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Cuisine

Cuisine

A cuisine (from French cuisine, meaning "cooking; culinary art; kitchen"; itself from Latin coquina, meaning the same; itself from the Latin verb coquere, meaning "to cook") is a specific set of cooking traditions and practices, often associated with a place of origin. Religious food laws can also exercise a strong influence on cuisine. A cuisine is primarily influenced by the ingredients that are available locally or through trade. (For example, the "Asian" dish chop suey clearly reflected the adaptation of Chinese immigrant cooking styles to the different ingredients available in North America.)

Introduction

The last century or so has produced enormous improvements in food production, preservation, storage and shipping. Today almost every locale in the world has access to not only its traditional cuisine, but also to many other world cuisines, as well. New cuisines are constantly evolving, as certain aesthetics rise and fall in popularity among professional chefs and their clientele. In addition to food, a cuisine is also often held to include beverages, including wine, liquor, tea, coffee and other drinks. Increasingly, experts hold that it further includes the raw ingredients and original plants and animals from which they come. The Slow Food movement is a global effort to preserve local plants, animals, and techniques of food preparation. It has 70,000 adherents in 50 countries. There are also different cultural attitudes to food, for example:
- In India, consumption of food is regarded as an offering, a Yajna. Thus the stomach is considered to be a homagunda (holy fire) and all the food consumed is an offering to the holy fire.
- In Japan, Tea drinking is a fine-art and there is an elaborate ceremony about it. Not drinking tea in the right way is considered to be an act of barbarianism. The following section is an overview of world cuisines. It is incomplete. It is organized roughly by geographical area, starting in the Western hemisphere and working Eastward and from North to South. Please help complete it.

Cuisines of the Americas

Cuisines of the Americas are based on the cuisines of the countries from which the immigrant peoples came, primarily Europe. However, the traditional European cuisine has been adapted to a greater or lesser degree and many local ingredients and techniques have been added to the tradition.

Cuisines of Canada

See also: Canadian cuisines
- Atlantic Canada
- Canadian Chinese cuisine
- Fast food
- First Nations
- Fusion
- Québécois
- Toronto
- Vancouver
- Vegetarian

Cuisines of the United States (including Puerto Rico)

See also: Cuisine of the United States
- Chinese American
- Barbecue
- California
- Euro-asian cuisine (a type of Fusion cuisine)
- Fast food
- Floribbean
- Kentucky
- Hawaii
- Midwest
- Native American
- New England
- New York City
- Pennsylvania Dutch
- Puerto Rico
- Southern states
- Cajun
- Creole
- Soul food
- Tex-Mex
- Southwest

Cuisines of the Caribbean

See also: Cuisine of the Caribbean
- Cuba
- Dominican republic
- Jamaica
- Puerto Rico

Cuisines of Latin America

See also: Latin American cuisine, Cuisine of South America
- Mexico
- Costa Rica
- Nicaragua:
- Vaho
- Churrasco
- Chimichurri
- Argentina
- Andes
- Brazil
- Peru

Cuisines of Europe

See also: Cuisine of Europe

Cuisines of Northern Europe

- Austrian
- Belgium
- British
- Modern British
- Denmark
- Germany
- Finland
- French
- Provencal
- Hungary
- Polish
- Russian
- Slovakia
- Sweden

Cuisines of the Mediterranean

See also: Cuisine of the Mediterranean
- Portugal
- Spain
- Catalonia
- Italy excluding Sicily
- Sicily
- Lebanon
- Cuisines of the Balkans
- Albania
- Bulgaria
- Croatia
- Greece
- Turkey
- Serbia
- Armenia

Cuisines of Africa

See also: Cuisine of Africa
- West Africa
- Ethiopia
- Morocco
- South Africa

Cuisines of the Middle East

See also: Cuisine of the Middle East
- Kosher cuisine
- Lebanon
- Persian cuisine
- Arab cuisine

