History UsefulNotes / FrenchLanguage

* Rhine Frankish is spoken in Moselle, the part of Lorraine that neighbors Alsace to the west, though like Alsatian it's dying, having much less speakers.

Adjectives generally agree in gender (and in number) with the nouns that they modify. [[note]](fun fact in french it would be with the noun (singular) that they modify, because each adjective modifies only one noun)[[/note]] ''The white dog'' translate as ''le chien blanc'' if male, ''la chienne blanche'' if female. ''The white dogs'' translate as ''les chiens blancs'' if at least one dog is male, and as ''les chiennes blanches'' if they are all female. This may be viewed as DoubleStandard as the rule was explicitly justified through (among other reasons) "the obvious superiority of the male sex over the female one" when it was formulated. It receives a lot of criticism today, many people viewing it as outdated and sexist. It is also in fact a fairly recent rule, only becoming standard at the end of the 18th century, replacing other customs that placed emphasis on raw numbers – more females in the group would make the adjective female – or the closeness of a nominal group to the adjective in the sentence: in "courageous men and women", "courageous" would be gendered depending on whether "men" or "women" is closest to "courageous".

Adjectives may be set before or after the noun that they modify, although most adjectives go after the noun. The most common exceptions are size adjectives and "beautiful", so "the beautiful little white dog" would translate as ''le beau petit chien blanc''. Outside of this particular case, setting the adjective before the noun tends to give a very formal our archaic tone – not unlike setting an adjective after the noun would sound in English.

Adjectives generally agree in gender (and in number) with the nouns that they modify. [[note]](fun fact in french it would be with the noun (singular) that they modify, because each adjective modifies only one noun)[[/note]] ''The white dog'' translate as ''le chien blanc'' if male, ''la chienne blanche'' if female. ''The white dogs'' translate as ''les chiens blancs'' if at least one dog is male, and as ''les chiennes blanches'' if they are all female.[[note]]This may be viewed as DoubleStandard, although some linguists would argue that this is nonsense.[[/note]]

Adjectives may be set before or after the noun that they modify, although most adjectives go after the noun. The most common exceptions are size adjectives and "beautiful", so "the beautiful little white dog" would translate as ''le beau petit chien blanc''.

* Rhine Frankish is spoken in Moselle, the part of Lorraine that neighbors Alsace to the west, though like Alsatian it's dying.

Contrary to the common perception that all French people have always spoken French, that was probably not the case even as lare as of the early 20th century. French language superseded all the other languages and local dialects when school became mandatory and children were initially prevented from speaking languages that were not standard French via school punishments, though many speakers of said languages have fought against that by speaking it in their families or emphasizing it culturally (figures like Creator/GermainMuller and Creator/TomiUngerer in Alsace come to mind), and the French Republic opened up a bit over the years to school initiatives to maintain these languages alive. France did sign the [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/European_Charter_for_Regional_or_Minority_Languages European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages]], but never ratified it, for there is much constitutional debate (as usual) about whether or not it threatens the "unity of the Republic" (despite the benefits of giving children a plurilingual education being proven for years). France has a unitary state, and as such it has troubles pacifically dealing with multiple native languages the way federal states like UsefulNotes/{{Belgium}} and UsefulNotes/{{Switzerland}} do.

Contrary to the common perception that all French people have always spoken French, that was probably not the case in the late 19th century or the early 20th century. French language superseded all the other languages and local dialects when school became mandatory and children were initially prevented from speaking languages that were not standard French via school punishments, though many speakers of said languages have fought against that by speaking it in their families or emphasizing it culturally (figures like Creator/GermainMuller and Creator/TomiUngerer in Alsace come to mind), and the French Republic opened up a bit over the years to school initiatives to maintain these languages alive. France did sign the [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/European_Charter_for_Regional_or_Minority_Languages European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages]], but never ratified it, for there is much constitutional debate (as usual) about whether or not it threatens the "unity of the Republic" (despite the benefits of giving children a plurilingual education being proven for years). France has a unitary state, and as such it has troubles pacifically dealing with multiple native languages the way federal states like UsefulNotes/{{Belgium}} and UsefulNotes/{{Switzerland}} do.

* The northern half of mainland France that didn't speak Breton, Alsatian, Frankish or Norman, used to speak dialects of Oil (aka French; French is the Oil dialect that became standard). Like Occitan languages (or dialects) they are dying.

