History of French Flashcards
1
Q
define phonology
A
linguistics : the study of the speech sounds used in a language
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
3
Q
Pre-history of French: Vulgar Latin
A
until 500 AD
4
Q
Pre-history of French: Proto-French or Gallo-Roman
A
500-842 AD
5
Q
Pre-history of French: Early Old French
A
842-1100
6
Q
Pre-history of French: ‘Classical’ Old French
A
1100-1350
7
Q
Pre-history of French: Middle French
A
1350-1500
8
Q
Pre-history of French: Renaissance French
A
1500-1600
9
Q
Pre-history of French: Classical French
A
1600-1789
10
Q
Pre-history of French: Modern French
A
1789-present
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
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
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
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)
15
Q
Name three Germanic words which were absorbed into Romance dialects of Gaul
A
hatjan > haïr (hate)
ward > garde
werra > guerre
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.)
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
18
Q
Decline the old french for ‘mur’
A
CS: li murs (sing) / li mur (pl)
CR: le mur (sing) / les murs (pl)
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
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
21
Q
Decline the old french for ‘pere’
A
CS: li pere(s) (sing) / le pere (pl)
CR: le pere (sing) / les peres (pl)
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
23
Q
Decline the old french for ‘baron’
A
CS: li ber(s) / li baron
CR: le baron / les barons
24
Q
What would ‘li baron’ translate to?
A
the baronS
singular would be ‘li ber’
25
what are the etymons for 'baron'
li ber(s) < BARO
li baron < BARONES
le baron < BARONEM
les barons < BARONES
26
what were the enclitic forms of 'a + le' ?
al, au
27
what were the enclitic forms of 'de + le' ?
del, dou, du
28
what were the enclitic forms of 'en + le' ?
el, eu, ou
29
what were the enclitic forms of 'a + les' ?
as, aus, aux
30
what were the enclitic forms of 'de + les' ?
des
31
what were the enclitic forms of 'en + les' ?
es
| cf. licence ès lettres
32
What were the masculine indefinite articles of old french?
CS: uns / un
CR: un / uns
33
What the feminine indefinite articles of old french?
CS: une / unes
CR: une / unes
34
Decline the form of 'bon' (adjective)
CS: bons / bon
CR: bon / bons
35
What were the Latin etymons for the old french adjective 'bon'?
bons < BONUS / bon < BONI
| bon < BONUM / bons < BONOS
36
What were the main two types of adjectives?
bons / bon / bon / bons / bone / bones /bone / bones
AND
granz / grant/ grant / granz / grant / granz / grant / granz
37
Decline the masculine of the old french for 'grand'
CS: granz (sing) / grant (pl)
CR: grant (sing) / granz (pl)
38
Decline the feminine of the old french for 'grand'
CS: grant (sing) / granz (pl)
CR: grant (sing) / granz (pl)
39
Describe old french demonstrative adjectives
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)
40
Old french present indicative conjugation of estre (etre)
sui, ies/ es, est, somes, estes, sont
41
Old french present subjunctive conjugation of estre
soie, soies, soit, soiens/ soions, soiez, soient
42
Define syncope
reduction of syllables, particularly in words where a stressed syllable is followed by two unstressed ones (Proparoxytones)
43
> =
| < =
> 'becomes'
| < 'comes from'
44
How is the word origin of 'craindre' interesting?
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
45
How is the word origin of 'robe' interesting?
Shows how Germanic influence of the language encompasses warfare: weapons, armour, equipment
Old French, from Proto-Germanic *raubō (“booty”), later "stolen clothing".
46
When did the Roman first invade Gaul? Who lived there at the time? What language did they speak?
(External history)
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
47
When was the fall of the Roman Empire? How else was this time important?
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)
48
Describe the 813 Council of Tours
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
49
What did Bishops recognise as a language in the 813 Council of Tours?
the 'rustica romana lingua' (rustica = everyday)
| First official recognition that the vernacular was not Latin. Mutual intelligibility had broken down
50
When were the Strasbourg Oaths?
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
51
Why 'classical' old French (1100-1350)
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
52
Which Northern dialect grew to have more prestige during the period of Classical French?
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
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?
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
When was the Hundred Years War?
1337-1453
55
What happened in France between 1490 and 1539?
a series of royal edicts and 'ordonnances' confirming and strengthening the position of French (francien) as parliamentary and legal language.
56
When did the black plague break out?
1343
57
What was the Ordonnance de Villers-Cotterêts? When was it? By whom?
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
What is Joachim Du Bellay publish in 1549?
Deffence et Illustration de la langue françoyse
| Stated that translation was not enough any more, more works should be composed directly in French.
59
When were the Italian campaigns of French monarch? What words were borrowed as a result?
1494-1525
| attaquer, réussir, appartement, balcon, bilan etc.
60
```
Middle French internal history. What changes occurred for the:
Phonology:
3 points
d
a
c
```
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
Middle French internal history. What changes occurred for the:
Orthography:
1 point
French spelling tradition became established during the 14th and 15th centuries - though still far from fixed
62
```
Middle French internal history. What changes occurred for the:
Morphology:
3 points
u
a
v
```
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
```
Middle French internal history. What changes occurred for the:
Syntax:
3 points
o
a
p
```
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
Middle French internal history. What changes occurred for the:
Lexis:
1 point
b
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
How did diphthongisation affect the development of vulgar Latin?
```
'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
How did the Latin of Northern France change as it transitioned to Old French?