Cuisines of Indian Subcontinent

Cuisines of the Indian subcontinent includes cuisines from the peninsular region of South Asia, which includes India, Bangladesh, and Pakistan, usually also Sri Lanka, Nepal and Bhutan. One characteristic component of the cuisines of these regions is rice and curry dishes. See also: Cuisine of India
- India
- North Indian cuisines
- Punjabi cuisine
- Kashmiri cuisine
- Benarsi cuisine
- South Indian cuisines
- Kerala cuisine
- Andhra cuisine
- Canarese cuisine
- Tamilian cuisine
- West Indian cuisines
- Maharashtrian cuisine
- Malvani cuisine
- Goan cuisine
- Rajasthani/Gujarati cuisine
- East Indian Cuisines
- West Bengali Cuisine
- Assamese cuisine
- Bangladesh
- Bangladeshi cuisine
- Pakistan
- Pakistani cuisine
- Sri Lanka
- Sri Lankan cuisine

Cuisines of East Asia

See also: Cuisine of Asia
- China
- Chinese Buddhist
- Cantonese
- Chiuchow
- Hakka
- Hunan
- Islamic
- Mandarin
- Shanghai
- Szechuan
- Taiwanese
- Cambodia
- Indonesia
- Japan
- Korea
- Laos
- Malaysia
- Penang
- Ipoh
- Mongolia
- The Philippines
- Singapore
- Thailand
- Tibet
- Vietnam

Cuisines of Oceania

- Australia
- Hawaii
- Fiji
- New Zealand
- Polynesia
- Nauru

Non-regional cuisines

- Fast Food, and its nemesis Slow Food which preserves regional cuisines
- Fusion cuisine
- Jewish cuisine
- Living foods diet
- Vegan cuisine
- Vegetarian cuisine

External links

-
- [http://www.toque-et-verre.com/ La Toque & le Verre - OnLine] (french) La cuisine des chefs ja:料理 ko:요리

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

Latin

Latin is an ancient Indo-European language originally spoken in the region around Rome called Latium. It gained great importance as the formal language of the Roman Empire. All Romance languages, those being most notably Spanish, French, Portuguese, Italian, and Romanian, are descended from Latin, and many words based on Latin are found in other modern languages such as English. The Latin alphabet, derived from the Greek, remains the most widely-used alphabet in the world. It is said that 80 percent of scholarly English words are derived from Latin (in a large number of cases by way of French). Moreover, in the Western world, Latin was a lingua franca, the learned language for scientific and political affairs, for more than a thousand years, being eventually replaced by French in the 18th century and English in the late 19th. Ecclesiastical Latin remains the formal language of the Roman Catholic Church to this day, and thus the official national language of the Vatican. The Church used Latin as its primary liturgical language until the Second Vatican Council in the 1960s. Latin is also still used (drawing heavily on Greek roots) to furnish the names used in the scientific classification of living things. The modern study of Latin, along with Greek, is known as Classics.

