French Language Blog

Did you know that the cultural and ethnic origins of France are technically not “French” per se, but rather celtiques?

Before the invasions of the Germanic tribes called les Francs (the “Franks“), who coined the name of the land we know today as “France“, that territory was known as la Gaule, and its inhabitants were the Celtic people called les Gaulois.

Among the few natives of France who still speak a Celtic tongue are les Bretons, the inhabitants of la Bretagne (Brittany.)

One of their age-old traditional songs is “Tri Martolod“, meaning “The Three Sailors.”

This song made it well into the 20th century, and even became widely known as a French Rap mega-hit song (with French lyrics, this time) by the trio “Manau.”

Le vent souffle sur les plaines de la Bretagne armoricaine,

The wind blows on the plains of the Armorican Brittany

Je jette un dernier regard sur ma femme, mon fils et mon domaine

I throw a last glance on my wife, my son, and my land

Akim, le fils du forgeron est venu me chercher

Akim, the son of the blacksmith came to take me

les druides ont décidé de mener le combat dans la vallée

The druids decided to wage the fight in the valley

Là, où tous nos ancêtres, de géants guerriers celtes

Here where our ancestors, giant Celtic warriors

Après de grandes batailles, se sont imposés en maîtres

After great battles, became uncontested masters

C’est l’heure maintenant de défendre notre terre

It is now time to defend our land

Contre une armée de Simeriens prête à croiser le fer

Against an army of Simerians ready to cross swords

Toute la tribu s’est réunie autour de grands menhirs

The whole tribe gathered around large menhirs

Pour invoquer les dieux afin qu’ils puissent nous bénir

To pray to the gods so that they bless us

Après cette prière avec mes frères sans faire état de zèle

After performing this prayer with my brothers without zeal

Les chefs nous ont donné à tous des gorgées d’hydromel

The chieftains gave us all gulps of hydromel

Pour le courage, pour pas qu’il y ait de faille

For courage, for us to be flawless

Pour rester grands et fiers quand nous serons dans la bataille

To remain great and proud when we move into battle

Car c’est la première fois pour moi que je pars au combat

For it is my first time to go to fight

Et j’espère être digne de la tribu de Dana

And I hope to be worthy of the tribe of Dana

Dans la vallée de Dana

In Dana’s valley

Dans la vallée, j’ai pu entendre les échos

In the valley, I could hear the echos

Dans la vallée de Dana

In Dana’s valley

Dans la vallée des chants de guerre près des tombeaux

In the valley, war songs near the tombs

Après quelques incantations de druides et de magie

After some invocations of druids and magic

Toute la tribu, le glaive en main, courait vers l’ennemi

The whole tribe, sword in hand, ran toward the enemy

La lutte était terrible, et je ne voyais que les ombres

The fight was terrifying, and I could only see shadows

Tranchant l’ennemi qui revenait toujours en surnombre

Slicing the enemy who still kept on flocking back in large numbers

Mes frères tombaient l’un après l’autre devant mon regard

My brothers fell one after the other before my eyes

Sous le poids des armes que possédaient tous ces barbares

Underneath the weapons held by all those Barbarians

Des lances, des haches et des épées dans le jardin d’Eden

Lances, axes, and swords in the Garden of Eden

Qui écoulait du sang sur l’herbe verte de la plaine

Which flew from the blood splattered on the green grass of the plain

Comme ces jours de peine où l’homme se traîne

As in those painful days when men trudged

À la limite du règne du mal et de la haine

Between the realms of evil and hatred

Fallait-il continuer ce combat déjà perdu

Were we to go on with this fight already lost in advance

Mais telle était la fierté de toute la tribu

But such was the pride of the whole tribe

La lutte a continué comme ça jusqu’au soleil couchant

The fighting continued like this till sunset

De férocité extrême en plus d’acharnement

From extreme ferocity into more determination

Il fallait défendre la terre de nos ancêtres enterrés là

We had to defend the land of our ancestors who were buried here

Et pour toutes les lois de la tribu de Dana

And for the laws of the tribe of Dana

Au bout de la vallée on entendait le son d’une corne

Across the valley one could hear the sound of a horn

D’un chef ennemi qui appelait toute sa horde

Of an enemy chieftain calling his horde

Avait-il compris qu’on lutterait même en enfer

