BIENVENUE

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BIENVENUE !
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Class Material

• 1. Handouts (hard copy) from the Language Center
• 2. On line material from LC web-page
• http//www.online.languages.ait.ac.th
• Enter as a guest bonjour

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On campus resources
French Library Language Center (Room 216)
  French TV Channel  TV5  on AIT Network
ait.ac.th/wms   French Mailing List AIT
Francophones Mailing list (registration)   French
on the Internet (our selection)
languages.ait.ac.th/french/french/RESOURCESonweb.
htm
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WHY BOTHER

• LEARNING
• FRENCH ? ? ? ?

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• French is an official language in
• major international organizations
• UN EU - Olympic Commitee

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• French is spoken
• in many countries

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French companies
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Theres one more good reason why you should
learn French. A reason you probably never
thought about before...
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• Improve your knowledge
• of ENGLISH Language!
• How can it be?

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Lets go back in time to find out
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Indo-european languages
Central Asia
South-Asia
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Language groups in todays worldlight green
Indo-European group
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Indo-European split
Germanic Celtic Italic Greek
MOTHER TONGUE
Slavic Iranian Sanskrit
West (Centum)
East (Satem)
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Centum group (Western)
GERMANIC German, Dutch, Scandinavian and
English ITALIC Latin and Romance
languages French, Spanish, Portuguese,
Italian CELTIC Irish, Gaelic, Breton
(nearly extinguished) GREEK Ancient
Modern Greek
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Germanic languages (North)
English German Dutch Danish Swedish Norwegian
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Romance languages (South)Roman empire
From LATIN French Italian Spanish Portuguese Roma
nian
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Remaining Celtic nations today
Scotland
Ireland
Wales
Cornwall
Brittany
France
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Western Europe North-South Split

• - Language split
• Human split
• Climate split
• Culture split

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French Vs English
Key historical facts and effects on languages
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• 2 000 years ago, the Romans invaded Gaul
  (France) and ruled for 500 years.
• The native Celtic language disappeared and was
  replaced by a local form of LATIN.

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The Roman Empire1st BC 5th
Germanic tribes
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The Kingdom of the Franks

• In the 5th century, the Franks a German tribe
  from the North East of Europe invaded Roman Gaul
  and created a new kingdom FRANCE.
• Lots of Germanic vocabulary was introduced but
  the language remained Latin.
• At the same time, other German tribes (Angles
  Saxons) invaded Britain, occupied then by the
  Celts, and created ENGLAND.

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The Normans Invasion

• In 1066 the Duke of Normandy William the
  Conqueror invaded England.
• Old French became England official language
  for 2 centuries.
• Old English language merged then with Old
  French.

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The second BIG consequence

• When French was the language of the rich and
  powerful for centuries, English remained the
  language of the street and was thus overlooked by
  grammarians. As a consequence, English went
  through a great process of simplification.
• English is unique in Europe for it has -no
  genders for nouns
• -no complex declension for nouns and verbs,
• -no cases (accusative, dative...)

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Through time and up to now...

• LATIN and GREEK
• have influenced both French English
  continuously being the languages
• of science, politics, religion ...
• photography / telephone / acquaculture
• phenomena /biology /democraty /centimeter
• cardiovascular/homonym/diagram/economy
• hybrid/nanotechnology/hydrogen...

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English is often called an hybrid language (half
Germanic/half Latin)
It has accumulated lots of vocabulary from both
worlds and is thus a very rich language.
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French words in the English language
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English Latinate homonymeshttp//en.wikipedia.o
rg/wiki/List_of_Germanic_and_Latinate_equivalents
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English is still a Germanic language
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language

• Useful generalities for language learners
• And review of grammar terms

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Like many other languages, French is composed of
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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

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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 ...