French Influence Research Articles

Borrowing from French into Dutch (1500–1899): Testing the diffusion and graduality assumptions

Abstract The paper tests two assumptions in loanword research: the diffusion assumption and the graduality assumption. The diffusion assumption holds that lexical borrowings typically gain in frequency over time and diffuse across the community. The graduality assumption implies that borrowings enter the recipient language as non-integrated code-switches and eventually integrate into the grammar of the recipient language. These assumptions are inherently diachronic and are here tested on historical data. We investigate loanwords from French as found in the Language of Leiden Corpus. This corpus comprises Dutch textual materials related to the city of Leiden. It covers the sixteenth, seventeenth, eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, and was built specifically to investigate the influence of French on historical Dutch, which is sometimes described in terms of frenchification. The corpus comprises 8,767 established lexical borrowings from French. We show that there is scant empirical evidence for the diffusion and graduality assumptions.

Religious Alliances and Imperial Ambitions: The Jesuit Mission to Little Armenia (1881)

This paper investigates the Jesuit mission to Little Armenia, initiated in 1881, emphasizing the collaboration between the Holy See and France amidst escalating competition with Protestant powers within the Ottoman Empire. The study aims to scrutinize the Jesuits' endeavors to advance France's religious-cultural activities until the severance of relations between the Holy See and France. The Jesuits provided religious and educational assistance, thus promoting French influence among Ottoman Christians. This research contends that the partnership between the Holy See and France facilitated through the Jesuit mission, exemplifies the significant impact of religion on France's international policies during the Third Republic. Drawing on a diverse array of historical sources, including diplomatic records, missionary accounts, and scholarly works, this study offers a comprehensive understanding of the interplay between the Jesuits, the Holy See, and France within the intricate political and religious context of the late nineteenth-century Ottoman Empire.

The Acquisition of Branching Onsets in Simultaneous French–Portuguese Bilingual Children: The Effect of Age, Language, Cluster Type, and Dominance

The literature on bilingual language development often reports cases of cross-linguistic interaction of the two languages being acquired. In this paper, we investigate possible cross-linguistic interaction outputs in the development of branching onsets in the bilingual acquisition of French and Portuguese. Thirty French–Portuguese bilingual children, aged between 3;6 and 6;1, participated in our study. Their elicited productions were collected using two picture naming tasks containing 29 clusters in French and 57 clusters in Portuguese. Almost all the children acquire branching onsets earlier in French than in Portuguese, independently of the quality of cluster type (Consonant + Rhotic (Cr) clusters vs. Consonant + Lateral (Cl) clusters). Epenthesis is more present in Portuguese than in French. Shared structures in both languages are not acquired at the same time. These results show that bilingual children follow separate patterns of development, close to the ones reported for monolinguals, during the acquisition of their two languages. Moreover, the bilingual children show higher rates of development of clusters in Portuguese than the ones reported for monolinguals, suggesting an accelerated acquisition of clusters in Portuguese due to a positive influence of French.

The French Influence on Modern English Orthography A Historical and Linguistic Analysis

Orthography is a critical component of the English language and serves as a repository for its linguistic and cultural heritage. The evolution of English orthography can be traced through three major stages: Old English, Middle English, and Modern English, each reflecting the socio-political circumstances of its time. Written records from the Old and Middle English periods reveal that the complexity of English spelling arises from the disconnection between spoken and written forms. This paper aims to explore the contributions of the French language to modern English orthography, offering a historical overview of the linguistic interplay between the two languages. It specifically investigates how the French language influenced modern English spelling through phonological, lexical, and orthographic changes. The findings demonstrate that historical events, particularly the Norman Conquest, had profound impacts on the linguistic evolution of English, shaping its orthographic system. This study underscores the significance of historical and sociopolitical contexts in understanding the development of English spelling and highlights the enduring influence of French on modern English orthography.

