:: wikimiki.org ::

Bourgeoisie

Bourgeoisie

Bourgeoisie (RP [], GA []) in modern use refers to the wealthy or propertied social class in a capitalist society.

Origin of the term

Bourgeoisie is a French word. The early Anglicization "burgess" is derived from the old French burgeis (Cf. Also middle English: burgeis, burges, borges and old Dutch: burgher = the inhabitant of a borough or burgh). In the French feudal order, "bourgeois" was formally a legal category in society, defined by conditions such as length of residence and source of income. The French term in turn seems to have derived from the Italian borghesia (from borgo = village), which in turn derives from the Greek pyrgos). A borghese was a freeman dwelling in a burgh or township. The word evolved to mean merchants and traders, and until the 19th century was mostly synonymous with the middle class (persons in the broad socioeconomic spectrum between nobility and serfs or proletarians). Then, as the power and wealth of the nobility faded in the second half of the 19th century, the bourgeoisie emerged as the new ruling class. As the term is difficult for a native English speaker to spell or pronounce, it is not used as often in politics in English speaking countries as in other Western ones, and is not in common use in the United States. From the late nineteenth century through the Great Depression, the pronunciation "bushwah" was used in political satire portraying radical leftists.

Rise of the bourgeoisie

In the early Middle Ages, as cities were forming and growing, artisans and tradesmen begin to emerge as an economic force. They formed guilds, associations and companies to conduct business and promote their own interests. These people were the original bourgeoisie. In the late Middle Ages, they allied with the king in uprooting the feudalism system, gradually becoming the ruling class in industrialised nation states. In the 17th and 18th century, they generally supported the American revolution and French revolution in overthrowing the laws and privileges of the absolutist feudal order, clearing the way for the rapid expansion of commerce. Concepts such as personal liberties, religious and civil rights, and free trade all derive from bourgeois philosophies. But the bourgeoisie was never without its critics; it was first accused of narrow-mindedness, materialism, hypocrisy, opposition to change, and lack of culture, among other things, by persons such as the playwright Molière. The earliest recorded pejorative uses of the term "bourgeois" are associated with aristocratic contempt for the lifestyle of the bourgeoisie. Successful embourgeoisement typically meant being able to retire and live on invested income. With the expansion of commerce, trade and the market economy, the bourgeoisie grew in size, influence and power. In all industrialized countries, the aristocracy either faded away slowly or found itself overthrown by a bourgeois revolution. Thus the bourgeoisie rose to the top of the social hierarchy. This, coupled with the advances of industry, resulted in the birth of an entirely new lower class, the proletariat or working class. And, increasingly, criticisms of the bourgeoisie began to come from below.

The Marxist view

Arguably one of the most influential of the aforementioned criticisms came from Karl Marx, who attacked bourgeois political theory and its view of civil society and civilization for what he believed to be its falsely universal concepts and institutions; in Marx's view, these concepts were only the ideology of the bourgeoisie as a new ruling class, which sought to reshape society after its own image. Marxism defines the bourgeoisie as the social class which obtains income from ownership or trade in capital assets, or from commercial activities such as the buying and selling of commodities, wares and services. In medieval times, the bourgeois was typically a self-employed proprietor, small employer, entrepreneur, banker or merchant. In industrial capitalism, on the other hand, the bourgeoisie becomes the ruling class - which means it also owns the bulk of the means of production (land, factories, offices, capital, resources). This enables it to employ and exploit the work of a large mass of wage workers (the working class), who have no other means of livelihood than to sell their labour to property owners. Marx himself distinguished between "functioning capitalists" actually managing enterprises, and "mere coupon-clippers" earning property rents or interest-income from financial assets or real estate ('rentier'). Marxism sees the proletariat (wage laborers) and bourgeoisie as directly waging an ongoing class struggle, in that capitalists exploit workers and workers try to resist exploitation. This exploitation takes place as follows: the workers, who own no means of production of their own, must seek employment in order to make a living. They get hired by a capitalist and work for him, producing some sort of goods or services. These goods or services then become the property of the capitalist, who sells them and gets a certain amount of money in exchange. Part of this money is used to pay workers' wages, another part is used to pay production costs, and a third part is kept by the capitalist in the form of profit (or surplus value). Thus the capitalist can earn money (profit) from the work of his employees without actually doing any work, or in excess of his own work. Marxists argue that new wealth is created through work; therefore, if someone gains wealth that he did not work for, then someone else works and does not receive the full wealth created by his work. In other words, that "someone else" is exploited. Thus, Marxists argue that capitalists make a profit by exploiting workers. In the rhetoric of some Communist parties, "bourgeois" is sometimes used as an insult, and those who are perceived to collaborate with the bourgeoisie are called its lackeys. Marx himself primarily used the term "bourgeois", with or without sarcasm, as an objective description of a social class and of a lifestyle based on ownership of private capital, not as a pejorative. He admired the industriousness of the bourgeoisie, but criticised it for its moral hypocrisy. This attitude is shown most clearly in the Communist Manifesto. In the view of several 20th century Marxist currents, most notably Trotskyism, the nomenklatura or ruling class in Stalinist countries preside over a system of state capitalism. The Trotskyists hold that every attempt to establish socialism on anything other than an international basis ('Socialism in one country') inevitably results in a national bourgeoise (or more accurately puts it in power since typically the reformers which will form this ruling class come already from the petite bourgeoisie), and they point to the degeneration of the Soviet Union, the betrayal of the 1927 Chinese revolution, Cuba and all such national liberation movements as examples. To anarchists, all prominent members, functionaries and leaders of any kind of state are part of this state bourgeoisie. According to these interpretations, the bourgeoisie is composed of any individuals who have exclusive control over the means of production, regardless whether this control comes in the form of private ownership or state power.

References

- Hal Draper, Karl Marx's Theory of Revolution, Vol. 2: The Politics of Social Classes. New York: Monthly Review Press, 1979.
- Ralph Miliband, Class and class power in contemporary capitalism, in: Stanislaw Kozyr-Kowalski and Jacek Tittenbrun, On Social Differentiation. A Contribution to the Critique of Marxist Ideology, Part 2. Poznan: Adam Mickiewicz University Press, 1992, pp. 7-62.
- Ernest Mandel, Social differentiation in capitalist and postcapitalist societies, in: Stanislaw Kozyr-Kowalski and Jacek Tittenbrun, On Social Differentiation. A Contribution to the Critique of Marxist Ideology, Part 2. Poznan: Adam Mickiewicz University Press, 1992, pp. 63-91.
- Erik Olin Wright et al., The Debate on Classes. London: Verso, 1989.
- Anthony Giddens, The Class Structure of the Advanced societies.

External links

- [http://www.gegenstandpunkt.com/english/state/toc.html The Democratic State] – A Critique of Bourgeois Sovereignty Category:Social groups Category:French words Category:Marxism zh-min-nan:Chu-sán-kai-kip ja:ブルジョワジー

Received Pronunciation

Received Pronunciation (RP) is a form of pronunciation of the English language, sometimes defined as the "educated spoken English of southeastern England". It is a dialect of English English often taught to non-native speakers, and represented in the pronunciation schemes of most British dictionaries. According to Fowler's Modern English Usage (1965), the term is "the Received Pronunciation". Earlier, Received Pronunciation was sometimes referred to as BBC English (as it was traditionally used by the BBC). This term remains in use today, though less frequently than in past decades, as many other accents are now to be heard on the BBC. Many Britons abroad modify their accent to make their pronunciation closer to Received Pronunciation, in order to be better understood than if they were using their usual accent. They may also modify their vocabulary and grammar to be closer to Standard English, for the same reason. However in recent decades there has also been a counter tendency, with many people asserting the value of other regional and class accents, and many younger members of the groups which traditionally used Received Pronunciation moving away from it to varying degrees.

