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MLF1103 The French Language : Present and Past > History of French > Flashcards

History of French Flashcards

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1
Q

define phonology

A

linguistics : the study of the speech sounds used in a language

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2
Q

define morphology

A

morph - form or shape
phone - sound

a study and description of word formation (such as inflection, derivation, and compounding) in language.

Suffixes, prefixes

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3
Q

Pre-history of French: Vulgar Latin

A

until 500 AD

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4
Q

Pre-history of French: Proto-French or Gallo-Roman

A

500-842 AD

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5
Q

Pre-history of French: Early Old French

A

842-1100

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6
Q

Pre-history of French: ‘Classical’ Old French

A

1100-1350

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7
Q

Pre-history of French: Middle French

A

1350-1500

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8
Q

Pre-history of French: Renaissance French

A

1500-1600

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9
Q

Pre-history of French: Classical French

A

1600-1789

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10
Q

Pre-history of French: Modern French

A

1789-present

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11
Q

What prompted each region of France to develop its own regional variation of Vulgar Latin in the 5th and 6th centuries AD?

A

Invasions by Germanic hordes

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12
Q

Describe the Proto-French or Gallo-Roman period

A

(500-842 AD)

  • disrupted communications and social upheaval
  • Gaul splintered into numerous dialectal regions
  • langue d’oïl in the north and langue d’oc in the south
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13
Q

Explain the phenomena of the langue d’oïl vs langue d’oc between 500-842.

A
  • Roman regiment more intensive in the South

- Germanic invaders settled more intensively in the North

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14
Q

What Germanic invaders settled in the North of Gaul? What was their dialect? What did their area of settlement come to be called?

A

The Franks
Frankish
Francia (now Île-de-France)

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15
Q

Name three Germanic words which were absorbed into Romance dialects of Gaul

A

hatjan > haïr (hate)
ward > garde
werra > guerre

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16
Q

Two cases of Old French

A

cas sujet, nominative case (subject of the sentence)

cas régime, oblique case (not subject, object of sentence, following a preposition etc.)

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17
Q

Li Gré ovrirent la Porte

Translate and describe the use of cases

A

The Greeks opened the gate
Li Gré = cas sujet, indicated by the ‘li’ pronoun. Unlike the cas régime, the lack of an ‘s’ indicates the plural

la Porte = cas régime, as is identical to Modern French

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18
Q

Decline the old french for ‘mur’

A

CS: li murs (sing) / li mur (pl)
CR: le mur (sing) / les murs (pl)

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19
Q

Why does subject case for old french ‘mur’ have an ‘s’ for singular and no ‘s’ for plural?

A

Latin etymons:
li murs < MURUS
mi mur < MURI

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20
Q

Why is the oblique case for old french ‘mur’ so similar to modern french?

A

Latin etymons:
le mur < MURUM
les murs < MUROS

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21
Q

Decline the old french for ‘pere’

A

CS: li pere(s) (sing) / le pere (pl)
CR: le pere (sing) / les peres (pl)

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22
Q

Why is the form of the singular CS of ‘pere’ variable?

A

Unlike the etymon for ‘mur’ MURUS, the etymon for pere sing CS, PATER, does not contain an ‘S’.

Because of analogy, certain scribes regularised the usual pattern and added an ‘S’, ignoring the etymology.

li pere(s) < PATER / li pere < PATRES
le pere < PATREM / les peres < PATRES
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23
Q

Decline the old french for ‘baron’

A

CS: li ber(s) / li baron
CR: le baron / les barons

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24
Q

What would ‘li baron’ translate to?

A

the baronS

singular would be ‘li ber’

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25
Q

what are the etymons for ‘baron’

A

li ber(s) < BARO
li baron < BARONES
le baron < BARONEM
les barons < BARONES

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26
Q

what were the enclitic forms of ‘a + le’ ?

A

al, au

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27
Q

what were the enclitic forms of ‘de + le’ ?

A

del, dou, du

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28
Q

what were the enclitic forms of ‘en + le’ ?

A

el, eu, ou

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29
Q

what were the enclitic forms of ‘a + les’ ?

A

as, aus, aux

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30
Q

what were the enclitic forms of ‘de + les’ ?

A

des

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31
Q

what were the enclitic forms of ‘en + les’ ?

A

es

cf. licence ès lettres

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32
Q

What were the masculine indefinite articles of old french?