Obsolescence and Innovation in the Middle English Religious Lexicon

AbstractLexical loss has long been of interest to scholars of the history of English, even though it is difficult to measure and has therefore received less attention than related processes, such as lexical innovation. Recently, the topic has received renewed interest, especially concerning the idea of French replacing large swathes of native vocabulary after the Norman Conquest. Using data from the Historical Thesaurus of English (HT), the present article tracks changes in the Middle English (ME) religious lexis, focusing on nouns and the influence of French and Latin, and investigates patterns of lexical obsolescence and innovation in conjunction with language of origin and semantic specificity. Following Sylvester et al. (2020), semantic specificity is measured by utilising the HT's structure, and etymological information is extracted from the OED and MED. Overall, most lexical items are found at the hypernymic level of the semantic hierarchy. Already in the early ME period, about 30% of the religious lexicon is of Romance origin and this proportion only continues to grow. The proportion of English‐origin items decreases accordingly, although the absolute number stays relatively stable. Peaks in first and last attestations are shown to coincide, likely due to the nature of the available data.

La Haute Autorité de santé (HAS), mise en perspective internationale

The international presence of the HAS constitutes a real strategic issue in the short, medium and long term, particularly in the areas of health technology assessment (HTA) and hospital certification. Its offer of international expertise can constitute a privileged instrument of French influence in areas that are becoming global, whether for the dissemination of French norms and standards and for the influence of our organizational model and our values. Finally, the presence of the HAS in European and international bodies, notably the World Health Organization (WHO), continues to strengthen, particularly in the European and community framework where its involvement is growing. The international and European involvement of the High Authority of Health (HAS) is an asset for the harmonization of health practices, particularly within the European Union. By actively participating in international and European networks, such as EUnetHTA, and by collaborating with the European Commission, HAS contributes to the evaluation of health technologies, the development of quality standards, and the development of common health policies. However, it faces challenges linked to the diversity of national health systems and the harmonization of practices between Member States. Nevertheless, its growing role in cross-border cooperation and sharing of expertise places it as a key player in the structuring of health policies in Europe.

<b>English Language Anxiety in Higher Education: A Case Study of Spanish Students</b>

This article examines the anxiety of French-speaking students in the Spanish Department at the University of Yaoundé I (Cameroon) while learning English. We used quantitative and qualitative methods. The theoretical framework adopted for this study is the Affective Filter Hypothesis developed by Krashen (2009). The results showed that anxiety is a barrier that negatively affects the learning of English by French-speaking students. Several factors were found to be at the root of this anxiety: language typology, language level, the influence of French, personality, the reactions of others, and beliefs. We also found that students were anxious about learning Spanish, but this anxiety affected them positively. The paper suggests that learners should be in permanent contact with the English language, teachers and students should develop language tolerance by focusing on the message, not the language form, and teachers should include digital technologies to lower anxiety.

Интернационализмы французского происхождения в русской терминологии спорта

The aim of the study is to identify current trends in the development of interlingual contact, using sports terms – internationalisms as a case study. The article determines the role and place of French borrowings in Russian-language sports terminology. Special attention is paid to the mechanisms of semantic adaptation of foreign terms. The work is novel in that it is the first one to summarize and systematize French-language units of the Russian sports terminology system. The study has found that the influence of French on Russian sports terminology is due to extralinguistic factors, namely, historical preconditions and established traditions of naming specific sports realities. Words of French origin denote concepts of different sports: fencing, equestrian sports, gymnastics, cycling, wrestling, figure skating. Denotata are sports, actions, positions, participants, events, sports organizations, prizes, material objects. The main vector of reception of the meaning of a foreign word is the narrowing of its semantic structure. From the point of view of formal-structural characteristics, borrowed lexemes are single-word terms, on the basis of which terminological combinations, as well as abbreviations, can be formed.