Changing status of Received Pronunciation

Traditionally, Received Pronunciation is the accent of English which is the everyday speech of families of Southern English persons whose menfolk have been educated at the great public boarding schools (Daniel Jones, English Pronouncing Dictionary, 1926 — he had earlier called it "Public School Pronunciation"), and which conveys no information about that speaker's region of origin prior to attending the school. For many years, the use of Received Pronunciation was considered a mark of education. It was standard practice until around the 1950s for university students with regional accents to modify their speech to be closer to RP. As a result, at a time when only around five percent of the population attended universities, elitist notions sprang up around it and those who used it may have considered those who did not to be less educated than themselves. There was some truth in this, as historically most of the best British educational institutions (Oxford, Cambridge, many public schools) were located in South East England, so those who were educated there would pick up the accents of their peers. There have always been exceptions: for example, the Edinburgh accent had a similar cachet. However, from the 1970s onwards, attitudes towards Received Pronunciation have been slowly changing. One of the primary catalysts for this was the influence in the 1960s of Labour prime minister Harold Wilson. Unusually for a prime minister he spoke with a strong Yorkshire accent, exaggerated, some said, to appeal to the working classes his party represented. As a result of the trend begun by Wilson and others in the 1960s, the accents of the English regions and of Scotland, Wales, and Ireland are today more likely to be considered to be on a par with Received Pronunciation, which by the turn of the century was only spoken by around three percent of the population. BBC reporters no longer need to, and often do not, use Received Pronunciation. The form of RP has itself changed over the past decades. Sound recordings and films from the first half of the 20th century demonstrate that it was standard to pronounce the sound, as in land, with a vowel close to , so that land could sound similar to lend. RP is sometimes known as the Queen's English but recordings show that even the Queen has changed her pronunciation over the past 50 years, no longer using a -like vowel in words like land. The ongoing spread of Estuary English from the London metropolitan area through the whole South-East leads some people to believe that this will take the place of Received Pronunciation as the "Standard English" of the future. There are, however, important factors that militate against this, including the perceived inferior status and alleged lower intelligibility of Estuary English, which is characterised by the dropping of consonants, and use of the glottal stop. The closest equivalent in the United States is General American, although this is rhotic rather than non-rhotic. Until the post-World War II era, some American actors and announcers used the now defunct Mid-Atlantic accent, which has been completely supplanted by General American, and among newsreaders by the Standard Midwestern accent.

Phonology

Consonants

A table containing the consonant phonemes is given below The phoneme is present in the speech only of those people who have not undergone the wine-whine merger.

Vowels

The vowel phonemes of Received Pronunciation are shown in the following tables: Examples: in kit and mirror, in foot and put, in dress and merry, in strut and curry, in trap and marry, in lot and orange, in the second syllable of sofa. Examples: in fleece, in goose, in nurse and bird, in north and thought, in father and start. Examples: in near and theatre, in face, in square and Mary, in goat, in price, in mouth, in choice, in cure. There are also the triphthongs as in fire and as in tower. There are some variations in transcription. In particular
- as in trap is often written .
- as in dress is often written .
- as in nurse is sometimes written .
- as in price is sometimes written .
- as in square is sometimes written , and is also sometimes treated as a long monophthong .

Characteristics

- RP is a non-rhotic accent, meaning does not occur unless followed immediately by a vowel.
- Unlike northern English English and most forms of American English, RP is a broad A accent, so words like bath and chance appear with and not .
- The phoneme in words like butter is usually not flapped (as in most forms of American English) or realised as a glottal stop (as in some other forms of English English, including Cockney).
- Unlike many other varieties of English English, there is no h-dropping in words like head.
- RP does not have yod dropping after , and . Hence, for example, new, tune and dune are pronounced , and rather than , and . This contrasts with many East Anglian and East Midland varieties of English English and with most forms of American English.

Historical variation

Some old-fashioned forms of RP have some variations in their phonology.
- Words like off, cloth, gone can be pronounced with instead of . See lot-cloth split.
- The horse-hoarse merger may not have occurred, with an extra diphthong appearing in words such as hoarse, force, mourning.

Social class

Social class describes the relationships between people in hierarchical societies or cultures. While anthropologists, historians and sociologists identify class as a social structure emerging from pre-history, the idea of social class entered the English lexicon about the 1770s. Social classes with more power usually subordinate classes with less power. Social classes with a great deal of power are usually viewed as elites, at least within their own societies.

Sociological class

Schools of sociology differ as to which social traits are significant enough to define a class, although when sociologists speak of "class" in modern society they usually mean economically-based classes. The relative importance and definition of membership in a particular class differs greatly over time and between societies, particularly in societies that have a legal differentiation of groups of people by birth or occupation. In the well-known example of socioeconomic class, many scholars view societies as stratifying into a hierarchical system based on occupation, economic status, wealth, or income.

Weberian class

The seminal sociological interpretation of class was advanced by Max Weber. Weber formulated a three-component theory of stratification, with social, status and party classes (or politics) as conceptually distinct elements.
- Social class is based on economic relationship to the market (owner, renter, employee, etc.)
- Status class has to do with non-economic qualities such as education, honour and prestige
- Party class refers to factors having to do with affiliations in the political domain Each of the three dimensions has consequences for what Weber called "life chances". Class system like the UK has has been derived from invasion and occupation (Norman Invasion). Class system which is inherited from birth when some are perceived better than others is a form of suppression (i.e. Lords)

Dimensions of sociological class

The following traits are sometimes used to define social class:
- occupation
- education
- income
- manners, style and cultural refinement. For example, Bourdieu suggests a notion of high and low classes with a distinction between bourgeois tastes and sensitivities and the working class tastes and sensitivities.
- net worth
- power
- ownership of land, property, means of production, slaves...
- political standing vis-a-vis the government
- reputation of honor or disgrace
- social prestige, as from an honorary title, or association with an esteemed organization or person

Stratum models of class

Sociologists generally identify different classes as social strata in higher or lower order based on a class's measurable position on a dimensional scale. The number of models possible is dependent upon the analytical and statistical framework used in particular sociological studies. Some typical models include: ;Two-class models: That divide societies between the powerful and weak. ;Three-class models: That develop a two class model with a postulated middle class. ;Multi-stratum models: Sociologists who seek fine-grained connections between class and life-outcomes often develop precisely defined social strata, like historian Paul Fussell's nine-tier stratification of American society. Fussell's model classifies Americans according to the following classes: # Top out-of-sight: the super-rich, heirs to huge fortunes # Upper Class: rich celebrities and people who can afford full-time domestic staff # Upper-Middle Class: self-made well-educated professionals # Middle Class: office workers # High Prole: skilled blue-collar workers # Mid Prole: workers in factories and the service industry # Low Prole: manual laborers # Destitute: the homeless # Bottom out-of-sight: those incarcerated in prisons and institutions

Warnerian social class model

Another example of a stratum class model was developed by the sociologist William Lloyd Warner in his 1949 book, Social Class in America. For many decades, the Warnerian theory was dominant in U.S. sociological theory. Based on social anthropology, Warner divided American into three classes (upper, middle, and lower), then further subdivided each of these into an "upper" and "lower" segment, with the following postulates:
- Upper-upper class. "Old money." People who have been born into and raised with wealth.
- Lower-upper class. "New money." Individuals who have become rich within their own lifetimes.
- Upper-middle class. High-salaried professionals (i.e., doctors, lawyers, corporate executives).
- Lower-middle class. Lower-paid professionals, but not manual laborers (i.e., police officers, non-management office workers, small business owners).
- Upper-lower class. Blue-collar workers and manual laborers. Also known as the "working class."
- Lower-lower class. The homeless and permanently unemployed, as well as the "working poor." To Warner, American social class was based more on attitudes than on the actual amount of money an individual made. For example, the richest people in America would belong to the "lower-upper class" since many of them created their own fortunes; one can only be born into the highest class. Nonetheless, members of the upper-upper class tend to be more respected, as a simple survey of U.S. presidents may demonstrate (i.e., the Roosevelts; John Kennedy; the Bushs) Another observation: members of the upper-lower class might make more money than members of the lower-middle class (i.e., a well-salaried factory worker vs. a secretarial worker), but the class difference is based on the type of work they perform. In his research, findings, Warner observed that American social class was largely based on these shared attitudes. For example, he noted that the lower-middle class tended to be the most conservative group of all, since very little separated them from the working class. The upper-middle class, while a relatively small section of the population, usually "set the standard" for proper American behavior, as reflected in the mass media.