Main features

Latin is a synthetic inflectional language: affixes (which usually encode more than one grammatical category) are attached to fixed stems to express gender, number, and case in adjectives, nouns, and pronouns, which is called declension; and person, number, tense, voice, mood, and aspect in verbs, which is called conjugation. There are five declensions (declinationes) of nouns and four conjugations of verbs. There are six noun cases: #nominative (used as the subject of the verb or the predicate nominative), #genitive (used to indicate relation or possession, often represented by the English of or the addition of s to a noun), #dative (used of the indirect object of the verb, often represented by the English to or for), #accusative (used of the direct object of the verb, or object of the preposition in some cases), #ablative (separation, source, cause, or instrument, often represented by the English by, with, from), #vocative (used of the person or thing being addressed). In addition, some nouns have a locative case used to express location (otherwise expressed by the ablative with a preposition such as in), but this survival from Proto-Indo-European is found only in the names of lakes, cities, towns, small islands, and a few other words related to locations, such as "house", "ground", and "countryside". Latin itself, being a very old language, is far closer to Proto-Indo-European than are most modern Western European languages; it has, in fact, about the same relationship with PIE as modern Italian or French has to Latin. There are six general tenses in Latin (technically they are tense/aspect/mood complexes). The indicative mood can be used with all of them. The subjunctive mood, however, has only present, imperfect, perfect, and pluperfect tenses. These tenses in the subjunctive mood do not completely correlate in meaning to the tenses in the indicative. The following examples are of the first conjugation verb "laudare" ("to praise") in the indicative mood and the active voice:
Primary sequence tenses
# present (laudo, "I praise") # imperfect (laudabam, "I was praising") # future (laudabo, "I shall praise," "I will praise")
Secondary sequence tenses
# perfect (laudavi, "I praised", "I have praised") # pluperfect (laudaveram, "I had praised") # future perfect (laudavero, "I shall have praised," "I will have praised") The future perfect tense can also imply a normal future idea (like in "When I will have run...") and so may also sometimes be included in the primary sequence.
Latin and Romance
After the collapse of the Roman Empire, Latin evolved into the various Romance languages. These were for many centuries only spoken languages, Latin still being used for writing. For example, Latin was the official language of Portugal until 1296 when it was replaced by Portuguese. The Romance languages evolved from Vulgar Latin, the spoken language of common usage, which in turn evolved from an older speech which also produced the formal classical standard. Latin and Romance differ (for example) in that Romance had distinctive stress, whereas Latin had distinctive length of vowels. In Italian and Sardo logudorese, there is distinctive length of consonants and stress, in Spanish only distinctive stress, and in French even stress is no longer distinctive. Another major distinction between Romance and Latin is that all Romance languages, excluding Romanian, have lost their case endings in most words except for some pronouns. Romanian retains a direct case (nominative/accusative), an indirect case (dative/genitive), and vocative. In Italy, Latin is still compulsory in secondary schools as Liceo Classico and Liceo Scientifico which are usually attended by people who aim to the highest level of education. In Liceo Classico Ancient Greek is a compulsory subject.
Latin and English
See Latin influence in English for a more complete exposition. English grammar is independent of Latin grammar, though prescriptive grammarians in English have been heavily influenced by Latin. Attempts to make English grammar follow Latin rules — such as the prohibition against the split infinitive — have not worked successfully in regular usage. However, as many as half the words in English were derived from Latin, including many words of Greek origin first adopted by the Romans, not to mention the thousands of French, hundreds of Spanish, Portuguese and Italian words of Latin origin that have also enriched English. During the 16th and on through the 18th century English writers created huge numbers of new words from Latin and Greek roots. These words were dubbed "inkhorn" or "inkpot" words (as if they had spilled from a pot of ink). Many of these words were used once by the author and then forgotten, but some remain. Imbibe, extrapolate, dormant and inebriation are all inkhorn terms carved from Latin words. In fact, the word etymology is derived from the Greek word etymologia, meaning "true sense of the word." Latin was once taught in many of the schools in Britain with academic leanings - perhaps 25% of the total [http://www.channel4.com/history/microsites/T/teachem2/thennow/]. However, the requirement for it was gradually abandoned in the professions such as the law and medicine, and then, from around the late 1960s, for admission to university. After the introduction of the Modern Language GCSE in the 1980s, it was gradually replaced by other languages, although it is now being taught by more schools along with other classical languages.
Latin education
The linguistic element of Latin courses offered in high schools or secondary schools, and in universities, is primarily geared toward an ability to translate Latin texts into modern languages, rather than using it in oral communication. As such, the skill of reading is heavily emphasized, whereas speaking and listening skills are barely touched upon. However, there is a growing movement, sometimes known as the Living Latin movement, whose supporters believe that Latin can, or should, be taught in the same way that modern "living" languages are taught, that is, as a means of both spoken and written communication. One of the most interesting aspects of such an approach is that it assists speculative insight into how many of the ancient authors spoke and incorporated sounds of the language stylistically; without understanding how the language is meant to be heard it is very difficult to identify patterns in Latin poetry. Institutions offering Living Latin instruction include the Vatican and the University of Kentucky. In Britain the Classical Association encourages this approach, and there has been something of a vogue for books describing the adventures of a mouse called Minimus. In the United States there is a thriving competitive organization for high school Latin students, the National Junior Classical League (the second-largest youth organization in the world after the Boy Scouts), backed up by the Senior Classical League for college students. Many would-be international auxiliary languages have been heavily influenced by Latin, and the moderately successful Interlingua considers itself to be the modernized and simplified version of the language (le latino moderne international e simplificate). Latin translations of modern literature such as Paddington Bear, Winnie the Pooh, Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, Le Petit Prince, Max und Moritz, and The Cat in the Hat have also helped boost interest in the language.
See also