* Norman is either a dialect of French or a Romance language that is spoken in Normandy, as well as the British Crown dependencies of Jersey and Guernsey.

French is a Gallo-Romance language and the official and national language of UsefulNotes/{{France}}, as well as an official language of several other Western European countries, specifically UsefulNotes/{{Belgium}}, UsefulNotes/{{Luxembourg}}, UsefulNotes/{{Monaco}} and UsefulNotes/{{Switzerland}}. It is also one of the permitted languages in UsefulNotes/{{Jersey}}'s parliament, the third primary language spoken in UsefulNotes/NorthAmerica (in Louisiana and UsefulNotes/{{Quebec}}, most notably) after English and Spanish, and is widespread throughout UsefulNotes/{{Africa}}, where the majority of the world's French speaking population live. As an official language of 29 countries worldwide, it is the third most spoken Romance language after Spanish and Portuguese, the second or third most studied language worldwide, the 6th most spoken language in the world, and one of the official languages of the UsefulNotes/UnitedNations, the [[UsefulNotes/TheEuropeanUnion European Union]], UsefulNotes/{{NATO}}, the World Trade Organization and the [[UsefulNotes/OlympicGames International Olympic Committee]].

French nouns are either masculine or feminine, with generally no inflection for gender.[[note]](except for some nouns that are gendered like English actor/actress)[[/note]] Grammatical gender determines some pronouns[[note]](as in English ''he'' and ''she'')[[/note]] but also articles, for instance English ''the'' generally translates as ''le'' or ''la'' depending on gender.[[note]]''le'' and ''la'' are shortened before a vowel, so ''the money'' translates as ''l'argent''. Only singular articles are gendered; the plural form is ''les'' and is gender neutral. Since the singular and plural form of most nouns sound the same, articles are generally what tells you about number.[[/note]] This is all contrary to the [[ElSpanishO common belief among English speakers that ''the thing'' translates as ''le chose'']]. [[note]](''chose'' is grammatically feminine so it would be ''la chose'')[[/note]]

French is a Gallo-Romance language and the official and national language of UsefulNotes/{{France}}, as well as an official language of several other Western European countries, specifically UsefulNotes/{{Belgium}}, UsefulNotes/{{Luxembourg}}, UsefulNotes/{{Monaco}} and UsefulNotes/{{Switzerland}}, as well as one of the permitted languages in UsefulNotes/{{Jersey}}'s parliament,. It is also the third primary language spoken in UsefulNotes/NorthAmerica (in Louisiana and UsefulNotes/{{Quebec}}, most notably) after English and Spanish, and is widespread throughout UsefulNotes/{{Africa}}, where the majority of the world's French speaking population live. As an official language of 29 countries worldwide, it is the third most spoken Romance language after Spanish and Portuguese, the second or third most studied language worldwide, the 6th most spoken language in the world, and one of the official languages of the UsefulNotes/UnitedNations, the [[UsefulNotes/TheEuropeanUnion European Union]], UsefulNotes/{{NATO}}, the World Trade Organization and the [[UsefulNotes/OlympicGames International Olympic Committee]].

French is a Gallo-Romance language and the official and national language of UsefulNotes/{{France}}, as well as an official language of several other Western European countries, specifically UsefulNotes/{{Belgium}}, UsefulNotes/{{Jersey}}, UsefulNotes/{{Luxembourg}}, UsefulNotes/{{Monaco}} and UsefulNotes/{{Switzerland}}. It is also the third primary language spoken in UsefulNotes/NorthAmerica (in Louisiana and UsefulNotes/{{Quebec}}, most notably) after English and Spanish, and is widespread throughout UsefulNotes/{{Africa}}, where the majority of the world's French speaking population live. As an official language of 29 countries worldwide, it is the third most spoken Romance language after Spanish and Portuguese, the second or third most studied language worldwide, the 6th most spoken language in the world, and one of the official languages of the UsefulNotes/UnitedNations, the [[UsefulNotes/TheEuropeanUnion European Union]], UsefulNotes/{{NATO}}, the World Trade Organization and the [[UsefulNotes/OlympicGames International Olympic Committee]].