Implikacje niepowodzenia stabilizacji państw Sahelu dla utrzymania pozycji Francji w Afryce

IMPLICATIONS OF THE FAILURE TO STABILISE THE STATES OF THE SAHEL FOR MAINTAINING FRANCE’S POSITION IN AFRICAAfrica had for centuries provided French diplomacy with advantages through which it could realise its power ambitions. In the 1960s, French colonies in sub-Saharan Africa gained full sovereignty and France faced the dilemma of how to preserve “privileged” ties while avoiding the label of the legacy of colonialism? In the 21st century, a strategic foreign policy objective became the stabilisation of the Sahel – a region crucial to France’s security. This was reflected in the creation of the G5 Sahel in 2014 and Operation Barkhane. However, subsequent coups in Mali (2020), Burkina Faso (2022) and Niger (2023), with the support of foreign powers, led to the loss of French influence in its traditional sphere of influence.

Immigration and integration policy change in France during Sarkozy’s era

This paper sheds light on the factors behind the introduction of restrictive immigration and integration policy in France between 2002 and 2012, which is closely associated with Nicholas Sarkozy and his party Union for a Popular Movement (UMP). Using the evidence from semi-structured interviews, conducted with The Republicans (UMP) elected representatives, political advisors and civil servants, the paper argues that the introduction of restrictive immigration policies is explained not only through electoral pressure from the radical right Front National, but also by publics’ perceived economic concerns, cultural anxieties around Islam, as well as the effects of the EU integration. The paper also contributes to immigration policy liberalisation scholarship, by highlighting the importance of non-economic benefits migration brings, which take a form of soft power, as a way to increase French influence (rayonnement) in the world, contrary to the previous literature that explains liberalisation from economic advantages of skilled migration.

Bao Dai Solution and the Formation of the “National Government of Vietnam” During the Indochina War (1945-1954)

After World War II, Vietnam declared independence from France and Japan following the victory of the resistance movement for independence led by the Viet Minh. However, with the regulations at the Yalta conference, France returned to wage war to force Vietnam and the entire Indochina peninsula to fall under French rule as before. In Vietnam, France refused to cooperate with Viet Minh because it believed that this organization was Communist. France tried every way to set up a “puppet” government and they turned to Bao Dai, an Emperor who had just been overthrown in August 1945. The Bao Dai solution was proposed by France to maintain colonialism in Vietnam. This solution aims to establish a “National Government of Vietnam” under French influence, maintaining French interests and influence. This research article aims to clarify the puppet nature of the “National Government of Vietnam” and show that it had an important influence on the situation in Vietnam during the Indochina War (1945-1954). Methods of exploiting historical documents, logical methods and international relations research methods are used to clarify the content of the research article.
 
 Received: 13 October 2023 / Accepted: 29 January 2024 / Published: 5 March 2024

Verfassungs- und Gesetzesvorschriften über die Sprachenregelung im rumänischen Staat während der Zwischenkriegszeit

Language regulations in interwar Romania were affected by the antinomy between their political and legal (especially constitutional) architecture, devised along Western models, and the concrete political circumstances, in a polity whose aims were defined by the ethno-cultural and linguistic character of national community supportive of the state. The perception of the alterity of the new ethnic, religious and linguistic minorities—now accounting for a significant part of the total population—occurred through the lens of two conceptual paradigms, both of them ultimately striving to promote uniformity. On the one hand, the “nation state” character of interwar Romania entailed, at least implicitly, an advancement of the economic, social and professional status of the nation supportive of the state, to the disadvantage of the national minorities. The identity claims of the latter may well be accepted, but in exchange for relinquishing the right to participate in decision-making on major political issues, concerning the state as a whole. On the other hand, the state-centered legal thinking in constitutional and administrative law—adopted under French influence—was an instrument well-suited for promoting and achieving the desired cultural uniformity. Nevertheless, the discrepancy between the Western legal and political paradigm identifying the state with the (political) nation—which formally coined the Versailles Treaty system—and the Central-European (mainly Austrian) pattern of thought, more sensitive to linguistic diversity, was discernable also at the level of the minority treaties.