Marxian class

Karl Marx defined class in terms of the extent to which an individual or social group has control over the means of production. In Marxist terms a class is a group of people defined by their relationship to the means of production. Classes are seen to have their origin in the division of the social product into a necessary product and a surplus product. Marxists explain history in terms of a war of classes between those who control production and those who actually produce the goods or services in society (and also developments in technology and the like). In the Marxist view of capitalism, this is a conflict between capitalists (bourgeoisie) and wage-workers (proletariat). For Marxists, class antagonism is rooted in the situation that control over social production necessarily entails control over the class which produces goods -- in capitalism this is the exploitation of workers by the bourgeoisie.

Proletarianisation

bourgeoisie The most important transformation of society for Marxists has been the massive and rapid growth of the proletariat in the world population during the last two hundred and fifty years. Starting with agricultural and domestic textile labourers in England and Flanders, more and more occupations only provide a living through wages or salaries. Private enterprise or self-employment in a variety of occupations is no longer as viable as it once was, and so many people who once controlled their own labour-time are converted into proletarians. Today groups which in the past subsisted on stipends or private wealth -- like doctors, academics or lawyers -- are now increasingly working as wage labourers. Marxists call this process proletarianisation, and point to it as the major factor in the proletariat being the largest class in current societies in the rich countries of the "first world." The increasing dissolution of the peasant-lord relationship, initially in the commercially active and industrialising countries, and then in the unindustrialised countries as well, has virtually eliminated the class of peasants. Poor rural labourers still exist, but their current relationship with production is predominantly as landless wage labourers or rural proletarians. The destruction of the peasantry, and its conversion into a rural proletariat, is largely a result of the general proletarianisation of all work. This process is today largely complete, although it was arguably incomplete in the 1960s and 1970s.

Dialectics, or historical materialism, in Marxist Class

Marx saw class categories as defined by continuing historical processes. Classes, in Marxism, are not static entities, but are regenerated daily through the productive process. Marxism views classes as human social relationships which change over time, with historical commonality created through shared productive processes. A 17th-century farm labourer who worked for day wages shares a similar relationship to production as an average office worker of the 21st century. In this example it is the shared structure of wage labour that makes both of these individuals "working class."

Objective and subjective factors in class in Marxism

Marxism has a rather heavily defined dialectic between objective factors (i.e., material conditions, the social structure) and subjective factors (i.e. the conscious organization of class members). While most Marxism analyses people's class status based on objective factors (class structure), major Marxist trends have made excellent use of subjective factors in understanding the history of the working class. E.P. Thompson's Making of the English Working Class is a definitive example of this "subjective" Marxist trend. Thompson analyses the English working class as a group of people with shared material conditions coming to a positive self-consciousness of their social position. This feature of social class is commonly termed class consciousness in Marxism. It is seen as the process of a "class in itself" moving in the direction of a "class for itself," a collective agent that changes history rather than simply being a victim of the historical process.

Non-economic conceptions of class

In contrast to simple income--property hierarchies, and to structural class schemes like Weber's or Marx's, there are theories of class based on other distinctions, such as culture or educational attainment. At times, social class can be related to elitism, and those in the higher class are usually known as the "social elite". For example, Bourdieu seems to have a notion of high and low classes comparable to that of Marxism, insofar as their conditions are defined by different habitus, which is in turn defined by different objectively classifiable conditions of existence. In fact, one of the principal distinctions Bourdieu makes is a distinction between bourgeois taste and the working class taste.

Class in different parts of the world

At various times the division of society into classes and estates has had various levels of support in law. At one extreme we find old Indian castes, which one could neither enter after birth, nor leave (though this applied only in relatively recent history). Feudal Europe had estates clearly separated by law and custom. On the other extreme there exist classes in modern Western societies which appear very fluid and have little support in law. The extent to which classes are important differs also in western societies, though in most societies class as an objective measure has very strong empirical effects on life chances (e.g. educational achievement, life-time earnings, health outcomes). Only in the strongly social-democratic societies such as Sweden is there much long-term evidence of the weakening of the consequences of social class. The effect of class on vote or life-style is more variable across countries and over time.

External links

- [http://etext.lib.virginia.edu/cgi-local/DHI/dhi.cgi?id=dv1-54 Dictionary of the history of ideas:] Class

Society

:For the Brian Yuzna film, see Society (film). For the song by the California punk band Pennywise, see Society (song). A society is a group of beings distinguishable from other groups by mutual interests, characteristic relationships, shared institutions, ranking and a common culture. In political science, the term is often used to mean the amalgamation of all voluntary human relationships, generally in contrast to the State, an institution of legal aggression. :"I mean by it [State] that summation of privileges and dominating positions which are brought into being by extra-economic power... I mean by Society, the totality of concepts of all purely natural relations and institutions between man and man..." - Franz Oppenheimer, The State.[http://www.opp.uni-wuppertal.de/oppenheimer/st/state0.htm] The social sciences use the term society to mean a group of people that form a semi-closed social system, in which most interactions are with other individuals belonging to the group. More abstractly, a society is defined as a network of relationships between social entities. A society is also sometimes defined as an interdependent community, but the sociologist Tonnies sought to draw a contrast between society and community. An important component of society is social structure in which roles and ranks are given (school[cliques and labels], work[boss, admin], and so on)

Etymology

The English word society emerged in the 14th century; derived from the French société. The French word, in turn, had its origin in the Latin societas, a "friendly association with others", from socius meaning "companion, associate, comrade or business partner". Thus the meaning of society is closely related to what is considered to be social. Implicit in the meaning of society is that its members share some mutual concern or interest, a common objective or common characteristics. As such, society is often used as synonymous with the collective citizenry of a country as directed through national institutions concerned with civic welfare.

Organization of society

Human societies are often organized according to their primary means of subsistence: social scientists identify hunter-gatherer societies, nomadic pastoral societies, horticulturalist or simple farming societies, and intensive agricultural societies, also called civilizations. Some consider Industrial and Post-Industrial societies to be qualitatively different from traditional agricultural societies. One Common theme for societies in general is that societies serve to aid individuals in a time of crisis; historically, when an individual in some community requires aid, for example at birth, death, sickness, or disaster, like-minded members of that community will rally others in that society to render aid, in some form, whether the aid is symbolic, linguistic, physical, mental, emotional, financial, medical, religious, etc. Cetain societies can also put down, and scapegoat other members of the society. Many societies will also distribute largess, at the behest of some individual or some larger group of people. This type of generosity can be seen in all known cultures; typically, prestige or other cultural factor accrues to the generous individual or group. Some societies will bestow a status on some individual or larger group of people, when that individual or group performs an admired or desired action; This type of recognition is bestowed by members of that society on the individual or larger group in the form of sosubliminal messageme name, or title, or dress, or monetary reward, etc. Males especially are susceptible to this type of action and subsequent reward, even at the risk of their lives. Action by some individual or larger group in behalf of some ideal of their culture is seen in all societies. Even subsistence-based societies exhibit the characteristics of community action, generosity, and shared risk/reward, in common with other more technology-based civilizations. Societies can also be organized according to their political structure: in order of increasing size and complexity, there are band societies, tribes, chiefdoms, and state societies, with varying degrees of political power, depending on the what cultural geographical, historical environments that these societies have to contend with. Thus, when a society exists at the same time as other societies at the same level of technology and culture, but is also isolated geographically, that society is more likely to survive than an equivalent society which is prey to others which can encroach on their resources. See the history article for examples. A society which is not able to offer an effective response to other societies which may be in competition with them will usually be subsumed into the culture of the competing society. See the technology article for examples.

