Lexis

Southwestern

Saintongeais

· Phonology

- the h at the beginning of a word is always mute: tu devris bâzi d'honte, grand-t-haïssab'

- the i is slightly open: utile

- the group sounds " ien "is rendered by" eun "[œn]: «un cheun» for «un chien», «un reun» for «un rien».

· Grammar

- the interrogative phrase «est-ce que» + assertive proposal, which is used in French, is practically non-existent

- the conjugation of many verbs is made by adding the suffix [ã] (ant) to the person

- the conjugation of many verbs in the past is done by using the auxiliary «avant» followed by the past participle of the verb in all persons.

· Lexis

7. Franco-Provençal

· Phonology
- vowels followed by nasal consonants " m " and " n " are normally nasalized in a similar manner to those in French (for example, chantar and vin in Franco-Provençal, and "chanter" and "vin" in French)

· Grammar

- most verbs have different endings for person, number, and tenses, making the use of the pronoun optional
- articles have three forms: definite, indefinite, and partitive.
- the numbers "1", "2", and "4" have masculine and feminine forms

· Lexis

8. Langue d'oc/Occitan

· Phonology

· Features	Latin	Occitan	French
Absence or rarety of closed vowels	rosa rose	rose [r z ]	rose [ oz]
No diphthongization of Vulgar Latin vowels	mele(m) honey bene well tres three fede(m) faith	mel be tres fe	miel bien trois foi
Maintenance of the Latin stressed a	cabra goat	cabra (chabra)	chèvre
Maintenance of the Latin final unstressed a	porta door catêna chain	porta cadena	porte [p t]
No nasalized vowels	vinum wine bene well	vin ben	vin bien

· Grammar

All along its history, Occitan has remarkably retained its fundamental features: plurals marked by the addition of -s or -es, generally preserved in speech, the agreement of adjectives with nouns, and the conjugations of verbs. The latter, unlike French, do not require any personal pronoun to indicate the persons, the verb endings being pronounced differently to that effect:

canti I sing, cantas you sing, canta he sings; cantam we sing, cantatz you sing, cantan they sing.

There are 4 moods (indicative, imperative, subjunctive and conditional), 4 simple tenses (present, preterite, imperfect, future), and compound tenses.

Some syntaxic features are proper to Occitan like the extensive use of the subjunctive imperfect, no longer used in French, or the expression of progressive aspect by means of the periphrastic form, as in èsser + a +infiniive: Es a legir He is reading.

· Lexis

Occitan vocabulary is derived mainly from Vulgar Latin (pistillum => peile-lock, mespilam => mèspla-medlar), and also from Germanic (bastir-to build, fanga-mud, tropèl-flock, herd), Greek (amètla-almond, raumàs-cold), pre-Latin languages (truc-summit, top, estalviar-to save), especially Gaulish (carri-cart, bruga-heather).