Customer Reviews

A History of the French Language

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Peter Rickard's A HISTORY OF THE FRENCH LANGUAGE was first published in 1974 with a second edition appearing in 1989. Please note that although this Amazon listing describes the second edition, I read the first edition and my review is based on that.

Rickard was Drapers Professor of French at Cambridge and in this 174-page text he brings us from the earliest days when the speech of France was but a collection of vulgar Latin dialects to the modern standard language. Along the way, he shows how sound change spurred morphological change, how literary production down through time reflects the evolution of the language, and what polemics authorities engaged in on language standardization.

I should mention that this a not a book for those with some French who want to learn how to read earlier texts. The reader of A HISTORY OF FRENCH ideally has some training in Latin and in basic linguistics (phonology and morphology). I'd recommend reading W. Sidney Allen's Vox Latina before Rickard's history, in order to have a better understanding of the pronunciation of late Latin.

My only real complaint about Rickard's history is that discussion of diaspora French is missing. Once the various dialects of France have formed a standard language, his focus rests entirely on that standard language and its registers in France. African French, which I find quite fascinating, is in no way covered. Neither is Quebec French, which is simply inexplicable.

Peter Rickard's A HISTORY OF THE FRENCH LANGUAGE was first published in 1974 with a second edition appearing in 1989. Note that this Amazon listing and my review describe the first edition.

Rickard was Drapers Professor of French at Cambridge and in this 174-page text he brings us from the earliest days when the speech of France was but a collection of vulgar Latin dialects to the modern standard language. Along the way, he shows how sound change spurred morphological change, how literary production down through time reflects the evolution of the language, and what polemics authorities engaged in on language standardization.

I should mention that this a not a book for those with some French who want to learn how to read earlier texts. The reader of A HISTORY OF FRENCH ideally has some training in Latin and in basic linguistics (phonology and morphology). I'd recommend reading W. Sidney Allen's Vox Latina before Rickard's history, in order to have a better understanding of the pronunciation of late Latin.

My only real complaint about Rickard's history is that discussion of diaspora French is missing. Once the various dialects of France have formed a standard language, his focus rests entirely on that standard language and its registers in France. African French, which I find quite fascinating, is in no way covered. Neither is Quebec French, which is simply inexplicable.

The title of this review says it all. There is a lot of great information in this book but the second you read it, you instantly forget the entire page you just read because it is written so dryly.

Peter Rickard's A HISTORY OF THE FRENCH LANGUAGE was first published in 1974 with a second edition appearing in 1989. Note that this Amazon listing and my review describe the first edition.

Rickard was Drapers Professor of French at Cambridge and in this 174-page text he brings us from the earliest days when the speech of France was but a collection of vulgar Latin dialects to the modern standard language. Along the way, he shows how sound change spurred morphological change, how literary production down through time reflects the evolution of the language, and what polemics authorities engaged in on language standardization.

I should mention that this a not a book for those with some French who want to learn how to read earlier texts. The reader of A HISTORY OF FRENCH ideally has some training in Latin and in basic linguistics (phonology and morphology). I'd recommend reading W. Sidney Allen's Vox Latina before Rickard's history, in order to have a better understanding of the pronunciation of late Latin.

My only real complaint about Rickard's history is that discussion of diaspora French is missing. Once the various dialects of France have formed a standard language, his focus rests entirely on that standard language and its registers in France. African French, which I find quite fascinating, is in no way covered. Neither is Quebec French, which is simply inexplicable.

I bought this book to replace a book I had lost from the library at my university. I wasn't expecting the book until after Christmas and it came a week before Christmas. I was impressed by the delivery. The condition of the book was supposed to be "Very Good." I didn't read the full description of the condition of the book so I didn't realize that there would be some marks and stamps on the inside. I am hoping my school will accept this book as a replacement book. All in all, this company was great at sending the item (especially from the UK to Colorado, USA).

Book in good condition, however, after picking regular shipping I received the book the last possible day. The problem with this is that in a follow-up email the seller indicated that the last possible day I could expect the book would be a week later than what they had advertised on their amazon selling page. Don't think I will buy from this seller again.