Languages
French
By and large, universities in English-speaking countries no longer offer direct curricular access to academic French. The concept of academic French in fact no longer exists. Instead, the French majors spend three years learning to get on and off the bus with fluency and grace, and the majors in other subjects simply ignore French scholarship in their fields. In that vacuum, anything the self-student can pick up is welcome. We offer the following tidbits by way of assistance:
Preface. A few tips about how French works, and a list of the very commonest words.
Mots Français. The little French one knows should at least be memorable. By great good fortune, it happens that France has always valued the sort of wit that produces quotable sayings (mots), and these sayings make ideal mnemonics. Here is a selection:
13c 14c 15c 16c 17c 18c 19c 20c
Dictionnaire. The rest, as Schlegel tells us, is reading, and the good news is that one can prepare oneself for reading. Sinologists, for example, already know the technical vocabulary. The rest is common words, and (following on the Preface), here are the commonest, for internalizing before your next reading session:
A B C Co D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S So T U V W X Y Z
Readings. Much of French literature is gnomic; some of its best pages are little more than mots writ a little larger. Here are a few interlinear pages, most of them brief extracts.
Ancient
Blaise Pascal: On Man (1661)
Methodological
SinologicalPersonnes. The style of French and the style of French people are somehow connected; a sense of the one may perhaps help with the other. We cannot go into great detail, but here, mostly borrowed from other parts of this web site, are a few people who in one way or another are characteristic of their several periods. Any implied portrait of France as such is purely incidental.
Renaissance
Enlightenment
The Age of Napoleon
The Romantic Age
The Wry Age
The Age of Hitler
Afterward
30 Nov 2005 / Contact The Project / Exit to Reference
