BIENVENUE

On campus resources

French Library: Language Center (Room 216)  French Mailing List: AIT Francophones Mailing list (registration) French on the Internet (our selection)

languages.ait.ac.th/french/french/RESOURCESonweb.htm

WHY BOTHERLEARNING

FRENCH ? ? ? ?

1. French is an official language in

major international organizations :

UN – EU - Olympic Commitee…

UN 6 official languageshttp://www.un.org/

English – French – Spanish

Arabic – Russian - Chinese

UN 3 working languageshttp://www.un.org/

English – French - Spanish

2. Many French speaking countries

3. French companies

4. French Culture

5. Tourism

There’s 2 more good reasons

to start French.

1Use French as a bridge

from English to other Romance languages !

2Broaden and deepen

your knowledge of English!

Historical background

THE ORIGINES

Indo-european languages

South-Asia

Central Asia

ORIGIN – 6,000/-3,000 BC

Europe

Africa

West East

Indo-European SPLIT

Germanic

Celtic

Italic

Greek

Slavic

Iranian

Sanskrit

West

(Centum 100)

East

(Satem 100)

MOTHER TONGUE

Centum group (Western)

GERMANIC: German, Dutch, Scandinavian and English

ITALIC: Latin

Romance : French, Spanish, Portuguese, Italian

CELTIC: Irish, Gaelic, Breton (nearly extinguished)

GREEK: Ancient & Modern Greek

Germanic

Romance

Slavic

Germanic languages (North sea)

Norwegian Swedish

Danish EnglishDutchGerman

North Sea

Islandic

Romance languages (South) From LATIN

FrenchItalian

SpanishPortuguese

Medi-

-terranean

Sea

Remaining Celtic languages today

Brittany

WalesIreland

Cornwall

Scotland

France

Non-indo-european languagesin Western Europe

Basques

EU 20 official languages

5 Germanic languages: German, English, Dutch, Swedish and Danish ; ( North Sea)

4 Romance languages: French, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese (Mediterranean Sea)

4 Slavic languages: Polish, Check, Slovak and Slovene

3 Uralian languages: Hungarian, Finish and Estonian

2 Baltic languages: Litton and Lithuanian

1 Hellenic language: Greek

1 Arabic language: Maltese

Only Greek does not use the Roman Alphabet.

Western Europe North-South Split

- Language split

- Human split

- Climate split

- Culture split

- Religious split

- Food split

North South

North South

•

North South

• beer

tea

wine

North South

North South

Protestant temples Catholic churches

Language expansion

English language

Romance languages

Portuguese

Indo-European group

French Vs EnglishKey historical facts and

effects on those 2 languages

Invasions

2 000 years ago, the Romans invaded Gaul (France).

Gaul people adopted their language : LATIN.

The Roman Invasion

500 years later, Germanic tribes from the North invade the Roman Empire and England.

English is born. French Latin borrows

some German words.

“Barbarian” Invasion

The Roman Empire 1st BC – 5th

German tribes

Celtic tribes

500 years later, in 1066 the Duke of Normandy William the Conqueror invades England.

Old French became England official language

for 2 centuries.

Norman Invasion

Evolution

INDO EUROPEAN

centum

Evolution

INDO EUROPEAN

centumGREEK

LATIN

GERMANIC

Evolution

INDO EUROPEAN

centumGREEK

LATIN

GERMANIC

Evolution

INDO EUROPEAN

centumGREEK

LATIN

GERMANIC OLD ENGLISH

OLD FRENCH

Evolution

INDO EUROPEAN

centumGREEK

LATIN

GERMANIC

FRENCH

OLD ENGLISH

OLD FRENCH

Evolution

INDO EUROPEAN

centumGREEK

LATIN

GERMANIC

FRENCH

ENGLISH

OLD ENGLISH

OLD FRENCH

Evolution

INDO EUROPEAN

centumGREEK

GERMANIC

FRENCH

ENGLISH

OLD ENGLISH

OLD FRENCHLATIN

Evolution

INDO EUROPEAN

centumGREEK

GERMANIC

FRENCH

ENGLISH

OLD ENGLISH

OLD FRENCHLATIN

Evolution

INDO EUROPEAN

centumGREEK

LATIN

GERMANIC

FRENCH

ENGLISH

OLD ENGLISH

OLD FRENCH

Old English merged with Old French.

More than 50% of English comes from French and Latin

Modern English is a hybrid language with

huge vocabulary.

2 main consequences

.

English was left as a market language

The grammar went through

simplification.such as disappearance of

declension, cases, genders…

English grammar became unique in

Europe.

French words in the English languageFrench words

Accepted latinate

(long words)

Assimilated words

(short words)

en route

en masse

déjà vu

cliché

coup d’état

vis-à-vis

bienvenue

voilà

joie de vivre

savoir-faire

fashion / imagine

animal / activity

pleasant / leisure

transport / difficult

exersise / category

beauty / energy / culture / develop / trouble / souvenir / season / scissors / pupil / problem...

move / try / able

very / search / use / castle / car / calm / cash / catch / obey / note / envy / trip / trick / treat / taste / touch / sure / stew / spy / shop / screen / rush / rock / rice /

reply / real / proud / prove / hour...

English & Latinate homonymes

ENGLISH

Germanic = Latin

FRENCH

answer = respond flood = inundate

end = finishcome = arriveshut = close

wage = salarytown = citypig = porkearth = soilbig = grand

deadly = mortaldeap = profound

répondre inonder

finirarriver

clossalaire

citéporcsol

grandmortelprofond

2 good reasons to learn French

1. It opens doors to other Romance languages

2. Improve your knowledge of English

50% Germanic 50% Latin

LATIN

my rose ma rose mi rosa mia rosa

a fruit un fruit una fruta un frutto

to discuss

to prepare

discuter

préparer

discutir

preparador

discutere

preparatore

faculty faculté facultad facoltà

language learning

Useful generalities for language learners

And review of grammar terms

Like many other languages, French is composed of:

Grammatical

Words

Vocabulary

Words - very few (<100)

- difficult to use

- very frequent

- very short

- infinite number

- easy to use

- not so frequent

- short or long

Grammatical words include…

• Determiners (articles – possessive…) specify the noun: the - a - some - one - my - your - our - his - this – these – several...

• Pronouns replace the noun: I - she - they - it - me - you - them - us - her - him – that

• Prepositions link nouns together or to the verb: to - at - of - from – in - with – for – on – under – down - against – without...

• conjonctions link sentences together: and - or - but / that – when – if – because – though - unless …

Vocabulary words includes…

• Nouns: table – football – region - mother...

• Adjectives: great – lazy – small – easy ...

• Verbs: to go – to do – to sleep – to learn ...

• Adverbs: well – often – quickly – always ...