Ateneo - UPO

INTRODUCTION TO THE HISTORY OF THE FRENCH LANGUAGE. The workshop will trace the history of the French language from its origins to the present day, pointing out the key features of each different phase in the history of French as well as the main cultural, social and political events or phenomena that have conditioned its evolution.

Mandatory bibliography:
- Michèle Perret, Introduction à l’histoire de la langue française, Paris, Armand Colin, 2020 (5e édition).
- documenti e materiali complementari forniti dal docente, che saranno pubblicati sulla piattaforma DIR.

Complementary bibliography (optional):
- AAVV, L’histoire de la langue française, Paris, Hatier (« Becherelle Chronologie »), 2022.
- AAVV, Mille ans de langue française, histoire d’une passion, Paris, Perrin, 2011 (2 t.).
- Yvonne Cazal, Gabriella Parussa, Introduction à l’histoire de l’orthographe, Paris, Armand Colin, 2022 (2e édition).
- Mirelle Huchon, Histoire de la langue française, Paris, Librairie Générale française (« Le Livre de Poche »), 2002 o qualsiasi edizione più recente.

Primary objectives: (1) to acquire a basic knowledge of the evolution of the French language in a historical perspective; (2) to distinguish the lexical, morphological, syntactic, phonetic and graphic specificities of the main stages of the language (ancien and moyen français, modern and contemporary French). Advanced objectives: (3) to be able to recognise, analyse and comment on notable linguistic aspects found in French language texts composed from the Middle Ages to the present day.

For students of the Modern Foreign Languages degree, it is recommended that they pass the French Language II exam or possess a B1-B2 language proficiency level (Common European Framework of Reference for Languages). Students of the Master's degree programme in Languages, Cultures, Tourism are required to have a B2 language proficiency level (Common European Framework of Reference for Languages).

Lectures, partly devoted to the exposition of historical, historical-linguistic and theoretical notions, partly to the reading, translation and commentary of texts.

The DIR platform will provide (1) teaching materials presented in class, (2) supplementary documentation and (3) the weekly lecture register.
Non-attending students (i.e. those who have not attended at least 70% of the lectures) will have to supplement the compulsory bibliography by reading chapters IV to VIII of Mireille Huchon's book, Histoire de la langue française (see the "Textbooks" section).
For any doubts regarding the course programme, teaching materials, the content of the lessons or the conduct of the examination, please contact the lecturer.

The examination (grade expressed in thirtieths), which will make it possible to assess the degree of achievement of the objectives indicated, will consist of an oral test lasting approximately 30 minutes divided into three parts.
(1) Presentation of a specific period in the history of the French language indicated by the teacher. The candidate will have to recall the fundamental aspects of the historical and cultural context of reference and detail the lexical, morpho-syntactic, phonetic and graphic specificities of the state of the language in question. The answer must be based on the study of the lecture notes and the volume by Michèle Perret indicated in the "Textbooks" section (possibly supplemented by the reading of the optional materials indicated in the same section). The answer, assessed taking into account both content and clarity of exposition, will be awarded from 0 to 15 points.
(2) Reading aloud, translation and linguistic commentary of two texts analysed in class (to be published on the DIR platform). This exercise will be awarded 0 to 10 points.
(3) Reading aloud, translation and linguistic commentary of a text not presented in class. This exercise will be awarded between 0 and 5 points.
The final mark will be the sum of the points awarded for parts (1), (2) and (3) of the examination.
In order to achieve a 18/30, it will be necessary to show that (a) one has mastered the basic historical, historical-linguistic and theoretical notions illustrated during the course and (b) one can read, translate and comment satisfactorily on the texts presented in class. To achieve 30/30, students will have to demonstrate that they (a) confidently master every aspect of the syllabus, (b) can read, translate and comment on the texts presented in class, and (c) can read, translate and comment on a text not assigned in class in a relevant manner.

The course will retrace the main stages in the evolution of the French language, from its origins to the present day. It will illustrate the phonetic, morphosyntactic and lexical transformations that, between Late Antiquity and the Early Middle Ages, led to the emergence of Proto-French. It will then present the successive stages in the evolution of the French language (ancien and moyen français, Renaissance French, modern and contemporary). The presentation of these different stages of the language will be accompanied, on the one hand, by the study of the orthographic, grammatical and rhetorical practices and codifications that characterised them; on the other hand, by their contextualisation in historical perspective. Particular emphasis will be placed on the role played by technological phenomena (introduction of the use of paper, invention of the printing press, etc.), political phenomena (centralisation of power, adoption of French in the drafting of administrative documents, creation of institutions for the protection and promotion of French, etc.), and socio-cultural phenomena (trade and cultural exchanges in the Mediterranean between the Middle Ages and the Modern Age, mass literacy, colonisation, immigration, etc.). The theoretical exposition will be accompanied by the reading, translation and linguistic commentary of literary and documentary texts of various kinds.

(1) Knowledge of the main stages in the historical evolution of French. (2) Awareness of the processes of lexical, morphological, syntactic, phonetic and graphic transformation of the French language in a diachronic perspective. (3) Ability to read, understand, situate historically and comment linguistically on the texts analysed during the lessons; ability to apply the linguistic analysis tools acquired during the course in a pertinent manner, also to texts unrelated to the corpus analysed during the lessons.