Shared belief or common goal

Peoples of many nations united by common political and cultural traditions, beliefs, or values are sometimes also said to be a society (for example: Judeo-Christian, Eastern, Western, etc). When used in this context, the term is being used as a means of contrasting two or more "societies" whose representative members represent alternative conflicting and competing worldviews. Also, some academic, learned and scholarly societies and associations, such as the American Society of Mathematics, describe themselves as societies. In the United Kingdom these are normally non-profit making and have charitable status. In science they range in size to include national scientific societies including the Royal Society to regional natural history societies. Academic societies may have interest in a wide range of subjects, including the arts, humanities and science. In the United States and France, the term "society" is used in commerce to denote a partnership between investors or to start a business. In the United Kingdom, partnerships are not called societies but cooperatives or mutuals are often known as societies (such as friendly societies and building societies).

Ontology

As a related note, there is still an ongoing debate in sociological and anthropological circles if there exists an entity we could call society. Some Marxist theorists, like Louis Althusser, Ernesto Laclau and Slavoj Zizek, argued that society is nothing more than an effect of the ruling ideology of a certain class system, and shouldn't be used as a sociological notion. Marx's concept of society as the sum total of social relations among members of a community contrasts with interpretations from the perspective of methodological individualism where society is simply the sum total of individuals in a territory.

References

[http://www.askoxford.com/concise_oed/society Definition of Society] from the OED.
- [http://core.ecu.edu/soci/juskaa/SOCI2110/Lectures/Lect1 Lecture notes on "Defining Society"] from East Carolina University.
- [http://www.wsu.edu:8001/vcwsu/commons/topics/culture/glossary/society.html Learning Commons - What is Culture ? - Glossary Item - Society]
- Raymond Williams, "Society", in: Williams, Key Words: A Vocabulary of Culture and Society. Fontana, 1976. Category:Society Category:Sociology ja:社会 ko:사회 nb:Samfunn simple:Society zh-min-nan:Siā-hōe

French language

French (French: français) is the third of the Romance languages in terms of number of speakers, after Spanish and Portuguese, being spoken by about 67 million people as a mother tongue, and altogether by some 128 million people, which includes second-language speakers who use French for daily communication. French is thus the 18^th most spoken language in the world by number of native speakers, and 9^th in terms of daily speakers. It is an official language in 29 countries. It is also an official or administrative language in various communities and organisations (such as the European Union, IOC, United Nations and Universal Postal Union). Before World War II, French was considered the international language, particularly in such fields as diplomacy, trade, shipping, and transportation.

History

The Roman invasion of Gaul

The French language is a Romance language, meaning that it is descended from Latin. Before the Roman invasion of what is modern-day France by Julius Cæsar (58–52 BC), France was inhabited largely by a Celtic people that the Romans referred to as Gauls, although there were also other linguistic/ethnic groups in France at this time, such as the Iberians in southern France and Spain, the Ligurians on the Mediterranean coast, Greek colonies such as Massalia (i.e. present-day Marseille), Phoenician outposts, and the Vascons on the Spanish/French border. Although in the past many Frenchmen liked to refer to their descent from Gallic ancestors (nos ancêtres les Gaulois), perhaps fewer than 200 words with a Celtic etymological origin remain in French today (largely place and plant names and words dealing with rural life and the earth). In the reverse direction, some words for Gallic objects which were new to the Romans and for which there were no words in Latin were imported into Latin – for example, clothing items such as les braies. Latin quickly became the lingua franca of the entire Gallic region for mercantile, official and educational purposes, yet it should be remembered that this was Vulgar Latin, the colloquial dialect spoken by the Roman army and its agents and not the literary dialect of Cicero.

The Franks

From the third century on, Western Europe was invaded by Germanic tribes from the east, and some of these groups settled in Gaul. For the history of the French language, the most important of these groups are the Franks in northern France, the Alemanni in the German/French border, the Burgundians in the Rhone valley and the Visigoths in the Aquitaine region and Spain. These Germanic-speaking groups had a profound effect on the Latin spoken in their respective regions, altering both the pronunciation and the syntax. They also introduced a number of new words: perhaps as much as 15% of modern French comes from Germanic words, including many terms and expressions associated with their social structure and military tactics.

Langue d'Oïl

Linguists typically divide the languages spoken in medieval France into three geographical subgroups: Langue d'oïl and Langue d'oc are the two major groups; the third group, Franco-Provençal, is considered a transitional language between the two other groups. The Oïl–Oc divide is broadly comparable to the divide illustrated by the use of "yes" in English and "aye" in Scots. Langue d'oïl, the languages which use oïl (in modern usage, oui) for "yes", is the language group in the north of France. These languages, like Picard, Walloon, Francien and Norman, were influenced by the Germanic languages spoken by the Frankish invaders. From the time period Clovis I on, the Franks extended their rule over northern Gaul. Over time, the French language developed from either the Oïl language found around Paris (the Francien theory) or from a standard administrative language based on common characteristics found in all Oïl languages (the lingua franca theory). Langue d'oc, the languages which use oc for "yes", is the language group in the south of France and northern Spain. These languages, such as Gascon and Provençal, have relatively little Frankish influence. (Modern French has two words for "yes", oui and si; the latter is used to contradict negative statements. Si derives from Latin sic "thus", and is cognate to the word for "yes" in Spanish, Italian, and Catalan. Oïl/oui derive, according to Larousse, from Latin hoc ille "thus he (did)".)

Other linguistic groups

The early middle ages also saw the influence of other linguistic groups on the dialects of France: From the 5th to the 8th centuries, Celtic-speaking peoples from southwestern Britain (Wales, Cornwall, Devon) travelled across the English Channel, both for reasons of trade and as a result of the Anglo-Saxon invasions of England. They established themselves in Bretagne (Brittany). Their language was a dialect of the Brythonic languages, which has been named Breton in more recent centuries. It is part of the larger Celtic language family, though the modern dialects reflect a noticeable influence from French in their vocabulary. From the 6th to the 7th centuries, the Vascons crossed over the Pyrénées, a mountain range in the south of France. Their presence influenced the Occitan language spoken in southwestern France, resulting in the dialect called Gascon. Scandinavian vikings invaded France from the 9th century onwards and established themselves in what would come to be called Normandie (Normandy). They took up the langue d'oïl spoken there and contributed many words to French related to maritime activities, amongst other things. With their conquest of England in 1066, the Normans brought their language. The dialect that developed there as a language of administration and literature is referred to as Anglo-Norman. Anglo-Norman served as the language of the ruling classes and commerce in England from the time of the conquest until 1362, when the use of English became dominant again. Because of the Norman Conquest, the English language has borrowed a considerable amount of its vocabulary from French. The Arab peoples also supplied many words to French around this time period, including words for luxury goods, spices, trade stuffs, sciences and mathematics.