A

CS: uns / un
CR: un / uns

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33
Q

What the feminine indefinite articles of old french?

A

CS: une / unes
CR: une / unes

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34
Q

Decline the form of ‘bon’ (adjective)

A

CS: bons / bon
CR: bon / bons

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35
Q

What were the Latin etymons for the old french adjective ‘bon’?

A

bons < BONUS / bon < BONI

bon < BONUM / bons < BONOS

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36
Q

What were the main two types of adjectives?

A

bons / bon / bon / bons / bone / bones /bone / bones
AND
granz / grant/ grant / granz / grant / granz / grant / granz

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37
Q

Decline the masculine of the old french for ‘grand’

A

CS: granz (sing) / grant (pl)
CR: grant (sing) / granz (pl)

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38
Q

Decline the feminine of the old french for ‘grand’

A

CS: grant (sing) / granz (pl)
CR: grant (sing) / granz (pl)

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39
Q

Describe old french demonstrative adjectives

A

There are two series, one for people and objects closer to the speaker (based on the Latin ECCE + ISTE) and one for people and objects more distant (based on the Latin ECCE + ILLE)

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40
Q

Old french present indicative conjugation of estre (etre)

A

sui, ies/ es, est, somes, estes, sont

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41
Q

Old french present subjunctive conjugation of estre

A

soie, soies, soit, soiens/ soions, soiez, soient

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42
Q

Define syncope

A

reduction of syllables, particularly in words where a stressed syllable is followed by two unstressed ones (Proparoxytones)

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43
Q

> =

< =

A

> ‘becomes’

< ‘comes from’

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44
Q

How is the word origin of ‘craindre’ interesting?

A

It comes from the contamination of a Gaulish word with a Latin one:
tremere ‘to tremble’ + Celtic root *krit- (Breton kridien)
> criembre (Old. French) > craindre

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45
Q

How is the word origin of ‘robe’ interesting?

A

Shows how Germanic influence of the language encompasses warfare: weapons, armour, equipment

Old French, from Proto-Germanic *raubō (“booty”), later “stolen clothing”.

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46
Q

When did the Roman first invade Gaul? Who lived there at the time? What language did they speak?
(External history)

A

154BC
Celts
Gaulish

By the 5th century AD process of latinisation was in most area very advanced
By the 5th century AD Gaulish had almost certainly died out

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47
Q

When was the fall of the Roman Empire? How else was this time important?

A

5th century AD
Migration of Germanic tribes into Gaul
Break down in stability and communications between regions, language fragments too
Gallo-Roman period 5th- 9th century
Roman system replaced by Feudalism, coming with Germanic people coming into area (swear allegiance, hierarchical (from fois, faith)

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48
Q

Describe the 813 Council of Tours

A

Carolingian reforms (Emperor Charlemagne);
– Priests authorised to preach in Romance or
Germanic vernacular
– Latin to be ‘purified’ in line with Classical norms
Priests had been adapting (‘corrupting’) their Latin to be understood.

Meeting of Bishops. Met to discuss the use of Latin in Churches. Use of vernacular

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49
Q

What did Bishops recognise as a language in the 813 Council of Tours?

A

the ‘rustica romana lingua’ (rustica = everyday)

First official recognition that the vernacular was not Latin. Mutual intelligibility had broken down

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50
Q

When were the Strasbourg Oaths?

A

842
Oaths important as they were recorded in the Germanic and Romance vernaculars. First time they were written down.

Charlemagne, had a son ‘Louis the Pious’, Louis had three sons, ‘Charles the bald,’ Lotheir, and ‘Louis the German’.

Succession of the Frankish empire contested

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51
Q

Why ‘classical’ old French (1100-1350)

A

the 12C is when the vernacular is written down with relative frequency
Turning point, classical old french texts are produced, e.g Chanson de Roland 12th century

Spelling largely experimental, relatively phonetic

Diglossia. H (high) language was Latin, ‘complex patchwork of lots of different vernaculars

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52
Q

Which Northern dialect grew to have more prestige during the period of Classical French?

A

Norman, Picard, Francien
All had written forms
‘Mis lenguages est bons car en France fui nez’
(My language is good because I was born in the Ile-de-France) 1175 Guernes de Pont Sainte-Maxence

53
Q

Middle French (le moyen francais) why did the Francien language come to have more prestige, being used from the 13th century onward as a legal and administrative language?

