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Questions about French and France | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Specific Languages |  | |
| Keilan Senior Member Canada Joined 5086 days ago 125 posts - 241 votes  Speaks: English* Studies: German | Message 1 of 3 19 May 2011 at 7:20am | IP Logged |
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Hey all,
I am not sure if this is the right forum, as I am not learning French, I simply wanted to borrow the knowledge of someone familiar with it. In short, I got into a rather long debate today regarding language standardization and French was brought up as a language that had essentially halted language change through careful management of the language. I was hoping to determine the truth of that. So to anyone who could help me, I would like to know: 1) How closely does written French match spoken French? Are there any differences in grammar used? How clear is spelling in terms of determining pronunciation? 2) What is the dialect situation in France? Is the language completely homogenous or are there many dialects used? If so, how clear are speakers of one dialect to speakers of another? Is everything easily comprehensible? Many thanks, -Keilan 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Ari Heptaglot Senior Member Norway Joined 6582 days ago 2314 posts - 5695 votes Speaks: Swedish*, English, French, Spanish, Portuguese, Mandarin, Cantonese Studies: Czech, Latin, German | Message 2 of 3 19 May 2011 at 9:33am | IP Logged |
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1) How closely does written French match spoken French? Are there any differences in grammar used? How clear is spelling in terms of determining pronunciation?
Written French sometimes uses a conjugation called "Passé simple" that's never used in spoken French. Other than that, I find they're quite similar, though there are of course many colloquialisms that are usually not written, much like in English. The spelling system is not as clear as for example Spanish, but it's a far cry more logical than English. I find it pretty okay. It's easy to pronounce words based on their spelling, and mostly you can guess the spelling based on hearing the word, but not always. 2) What is the dialect situation in France? Is the language completely homogenous or are there many dialects used? If so, how clear are speakers of one dialect to speakers of another? Is everything easily comprehensible? French in France is mostly quite homogenous nowadays. There are still some patois (dialects) and they are often quite hard to comprehend, but most people, I believe, speak a fairly standardized French. At the time of the French Revolution, only a few percent of the population spoke the language we now call "French", but now it's pretty ubiquitous. I'm nowhere near an expert on France, though, so someone please correct me. Edited by Ari on 19 May 2011 at 9:33am 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| tornus Diglot GroupieRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5143 days ago 82 posts - 113 votes Speaks: French*, English Studies: Spanish, Swedish, Danish | Message 3 of 3 19 May 2011 at 4:28pm | IP Logged |
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1) How closely does written French match spoken French? Are there any differences in grammar used? How clear is spelling in terms of determining pronunciation?
It's very much alike. However,spelling is a little hard; I still make mistakes, most people ussually misspell some words. 2) What is the dialect situation in France? Is the language completely homogenous or are there many dialects used? If so, how clear are speakers of one dialect to speakers of another? Is everything easily comprehensible? There are few dialects actually. The hardest to grasp is Quebecois (Canadian French) I've seen movies in this "dialect" and when they speak fast I don't understand everything. The idioms are really different, the accent is different, they don't use all the time the same gender for words. Edited by tornus on 19 May 2011 at 4:34pm 1 person has voted this message useful |
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