French is a Gallo-Romance language and the official and national language of UsefulNotes/{{France}}, as well as an official language of several other Western European countries, specifically UsefulNotes/{{Belgium}}, UsefulNotes/{{Luxembourg}}, UsefulNotes/{{Monaco}} and UsefulNotes/{{Switzerland}}, with it also being one of the permitted languages in UsefulNotes/{{Jersey}}'s parliament. It is also the third primary language spoken in UsefulNotes/NorthAmerica (in Louisiana and UsefulNotes/{{Quebec}}, most notably) after English and Spanish, and is widespread throughout UsefulNotes/{{Africa}}, where the majority of the world's French speaking population live. As an official language of 29 countries worldwide, it is the third most spoken Romance language after Spanish and Portuguese, the second or third most studied language worldwide, the 6th most spoken language in the world, and one of the official languages of the UsefulNotes/UnitedNations, the [[UsefulNotes/TheEuropeanUnion European Union]], UsefulNotes/{{NATO}}, the World Trade Organization and the [[UsefulNotes/OlympicGames International Olympic Committee]].

French is a Gallo-Romance language and the official and national language of UsefulNotes/{{France}}, as well as an official language of several other Western European countries, specifically UsefulNotes/{{Belgium}}, UsefulNotes/{{Jersey}}, UsefulNotes/{{Luxembourg}}, UsefulNotes/{{Monaco}} and UsefulNotes/{{Switzerland}}. It is also the third primary language spoken in UsefulNotes/NorthAmerica (in Louisiana and UsefulNotes/{{Quebec}}, most notably) after English and Spanish, and is widespread throughout UsefulNotes/{{Africa}}, where the majority of the world's French speaking population live. As an official language of 29 countries worldwide, it is the third most spoken Romance language after Spanish and Portuguese, the second or third most studied language worldwide, the 6th most spoken language in the world, and one of the official languages of the UsefulNotes/UnitedNations, the [[UsefulNotes/TheEuropeanUnion European Union]], UsefulNotes/{{NATO}}, the World Trade Organization and the [[UsefulNotes/OlympicGames International Olympic Committee]].

Contrary to the common perception that all French people have always spoken French, that was probably not the case in the late 19th century or the early 20th century. French language superseded all the other languages and local dialects when school became mandatory and children were initially prevented from speaking languages that were not standard French via school punishments, though many speakers of said languages have fought against that by speaking it in their families or emphasizing it culturally (figures like Creator/GermainMuller in Alsace come to mind), and the French Republic opened up a bit over the years to school initiatives to maintain these languages alive. France did sign the [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/European_Charter_for_Regional_or_Minority_Languages European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages]], but never ratified it, for there is much constitutional debate (as usual) about whether or not it threatens the "unity of the Republic" (despite the benefits of giving children a plurilingual education being proven for years). France has a unitary state, and as such it has troubles pacifically dealing with multiple native languages the way federal states like UsefulNotes/{{Belgium}} and UsefulNotes/{{Switzerland}} do.

French is a Gallo-Romance language and the official and national language of UsefulNotes/{{France}}, as well as an official language of several other Western European countries, specifically UsefulNotes/{{Belgium}}, UsefulNotes/{{Luxembourg}}, UsefulNotes/{{Monaco}} and UsefulNotes/{{Switzerland}}. It is also one of the permitted languages of the parliament of UsefulNotes/{{Jersey}}, is the third primary language spoken in UsefulNotes/NorthAmerica (in Louisiana and UsefulNotes/{{Quebec}}, most notably) after English and Spanish, and is widespread throughout UsefulNotes/{{Africa}}, where the majority of the world's French speaking population live. As an official language of 29 countries worldwide, it is the third most spoken Romance language after Spanish and Portuguese, the second or third most studied language worldwide, the 6th most spoken language in the world, and one of the official languages of the UsefulNotes/UnitedNations, the [[UsefulNotes/TheEuropeanUnion European Union]], UsefulNotes/{{NATO}}, the World Trade Organization and the [[UsefulNotes/OlympicGames International Olympic Committee]].

