A History of the French Language Through Texts

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ISBN: 9780415100007 | 0415100003
Cover: Paperback
Copyright: 12/18/1995

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This history of the French language allows the readers to see how the language has evolved, combining texts and extracts with a readable and detailed commentary that allows the language to be viewed both synchronically and diachronically. Core texts range from the ninth century to the present day highlight central features of the language. The inclusion of non-literary as well as literary texts serves to illustrate some of the many varieties of French in legal, scientific, epistolatory, administrative or liturgical and more popular domains, including attempts to represent spoken usage. This is essential reading for the undergraduate student of French.

List of symbols

vii

(2)

List of figures

(2)

Acknowledgements

Introduction

(14)

I The language of the earliest texts (AD 842 to the end of the 11th century)

(43)

1 The Strasbourg Oaths (842): the earliest vernacular text

(15)

2 The Sequence of Saint Eulalia (c. 880-82)

(9)

3 Extract from the Bilingual Sermon on Jonah (c. 937-52)

(6)

4 La Vie de Saint Alexis (mid-11th century)

(12)

II The `heyday' of Old French (French in the 12th and 13th centuries)

(40)

5 La Chanson de Roland (early 12th century)

(8)

6 Le Chevalier de la charrette (c. 1177-81)

(4)

7 Le Jeu de saint Nicolas (c. 1200)

(2)

8 The Old French Bible (first half of the 13th century)

(6)

9 Geoffroy de Villehardouin, The Conquest of Constantinople (early 13th century)

(3)

10 The Lettre d'Hippocrate (mid-13th century)

(5)

11 Donation testamentaire (1239)

(7)

12 Lettre de Jean Sarrasin a Nicolas Arrode (23 June 1249)

(3)

III Middle French (French in the 14th and 15th centuries)

(42)

13 Cent nouvelles nouvelles (mid-15th century)

100

(8)

14 Alain Chartier, Le Quadrilogue invectif (1422)

108

(6)

15 Le Testament Villon (mid-15th century)

114

(5)

16 La Farce de Maitre Pathelin (mid-15th century)

119

(4)

17 Le Menagier de Paris (end of the 14th century)

123

(5)

18 Land sale, 23 May 1380

128

(4)

19 Nicolas Chuquet, Le Triparty en la science des nombres (late 15th century)

132

(4)

20 La Maniere de langage (end of the 14th century)

136

(4)

IV Renaissance French (French in the 16th century)

140

(38)

21 Francois Rabelais, Gargantua (1534)

142

(7)

22 Michel de Montaigne, Essais (1588)

149

(4)

23 Jean Calvin, Institution de la religion chrestienne (1541)

153

(4)

24 Robert Olivetan's translation of the Bible (1535)

157

(3)

25 Ambroise Pare, La Methode de traicter les playes faictes par hacquebutes et aultres bastons a feu (1545)

160

(7)

26 Andre Thevet, Les Singularitez de la France Antarctique (1557/8)

167

(4)

27 Louis Meigret, Le Trette de la grammere francoeze (1550)

171

(7)

V Classical and Neo-Classical French (French in the 17th and 18th centuries up to the Revolution)

178

(51)

28 Claude Favre de Vaugelas, Remarques sur la langue francoise (1647)

180

(8)

29 Francois de Sales, Introduction a la vie devote (early 17th century)

188

(5)

30 Voltaire, Candide (1759)

193

(5)

31 Pierre-Ambroise-Francois Choderlos de Laclos, Les Liaisons dangereuses (1782)

198

(6)

32 Jean Racine, Britannicus (1669)

204

(3)

33 Mercure de France (1732)

207

(5)

34 Victor Riqueti, marquis de Mirabeau and Francois Quesnay, Philosophie rurale ou economie generale et politique de l'agriculture (1763/4)

212

(4)

35 Jean Heroard's record of the Dauphin's speech (early 17th century)

216

(6)

36 French in the world: an early example of Haitian Creole (mid-18th century)

222

(7)

VI Modern French (From the Revolution to the present day)

229

(45)

37 Michel Tournier, Gaspard, Melchior & Balthazar (1980)

232

(6)

38 Gustave Flaubert, Madame Bovary (1856/7)

238

(4)

39 Robert Desnos, Langage cuit (1923)

242

(2)

40 Le Monde (13.4.1961): Gagarin in space

244

(4)

41 Annales de l'Institut Pasteur. Microbiologie (1986)

248

(4)

42 Decree of the National Assembly, 20 July 1790

252

(3)

43 Jacques Cellard, Chroniques de langage (1972)

255

(5)

44 Regional French: Spoken Midi French

260

(7)

45 Antonine Maillet, La Sagouine (1971)

267

(7)

Appendix I: Summary of main linguistic features

274

(14)

Appendix II: Glossary of selected technical terms and guide to the sounds of Modern French

288

(4)

Appendix III: Suggestions for further reading

292

(3)

References

295

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A History of the French Language Through Texts

Summary

Table of Contents

Supplemental Materials