Such Different French

French is always so different, but incredibly beautiful and refined. A few words about its features you will find in our article. But before you learn about how beautiful French is, we want to tell you that if you need to urgently complete your university assignment, regardless of whether it is related to French or not, the best option is to turn to Professionals are ready to take up your essay.

Such Different French

Many have heard that there is a “Parisian pronunciation” and some “southern dialects”, but it is unlikely that a non-linguist will be able to explain how they differ from each other. In fact, the division of the French language into various dialects began back in those distant times when France as an independent state was just beginning to form. The population of the country was a scattered group then, and this fragmentation was reflected in the modern language of the French.

Under the influence of numerous features of the pronunciation, a single French language was formed, and to this day this influence can be traced in the form of separate dialects in the territory of the country.

Features of French

Actually, the French language belongs to the Indo-European tongue family. The official language of Hugo and Rabelais belongs to the Gallo-Romance subgroup and originates in the so-called “people’s Latin”.The writing of the French is also based on the Latin alphabet. However, studies show that, in its development, the French language has greatly succeeded in isolation and left Latin much farther than most of its “confreres” in the Romance group of languages.

Surprisingly, French acquired recently the status of the official language– only in 1992 it was approved and constitutionally secured by the French government. From this moment on, all official documents in the country are formalized only in French. Moreover, even commercials are required to be translated into French.

The population in France itself is very attentive to the language of everyday communication. At the same time, it is interesting that the inhabitants of the country, first of all, are concerned not with the effect obtained in response to the linguistic policy of official Paris, but the problem of the possible gradual simplification of the French (especially its spelling and morphology), and, consequently, the depletion and degradation of its potential.

However, despite such strict rules, there is still some uncertainty on the territory of France: this is due to the presence of a number of dialects, many of which are, in fact, full-fledged speech systems and have their own vocabulary, their grammar and even, sometimes, their writing.

How Many Dialects?

At present, it is customary to distinguish three large subgroups of dialects:

  1. Dialects of the northern and central parts– langue d’oïl;
  2. Dialects of southern France and the Mediterranean–languedoc;
  3. Dialects of the southeast and east–le franco-provençal.

A more detailed division can tell a lot about where dialects are used. So, in the territory of Champagne and Lorraine the eastern dialects predominate – Champagne and Lorraine, respectively. In the western part of the country, they speak Menx and Angevin. If you move slightly from the west to the south, then you can hear the Angouleme, Sentong and Poitevin dialects. In the north of the country, it is customary to communicate in Picard, Norman and Walloon dialects. In the southeast, Franche-Comté, Bourbon and Burgundy are heard, and in the central part – Orleans, Berry and Touraine dialects.

It is not necessary, however, to believe that in modern France everything is so complicated with the language. In fact, the dialects are used by the French rather narrowly, and the use of one adverb or another is rather connected with the habits of the inhabitants of the French provinces. And the principle of using a particular dialect is based not so much on the territorial division as on social features. According to this principle, two main groups of adverbs are singled out: the talk of the plain folk and the “accent” of the educated population of the capital. Today, however, common folk dialects are increasingly being replaced by youth slang.

Is It Easy for the French to Understand Each Other?

As for the French themselves, they seem to have no difficulty communicating with fellow citizens in any of the dialects. The French are also tolerant of the fact that their interlocutor speaks a different dialect – unlike, for example, the Spaniards. Any French dialect is understandable to any Frenchman – so you can formulate the situation. Minor difficulties in perceiving the nuances may be an obstacle to understanding, but these difficulties can be rather compared with differences in the vocabulary of residents of different cities than with the communication of two foreigners.

The general tendency of the use of dialects in France is gradually coming to naught. In different areas, local dialects have been preserved to varying degrees, but linguistic scholars claim that more and more words are being squeezed out or they themselves leave the lexicon of local residents. The most stable are the dialects of northern France–they retain not only the vocabulary but also their grammar and spelling. However, such strength is easily explained: it is in northern dialects that most of France’s population communicate.