About the Latin language

- Latin grammar
- Latin spelling and pronunciation
- Latin declension
- Latin conjugation
- Latin alphabet
- List of Latin words with English derivatives
- Latin verbs with English derivatives
- Latin nouns with English derivatives
- ablative absolute
- Word order in Latin
About the Latin literary heritage

- Latin literature
- Romance languages
- Loeb Classical Library
- List of Latin phrases
- List of Latin proverbs
- Brocard
- List of Latin and Greek words commonly used in systematic names
- List of Latin place names in Europe
- Carmen Possum
Other related topics

- Roman Empire
- Internationalism
References

- Bennett, Charles E. Latin Grammar (Allyn and Bacon, Chicago, 1908)
- N. Vincent: "Latin", in The Romance Languages, M. Harris and N. Vincent, eds., (Oxford Univ. Press. 1990), ISBN 0195208293
- Waquet, Françoise, Latin, or the Empire of a Sign: From the Sixteenth to the Twentieth Centuries (Verso, 2003) ISBN 1859844022; translated from the French by John Howe.
- Wheelock, Frederic. Latin: An Introduction (Collins, 6th ed., 2005) ISBN 0060784237
External links

- [http://www.jambell.com/latin.html Latin Phrases for after dinner conversation (Thanks to Elaine Poole)]
- [http://www.ethnologue.com/show_language.asp?code=lat Ethnologue report for Latin]
- [http://forumromanum.org/literature/index.html Corpus Scriptorum Latinorum] is a comprehensive webography of Latin texts and their translations.
- [http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/ The Perseus Project] has many useful pages for the study of classical languages and literatures, including [http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/cgi-bin/resolveform?lang=Latin an interactive Latin dictionary].
- [http://lysy2.archives.nd.edu/cgi-bin/words.exe words by William whitaker] is a dictionary program online capable of looking up various word forms.
- [http://retiarius.org/ Retiarius.Org] includes a Latin text search engine.
- [http://www.nd.edu/~archives/latgramm.htm Latin-English dictionary and Latin grammar from U of Notre Dame]
- [http://latin-language.co.uk/ Latin language] History of Latin language, Latin texts with English translation and a collection of dictionaries.
- [http://augustinus.eresmas.net/scl/ Societas Circulorum Latinorum] gathers together Latin Circles all over the world.
- [http://www.learnlatin.tk LearnLatin.tk] - Free online course in Latin
- [http://www.latintests.net/ LatinTests.net] - Lets Latin learners test their grammar and vocabulary with self-checking quizzes.
- [http://thelatinlibrary.com/ The Latin Library] contains many Latin etexts
- [http://www.textkit.com/ Textkit] has Latin textbooks and etexts.
- [http://www.websters-online-dictionary.org/definition/Latin-english/ Latin–English Dictionary]: from Webster's Rosetta Edition.
- [http://www.language-reference.com/ Language reference] Cross-foreign-language lexicon powered by its own search engine. All cross combinations between Latin and French, German, Italian, Spanish.
- [http://comp.uark.edu/~mreynold/rhetor.html Rhetor by Gabriel Harvey] was originally published in 1577 and never again reprinted.
- [http://freewebs.com/omniamundamundis omniamundamundis] Latin hypertexts from fourteen ancient Roman authors.
- [http://www.saltspring.com/capewest/pron.htm Pronunciation of Biological Latin, Including Taxonomic Names of Plants and Animals]
- [http://www.yleradio1.fi/nuntii Nuntii Latini (News in Latin)], written and spoken (RealAudio) news in latin. Weekly review of world news in Classical Latin, the only international broadcast of its kind in the world, produced by YLE, the Finnish Broadcasting Company.
- [http://www.tranexp.com:2000/InterTran?url=http%3A%2F%2F&type=text&text=Replace%20Me&from=eng&to=ltt InterTran Latin], Translate from Latin to ENGLISH or vice versa.
- [http://www.latinvulgate.com Latin Vulgate] The Latin and English of the Old & New Testaments in parallel, along with the Complete Sayings of Jesus in parallel Latin and English. Category:Classical languages Category:Ancient languages Category:Fusional languages Category:Languages of Italy Category:Languages of Vatican City als:Latein zh-min-nan:Latin-gí ko:라틴어 ja:ラテン語 simple:Latin language th:ภาษาละติน