French is a Gallo-Romance language and the official and national language of UsefulNotes/{{France}}, as well as an official language of several other Western European countries, specifically UsefulNotes/{{Belgium}}, UsefulNotes/{{Jersey}}, UsefulNotes/{{Luxembourg}}, UsefulNotes/{{Monaco}} and UsefulNotes/{{Switzerland}}. It is also the third primary language spoken in UsefulNotes/NorthAmerica (in Louisiana and UsefulNotes/{{Quebec}}, most notably) after English and Spanish, and is widespread throughout UsefulNotes/{{Africa}}, where the majority of the world's French speaking population live. As an official language of 29 countries worldwide, it is the third most spoken Romance language after Spanish and Portuguese, the second or third most studied language worldwide, the 6th most spoken language in the world, and one of the official languages of the UsefulNotes/UnitedNations, the [[UsefulNotes/TheEuropeanUnion European Union]], UsefulNotes/{{NATO}}, the World Trade Organization and the [[UsefulNotes/OlympicGames International Olympic Committee]].

French is a Gallo-Romance language and the official and national language of UsefulNotes/{{France}}, as well as an official language of several other Western European countries, specifically UsefulNotes/{{Belgium}}, UsefulNotes/{{Luxembourg}}, UsefulNotes/{{Monaco}} and UsefulNotes/{{Switzerland}}. It is also the third primary language spoken in UsefulNotes/NorthAmerica (in Louisiana and UsefulNotes/{{Quebec}}, most notably) after English and Spanish, and is widespread throughout UsefulNotes/{{Africa}}, where the majority of the world's French speaking population live. As an official language of 29 countries worldwide, it is the third most spoken Romance language after Spanish and Portuguese, the second or third most studied language worldwide, the 6th most spoken language in the world, and one of the official languages of the UsefulNotes/UnitedNations, the [[UsefulNotes/TheEuropeanUnion European Union]], UsefulNotes/{{NATO}}, the World Trade Organization and the [[UsefulNotes/OlympicGames International Olympic Committee]].

They are invariant, including family names. The messy divorce movie ''Film/TheWarOfTheRoses'' is translated as ''La guerre des Rose''.

The spelling system of French is such that (providing you know all the rules) you can generally predict how a word will be pronounced if you know its spelling. The opposite direction (being able to predict the spelling of a word that you heard) can be much trickier, as there are many ways of spelling the same sounds.

Like most European languages, French writes left to right and uses the Latin alphabet. A few special characters are used: ç[[note]]c-cedilla, the cedilla tells you that this c should be pronunced like an s, not like a k[[/note]], and the letters a, e, i, and u may me modified by accents (à â ê é è ù) or tremas (ä ë ï ö ü).

In most dialects, accents on letters a and u change nothing about the pronunciation of these letters. They are rare and mostly help disambiguate some homophonous words such as ''ou'' and ''où''. However accents on letter e indicate a different sound from a plain old letter e. They occur very frequently especially é.

Tremas serve a different purpose. In French spelling most letters are pronunced differently depending on the other letters that are around. For instance the sequence of letters ''ch'' is generally pronunced like ''sh'' would be in English, which is different from a standalone c or h. Likewise a sequence of vowel letters like ''ai'' would be pronunced as one vowel (different from a standalone a or i), while ''aï'' as in ''naïf''[[note]](naive)[[/note]] indicates that the two vowels a and i should be read separately. Trema indicates an exception to the usual grouping of letters.

The spelling system of French is such that (providing you know all the rules) you can generally predict how a word will be pronunced if you know its spelling. The opposite direction (being able to predict the spelling of a word that you heard) can be much trickier, as there are many ways of spelling the same sounds.

French nouns are either masculine or feminine, with generally no inflection for gender.[[note]](except for some nouns that are gendered like English actor/actress)[[/note]] Grammatical gender determines some pronouns[[note]](as in English ''he'' and ''she'')[[/note]] but also articles, for instance English ''the'' generally translates as ''le'' or ''la'' depending on gender.[[note]]''le'' and ''la'' are shortened before a vowel, so ''the money'' translates as ''l'argent''. More importantly this is for singular, the plural form is ''les'' and is gender neutral. Since the singular and plural form of most nouns sound the same, articles are generally what tells you about number.[[/note]] This is all contrary to the [[ElSpanishO common belief among English speakers that ''the thing'' translates as ''le chose'']]. [[note]](''chose'' is grammatically feminine so it would be ''la chose'')[[/note]]

Adjectives may be set before or after the noun that they modify; however you don't do whatever you want in that regard. Most of the time they are set after the noun. The most common exceptions are size adjectives and "beautiful", so "the little beautiful white dog" would translate as ''le beau petit chien blanc''.