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
Which old the V.L vowel diphthongised? Which did not?
a, eh, e, oh, o diphthongised
i and u did not
u however did undergo an important changed, becoming y
68
how did V.L o diphthongise?
o > oo > ou
| as in dolórem > O.F dolour
69
'By the late eighth century, spoken language of the Northern France had change so much...
...it could hardly be called Latin anymore.
70
When were the first Norsemen raids in Northern France?
838
71
How was francien referred to?
franceis, françois or romancz
72
What was Occitan referred to at the time?
lemosi or proensal
73
How was r pronounced in all french?
It was pronounced as a trill
74
During the 13 century, how were the following sounds pronouced? : dz, d(sj), ts, t(sh)?
they soon lost their dental element and became simply z, sj, s, sh
75
What is the rejet style?
The order subject - object - verb
| extremely common in relative clauses in Old French texts
76
'Position of adjectives...
...very unsettled'
77
Describe old french negation
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
What is parataxis?
simple juxtaposition of clauses
79
At what time did French displace Latin as the H language?
Between the 14th and 16th centuries
80
What event waned Southern Occitan influence on Old French?
The fall of the Toulouse Dynasty
81
17th C ‘an age of...
...increasing control and
regimentation of language’
despotic regime
82
• L’Académie française, founded by Cardinal
| Richelieu in
1635
| Codification
83
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?
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
What did Jules Ferry introduce between 1881 and 1886?
enseignement primaire gratuit, obligatoire et laïc
85
Describe la loi Deixonne
1951
recognition of regional languages
1hr weekly optional study of regional languages permitted in primary schools
Basque, Breton, Catalan, Occitan, Corisan (1974)
86
Describe la loi Bas-Lauriol
1975
forbade exclusive use of foreign languages in supply and demand goods
must have french translation
87
Describe la loi Toubon
regulated amount of French music heard on radio
| more vigorous than present loi Bas-Lauriol
88
When were the first dictionaries of french?
16th century
89
'this' old french
CS: cist
CR: cest, pl: cez, ceste, cestes)
90
'that' old french
CS: cil
CR: cel, pl: cels, cele, celes
91
How was the past historic used in French?
widely, sometimes even in contexts where today we'd expect Pluperfect or Imperfect tense
92
Describe French possessive structures
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
Describe old French Indirect Objects
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
Describe old french Subject Personal Pronouns
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
Describe Old French Object Personal Pronouns
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
What were the three Old French ways to say 'never'?
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
What did 'si' usually mean in Old French?
'thus', 'and' or 'so much' rather than 'if'
| 'Se' is the usual form for 'if'
98
Describe the passage of air through the oral tract in a voiced sound
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
Was the final schwa e pronounced?
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
pretonic
| tonic
immediately preceding a syllable having stress
| bearing a principal stress or accent
101
Describe the reduction of the triphthong eàu
eàu - oe - o
102
Vulgar Latin and Old French inhibition about initial [S] + consonant was overcome in Middle French, give examples of this disparity:
scolastique + older e(s)cole
'Esprit' owes the preservation of its s to learned influence (Latin spiritus, spiritualis)
103
How did scribes overcome the problem of indicating the sound of the final stressed e?
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
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)
Les practiciens
105
How did les practiciens alter 'un' to make it more readily identifiable?
a g was added, hence vng, ung
106
Since the final i could be easily mistaken for the last stroke of other letters such a u, n, and m...
y was preferred
| amy, cry, midy
107
Because an inital u could be read as u or v....
it was convenient to place a h in front of a u
108
What general principles generally guides scribes?
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
Describe the possible spelling of Mod French autre as aultre
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
Describe the spelling of sept
An example of preoccupation with rapprochement with Latin
| set + septem
111
Why do many French words contain a h at the front?
rapprochement of Latin initial h
| ore, eure > heure
112
why was mod French savoir sometimes written as scauoir or scapuoir?
practiciens thought it was derived from scire (to know, understand) and modified the spelling
113
Why were double consonants implemented, not a conspicuous feature of Old French spelling:
Latin influence
| ville for earlier vile
114
c before e or i had become...
...s
much hesitation between initial s or c
sercueil/ cercueil < sarcophagus
115
describe (sing) chastel / (plural)chasteaus > chateau
back formation from the plural
116
Describe 14th century old French feminine unstressed possessives
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
pour moy abandonner
| (en) soy hastant
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
Question formation: 'est-ce que...
...not found at all before the 16th century, and extremely rare even then
119
que was a....
...grammatical passe-partout
| e.g. la cause que = la cause pour laquelle
120
Explain the 24hr rule regarding the perfect vs. past definite
Excluding use of past definite of definite events of the same day
O.F hui ne manjai NO
hier ne manjai (pas) YES
121
16th century Italianized French: I'm in the habit of talking a walk in the street after dinner
J'ay l'usance de spaceger par la strade apres le past
122
16th century Italianized French: sometimes
quelque volte
123
16th century Italianized French: boy, page
ragasch
124
Who introduced the cedilla? When?
Geoffroy Tory 1530
125
Who introduced the acute accent for final masculine e?
Robert Estienne
126
```
How did Francois de Malherbe help to standardise French? When?
5 points
i
a
a
n
g
```
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
```
Changes during 1700s
(4 points)
e
y
e
r
```
-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
1782 the Berlin Academy esay: 'Qu'est-ce...
qui a rendu la langue françoise universelle?'