Cooking

Cooking is the act of preparing food for consumption. It encompasses a vast range of methods, tools and combinations of ingredients to improve the flavour and/or digestibility of food. It generally requires the selection, measurement and combining of ingredients in an ordered procedure in an effort to achieve the desired result. Constraints on success include the variability of ingredients, ambient conditions, tools and the skill of the person cooking. The diversity of cooking worldwide is a reflection of the myriad nutritional, aesthetic, agricultural, economic, cultural and religious considerations that impact upon it. Cooking frequently, though not always, involves applying heat in order to chemically transform a food, thus changing its flavor, texture, appearance, and nutritional properties. There is archaeological evidence of cooked foodstuffs (both animal and vegetable) in human settlements dating from the earliest known use of fire.

Effects of cooking

If heating is used, this can disinfect (depending on temperature, cooking time, and technique used) and soften the food. 4 to 60°C (41 to 140°F) is the "food danger zone." Between these temperatures bacteria can grow rapidly. Under the correct conditions bacteria can double in quantity every twenty minutes. The food may not appear any different or spoiled but can be harmful to anyone who ingests it. Meat, poultry, dairy products, and other prepared food must be kept outside of the "food danger zone" to remain safe to eat. Refrigeration and freezing do not kill bacteria, but only slow their growth.

Cooking techniques

Some major hot cooking techniques:
- Baking
- Baking Blind
- Broiling
- FlashBake
- Boiling
- Blanching
- Braising
- Coddling
- Double steaming
- Infusion
- Poaching
- Pressure cooking
- Simmering
- Steaming
- Vacuum flask cooking
- Steeping
- Stewing
- Frying
- Deep frying
- Hot salt frying
- Hot sand frying
- Pan frying
- Pressure frying
- Sautéing
- Stir frying
- Microwaving
- Roasting
- Barbecuing
- Grilling
- Rotisserie
- Searing
- Smoking

Other (cool) preparation techniques

- Brining
- Drying
- Grinding (e.g. sesame seeds to produce tahini), chopping, slicing finely, grating, etc..
- Marinating
- Mincing
- Pickling
- Salting
- Seasoning
- Sprouting