A

Paris came to be the biggest city in Northern France, growing from the 11th century
Headquarters of the church, many literary scribes
Power of monarchy continued to grow between 14th and 15th century, leading to more writing in Parisian French.

54
Q

When was the Hundred Years War?

A

1337-1453

55
Q

What happened in France between 1490 and 1539?

A

a series of royal edicts and ‘ordonnances’ confirming and strengthening the position of French (francien) as parliamentary and legal language.

56
Q

When did the black plague break out?

A

1343

57
Q

What was the Ordonnance de Villers-Cotterêts? When was it? By whom?

A

1539, François 1er
‘Toutes autres procédures […] soient prononcés, enregistrés et délivrés aux parties en langage maternel françois et non autrement’

Latin and vernaculars ruled out as languages of law.

58
Q

What is Joachim Du Bellay publish in 1549?

A

Deffence et Illustration de la langue françoyse

Stated that translation was not enough any more, more works should be composed directly in French.

59
Q

When were the Italian campaigns of French monarch? What words were borrowed as a result?

A

1494-1525

attaquer, réussir, appartement, balcon, bilan etc.

60
Q 
Middle French internal history. What changes occurred for the: 
Phonology:
3 points 
d
a
c
A

Phonology: (simplification)
OF diphthongs and triphthongs levelled e.g eau > /o/.

OF french affricates simplified to fricatives e.g tsh (long s) > /sh/ (charme)

Final consonants effaced e.g fort, champ

61
Q

Middle French internal history. What changes occurred for the:
Orthography:
1 point

A

French spelling tradition became established during the 14th and 15th centuries - though still far from fixed

62
Q 
Middle French internal history. What changes occurred for the: 
Morphology:
3 points
u
a
v
A

tendency towards unification and simplification
nouns unified by analogy on cas régime
verbs stems unified (e.g aim, aimes, aime, amons, amez, aiment) > all ‘aim’

63
Q 
Middle French internal history. What changes occurred for the: 
Syntax:
3 points
o
a
p
A

tendency towards formalisation of word order :SVO, due to breakdown of case system
use of articles with nouns became the norm
use of personal pronouns with finite verbs generalised as verb endings offers less distinction

64
Q

Middle French internal history. What changes occurred for the:
Lexis:
1 point
b

A

vocabulary expands, main sources of borrowing were Latin and Italian (16th century)
Italian culture perceived as superior in terms of art, music and dance

65
Q

How did diphthongisation affect the development of vulgar Latin?

A 
'Free' vowels is stressed syllables (not 'blocked' by a consonant) underwent considerable lengthening with the result that it tended to split by differentiation into diphthong. 
e.g 
amer < amare
aim < amo
aimes < amas
aime < amar
amons < amamus (second syllable stressed)
amez < amatis (second syllable stressed)
aiment < amant
66
Q

How did the Latin of Northern France change as it transitioned to Old French?

A

Final unstressed syllables all disappeared except it:

  1. Final syllable contained [a], vowel did not disappear, but weakened to a schwa, represented by a, o or e in spelling of earliest texts.
  2. Whatever its original quality, the vowel in a final unstressed syllable survived as a neutral schwa if it was needed to support a group of consonants which could not otherwise by articulated.
67
Q

Which old the V.L vowel diphthongised? Which did not?

A

a, eh, e, oh, o diphthongised
i and u did not
u however did undergo an important changed, becoming y

68
Q

how did V.L o diphthongise?

A

o > oo > ou

as in dolórem > O.F dolour

69
Q

‘By the late eighth century, spoken language of the Northern France had change so much…

A

…it could hardly be called Latin anymore.

70
Q

When were the first Norsemen raids in Northern France?

A

838

71
Q

How was francien referred to?

A

franceis, françois or romancz

72
Q

What was Occitan referred to at the time?

A

lemosi or proensal

73
Q

How was r pronounced in all french?

A

It was pronounced as a trill

74
Q

During the 13 century, how were the following sounds pronouced? : dz, d(sj), ts, t(sh)?

A

they soon lost their dental element and became simply z, sj, s, sh

75
Q

What is the rejet style?