SIMEON POLOTSKY’S DRAMA NEBUCHADNEZZAR THE TSAR AND ITS WESTERN-EUROPEAN DRAMA SOURCES

Тhis paper aims to reconsider the influences of Western-European drama of the XVII century on the creation of Russian baroque and the first drama writer in Russia Simeon Polotsky. During the initial period, Russian theatre, especially during the XVI and XVII centuries, was under the strong influences of Western theatre culture. This paper reconsiders the influence of German, French, English and Polish theatre plays. Plots of his playwright were popular and well known in Western European literature from the XII century. In this paper, we tried to reconsider those influences on the example of his drama Nebuchadnezzar the Tsar. This drama plot was well-known in Western European theatre, and Simeon Polotsky knew some of them.

Features and problems of teaching Russian medical lexis to Arabic-speaking medical students and their solution with the help of mnemonics

The article identifies the main problems that arise when teaching Russian to Arabic-speaking medical students. The purpose of our research is to consider typical features and errors in the perception of medical lexis by Arab medical students and identify ways of solving them using mnemonics. In the theory and methodology of teaching Russian as a foreign language, there is a constant search for effective methods to solve the following problems of spelling: “mirror writing” among Arab medical students, as well as errors arising from the interfering influence of English and French, the replacement of letters and the omission of certain letters in medical terms. The article also focuses on the problems of Arabic-speaking students’ perception related to their native Arabic culture, namely right-to-left writing, known in linguistics as “Semitic writing”, and the perception of the chronology of events, which is also directly related to the right-hand Semitic writing. We suggest our own special mnemonics for Arab medical students. The obtained results showed that our mnemonic techniques contribute not only to the elimination of the abovementioned spelling errors and perception problems, but also activate the mechanism of hemispheric interaction and neural connections in the brain; consequently, Arabic-speaking students actively memorize and consolidate professional medical lexis in Russian in the classes of Russian as a foreign language.

Informal speech in primary school children in their leisure time: the influence of Spanish or French on their spontaneous expressivity

This study was funded by the Mintzola Project of the Royal Academy of the Basque Language (Euskaltzaindia), by the Basque School Association (Ikastolen Elkartea) and by Mondragon Unibertsitatea. Our purpose was to examine whether speech among friends ina formal setting can have a positive effect on increasing informal speech in Basque among students. We present the first steps of this research here. Ten schools (ikastolas) from different territories in the Basque Country were selected, and the language habits of students in their fourth year of Primary Education at home, outside the home and at school were initially examined via a questionnaire in order to obtain baseline information about the sample in as much detail as possible. We then observed the participating children in the recreational areas of the schools in order to determine which language(s) they speak with their friends during their free time.

Педагогическое образование в Кот-д’Ивуаре

In recent years, there has been a significant reinforcement of mutually beneficial cooperation between Russia and African countries on the broad agenda. Russia builds these relations, taking into account new African realities and on the principles of sovereignty respect, national interests and equality. Today, the African agenda actively reflects in political meetings, economic forums, and scientific conferences, where the most famous is the Russia-Africa Forum of 2019 and 2023. In Ivory Coast, a diplomatic mission first appeared 7 years after gaining sovereignty, but then the ties were severed on Ivorian initiative due to the remaining significant French influence. Since 1986, the relations have been friendly and today they cover political dialogue, security, trade and economics, investments, energy, mining and new technologies, scientific exchanges, cultural, educational areas, etc. The educational sphere has traditionally been represented only by the practice of studying Ivorians in Russian universities. Nowadays, Russia participates in educational projects already in Ivory Coast. But their educational system is very poorly covered in Russian scientifical literature. The objectives of the article are to identify specifics of teacher training in Ivory Coast and to determine its problems and achievements.

