LINGUIST List 17.2134

Mon Jul 24 2006

Sum: History of French Textbooks

Editor for this issue: Kevin Burrows <kevinlinguistlist.org>

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Directory         1.    Richard Epstein, History of French Textbooks

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Message 1: History of French Textbooks
Date: 15-Jul-2006
From: Richard Epstein <repsteincamden.rutgers.edu>
Subject: History of French Textbooks


Query for this summary posted in LINGUIST Issue: 17.1912 Several weeks ago, I posted a request for textbooks (written in English)suitable for use in an undergraduate ''History of the French Language''course. I would like to thank the following people for their very helpfulreplies:

Kim SchulteMaj-Britt Mosegaard HansenThomas FieldAidan Coveney

A summary of the recommended books is posted below (the comments came withthe original replies).

Best regards,Rich EpsteinDept. of EnglishRutgers University - Camden

RICKARD, Peter. 1989. A History of the French Language, 2nd edn. 192pp.London: Routledge. ISBN: 041510887X

R. A. LODGE: French: from Dialect to Standard (Routledge) [also availablein French]

G. PRICE: The French Language: Present and Past (Grant and Cutler, 1984) -quite detailed on both phono and gramm change; includes a very brief introto phonetics.

AYRES-BENNETT, W. (1996) A History of the French Language through Texts.London: Routledge.

POSNER, Rebecca. 1997. Linguistic Change in French. Oxford, ClarendonPress. 530pp. ISBN: 0198240368. (a superb overview of most key aspects ofinternal history and external history informed by soiciolingistics. Foradvanced students and postgrads).

Exploring the French Language, ed. by R. Anthony Lodge, Nigel Armstrong,Yvette M. L. Ellis and Jane F. Shelton. ISBN13: 9780340676622; ISBN10:0340676620 paper, 224 pages. Dec 1997. A Hodder Arnold Publication.

Some useful French books:Ada Giusti: 'La langue francaise' (Flammarion) - brief, mostly externalhistory.

Mireille Huchon: Histoire de la langue francaise (Livre de Poche) -external and internal; v good value for money, but does presuppose someknowledge of phonetics at least.

Henriette Walter: Le Francais dans tous les sens (Laffont; also in English)- quite easy; both external and internal. (French inside out : theworld-wide development of the French language in the past, present and thefuture / Henriette Walter ;translated by Peter Fawcett. London ; New York:Routledge, c1994. pp. 279).

Christiane Marchello-Nizia: Le francais dans l'histoire (pp. 11-90 in 'LeGrand Livre de la langue francaise', ed M.Yaguello; Seuil) - internal, withgood use of texts; v clear and authoritative, not excessively technical.

Jacques Chaurand ed. 'Nouvelle Histoire de la l. fr' (Seuil) - chapters bya range of experts on the various periods, covering both external andinternal history. Linguistic Field(s): Historical Linguistics