History of French

For the period up to around 1300, some linguists refer to the oïl languages collectively as Old French (ancien français). The earliest extant text in French is the Oaths of Strasbourg from 842; Old French became a literary language with the chansons de geste that told tales of the paladins of Charlemagne and the heroes of the Crusades. By the Ordinance of Villers-Cotterêts in 1539 King Francis I made French the official language of administration and court proceedings in France, ousting the Latin that had been used before then. With the imposition of a standardised chancery dialect and the loss of the declension system, the dialect is referred to as Middle French (moyen français). Following a period of unification, regulation and purification, the French of the 17th to the 18th centuries is sometimes referred to as Classical French (français classique), although many linguists simply refer to French language from the 17th century to today as Modern French (français moderne). The foundation of the Académie française (French Academy) in 1634 by Cardinal Richelieu created an official body whose goal has been the purification and preservation of the French language. This group of 40 members is known as the Immortals, not, as some erroneously believe, because they are chosen to serve for the extent of their lives (which they are), but because of the inscription engraved on the official seal given to them by their founder Richelieu—"À l'immortalité" ("to the Immortality (of the French language)"). The foundation still exists and contributes to the policing of the language and the adaptation of foreign words and expressions. Some recent modifications include the change from software to logiciel, packet-boat to paquebot, and riding-coat to redingote. The word ordinateur for computer was however not created by the Académie, but by a linguist appointed by IBM (see :fr:ordinateur). From the 17th to the 19th centuries, France was the leading power of continental Europe; thanks to this, together with the influence of the Enlightenment, French was the lingua franca of educated Europe, especially with regards to the arts, literature, and diplomacy; monarchs like Frederick II of Prussia and Catherine the Great of Russia could both speak and write in French. Through the Académie, public education, centuries of official control and the role of media, a unified official French language has been forged, but there remains a great deal of diversity today in terms of regional accents and words. For some critics, the "best" pronunciation of the French language is considered to be the one used in Touraine (around Tours and the Loire River valley), but such value judgments are fraught with problems, and with the ever increasing loss of lifelong attachments to a specific region and the growing importance of the national media, the future of specific "regional" accents is difficult to predict.

Modern issues

There is some debate in today's France about the preservation of the French language and the influence of English (see franglais), especially with regard to international business, the sciences and popular culture. There have been laws (see Toubon law) enacted which require that all print ads and billboards with foreign expressions include a French translation and which require quotas of French-language songs (at least 40%) on the radio. There is also pressure, in differing degrees, from some regions as well as minority political or cultural groups for a measure of recognition and support for their regional languages.

Geographic distribution

regional language
French is an official language in the following countries or parts thereof: La Francophonie is an international organization of French-speaking countries and governments.

Legal status in France

Per the Constitution of France, French is the official language of the Republic since 1792 [http://www.languefrancaise.net/dossiers/dossiers.php?id_dossier=50]. France mandates the use of French in official government publications, public education outside of specific cases (though these dispositions are often ignored) and legal contracts; advertisements must bear a translation of foreign words. See Toubon Law. Contrary to a misunderstanding common in the American and British media, France does not prohibit the use of foreign words in websites or any other private publication, which would anyway contradict constitutional guarantees on freedom of speech. The misunderstanding may have arisen from a similar prohibition in the Canadian province of Quebec which made strict application of the Charter of the French Language between 1977 and 1993, although these regulations addressed language used in advertising and the provision of commercial services offered within the province, not the language of private communication. There exist in addition to French a variety of languages spoken in France by minorities; see Languages of France.

Legal status in Canada

About 12% of the world's francophones are Canadian, and French is one of Canada's two official languages, with English; various provisions of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms deal with the right of Canadians to access services in English and French all across Canada. By law, the federal government must operate and provide services in both English and French; proceedings of the Parliament of Canada must be translated into both English and French; and all Canadian products must be labelled in both English and French. Overall about 22% of Canadians speak French as a first language and 18% are bilingual. French has been the only official language of Quebec since 1974, although it is commonly (and incorrectly) believed that the designation of French as the sole official language occurred in 1977 with the adoption of the Charter of the French Language (which is popularly referred to as Bill 101). By far the provision of Bill 101 with the most significant impact has been that which mandates French-language education, unless a child's parents or siblings have received the major part of their own education in English within Canada. That provision has reversed a historical trend whereby a large number of immigrant children were being sent to English schools by their parents. In so doing, Bill 101 has greatly contributed to the "visage français" (French face) of Quebec. Other provisions of Bill 101, on the other hand, have been ruled unconstitutional over the years, including those mandating French-only commercial signs, court proceedings, and debates in the legislature. Some of those provisions have remained in effect, for a while, using the constitutional "notwithstanding" clause that permits a non-compliant law to temporarily remain. No "notwithstanding provision" is currently in effect. In 1993 the Charter was changed to allow signage in other languages so long as French is markedly "predominant". The Charter also provides for a measure of access by Anglophones to health and social services in their own language. The only province which has French as an official language is New Brunswick. In Ontario and Manitoba, French does not have full official status, although the provincial governments do provide full French-language services in all communities where significant numbers of francophones live. All of the other provinces do make some effort to accommodate the needs of their francophone citizens, although the level and quality of French-language service varies significantly from province to province.

Legal status in Switzerland

French is an official language in Switzerland. It is spoken in the part of Switzerland called Romandy.

Dialects of French

- Acadian French
- African French
- Belgian French
- Cajun French
- Canadian French
- Cambodian French
- Louisiana Creole French
- français d'Aoste
- français-germanique
- Indian French
- Levantine French
- Maghreb French
- Newfoundland French
- North American French
- Oceanic French
- Quebec French
- South East Asian French
- Swiss French
- West Indian French
- [http://www.linguasphere.org/langues_romanes.pdf linguasphere on Romance languages]

Languages derived from French

- Antillean Creole
- Haitian Creole
- Lanc-Patuá
- Mauritian Creole
- Michif
- Louisiana Creole French
- Réunionese Creole
- Seychellois Creole
- Tay Boi

Sounds

:Main article: French phonology and orthography French pronunciation follows strict rules based on spelling, but French spelling is often based more on history than phonology. The rules for pronunciation vary between dialects, but the standard rules are:
- liaison or linking: Final single consonants, in particular s, x, z, t, d, n and m, are normally silent. (The final letters 'c', 'r', 'f', and 'l' however are normally pronounced.) When the following word begins with a vowel, though, a silent consonant may once again be pronounced, to provide a "link" between the two words and avoid a glottal stop between them. Some liaisons are mandatory, for example the s in les amants or vous avez; some are optional, depending on dialect and register, for example the first s in deux cents euros or euros irlandais; and some are forbidden, for example the s in beaucoup d'hommes aiment. The t of et is never pronounced and the silent final consonant of a noun is only pronounced in the plural and in set phrases like pied-à-terre. Doubling a final consonant and adding a silent e at the end of a word (e.g. Parisien → Parisienne) makes it clearly pronounced, always.
- elision or vowel dropping: Monosyllabic words such as je or que drop their final vowel before another word beginning with a vowel. The missing vowel is replaced by an apostrophe. (e.g. je ai is instead pronounced and spelt → j'ai)
- nasal "n" and "m". When "n" or "m" follows a vowel combination, the "n" and "m" become silent and cause the preceding vowel to become nasalized (i.e. pronounced with the soft palate extended downward so as to allow part of the air to leave through the nostrils). Exceptions are when the "n" or "m" is doubled, or immediately followed by a vowel. The prefixes en- and em- are always nasalized. The rules get more complex than this but may vary between dialects.
- digraphs French does not introduce extra letters or diacritics to specify its large range of vowel sounds and diphthongs, rather it uses specific combinations of vowels, sometimes with following consonants, to show which sound is intended. (See French phonology and orthography or [http://www.languageguide.org/francais/grammar/pronunciation/ French Pronunciation Guide] for more details.)
- accents are used sometimes for pronunciation, sometimes to distinguish similar words, and sometimes for etymology alone.
- Accents that affect pronunciation:
- "é", is pronounced instead of the defaults or,
- "è" (e.g., secrète) means that the vowel is pronounced (as usual),
- dieresis (e.g. naïve, Noël) as in English, specifies that this vowel is pronounced separately from the preceding one (or following one in some cases), not combined,
- the "ç" means that the letter c is pronounced in front of A, O, or U. ("c" is otherwise hard before a hard vowel.)
- The circumflex (e.g. pâté, forêt) shows that an e is pronounced and that an o is pronounced . In some dialects it also signifies a pronunciation of for the letter a, but this differentiation is disappearing. It usually indicates a former long vowel created by the dropping of an "s" from the Latin root (as in English "paste", "forest"),
- Accents with no pronunciation effect:
- The circumflex does not affect the pronunciation of the letters i or u, and in most dialects, a as well.
- All other accents are used only to distinguish similar words or for etymological reasons, as in the case of distinguishing the adverbs là and où ("there", "where") from the article la and the conjunction ou ("the fem. sing.", "or") respectively.