Features of Cameroon Francophone English in the Production of Bilingual Students

This paper examines the written production of bilingual Francophone students of tertiary level in Cameroon. The influence of French and local languages is observed in the free compositions in English, the second official language (SOL) of young Francophone Cameroonians. For this study, 47 informants were randomly selected and asked to write a 200-word essay in English. Selinker’s theory of Interlanguage was used as a framework for identifying, describing, and explaining the data. The findings reveal 167 instances of Interlanguage features, out of which 62 (37.1%) were from stabilisation, 57 (34.1%) from interference, 46 (27.5%) from overuse, and 2 (1.1%) from avoidance.

От locatio operarum к contratto d’opera: возмездное оказание услуг в истории итальянского права

In the article are regarded three stages of services agreement formation in Italian law. Author demonstrates adaption of the Roman Law contract locatio-conductio in Middle Ages and Modern Period and steading forthcoming of differences characterizing this contract across European borders. The fi rst stage of services agreement codifi cation is revealed with the Italian Civil Code of 1865. In the article are explained causes of changes happened at the second stage of codifi cation and the main features characterizing services agreement at the modern Italian Civil Code of 1942. The conducted research shows that after infl uence of French and German legislators Italian scholars produced universal rules for conducting any operation. At the same moment, that rules does not exclude the necessity to divide services agreement from other contracts.

The Huybers and Loureiro Families

This article is the first part of a two-part article. Part 2 will be published in No. 75. Scholars have recently highlighted the significance of France’s influence on Australia’s culture and society, especially in the decades around Federation. Out of all proportion to the relatively small number of French migrants who came to Australia, this French influence manifested itself in complex and subtle ways. One aspect of the complexity was that the French influence informed a broader cosmopolitanism which stood out from the dominant British-Australian culture of the early twentieth century. In these two papers, members of two families, the Huybers and the Loureiros, are used as a case study to explore how this French influence could be expressed in diverse ways. Aspects of the richly varied lives of the selected individuals are inherently interesting and often help to illustrate larger themes in Australian social history.

Shakespeare and the French Lens

Academic studies of Shakespeare in Great Britain and France present the historian with startling contrasts. Beginning in the late 18th century, the English debated the extent of his knowledge and eventually turned the poet-playwright into a national hero and secular saint. When Thomas Carlyle published in 1840 On Heroes, Hero Worship, and the Heroic in History, he actually stated that Shakespeare was “an unconscious intellect” whose dramas “grew up out of Nature.” Carlyle’s book was an incredible success, deifying the uneducated and untraveled man from Stratford, making him a religious Anglo-Saxon icon never to be questioned. Some had their doubts. In France in 1918, Professor Abel Lefranc, a renowned Renaissance scholar and member of the Académie française, published Sous le masque de William Shakespeare, a volume that tried to prove “to all those with an open mind” that the author William Shakespeare could not have been Shakspere of Stratford-upon-Avon. Among his reasons: William Shakespeare knew France, the French aristocracy and French history too well. Leaving aside the author’s missing paper trail, inconceivable for the “soul of the age,” Lefranc examined Shakespeare’s works in extraordinary detail and revealed just how political they were and how often they subtly commented on a much wider European culture and politics. Shakespeare’s oeuvre, he argued, was not limited to the Anglo-Saxon world but was actually multi-national and deeply influenced by France. English scholars did not handle this French questioning of Shakespeare so well. Indeed, with only a few exceptions, Lefranc’s work was ignored in the Anglo-Saxon world. Lefranc argued that the plays needed to be re-examined as creations for the Elizabethan court, making clear references to what was actually happening in France at the time. This essay argues that the significance of Shakespeare’s knowledge of French courtly politics and culture should not be underestimated because there are no records that the man from Stratford ever left England or knew French. That is, once the profound French influence is recognized in Shakespeare’s plays, the man from Stratford could not have been the author.