A

The order subject - object - verb

extremely common in relative clauses in Old French texts

76
Q

‘Position of adjectives…

A

…very unsettled’

77
Q

Describe old french negation

A

Ne was sufficient of negation.
Pas, point, mie and gote could be added for emphasis

Onc, onques, aucun and rien were positive without ‘ne’
–> ever, some/ any, (some)thing

78
Q

What is parataxis?

A

simple juxtaposition of clauses

79
Q

At what time did French displace Latin as the H language?

A

Between the 14th and 16th centuries

80
Q

What event waned Southern Occitan influence on Old French?

A

The fall of the Toulouse Dynasty

81
Q

17th C ‘an age of…

A

…increasing control and
regimentation of language’
despotic regime

82
Q

• L’Académie française, founded by Cardinal

Richelieu in

A

1635

Codification

83
Q

What did L’abbé Grégoire find in his paper ‘Sur la nécessité et les moyens d’anéantir les
patois et d’universaliser l’usage de la langue
française’, 1794?

A

Only 3 million out of the 25 million inhabitants of France could fluently speak French. This contradicted the motto of the new Republic: ‘République une, langue une: la langue doit être une comme la République’

84
Q

What did Jules Ferry introduce between 1881 and 1886?

A

enseignement primaire gratuit, obligatoire et laïc

85
Q

Describe la loi Deixonne

A

1951
recognition of regional languages
1hr weekly optional study of regional languages permitted in primary schools
Basque, Breton, Catalan, Occitan, Corisan (1974)

86
Q

Describe la loi Bas-Lauriol

A

1975
forbade exclusive use of foreign languages in supply and demand goods
must have french translation

87
Q

Describe la loi Toubon

A

regulated amount of French music heard on radio

more vigorous than present loi Bas-Lauriol

88
Q

When were the first dictionaries of french?

A

16th century

89
Q

‘this’ old french

A

CS: cist
CR: cest, pl: cez, ceste, cestes)

90
Q

‘that’ old french

A

CS: cil
CR: cel, pl: cels, cele, celes

91
Q

How was the past historic used in French?

A

widely, sometimes even in contexts where today we’d expect Pluperfect or Imperfect tense

92
Q

Describe French possessive structures

A

In Old French, ‘possession’ could often be expressed, not only by de, but also by the simple juxtaposition of two Noun phrases:
e.g. la parole Deu = la parole de Dieu

93
Q

Describe old French Indirect Objects

A

In Old French, an indirect Objects (esp. human) could be expressed by mere juxtaposition of the verb and noun (i.e with à)
‘Et donerent lor chevals a mengier

94
Q

Describe old french Subject Personal Pronouns

A

The Subject Pronoun is usually omitted if a Complement occupies the first position in the sentence

‘Lor vache trueve, ce me samble’ (he finds their cow)

95
Q

Describe Old French Object Personal Pronouns

A

In constructions using a modal verb and an infinitive Modern French places personal pronoun objects before the infinitve:
c.f: Je ne peux pas le voir
OF: Mes Blere nel vout endurer (Brunain, 1. 48)

96
Q

What were the three Old French ways to say ‘never’?

A

ne…onques (refers to past time)
onques plus orguellieusement nuls porz ne fu pris
(never was a harbour captured in a more glorious fashion)

ne…mais and ne…ja (refer to present and future time)

97
Q

What did ‘si’ usually mean in Old French?

A

‘thus’, ‘and’ or ‘so much’ rather than ‘if’

‘Se’ is the usual form for ‘if’

98
Q

Describe the passage of air through the oral tract in a voiced sound

A

pulmonic egressive airstream
vocal folds are held close to each other, and the airstream reduces the pressure between them, brindinf them together for an instant, then their elasticity forces them apart again, and the cycle recommences.
Very high speed, produces vibrations

99
Q

Was the final schwa e pronounced?

A

After a consonant final e was still pronounced until about the middle of the 16th century

Until well into the nineteenth century the schwa had the effect of lengthening the preceding vowel.

100
Q

pretonic

tonic

A

immediately preceding a syllable having stress

bearing a principal stress or accent

101
Q

Describe the reduction of the triphthong eàu

A

eàu - oe - o

102
Q

Vulgar Latin and Old French inhibition about initial [S] + consonant was overcome in Middle French, give examples of this disparity:

A

scolastique + older e(s)cole

‘Esprit’ owes the preservation of its s to learned influence (Latin spiritus, spiritualis)

103
Q

How did scribes overcome the problem of indicating the sound of the final stressed e?

