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Where does the modern French start? | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Specific Languages |  | |
| ScottScheule Diglot Senior Member United States scheule.blogspot.com Joined 5228 days ago 645 posts - 1176 votes  Speaks: English*, Spanish Studies: Latin, Hungarian, Biblical Hebrew, Old English, Russian, Swedish, German, Italian, French | Message 9 of 22 23 August 2011 at 5:33pm | IP Logged | ||
Sure, as I recall Melville too goes on and on about the taxonomy of whales. But the issue is not whether or not Verne's easy, the issue is Verne close to Modern French? Are the descriptions of all the species of fish, molluscs, etc. something that would be significantly more challenging for a modern French speaker to read than for a contemporary of Verne to read? I'd guess no. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Sennin Senior Member Bulgaria Joined 6034 days ago 1457 posts - 1759 votes 5 sounds | Message 10 of 22 23 August 2011 at 5:36pm | IP Logged | ||
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Anyway, I don't want to argue about this. Try reading the whole thing :). It requires a good grasp of French, and it's a bit harder than a contemporary author. But only slightly harder. Jules Verne is one of my favourites, in spite of that descriptive tendency which can be seen in a more severe form in the writing of other authors.... ^_^'
Edited by Sennin on 23 August 2011 at 5:42pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| ScottScheule Diglot Senior Member United States scheule.blogspot.com Joined 5228 days ago 645 posts - 1176 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish Studies: Latin, Hungarian, Biblical Hebrew, Old English, Russian, Swedish, German, Italian, French | Message 11 of 22 23 August 2011 at 5:46pm | IP Logged | ||
Well, Verne's style isn't really the topic. Melville's also dry, but I have no problem reading him if forced to. At any rate, let me state my argument a bit more clearly. It's this: that I can read a passage (sort of) from Verne in French with only knowledge of modern Spanish leads me to believe it wouldn't be that difficult for a student of modern French to read Verne. Just imagine if I had actually studied French. NB: Yes, I do know a little Latin, but that doesn't really help me much. Spanish is closer to French than either is to Latin, and I can't see where my basic Latin helps me at all with that passage. I do, however, speak English, which with its large chunk of French vocabulary, helps out considerably. (E.g., "bizarre.") 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| ScottScheule Diglot Senior Member United States scheule.blogspot.com Joined 5228 days ago 645 posts - 1176 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish Studies: Latin, Hungarian, Biblical Hebrew, Old English, Russian, Swedish, German, Italian, French | Message 12 of 22 23 August 2011 at 5:48pm | IP Logged | ||
Right, right, I'm not arguing for the hell of it, I'm just trying to get a response to the OP's question, which you answered: "it's a bit harder." 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| s_allard Triglot Senior Member Canada Joined 5430 days ago 2704 posts - 5425 votes Speaks: French*, English, Spanish Studies: Polish | Message 13 of 22 23 August 2011 at 7:20pm | IP Logged | ||
To answer the OP's question, I would say that Jules Verne's works are certainly still quite easy to read today. I'm not sure where "modern"literature starts or ends. What I would say is that Verne, like Zola, Hugo or even Dickens and Melville, writes in a 19th century style. It's great literature, but it is the literature of 150 years ago. If you want really modern or contemporary literary, there is no lack of excellent authors. What about looking at bandes dessinées or comic books? Actually, I would also suggest reading translations of contemporary authors like John Grisham or Dan Brown. It's very interesting to compare the French and English versions. Plus they are full of contemporary technology. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
 Iversen Super Polyglot Moderator Denmark berejst.dk Joined 6703 days ago 9078 posts - 16473 votes Speaks: Danish*, French, English, German, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, Dutch, Swedish, Esperanto, Romanian, Catalan Studies: Afrikaans, Greek, Norwegian, Russian, Serbian, Icelandic, Latin, Irish, Lowland Scots, Indonesian, Polish, Croatian Personal Language Map | Message 14 of 22 23 August 2011 at 8:28pm | IP Logged | ||
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When you get back in time the books get more and more painstakingly detailed - people may not have been so busy back then as they are now, and they had better time to read those long winding descriptions of everything. But Jules Verne doesn't use any grammatical construction or lexical item that couldn't have been used today in a travel magazine or novel. Literary French is simply amazingly conservative - and that includes the passé simples, the subjonctifs and the wide spectrum of propositions subordinées (or whatever they are called in English). And any guide to a Sea Life aquarium will take you through as many marine animals as Verne's book about Nautilus and its captain.
Actually you can find relatively easy texts even earlier, such as Voltaire's Candide (where he lets a character say that this is/was the best of all worlds, and also that one should mind one's own garden). Of course the cultural distance becomes greater when you move backwards in time, and the long descriptions in some books are part of that, but you don't need to learn another kind of written French to read the old authors - just more patience. Edited by Iversen on 23 August 2011 at 8:31pm 5 persons have voted this message useful | |||
| Ygangerg Pentaglot Senior Member United States Joined 5318 days ago 100 posts - 140 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish, Arabic (Written), Mandarin, French Studies: German | Message 15 of 22 24 August 2011 at 11:05am | IP Logged | ||
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I'm really only intermediate in French, perhaps like the OP: a largely indirectly obtained vocabulary (through Spanish and English) but a good grasp of grammar. I'm currently working my way through some Balzac, who wrote in the early 19th century, and it's really fulfilling.
I read a handful of pages and take note of the words I don't know. I then make word lists or flash cards for the words, learn them, and read those pages again. Move on. Repeat. It really is a fulfilling and interesting way for me to read and learn. I suggest the OP try it with some of the authors here mentioned, like Balzac or Verne. I find s_allard's recommendation about translations is also effective and interesting, especially if you know the original well. Read the original (or your native language version), then French. Ah, but an afterthought: as Iversen so mindfully notes, patience! ;) Edited by Ygangerg on 24 August 2011 at 11:10am 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Abdalan Triglot Senior Member Brazil abdalan.wordpress.co Joined 5046 days ago 120 posts - 194 votes Speaks: Portuguese*, French, English Studies: German | Message 16 of 22 04 September 2011 at 10:15pm | IP Logged | ||
Very intriguing... I've just read 6 books of Verne in the last month (and 2 by Camus: L'étranger and Le Mythe de Sisyphe) - 6WC. I'm learning French (beginner), but I found them very easy. Edited by Abdalan on 04 September 2011 at 10:24pm 1 person has voted this message useful |
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