French is a beautiful and wonderful language. And it is increasingly becoming popular when it is about learning a language. Due credit to France’s rich and inspiring history and influence, the language hides a fascinating background as well. Learning French can help you appreciate this language even more.
In this blog, we present you some of the incredible facts about the French language that you may not know.
French is a Language of Romance
The one of the first facts about the French language is perhaps not at all surprising. Since the French come from Latin, it is regarded as a Romance language. But do you have any idea that the type of Latin French descended from is not the same as the traditional Latin? It is called Vulgar (nonstandard) Latin. Vulgar Latin was critically informal Latin, whereas traditional Latin is what scholars and academics look to study. All of the Romance languages are descended through Vulgar Latin.
French is the 6th Most Spoken Language Across the World
With almost 76 million native speakers and more than 235 million speakers worldwide, French is amongst one of the most popular languages in the world. In fact, French is the official language of 29 countries and is the 6th most spoken language in the world.
There is also, an organization which promotes the global speaking of French named as the Organisation Internationale de la Francophonie (OIF). A francophone is a French-speaking person.
Part of the widespread use of French is the consequence of Belgian and French colonialism that spread the language around the world. While nearly 40% of French speakers live in Europe, there are also large populations of speakers who live in Africa, Canada, and several countries.
French is also an Official Diplomatic Language
The United Nations works in different languages: Arabic, English, Chinese, Russian, Spanish, and French. However, French is also the official working language of other international institutions as well. In the European Union, this is one of 3 procedural languages, besides German and English. But the list does not end there. French is also a working language for several international organizations like UNESCO, WHO, NATO who are some of the prominent names.
L’Académie Française Safeguards the Language
The literary virtue of the French language has been protected by the Académie Française since its creation in the year1634 by Cardinal Richelieu. The Academy consists of 40 members who look after the language, adding new words and considering changes to modernize the language. Several languages have similar types of academies, with English being an exception
The Academy also announced in the year of 2016 there would be prominent changes in the French language. They voted to remove the usages of the circumflex over both the “i” and “u,” altering the spelling of multiple words. They also voted to change the spellings of some words such as “oignon” to “ognon”, which stands for “onion”. They believe removing a few silent letters will make it simpler to learn the language.
French Was Not Popular in France
It is perhaps a strange thing related to the French language facts. The French language was not widely used across France until the post-French Revolution. Prior to this period, France had pockets where several dialects were used. In fact, till the 19th Century, French was used more in countries like Germany and Holland.
About 29% of English Vocabulary Comes Through French
English is a combination of other languages. And though it shares strong similarities to German, its French influence cannot rule out. This is a consequence of the Norman Conquest of England in the 1066 A.D. This invasion resulted in a huge infusion of the 2 languages.
Currently, almost 50, 000 English words are derived from French. Besides this influence, there are various modern French loanwords in English too. A few instances of these are “café,” “naïve,” “déjà vu,” “décor,” and “restaurant.”
Counting Has a Different Version
Every language has its unique counting system and way, but with French, it is quite strange at times. Nowhere is clearer than between the numbers 80 and 99. While in English one would say “eighty-three,” in French, one would say, “quatre-vingt” or “four times the twenties. It gets really enthralling when you reach 99. Rather than saying, ninety-nine, one would say, “quatre-vingt-dix-neuf” or “four twenties, ten, nine.”
This partial vigesimal system or method of counting by twenty came almost after the French Revolution as a way of unifying the counting methodology. One can see a similar relation in the use of “score” in the English system, though this is no longer practiced.
Learn French Vocabulary (HH)
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