Grammar

:Main article: French grammar French grammar shares several notable features with most other Romance languages, including:
- the loss of Latin's declensions
- only two grammatical genders
- the development of grammatical articles from Latin demonstratives
- new tenses formed from auxiliaries French word order is Subject Verb Object, except when the object is a pronoun, in which case the word order is Subject Object Verb.

Vocabulary

Word origins

The majority of French words derive from vernacular or "vulgar" Latin or were constructed from Latin or Greek roots. There are often pairs of words, one form being popular (noun) and the other one savant (adjective), both originating from Latin. Example:
- brother: frère (brother) / fraternel
- finger: doigt / digital
- faith: foi (faith) / fidèle
- cold: froid / frigide
- eye: œil / oculaire The French words which have developed from Latin are usually less recognisable than Italian words of Latin origin because as French developed into a separate language from Vulgar Latin, the unstressed final syllable of many words was dropped or elided into the following word. It is estimated that 12 percent (4,200) of common French words found in a typical dictionary such as the Petit Larousse or Micro-Robert Plus (35,000 words) are of foreign origin. About 25 percent (1,054) of these foreign words come from English and are fairly recent borrowings. The others are some 707 words from Italian, 550 from ancient Germanic languages, 481 from ancient Gallo-Romance languages, 215 from Arabic, 164 from German, 160 from Celtic languages, 159 from Spanish, 153 from Dutch, 112 from Persian and Sanskrit, 101 from Native American languages, 89 from other Asian languages, 56 from Afro-Asiatic languages, 55 from Slavic languages and Baltic languages, and 144 from other languages (3 percent of the total). Source: Henriette Walter, Gérard Walter, Dictionnaire des mots d'origine étrangère, 1998.

Levels of register

French, like many other languages, possesses a continuum of several levels of register. The colloquial register is used in almost any circumstance of life, and should not be confused with slang or rude talk. Formal French is used in writing or in formal occasions (when people make official speeches or when they are interviewed on television, for instance). Some level of formality is also normally used in classrooms in France, although colloquial French is now spoken by more and more professors with their students. Colloquial French differs from formal French in terms of grammar. For instance, the negation in formal French is "ne... pas", whereas in colloquial French it is simply "... pas", such as "I don't think so", which is "Je ne crois pas" in formal French, and "Je crois pas" in colloquial French. Another example of change in grammar is the way to ask a question: by inverting verb and subject in formal French, or also by using "est-ce que", whereas in colloquial French a question is phrased exactly as an affirmation, with the voice rising in the end. E.g.: "Is he sick?" would be "Est-il malade?" or "Est-ce qu'il est malade?" in formal French, and "Il est malade?" in colloquial French. On the other hand, questions with "est-ce que" are more colloquial than using inversion. Secondly, colloquial French differs from formal French in terms of pronunciation. Some words undergo shortening, or sound change, whereas some syllables are dropped altogether. For instance, "yes" is "oui" in formal French, and becomes "ouais" in colloquial French; "I" is "je" in formal French, but becomes "j' " in colloquial French; so a sentence like "I think he'll come" is "Je pense qu'il viendra" in formal French, and "J'pense qu'i'viendra" in colloquial French. There are many instances of shortening of words, such as "teacher", which is "professeur" in formal French, but becomes "prof'" in colloquial French.

Counting system

The French counting system is partially vigesimal: twenty () is used as a base number in the names of numbers from 70-99. So for example, means 4 times 20, i.e. is the French word for 80, and (literally "sixty-fifteen") means 75. This is comparable to archaic English use of "score", as in "fourscore and seven" (87), or "threescore and ten" (70). Belgian French and Swiss French are different in this respect.

Writing system

French is written using the Latin alphabet, plus five diacritics (the circumflex accent, acute accent, grave accent, diaeresis, and cedilla) and two ligatures (æ, œ). French spelling, like English spelling, tends to preserve obsolete pronunciation rules. This is mainly due to extreme phonetic changes since the Old French period, without a corresponding change in spelling. However, some conscious changes were also made to restore Latin orthography:
- Old French doit > French doigt "finger" (Latin digitum)
- Old French pie > French pied "foot" (Latin pedem) As a result, it is nearly impossible to predict the spelling on the basis of the sound alone. Final consonants are generally silent, except when the following word begins with a vowel. For example, all of these words end in a vowel sound: nez, pied, aller, les, finit, beaux. The same words followed by a vowel, however, may sound the consonants, as they do in these examples: beaux-arts, les amis, pied-à-terre. On the other hand, a given spelling will almost always lead to a predictable sound, and the Académie française works hard to enforce and update this correspondence. In particular, a given vowel combination or diacritic predictably leads to one phoneme. The diacritics have phonetic, semantic, and etymological significance.
- grave accent (à, è, ù): Over a or u, used only to distinguish homophones: à ("to") vs. a ("has"), ou ("or") vs. où ("where"). Over an e, indicates the sound .
- acute accent (é): Over an e, indicates the sound , the ai sound in such words as English hay or neigh. It often indicates the historical deletion of a following consonant (usually an s): écouter < escouter.
- circumflex (â, ê, î, ô û): Over an e or o, indicates the sound or , respectively. Most often indicates the historical deletion of an adjacent letter (usually an s or a vowel): château < castel, fête < feste, sûr < seur, dîner < disner. By extension, it has also come to be used to distinguish homophones: du ("of the") vs. dû (past participle of devoir "to owe"; note that dû is in fact written thus because of a dropped e: deu).
- diaeresis or tréma (ë, ï, ü): Indicates that a vowel is to be pronounced separately from the preceding one: naïve, Noël. Diaeresis on ÿ only occurs in some proper names (such as l'Haÿ-les-Roses) and in modern editions of old French texts. Since the 1990 orthographic rectifications, the diaeresis in words containing guë (such as aiguë or ciguë) was moved onto the u: aigüe, cigüe. Words coming from German retain the old Umlaut if applicable but uses French pronounciation, such as capharnaüm(mess).
- cedilla (ç): Indicates that an etymological c is pronounced when it would otherwise be pronounced /k/. Thus je lance "I throw" (with c = before e), je lançai "I threw" (c would be pronounced before a without the cedilla). The ligature œ is a mandatory contraction of oe in certain words (sœur "sister" , œuvre "work [of art]" , cœur "heart" , cœlacanthe "Coelacanth" ), sometimes in words of Greek origin, spelled with an οι diphthong which became oe in Latin, pronounced in French (and other Romance languages): œsophage , œnologie . It may also appear in œu digraph (or œ alone in œil "eye"), in words that were once written with eu digraph (which could be read or , depending on the word): bœuf "ox" (Old French buef or beuf), mœurs "custom", œil "eye" , etc. In these cases, the Latin etymon must be spelled with an o where the French word has œu: bovem > bœuf, mores > mœurs, oculum > œil. Some attempts have been made to reform French spelling, but few major changes have been made over the last two centuries.

