French Interpreters & Translators

Cal Interpreting & Translations (CIT) offers French interpreters and translators with legal, medical and specialty experience, including criminal and civil matters, employee meetings, engineering, patent cases, labor disputes, immigration and more.

Although based in Los Angeles, CIT offers comprehensive French language services including interpretation, translation and transcription, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, worldwide. Our interpreters and translators are native speakers who have been screened and certified, have provided credentials, have been field tested, and have kept up to date with developments in both English and the French language through means such as lectures, conferences, and travel. CIT’s French language interpreters and translators possess in-depth knowledge of the French language, as well as of the culture and history of the French people, allowing them to provide informed and complete interpretation and translation.

The French Language

The French language, which is probably known as the most romantic language in the world, is spoken by approximately 275 million people worldwide. French had been the official language of about 25 countries worldwide at the start of the 21^st century. Some of these countries include France, Corsica, Canada, Belgium, Switzerland, and Monaco along with several countries in Africa such as Morocco, Tunisia and Cameroon. French is also spoken in the US, UK, Benin, Burkina Faso, Burundi, Central African Republic, Chad, Congo (Brazzaville/Kinshasa), Cote d’Ivoire (Ivory Coast), Djibouti, Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, Madagascar, Malia, Mauritania, Niger, Rwanda, Senegal and Togo. Other countries such as Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia and creole French speakers use standard French. Additionally, many countries around the world have French immersion schools, teaching students entirely in French.

History of French

The French language dates back to the 9^th century AD. It is known as the Strasbough Oaths, which were Romance versions of oaths sworn by Charlemagne’s two grandsons. Many believe it to be Northern French but unable to decipher which dialect it is exactly. There are debates as to whether it is the Picardy dialect (from Picard) or the Franco-Provencal.

Another ancient text is found in Old French, having both Picard and Walloon components, and is a short sequence by Prudentius, highlighting the life of the saint Eulalia. This document was dated 880-882 AD. In the 10^th century, other texts such as the Passion du Christ and Vie de St. Leger, have both northern and southern dialects infused, while another text, the “Jonas fragment” is more obviously from the north. Another dialect, the Francien dialect, is a north-central dialect. Other dialects, such as Norman, were developed in Britain. The Picard dialect was more prestigious, particularly in regard to literature. In 1539, The Edic of Villers-Cotterets made Francien the official language. Afterwards, Standard French began to replace other dialects.

The French Language: Grammar and Writing

The French language had changed drastically from it’s Latin language parent. French grammar is similar to that of other Romantic languages. It is much more simplified that it’s original Latin form. Nouns have masculine and feminine forms distinguishing along with plural and singular forms of words as well. There are several verb forms in French, such as indicative, imperative, subjunctive moods, preterit, imperfect, present, future and conditional. There are also perfect and progressive tenses and passive and reflexive constructions.

The French language changed far quicker in Northern France than in other regions. There are several modern dialects of French. They are: Central (Francien, Orleanais, Bourbannais, Champenois), Northern (Picard, Northern Norman), Eastern (Lorrain, Bourguignon, Franc-Comtois), Western (Norman, Gallo, Angevin and Manceau) and Southwestern (Poitevin, Saintongeais, Angoumois).