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French
is an Indo-European language from the Latin branch. It is closely related
to the languages that appear on the same line, having diverged from them
in the last 1000 to 2000 years (See family tree below). This means that
these languages tend to have a higher percentage of lexical similarity.
Modified
from: www.ethnologue.com
French
has moved the farthest away from its Latin roots than any of its sister
languages, but its spelling still leaves a clue as to its root.
| Uralic |
|
Celtic |
|
Italian |
|
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| Altaic |
|
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|
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|
|
|
| Sino-Tibetan |
|
Germanic |
|
Sardinian |
|
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| Malayo-Polynesian |
|
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|
|
|
| Indo-European |
|
Latin |
|
French |
|
Central, Northern,
Eastern, Western, Southwestern |
| |
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| |
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|
Québecois,
Creole/Louisiana, Acadian |
| Afro-Asiatic |
|
|
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| Caucasian |
|
Slavic |
|
Provençal |
|
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| Dravidian |
|
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| Austro-Asiatic |
|
Baltic |
|
Catalonian |
|
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|
| Niger-Congo |
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|
Hellenic |
|
Spanish |
|
|
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| |
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|
Illyric |
|
Galician |
|
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|
| |
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|
Anatolian |
|
Ladino |
|
|
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| |
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|
Thracian |
|
Portuguese |
|
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| |
|
Iranian |
|
Romansch |
|
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| |
|
Indic |
|
Romanian |
|
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| |
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|
Tokharian |
|
Moldavian |
|
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Like
most other Romance languages, it maintains a S-V-O structure, 2 genders
for nouns.
| English: |
The
boy and girl find a book. |
| French: |
Le
garçon |
et |
la
fille |
trouvent |
un
livre |
| |
N
(masc) |
|
N
(fem) |
N
(masc) |
| |
Subject
|
Verb |
Object |
|
| Portuguese: |
O
rapaz |
e |
a
rapariga |
descobrem |
um
livro. |
|
| |
N
(masc) |
|
N
(fem) |
N
(masc) |
See
Krysstal.com
for more information on language families.
|