Some common phrases

- French: français ("fran-seh")
- hello: bonjour ("bon-zhoor")
- I love you.: Je t'aime. ("jhe tem")
- My name is _____: Je m'appelle _____ ("jhe-ma-pelle")
- good-bye: au revoir ("o-ruh-vwar")
- please: s'il vous plaît (Literally: if it please you) ("sill voo pleh")
- thank you: merci ("mairr-see")
- you are welcome: de rien (Literally: Of nothing) ("duh ryeh"), je vous en prie, il n'y a pas de quoi (France); bienvenue ("byeh-venuh") (Quebec)
- that one: celui-là ("su-lwee la"), colloq. ("swee la"), or celle-là (feminine) ("cell-la")
- how much?: combien? ("kom-byen")
- English: anglais ("ahng-gleh")
- yes: oui ("wee"), colloq. ouais (seldom written) ("way")
- no: non ("non")
- I am sorry: Je suis désolé(e). (add the "e" if the speaker is feminine); ("zhahn swee deh-zo-leh"), colloq. ("shswee deh-zo-leh"). Pardon ("par-dohn")
- I do not understand: Je ne comprends pas. ("zhuh nuh comprahn pa"), colloq. Je comprends pas (with dropping of "ne") ("shcomprahn pa")
- Where are the toilets?: Où sont les toilettes ? ("oo son leh twa-let")
- Cheers (toast to someone's health): Tchin ("chin"), Santé ("san-teh") or À la vôtre ("a la votr")
- Do you speak English?: Parlez-vous anglais ? ("par-leh voo ang-gleh") OR "Est-ce que vous parlez anglais?" ("voo par-leh ang-leh")
- Excuse me: Excusez-moi. ("eh-skyu-zay mwa")
- Good night: Bonne nuit ("bun nwee")
- Hi!: Salut ! ("sal-oo")
- I am tired: Je suis fatigué(e). (add the "e" if the speaker is feminine) ("jhe swee fah-tee-gay")
- Are you coming?: Venez vous ?, Est-ce que vous venez ? (or with close friends and relatives: tu viens?)
- I am thinking about it: J'y pense. ("jhee pahnss")
- I am going to the grocery store: Je vais à l'épicerie. ("jhe vay a lay-pee-ser-ee")
- We are going to school: On va à l'école. (colloquial) ("ohn va a lay-cohl")
- She is so pretty.: Elle est si jolie. ("el ay see jho-lee")
- our neighbors to the South: Nos voisins du sud ("noh vwah-zen due sued")
- Could you help me?: Pourriez-vous m'aider ? ("poo-ree-ay voo may-day")
- May I help you?: Puis-je vous aider? ("pwee-jha voo zay-day")
- It is the best of worlds: C'est le meilleur des mondes. ("say le may-yuhr day mohnd")
- Go to bed!: Va te coucher ! ("vah te coo-shay")
- I'm watching TV.: Je regarde la télé. ("jhe re-gard lah tay-lay")
- Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia: Wikipédia, l'encyclopédie libre. ("wee-kee-pay-dee-ah, lahns-ee-kloh-pay-dee lee-bruh")
- I am the state.: L'État, c'est moi. ("leh-tah seh-mwa")

External links

-
- [http://www.dicts.info/dictlist1.php?k1=33 All free French dictionaries] Collection of free French dictionaries.
- [http://www.declan-software.com/french French language learning audio software]
- [http://www.window.to/french/ Learn French online]
- [http://www.academie-francaise.fr/ Académie Française]
- [http://french.about.com/library/begin/bl_begin_vocab.htm Beginning French Vocabulary]
- [http://radio-canada.ca/education/francaismicro/ Capsules linguistiques - Radio-Canada.ca]
- [http://www.moelc.moe.edu.sg/french/ Département de Français, Ministry of Education Language Centre, Singapore]
- [http://www.ethnologue.com/show_language.asp?code=fra Ethnologue report for French]
- [http://www.sprachprofi.de.vu/english/f.htm Free online resources for learners]
- [http://www.lexilogos.com/french_language_dictionary.htm French-English : all online dictionaries]
- [http://www.jump-gate.com/languages/french/ French Language Course]
- [http://www.ielanguages.com/french.html French Language Tutorial at ielanguages.com]
- [http://www.intuxication.org/~webtypo/le_francais_facile.htm Le français facile]
- [http://portal.wikinerds.org/rapidfrench How to learn French in 10 months]
- [http://dhost.info/defu/wiki/index.php?id=French_accentuation_rules Basic tips of French accentuation]
- [http://www.languagehelpers.com/words/french/basics.html LanguageHelpers]
- [http://www.lightandmatter.com/french/ Liberté, an online first-year French textbook]
- [http://www.listenandlearn.org/learn/french/index.php Learn French by reading and listening]
- [http://www.how-to-learn-any-language.com/e/languages/french/index.html A profile of the French language]
- [http://dhost.info/defu/wiki/index.php?id=Virtual_French_Keyboard A virtual French keyboard]
- [http://linearb.co.uk:8080/memory/ Searchable French-English dictionary, with example sentences]
- [http://atilf.atilf.fr/ Le Trésor de la Langue Française informatisé] (very comprehensive)
- [http://truckspeak.monsite.wanadoo.fr Truck Drivers' French - English, English - French Dictionary]
- [http://www.loecsen.com/travel/discover_pop.php?lang=en&to_lang=3&learn-French/ Listen to useful French expressions]
- [http://www.FrenchLanguageTips.com/ Learn French Fast & Easy]
- [http://www.wordreference.com/ Wordreference.com dictionary]
- [http://www.my-french-dictionary.com/ My French Picture Dictionary] Category:French language Category:Oïl languages Category:Languages of Belgium Category:Languages of Canada Category:Languages of France Category:Languages of Luxembourg Category:Languages of Switzerland Category:Languages of French Guiana Category:Languages of Morocco Category:Languages of French Polynesia Category:Languages of Wallis and Futuna Category:Languages of New Caledonia Category:Synthetic languages Category:Guttural R als:Französische Sprache zh-min-nan:Hoat-gí ko:프랑스어 ja:フランス語 simple:French language th:ภาษาฝรั่งเศส

Village

:For a list of references which "The Village" could refer to, see The Village A village is a human settlement commonly found in rural areas. It is usually larger than a hamlet and smaller than a town or city. Villages have been the normal unit of community living in most areas of the world throughout its history, up until the Industrial revolution and the ongoing process of urbanization. In many U.S. states, a village is a type of municipal government (see below).

Traditional villages

Although many types and organizational patterns of village life have existed, the typical village was small, consisting of perhaps 5 to 30 families. Homes were situated together for sociability and defense, and land surrounding the living quarters was farmed.

England

In England the main historical distinction between a hamlet and a village is that the latter will have a church, and will therefore usually have been the worship centre of a parish. A village was traditionally distinguished from a town in that a village lacked a regular agricultural market, although today such markets are uncommon even in settlements which clearly are towns. Due to the vagueness of this definition, there is some question as to which is the largest village in England.