External links

- [http://www.cookbookwiki.com/Category:Cooking_Techniques Cooking_Techniques on CookBookWiki.com]
- [http://www.studentrecipes.com/ Quick and easy recipes for the lazy student]
- [http://www.healthy-quick-meals.com/ Quick healthy recipes]
- [http://www.healthdiaries.com/eatthis/ Healthy Recipes]
- [http://www.spanishliquidgold.com/search.php?q=cooking+classes Cooking classes]
- [http://www.momslilgreentin.com Family Recipes]
- [http://www.gti.net/mocolib1/kid/food1.html Culinary history timeline]
- [http://www.elook.org/recipes/ Recipes]
- [http://www.foodgeeks.com/recipes/ Foodgeeks.com Recipes]
- [http://www.visualrecipes.com Visual Recipes]
- [http://cooking.investitor.net/index.htm Cooking books]
- [http://www.mediterrasian.com/delicious_recipes.htm Mediterranean and Asian recipes]
- [http://www.pygmies.info/food.html African Pygmies cooking] Food preparation in the rain forest
- [http://www.ratemycookingkungfu.com/ Photos of home cooking]
- [http://www.realcajunrecipes.com/ RealCajunRecipes.com - includes Photo Album of Cajun Cooking]
- [http://www.turkishcookbook.com Binnur's Turkish Cookbook] Delicious, healthy and easy-to-make Turkish recipes.
- [http://www.goosto.com Goosto.com] Recipes Search Engine.
- [http://www.yummycrockpotrecipes.com YummyCrockPotRecipes.com Recipes]
- [http://www.foodtv.com FoodTV.com: Extensive Online Recipe Collection from the Food Network]
- [http://www.mexican-barbecue-recipes.com/wikipedia.html Mexican & Barbecue Recipes] Tex-Mex, grilling, and smoked fish.
- [http://www.findmearecipe.com Find Me a Recipe] Searchable database of over 100,000 recipes.
- [http://gourmetfood.about.com Gourmet Cooking, Recipes, & Techniques]
- [http://www.culinarychef.com CulinaryChef.com] An award-winning culinary source for the family, professional cooks, culinary chefs, and for those who enjoy fine eating since 1999. Category:Cooking Category:Food and drink Category:Hobbies Category:Survival skills ja:調理 simple:Cooking

Chop suey

:This article is about the dish. For the song by System of a Down, see Chop Suey!. Chop suey (; Jyutping: zaap6 seoi3; Cantonese Yale: jaāhp seui) literally means mixed pieces. It roughly means chopped up odds and ends, alluding to "leftovers". It is not an authentic Chinese dish, but rather an invention catering to Western tastes - American Chinese cuisine and Canadian Chinese cuisine.

American-style Chop Suey

American Chop Suey is a stir-fry vegetable dish, served with pieces of beef or pork in a semi-thick sauce, and often soy sauce. Typical ingredients for chop suey are usually local vegetables, cooked to Western-style softness, and tend to include:
- bamboo shoots
- bok choy, or its Western equivalent cabbage
- broccoli
- green pepper
- mushrooms
- onion
- sliced Chinese water chestnuts
- snow peas

Chop Suey in American Art and Literature

Chinese Chop Suey appeared in the mainstream American novel as early as 1914. Nobel laureate Sinclair Lewis in his novels:
- 1914 Our Mr. Wrenn wrote: "“Well, down at the Seven Flowery Kingdoms Chop Suey and American Cooking there’s tea at five dollars a cup that they advertise is grown on ‘cloud-covered mountain-tops.’".[http://etext.library.adelaide.edu.au/l/lewis/sinclair/wrenn/chapter8.html]
- 1920 Babbitt wrote:"Paul returned four days later, and the Babbitts and Rieslings went festively to the movies and had chop suey at a Chinese restaurant. " [http://www.bartleby.com/162/20.html]
- [http://www.ibiblio.org/wm/paint/auth/hopper/interior/hopper.chop-suey.jpg Edward Hopper 1929 oil painting titled "Chop Suey"]

External links

- [http://www.snopes.com/food/origins/chopsuey.htm Urban Legends Reference Pages: Chop Suey]
- [http://www.americaslibrary.gov/cgi-bin/page.cgi/jb/progress/suey_1 "Chop Suey was invented, fact or fiction?"] Category:American cuisine category:American Chinese cuisine ja:チャプスイ

Food

Food is any substance that can be consumed, including liquid drinks. Food is the main source of energy and of nutrition for animals, and is usually of animal or plant origin. The study of food is called food science. In English, the term food is often used metaphorically or figuratively, as in food for thought. Food can also be a system of communication, a collection of images, a protocol of usages, situations, and behavior. Food is what brings the memory of our past into our contemporary life.

