Description
Book SynopsisThis volume examines the use of French in European language communities outside France from the Middle Ages to the twentieth century. The phenomenon of French language usage is explored in a wide variety of communities, namely Bohemian, Dutch, medieval English, German (Prussian), Italian, Piedmontese, Polish, Romanian, Russian, Spanish, Swedish and Turkish. Each chapter offers unique insight into the existence of francophonie in a given language community by providing illustrations of language usage and detailed descriptions of various aspects of it. The volume as a whole explores such sociolinguistic matters as bilingualism and multilingualism, the use of French as a lingua franca and prestige language, language choice and code-switching, variations in language usage depending on class or gender, language attitudes and language education. The sociohistorical and sociocultural matters considered include the association of a variety of language with the court, nobility or some other social group; the function of French as a vehicle for the transmission of foreign cultures; and the role of language in the formation of identity of various kinds (national, social and personal).
Trade Review«This book provides a valuable overview to linguists who wish to understand the complexities of how French arose as a lingua franca and a language of cultural, political and social prestige in early modern Europe.»
(Judith Bridges, Linguist List August 2015)
«[...] the book is a valuable addition to the study of the use of the French language in Europe within a historical perspective.»
(Samira Hassa, The French Review vol. 90.2 2016)
Table of ContentsContents: Gesine Argent/Vladislav Rjéoutski/Derek Offord: European Francophonie and a Framework for Its Study – Peter Burke: Diglossia in Early Modern Europe – Marianne Ailes/Ad Putter: The French of Medieval England – Alda Rossebastiano: Knowledge of French in Piedmont – Nadia Minerva: The Two Latin Sisters: Representations of the French and the French Language in Italy – Madeleine Van Strien-Chardonneau: The Use of French among the Dutch Elites in Eighteenth-Century Holland – Manuela Böhm: The Domains of Francophonie and Language Ideology in Eighteenth- and Nineteenth-Century Prussia – Ivo Cerman: Aristocratic Francophone Literature in Bohemia – Amelia Sanz-Cabrerizo/Begoña Regueiro-Salgado/Luis Pablo-Núñez/Silviano Carrasco: Francophonies in Spain – Margareta Östman: French in Sweden in the Seventeenth, Eighteenth and Nineteenth Centuries – Maciej Serwański/Katarzyna Napierała: The Presence of Francophonie in Poland from the Sixteenth Century to the Eighteenth – Ileana Mihaila: The Beginnings and the Golden Age of Francophonie among the Romanians – Derek Offord: Francophonie in Imperial Russia – Laurent Mignon: French in Ottoman Turkey: ‘The Language of the Afflicted Peoples’?
