French is a *Romance language spoken by 45 million people in France, and
extensively in Canada, Belgium, Switzerland, and elsewhere. It is the
official language of 21 countries. Standard French, based on a Parisian
dialect known as Francien, has been France's official administrative
language since 1539. It has replaced most northern dialects, known
collectively as langue d'oil, and has superseded the Occitan dialects of
Southern France, known as langue d'oc. During the 17th century the
Académie Francaise and the publication of a standard dictionary (168)
quickly stabilised the language. French grammar has been simplified from
Latin and the phonology has greatly altered. There are no noun case
declensions and the verb is conjugated in three persons. Pronunciation
does not, however, distinguish as many grammatical differences as the
written form.
*Basically descendants of Latin, the group consists of modern French, Italian, Spanish,
Portuguese, Romanian, Catalan, the Rhaetian group of dialects,
Sardinian and the now extinct Dalmatian. These languages are classified
under the name 'Romance' on the basis of a shared vocabulary, which
originated from the Roman conquerors of the Mediterranean Sea, in which
the languages of the group are clustered. Since 1500 their use has spread
outside Europe to South America and Africa, with French, Spanish and
Portuguese colonisation.
Romance languages are easier for English speakers
to learn, due to similar alphabets, sentence structure, and
relatively straightforward pronunciation.
Watch out for:
Avoir or être - it takes time to learn the
difference between these two for the 'passé composé' tense.
About France
France is a country is Western Europe, bordering the English Channel in
the north, the Atlantic Ocean in the west, and the Mediterranean Sea in
the south. It includes the island of Corsica and several overseas regions
(Martinique, Guadeloupe and French Guiana). Overseas territories include
French Polynesia, New Caledonia, and St Pierre and Miquelon. Fertile
lowlands cover most of the North and West of France, rising to the
Pyrenees in the South, the Massif Central in the South East, and the
Vosges, Jura and the Alps in the East. The principal rivers are the
Seine, the Loire and the Rhone.
Economy:
The agriculture industry remains important,
and wine production provides substantial income.
Historical Fact:
The French Revolution: the overthrow of the
French monarchy as a reaction to the corrupt, feudal, and
incompetent government of the Bourbon kings, took place in 1789
with the storming of the Bastille.
Paris, a city in north central
France, the capital and largest city of the country, on the Seine River,
about 370 km (about 230 mi) from its Atlantic Ocean outlet at Le Havre.
Paris is situated in a low-lying basin; the city is mostly flat,
although the elevation gradually increases from the river to the low
hills that ring the city's edge. The highest natural feature within the
city proper is the Butte de Montmartre, at 129 m (423 ft) above sea
level.
With an estimated population
approaching 10 million, the Paris metropolitan area contains nearly 20
percent of the nation's inhabitants and dominates the economic,
cultural, and political life of France to an extraordinary degree; the
population of Paris proper was 2,152,467 in 1994.
The centralizing philosophy of
successive governments has historically favored the city as the site for
all decision making, thus exercising a powerful attraction on virtually
all of the nation's activities. Only since the 1960s have attempts been
made to reduce the inordinate influence of Paris in French affairs and
to strengthen the role of various regions and secondary cities.