* Rhine Frankish is spoken in Moselle, the part of Lorraine that neighbors Alsace on the West, though like Alsatian it's dying.
* Basque is a non-Indo-European language. It is not a dying language mostly because it is still spoken in Spain.
* Breton is a dying Celtic language.
* Catalan is a Romance language; it is not considered as dying mostly because it is spoken in Spain and Andorra.
* Corsican is also a Romance language, that is closer to Italian than French.

Contrary to the common perception that all the French people have always spoken French, that was probably not the case in the early 20th century or late 19th century. French language superseded all the other languages and local dialects when school became mandatory and children were initially prevented from speaking languages that were not standard French via school punishments, though many speakers of said languages have fought against that via speaking it in their families or emphasizing it culturally (figures like Creator/GermainMuller in Alsace come to mind), and the French Republic opened up a bit over the years to school initiatives to maintain these languages alive. France did sign the [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/European_Charter_for_Regional_or_Minority_Languages European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages]], but never ratified it, for there is much constitutional debate (as usual) about whether or not it threatens the "unity of the Republic" (despite the benefits of giving children a plurilingual education being proven for years). France has a unitary state, and as such it has troubles pacifically dealing with multiple native languages the way federal states like UsefulNotes/{{Belgium}} and UsefulNotes/{{Switzerland}} do.

Contrary to the common perception that all the French people have always spoken French, that was probably not the case in the early 20th century or late 19th century. French language superseded all the other languages and local dialects when school became mandatory and children were initially prevented from speaking languages that were not standard French via school punishments, though many speakers of said languages have fought against that (via speaking it in their families) and the French Republic opened up a bit over the years to school initiatives to maintain these languages alive. France did sign the [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/European_Charter_for_Regional_or_Minority_Languages European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages]], but never ratified it, for there is much constitutional debate (as usual) about whether or not it threatens the "unity of the Republic" (despite the benefits of giving children a plurilingual education being proven for years). France has a unitary state, and as such it has troubles pacifically dealing with multiple native languages the way federal states like UsefulNotes/{{Belgium}} and UsefulNotes/{{Switzerland}} do.

These languages/dialects that are dying in France should not be confused with French dialects (such as French language, as it is spoken in Canada or in a specific African country).

Contrary to the common perception that all the French people have always spoken French, that was probably not the case in the early 20th century or late 19th century. French language superseded all the other languages and local dialects when school became mandatory and children were initially prevented from speaking languages that were not standard French via school punishments, though many speakers of said languages have fought against that (via speaking it in their families) and the French Republic opened up a bit over the years to school initiatives to maintain these languages alive. France did sign the [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/European_Charter_for_Regional_or_Minority_Languages European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages]], but never ratified it, for there is much constitutional debate (as usual) about whether or not it threatens the "unity of the Republic" (despite the benefits of giving children a plurilingual education being proven for years). France is a unitary republic, and as such it has troubles pacifically dealing with multiple native languages the way federal republics like Useful/{{Belgium}} and UsefulNotes/{{Switzerland}} do.

Contrary to the common perception that all the French people have always spoken French, that was probably not the case in the early 20th century or late 19th century. French language superseded all the other languages and local dialects when school became mandatory and children were initially prevented from speaking languages that were not standard French via school punishments, though many speakers of said languages have fought against that (via speaking it in their families) and the French Republic opened up a bit over the years to school initiatives to maintain these languages alive. France did sign the [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/European_Charter_for_Regional_or_Minority_Languages European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages]], but never ratified it, for there is much constitutional debate (as usual) about whether or not it threatens the "unity of the Republic" (despite the benefits of giving children a plurilingual education being proven for years).

!!Local French languages:

Contrary to the common perception that all the French people have always spoken French, that was probably not the case in the early 20th century or late 19th century. French language suppressed all the other languages and local dialects when school became mandatory and children were prevented from speaking languages that were not standard French.

These languages/dialects that are dying in France should not be confused with French dialects (such as French language, as it is spoken in Canada or in a specific African country).

* The northern half of mainland France that didn't speak Breton, Alsatian or Frankish, used to speak dialects of Oil (aka French; French is the Oil dialect that became standard). Like Occitan languages (or dialects) they are dying.

* Catalan is a Romance language; it is not considered as dying mostly because it is spoken in Spain.