A

By writing

  • et for mod french é
  • ez for mod french és

However, other, or indeed the same scribes, also wrote -ez for the final unstressed e schwa and s

104
Q

What term does Richard draw upon for scribes (clerks, lawyer’s clerks, minor civil servants, men of small learning employed to compile and copy documents)

A

Les practiciens

105
Q

How did les practiciens alter ‘un’ to make it more readily identifiable?

A

a g was added, hence vng, ung

106
Q

Since the final i could be easily mistaken for the last stroke of other letters such a u, n, and m…

A

y was preferred

amy, cry, midy

107
Q

Because an inital u could be read as u or v….

A

it was convenient to place a h in front of a u

108
Q

What general principles generally guides scribes?

A

Differentiation: words different in meaning and which were believed to be unrelated were given different spellings
e.g pois (peas), poids (weight), poix (pitch) for earlier pois

rapprochement: spelling alike words believed to be semantically or morphologically related:
e. g grand vs grant
- -> grandeur, grandir

109
Q

Describe the possible spelling of Mod French autre as aultre

A

Vocalisation of l to u
Where a postconsonantal l had vocalised to u, the earlier spelling had not always taken account of the fact (autre, but often altre).
Mid French scribes indicated both the old and the new sound and wrote ‘aultre’.

110
Q

Describe the spelling of sept

A

An example of preoccupation with rapprochement with Latin

set + septem

111
Q

Why do many French words contain a h at the front?

A

rapprochement of Latin initial h

ore, eure > heure

112
Q

why was mod French savoir sometimes written as scauoir or scapuoir?

A

practiciens thought it was derived from scire (to know, understand) and modified the spelling

113
Q

Why were double consonants implemented, not a conspicuous feature of Old French spelling:

A

Latin influence

ville for earlier vile

114
Q

c before e or i had become…

A

…s
much hesitation between initial s or c
sercueil/ cercueil < sarcophagus

115
Q

describe (sing) chastel / (plural)chasteaus > chateau

A

back formation from the plural

116
Q

Describe 14th century old French feminine unstressed possessives

A

they elided, before being replace with the masculine forms mon, ton, son before a word beginning with a vowel.
By the middle of the 15c, only a few survivals are found, increasingly stereotyped e.g m’amie, m’amour, par m’ame!

117
Q

pour moy abandonner

(en) soy hastant

A

stressed forms of pronouns were normal in Old and Mid. French before the infinite and the present participle, though rarer before finite verbs (verbs which can stand alone)

118
Q

Question formation: ‘est-ce que…

A

…not found at all before the 16th century, and extremely rare even then

119
Q

que was a….

A

…grammatical passe-partout

e.g. la cause que = la cause pour laquelle

120
Q

Explain the 24hr rule regarding the perfect vs. past definite

A

Excluding use of past definite of definite events of the same day
O.F hui ne manjai NO
hier ne manjai (pas) YES

121
Q

16th century Italianized French: I’m in the habit of talking a walk in the street after dinner

A

J’ay l’usance de spaceger par la strade apres le past

122
Q

16th century Italianized French: sometimes

A

quelque volte

123
Q

16th century Italianized French: boy, page

A

ragasch

124
Q

Who introduced the cedilla? When?

A

Geoffroy Tory 1530

125
Q

Who introduced the acute accent for final masculine e?

A

Robert Estienne

126
Q 
How did Francois de Malherbe help to standardise French? When?
5 points
i
a
a
n
g
A

Official poet at the court in 1605. Talked of:

  • ready intelligibility
  • attacked archaism (word order, construction, vocab)
  • regular use of definite, indefinite or partitive articles and subject pronouns with verbs
  • negation has two parts, not ne alone
  • settles gender of some nouns
127
Q 
Changes during 1700s
(4 points)
e
y
e
r
A

-many pronounced etymological letters were removed and double consonants simplified.
obmettre > omettre
advocat > avocat
agraffer > agrafer

final -y widely replaced with -i

-és replaced -ez (except in le nez, chez, assez and second person plural of verbs)

final consonants which came only to be heard in liaison were restored to many monosyllables to give them more body, thus counteracting homophonic collision
–> fils, net, sens

128
Q

1782 the Berlin Academy esay: ‘Qu’est-ce…

A

qui a rendu la langue françoise universelle?’

MLF1103 The French Language : Present and Past (2 decks)

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