United States

Incorporated villages

In twenty U.S. states, the term "village" refers to a specific form of incorporated municipal government, similar to a city but with less authority and geographic scope. However, this is a generality; in many states, there are villages that are an order of magnitude larger than the smallest cities in the state. The distinction is not necessarily based on population, but on the relative powers granted to the different types of municipalities and correspondingly, different obligations to provide specific services to residents. In some states such as New York, Wisconsin, or Michigan, a village is an incorporated municipality, usually, but not always, within a single town or civil township. Residents pay taxes to the village and town or township and may vote in elections for both as well. In some cases, the village may be coterminous with the town or township. There are also many villages which span the boundaries of more than one town or township, and some villages may even straddle county borders. There is no limit to the population of a village in New York. (Hempstead, the largest village in the state, has 55,000 residents, making it more populous than many of the state's cities); however, villages in the state may not exceed five square miles (13 km²) in area. The state of Wisconsin has similar status for villages. The largest village is Menomonee Falls, which has over 25,000 residents. Michigan also has no set population limit for villages and there are many villages that are larger than cities in the state. Villages in Ohio are almost always legally separate from any townships that they may have been incorporated from (there are exceptions, such as Chagrin Falls, where the township includes the entirety of the village). They have no area limitations, but must reincorporate as cities if they grow to over 5,000 in population. Villages have the same home-rule rights as cities with fewer of the responsibilities. Unlike cities, they have the option of being either a "statutory village" and running their governments according to state law (with a six-member council serving four-year terms and a mayor who votes only to break ties) or being a "charter village" and writing a charter to run their government as they see fit. :See Political subdivisions of New York State#Village Village (Oregon)

Unincorporated villages

In many states, the term "village" is used to refer to a relatively small unincorporated community, similar to a hamlet in New York state. This informal usage may be found even in states that have villages as an incorporated municipality, although such usage might be considered incorrect and confusing.

External links

Village types:
- [http://www.pygmies.info/camps.html African Pygmies Villages] ja:村 th:หมู่บ้าน

Greek language

Greek (Greek Ελληνικά, IPA – "Hellenic") is an Indo-European language with a documented history of 3,500 years. Today, it is spoken by 15 million people in Greece, Cyprus, the former Yugoslavia, particularly The Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Bulgaria, Albania and Turkey. There are also many Greek emigrant communities around the world, such as those in Melbourne, Australia which is the third-largest Greek-populated city in the world, after Athens and Thessaloniki. Greek has been written in the Greek alphabet, the first true alphabet, since the 9th century B.C. and before that, in Linear B and the Cypriot syllabaries. Greek literature has a long and rich tradition.

History

This article does not cover the reconstructed history of Greek prior to the use of writing. For more information, see main article on Proto-Greek language. Greek has been spoken in the Balkan Peninsula since the 2nd millennium BC. The earliest evidence of this is found in the Linear B tablets dating from 1500 BC. The later Greek alphabet (q.v.) is unrelated to Linear B, and was derived from the Phoenician alphabet (abjad); with minor modifications, it is still used today. Greek is conventionally divided into the following periods:
- Mycenean Greek: the language of the Mycenean civilisation. It is recorded in the Linear B script on tablets dating from the 16th century BC onwards.
- Classical Greek (also known as Ancient Greek): In its various dialects was the language of the Archaic and Classical periods of Greek civilisation. It was widely known throughout the Roman empire. Classical Greek fell into disuse in western Europe in the Middle Ages, but remained known in the Byzantine world, and was reintroduced to the rest of Europe with the Fall of Constantinople and Greek migration to Italy.
- Hellenistic Greek (also known as Koine Greek): The fusion of various ancient Greek dialects with Attic (the dialect of Athens) resulted in the creation of the first common Greek dialect, which gradually turned into one of the world's first international languages. Koine Greek can be initially traced within the armies and conquered territories of Alexander the Great, but after the Hellenistic colonisation of the known world, it was spoken from Egypt to the fringes of India. After the Roman conquest of Greece, an unofficial diglossy of Greek and Latin was established in the city of Rome and Koine Greek became a first or second language in the Roman Empire. Through Koine Greek it is also traced the origin of Christianity, as the Apostles used it to preach in Greece and the Greek-speaking world. It is also known as the Alexandrian dialect, Post-Classical Greek or even New Testament Greek (after its most famous work of literature).
- Medieval Greek: The continuation of Hellenistic Greek during medieval Greek history as the official and vernacular (if not the literary nor the ecclesiastic) language of the Byzantine Empire, and continued to be used until, and after the fall of that Empire in the 15th century. Also known as Byzantine Greek.
- Modern Greek: Stemming independently from Koine Greek, Modern Greek usages can be traced in the late Byzantine period (as early as 11th century). Two main forms of the language have been in use since the end of the medieval Greek period: Dhimotikí (Δημοτική), the Demotic (vernacular) language, and Katharévousa (Καθαρεύουσα), an imitation of classical Greek, which was used for literary, juridic, and scientific purposes during the 19th and early 20th centuries. Demotic Greek is now the official language of the modern Greek state, and the most widely spoken by Greeks today. It has been claimed that an "educated" speaker of the modern language can understand an ancient text, but this is surely as much a function of education as of the similarity of the languages. Still, Koinē , the version of Greek used to write the New Testament and the Septuagint, is relatively easy to understand for modern speakers. Greek words have been widely borrowed into the European languages: astronomy, democracy, philosophy, thespian, etc. Moreover, Greek words and word elements continue to be productive as a basis for coinages: anthropology, photography, isomer, biomechanics etc. and form, with Latin words, the foundation of international scientific and technical vocabulary. See English words of Greek origin, and List of Greek words with English derivatives.

Classification

Greek is an independent branch of the Indo-European language family. The ancient languages which were probably most closely related to it, Ancient Macedonian language (which may be regarded as a dialect of Greek) and Phrygian, are not well enough documented to permit detailed comparison. Among living languages, Armenian seems to be the most closely related to it.

Geographic distribution

Modern Greek is spoken by about 15 million people mainly in Greece and Cyprus. There are also Greek-speaking populations in Georgia, Ukraine, Egypt, Turkey, Albania, Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia and Southern Italy. The language is spoken also in many other countries where Greeks have settled, including Armenia, Australia, Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Canada, Denmark, France, Germany, Netherlands, Sweden, United Kingdom, and the United States.

Official status

Greek is the official language of Greece where it is spoken by about 99.5% of the population. It is also, alongside Turkish, the official language of Cyprus. Due to the membership of Greece and Cyprus, Greek is one of the 20 official languages of the European Union.

Phonology

This section generally describes the post-Classic phonology of the Greek language. :All phonetic transcriptions in this section use the International Phonetic Alphabet

Vowel sounds

Greek has 5 vowel sounds, all phonemic:

Merchant

Merchants function as professionals who deal with trade, dealing in commodities that they do not produce themselves, in order to produce profit. Merchants can be categorised into two types: # A wholesale merchant operates in the chain between producer and retail merchant. Some wholesale merchants only organise the movement of goods rather than move the goods themselves. # A

Bourgeoisie

Origin of the term

Rise of the bourgeoisie

The Marxist view

See also

References

External links

Received Pronunciation

Changing status of Received Pronunciation

Phonology

Consonants

Vowels

Characteristics

Historical variation

See also

Social class

Sociological class

Weberian class

Dimensions of sociological class

Stratum models of class

Warnerian social class model

Marxian class

Proletarianisation

Dialectics, or historical materialism, in Marxist Class

Objective and subjective factors in class in Marxism

Non-economic conceptions of class

Class in different parts of the world

See also

External links

Further reading

Society

Etymology

Organization of society

Shared belief or common goal

Ontology

See also

References

French language

History

The Roman invasion of Gaul

The Franks

Langue d'Oïl

Other linguistic groups

History of French

Modern issues

Geographic distribution

Legal status in France

Legal status in Canada

Legal status in Switzerland

Dialects of French

Languages derived from French

Sounds

Grammar

Vocabulary

Word origins

Levels of register

Counting system

Writing system

Some common phrases

See also

External links

Village

Traditional villages

England

United States

Incorporated villages

Unincorporated villages

See also

External links

Greek language

History

Classification

Geographic distribution

Official status

Phonology

Vowel sounds

Merchant