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The French Language
French is spoken by 71 million people in France and other 24 countries which include Canada and Belgium, where the Phrancophone population reaches 6 and 4 million people respectively. French is also the official language of a number of International organisations, among which EU, NATO and UN.Dialects of French
Due to the fact that French is spoken in big and important nations, many dialects and variations of it have developed through the years. Some of them, like Belgian French, are virtually identical to standard French, apart from some words (beware with numbers: "seventy" is "soixante-dix" in French, but in Belgium it is "septante"). Others, like Cajun French (spoken in the American state of Loisiana) differ a little more. Other important dialects are Swiss French and Quebec French, the latter spoken by the great majority of people in The Canadian state of Quebec.History of French
The French are people of mixed origin, as they have Celtic, Germanic and Roman roots. Of these three strains, the one that has influenced French the most is the Roman part. Indeed, French can be considered as a sort of modern Latin and this is reflected in its quite complex grammar, rich in verb tenses and exceptions as for nouns and adjectives. Latin has been used in France for a long time and it survived in administration and court proceedings until 1539, when King Francis I substituted it with what was called Middle French. The following period was one of unification and regulation of the language, thanks to the work of the Académie française, created in 1634 by Richelieu with the objective to define the standards of the purified French. Through the Académie, public education, centuries of official control and the role of media, a unified official French language has been forged, but there remains a great deal of diversity today in terms of regional accents and words.L'argot (French Slang)
French slang is an active language which is used in informal situations to create a more friendly linguistic environment. The funniest form of slang is undoubtedly Verlan, which consists in separating a word into syllables and rearrange it with a different order. It was probably create as a code to convey secret words in front of authorities and with time it has became so popular that many verlan words are used in everyday French. But where does the name Verlain come from? To understand this, let's play the game. The starting point is l'envers, the French for "the reverse". If we divide l'envers in the two syllabes l'en and vers, we invert them and put it together in a single word, we obtain vers l'en...adjust the spelling and...here you are: verlain...easy, no?Resources related to Languages
- Study French AmeriSpan Study Abroad. Offers French classes and French schools worldwide.