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eiridium's review
5.0
A superbly written exploration of the origins and evolution of a language. Written by a couple who have a passion for exploring the living usage, this book is an engaging read and highly recommended.
kevin_milne's review
3.0
Rounded up to 3.5.
Found the linguistic and etymological sections most interesting, but the geo-political stuff is predictably dry. A very comprehensive overview of the language and would recommend to anyone learning french, interested in linguistics, or simply a burgeoning francophile.
Found the linguistic and etymological sections most interesting, but the geo-political stuff is predictably dry. A very comprehensive overview of the language and would recommend to anyone learning french, interested in linguistics, or simply a burgeoning francophile.
grauspitz's review
3.5
I have mixed feelings about this book. On one hand, I did generally enjoy what the book had to say about the history of the French language, and I feel more motivated to get myself back into the swing of things with French more than ever.
That being said, I did also catch a few factual errors throughout the book, which leaves me wondering just how many more I missed simply because I'm not knowledgeable about those areas. It leaves me feeling uneasy, not being able to know which facts they got wrong and which they got right.
That being said, I did also catch a few factual errors throughout the book, which leaves me wondering just how many more I missed simply because I'm not knowledgeable about those areas. It leaves me feeling uneasy, not being able to know which facts they got wrong and which they got right.
horthhill's review
3.0
"The Story of French" by Jean-Benoit Nadeau and Julie Barlow was really interesting. Most of everything in the book was new to me. The only fault was a tendency to repetition. Having read the book cover-to-cover, I finished thinking that a good third of the book could have been pared away without losing much of the interesting stuff between those covers.
bookgardendc's review
4.0
Yes, this is very geeky, but it was really interesting! Highly recommended for francophiles (it's amazing how much of this took me back to French class and the way I learned the language). Might not be 500 pages worth of interesting to everyone else.
papershake's review
3.0
3.5 stars. I thought the first two sections which focused more on history and etymology were really interesting, the third section about more modern institutions was okay, but I couldn’t finish the fourth section when it started getting into text messaging shorthand and what that could mean for the future of language. Coming from 2005-2006, it read like an out-of-date and out-of-touch hyperbolic news segment about ‘the kids these days.’
jaxcote's review
3.0
I was hoping this was going to be a look into how the language was formalized and has morphed since then. The first part of the book focuses on this - but then it gets into accents and worldwide adoption of the language, and into the development of the Francophonie as an institutional body.
I was a bit turned off when one of the co-authors (who's from Quebec) went on a long tirade about how Quebec's accent is perfectly intelligible, and French speakers just "pretend" not to understand it. This French speaker doesn't "pretend" to have difficulties comprehending Quebec French - I HAVE difficulties understanding this accent.
So I read the rest of it with a bit more antagonism than I had when I started the book, and by the end - with the debates over where the French language is now, I just abandoned it, because we have those conversations every. single. day. in Quebec.
Not a bad read though. Very informative about how the French language came together and was promoted by the powers that be in France's earlier history.
I was a bit turned off when one of the co-authors (who's from Quebec) went on a long tirade about how Quebec's accent is perfectly intelligible, and French speakers just "pretend" not to understand it. This French speaker doesn't "pretend" to have difficulties comprehending Quebec French - I HAVE difficulties understanding this accent.
So I read the rest of it with a bit more antagonism than I had when I started the book, and by the end - with the debates over where the French language is now, I just abandoned it, because we have those conversations every. single. day. in Quebec.
Not a bad read though. Very informative about how the French language came together and was promoted by the powers that be in France's earlier history.
howjessicareads's review against another edition
4.0
I agree with several other reviewers that this book has some slow spots. But, all in all, I really enjoyed it for two reasons. First, most of the language history books I've read have been either based on English, or based on obscure disappearing languages. This was the first book I've read on another international language except for English. Second, the historical section at the beginning of the book did an excellent job of contextualizing all the random French history facts that I still remember from french civ classes.
The thing that bugged me the most was their obsession with English, and how often they talked about how French wasn't really losing to English internationally. I agree that the topic needed discussed, but really, one chapter would have sufficed...
The thing that bugged me the most was their obsession with English, and how often they talked about how French wasn't really losing to English internationally. I agree that the topic needed discussed, but really, one chapter would have sufficed...