Linguistics of German and French

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Linguistics of German and French

• By Marcal/Joachim
• Lucas Verardo

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Some Important Terms

• Phonology- The study of sound patterns in a
  language
• Morphology- The study of word formation of a
  language
• Case- Any addition to a noun stem to change its
  meaning
• Syntax- General term for layout of grammar and
  word order

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Indo-European

• Evolved 7000 B.C. in present-day Ukraine
• Spread to Europe and Asia by 2500 B.C.
• Became the root of many major languages
• Proto-Indo-European
• Common Indo-European

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Characteristics

• Case System- Consisted of 8 cases.
• 5 vowel sounds
• Inflected pronunciation
• Six verb tenses
• Flexible word order (SOV)

• 3 voices Active, passive, and middle (reflexive)
• 5 Moods Indicative, Subjunctive, Optative,
  Imperative, Injunctive
• 3 Genders

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Branches of Indo-European

• Twelve major branches, only ten have surviving
  languages
• Celtic, Germanic, Slavic, Baltic, Hellenic,
  Illyric, Thracian, Iranian, Indic, and Romance
• Two extinct branches Anatolian and Tokharian

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Proto-Germanic

• Earliest evolution of Germanic branch languages
• Believed to have used a system of runes as
  ideographs
• Elder Futhark
• Eventually evolved an alphabet
• No writings ever found

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German

• Considered a root language of the Germanic branch
• Broke apart- First and Second Germanic Sound
  Shifts
• Shifts cause a number of distinct dialects to
  appear

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German vs. Indo-European

• Germanic contains three genders
• Only contains 4 cases Nominative, Accusative,
  Genitive and Dative
• Verbs conjugate into three moods, two voices, and
  six tenses
• Word order
• Separable prefixes

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German Dialects

• High German- Spoken by a majority of Germans
• Low German- Evolved in the Lowlands. Different
  enough in form to be regarded bilingual.

• Four main varieties Hochdeutch (High German),
  Mitteldeutch (Middle German), Niederdeutch (Low
  German) and Plattdeutch (Flat German)

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French

• First language of 77 million speakers
• 3rd most spoken language in the EU after German
  and English
• Sixteen possible vowel sounds
• Five distinct accents aigu, grave, le trema, la
  circonflex, and la cedille

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French Evolution

• Began evolving in 57 B.C.
• Romans invade area known as Gaul, populated by
  Celts at the time.
• Later, Germanic Franks invaded Northern France.
• Surviving Latin combined with Frankish and Celtic
  languages

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French vs. Indo-European

• Only two genders for nouns
• No surviving case system
• Verbs are conjugated with 7 moods, 5 tenses, and
  3 voices.
• Moderate inflection
• Semi-rigid word order

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Whats the Big Difference?

• Case System
• Three noun genders
• Flexible word order
• No accent markings

• No case system
• Two noun genders
• Rigid word order
• Five accents

• German

• French

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Similarities

• French and German have several similarities.
• Phonologically similar
• Morphological similarities- mostly shared
  vocabulary
• Verb tenses and moods
• Sentence structure

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Works cited

• http//www.lrz-muenchen.de/hr/lang/dt-hist.htmlh
  ttp//www.alsintl.com/resources/languages/German/
  http//www.krysstal.com/langfams_indoeuro.htmlhtt
  p//www.discoverfrance.net/France/Language/DF_lang
  uage.shtmlhttp//f99.middlebury.edu/RU232A/STUDEN
  TS/matranga/history.htmhttp//www.frenchlanguageg
  uide.com/french/facts/history/