Legal definition

Western food law defines four categories of object as food:
- any substance or product, whether processed, partially processed or unprocessed, intended to be, or reasonably expected to be ingested by humans whether of nutritional value or not;
- water and other drinks;
- chewing gum;
- articles and substances used as an ingredient or component in the preparation of food. Links to official legal definitions of food:
- [http://www.fda.gov/opacom/laws/fdcact/fdcact1.htm US federal definition of food]
- [http://www.legislation.hmso.gov.uk/acts/acts1990/Ukpga_19900016_en_2.htm#mdiv1 UK definition of food]
- [http://europa.eu.int/smartapi/cgi/sga_doc?smartapi!celexapi!prod!CELEXnumdoc&lg=EN&numdoc=32002R0178&model=guichett EU definition of food]

Human eating habits

Historical development

Humans are commonly believed to be omnivorous animals that can consume both plant and animal products. Evidence suggests that early Homo Sapiens employed Hunter-gatherer as their primary means of food collection. This involves combining stationary plant and fungal food sources (such as fruits, grains, roots, and mushrooms) with mobile animals which must be hunted and killed in order to be consumed. Additionally, it is believed that humans have used fire to prepare food prior to eating since their divergence from Homo erectus, possibly even earlier. At least ten thousand years ago, humans developed agriculture, which has Timeline of agriculture and food and altered the kind of food people eat. This has led to a variety of important historical consequences, such as increased [[population]], the development of [[cities, and the wider spread of infectious diseases. The types of food consumed, and the way in which they are prepared has varied widely by time, location, and culture.

Meals

A portion of food or the act of eating a portion of food is considered a meal. Often named and patterned, meals play a role in an important social occasion, such as the celebration of many key cultural and religious festivals. A meal can be used as means for feeding a single individual or shared and eaten simultaneously by two or more people. The number of meals consumed by individuals in a day, their size, composition, when and how they are prepared and eaten varies greatly around the world. This diversity can be attributed to a number of local factors, including climate, ecology, economy, cultural traditions and industrialisation. In societies where the availability of food has risen above subsistence levels and beyond staple foods, meals are also sold pre-prepared for immediate consumption in restaurants and other similar retail premises. Food eaten in smaller quantities between the culturally normative meals is regarded as snack food. :See also: Appetite, Buddhist cuisine, Eucharist, Fast food, Fasting, Gault Millau restaurant guide, Halaal, I-tal, Kashrut, Michelin restaurant guide, Muslim dietary laws, Potluck, Totemism.

Food production or acquisition

Food is traditionally obtained through farming, ranching, and fishing, with hunting, foraging and other methods of subsistence locally important for some populations, but minor for others. In the modern era in developed nations, food supply is increasingly dependent upon agriculture, industrial farming, aquaculture and fish farming techniques. These techniques aim to maximize the amount of food produced while minimizing the cost. The techniques include a reliance on mechanized tools, from the threshing machine and seed drill, to the tractor and combine. Developed tools have been combined with the use of pesticides to promote high crop yields and to combat insects or mammals which reduce yield. More recently, there has been a growing trend towards more Sustainable agricultural practices. This approach - which is partly fuelled by consumer demand - encourages biodiversity, local self-reliance and Organic farming methods. Major influences on food production are international policy, e.g. the World Trade Organization and Common Agricultural Policy, national government policy or law and war. Food for livestock is fodder and traditionally comprises hay or grain. :See also: mariculture, horticulture, agribusiness, gardening. gardening

From plants

- Seeds
- Cereals from grasses, including barley, maize, oats, rice, rye, and wheat
- Cereals from non-grasses, including buckwheat, amaranth, and quinoa
- Legumes, including beans, peas, and lentils
- Nuts, including coconuts, almonds, and pine nuts
- Oilseeds, including sesame, sunflower, and hemp
- Vegetables (see also list of vegetables)
- Root vegetables, including potatoes, cassava, and turnips
- Leaf vegetables, including amaranth, spinach, and kale
- Sea vegetables, including dulse, kombu, and dabberlocks
- Stem vegetables, including bamboo shoots, nopales, and asparagus
- inflorescence vegetables, including globe artichokes, broccoli, and daylilies
- Fruit vegetables, including pumpkin, okra, and eggplant
- Fruits (see also list of fruits)
- Herbs and spices (see also list of herbs and spices) list of herbs and spices

From animals

- Dairy products, including milk
- Eggs, including roe and caviar
- Insects, including honey
- Meat, including beef, frogs' legs, goat, horse, kangaroo, lamb, mutton, pork, veal, rodents, human (i.e. cannibalism)
- Offal, including blood
- Poultry, including chicken, turkey, duck, goose, pigeon or dove, ostrich, emu, guinea fowl, pheasant, quail
- Seafood, including finfish such as salmon and tilapia, and shellfish such as mollusks and crustaceans
- Snails
- Game, this includes all animals hunted for food.

From neither animals or plants

- Salt
- Mushrooms, which are a type of fungi
- Seaweed, which is a protist
- Water, including mineral water and spring (water)

Food preparation

spring (water) While some food can be eaten without preparation, many foods undergo some form of preparation for reasons of safety, palatability, or flavor. At the simplest level this may involve washing, cutting, trimming or adding other foods or ingredients, such as spices. It may also involve mixing, heating or cooling, pressure cooking, fermentation, or combination with other food. Most food preparation takes place in a kitchen. The preparation of animal-based food will usually involve slaughter, evisceration, hanging, portioning and rendering. :See also: Barbecue, Eating utensils, Frankfurt kitchen, Hangi, Oven, Microwave oven, Refrigeration, Food preparation utensils.

Food manufacture

Early food processing techniques were limited by the available food preservation, packaging and transportation. Early food processing mainly involved salting, curing, curdling, drying, pickling and smoking. An early processed food product was cheese. During the industrialisation era in the 19th century, food manufacturing arose. This development took advantage of new mass markets and emerging new technology, such as milling, preservation, packaging and labelling and transportation. It brought the advantages of pre-prepared time saving food to the bulk of ordinary people who did not employ domestic servants. At the start of the 21st century, a two-tier structure has arisen, with a few international food processing giants controlling a wide range of well known food brands; with a populous number of small local or national food processing companies. :See also: Best before, Canning, Coloring, Food quality, Snap freezing, Additives, Flavoring, Enzymes, Genetically modified food, Pasteurization, Shelf-life, Ultra-high temperature processing.

Types of manufactured food

- Drinks: beer, juice, soft drink, squash, wine.
- Bread is a staple food for many nations, being made of risen dough of wheat or other cereals.
- Cakes and cookies
- Cheese is a curdled milk product, of which many varieties exist.
- Dessert is a course, usually sweet, and generally served after the main course, e.g. Ice cream.
- French fries, Chips
- Functional food
- Jam and Jelly
- Pasta
- Pie
- Pizza
- Processed meats
- Sandwiches
- Salad
- Sauce
- Sausage

Food trade

Food is now traded on a global basis. The variety and availability of food is no longer restricted by the diversity of locally grown food or the limitations of the local growing season. Between 1961 and 1999 there has been a 400% increase in worldwide food exports. Some countries are now economically dependent on food exports, which in some cases account for over 80% of all exports. In 1994 trade liberalisation began when over 100 countries became signatories to the Uruguay Round of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade which included an agreement to reduce subsidies paid to farmers. This is underpinned by the WTO enforcement of agricultural subsidy,