Had he come to realize that we would fight even in Hell

Et qu’à la tribu de Dana appartenaient ces terres

And that those lands belonged to tribe of Dana

Les guerriers repartaient

The warriors went back

Je ne comprenais pas tout le chemin qu’ils avaient fait pour en arriver là

I couldn’t understand the whole path they took to get here

Quand mon regard se posa tout autour de moi

When I looked around me

J’étais le seul debout de la tribu voilà pourquoi

I was the only standing tribesman, that is why

Mes doigts se sont écartés tout en lâchant mes armes

I opened up my fingers, letting go of my weapons

Et le long de mes joues se sont mises à couler des larmes

Tears rolling down my cheeks

Je n’ai jamais compris pourquoi les dieux m’ont épargné

I never came to understand why the gods spared me

De ce jour noir de notre histoire que j’ai contée

From that black day of our history which I told

Le vent souffle toujours sur la Bretagne armoricaine

The wind still blows on the Armorican Brittany

Et j’ai rejoins ma femme, mon fils et mon domaine

And I went to retrieve my wife, my son, and my domain

J’ai tout reconstruit de mes mains pour en arriver là

I rebuilt everything with my own hands in order to get here

Je suis devenu roi de la tribu de Dana

I became the King of the tribe of Dana

Charlemagne has the answer to that question

No region has caused a more sertious headache to both France and Germany than that of the Alsace-Lorraine, or as the Germans call it: Elsass-Lothringen.

To this day, some people still wonder: Is it originally French or German?

Starting from the mid-seventeenth century, the Alsace-Lorraine was French, no question about it.

That is, until it was lost to Germany between 1871 and 1919.

The temporary loss of this mineral-rich territory proved to be a rather traumatic experience for many a French person.

So much that it provoked a corresponding temporary loss of sanity of national proportions. This was the pathetic social phenomenon known in French history as “revanchisme” (from the French word “revanche“, meaning “revenge.”)

The root causes of the territorial dispute, however, go way back in time.

The Alsace-Lorraine region was part of a “messy inheritance“, so to speak, between the grandsons of Charlemagne.

Of course, as King of the Franks, Charlemagne, whose realm stretched over the European heartland, can easily be claimed by France.

After all, it was the Franks who gave France its name: “la France“, land of les Francs (the Franks), long before Charlemagne was even born.

But the Holy Emperor can also be claimed by the Germans as one of their own, since the Franks are technically Germanic people, as opposed to the native people of France, who are gaulois, and therefore of Celtic stock.

But wait, ce n’est pas tout (that’s not all.)

Another way to see things, still in a narrow “national perspective”, is to highlight the significance of le lieu de naissance (the birthplace) of Charlemagne:

Neither in modern France, nor in modern Germany, but in la Belgique, in a town called Héristal, not too far from Liège. 

Fair enough.

Alors, que retenir de cela? (what to retain from this?)

To simplify matters, just remember that both France and Germany come originally from the division of Charlemagne’s empire between three of his grandsons (a fourth one had died in the meantime): Louis, Charles le Chauve (meaning “the Bald“; he just liked to be clean-shaven), and Lothair.

• Louis took the eastern part of the Carolongien empire (“Carolingien” means belonging to Charlemagne), called East Francia, and thus was known as “Louis the German” (or “Ludwig der Deutsche” in Deutsch.) Of course, this territory was the “ancestor” of modern Germany. 

• Charles le Chauve, the “bald” of the three brothers, took over the western portion of the empire, West Francia, which roughly corresponds to today’s France.

• Finally, Lothair, who found himself “sandwiched” between the two, ended up taking Middle Francia. This wasn’t so bad of a deal (concluded at the famous Verdun treaty in 843, shown in the picture above), considering that his two brothers had no previous plans of offering him a share in their grandpa’s empire.  

Now, back to our main subject.

Notice that the German name of the Lorraine region, “Lothringen“, clearly echoes the name of Lothair (in French Lothaire), which, as some etymological explanations go, stands for “famous warrior.”

But did Lothair (lot-hair), the “loser” in the conflict with his brothers, owe his fame to other things than his capacités martiales (martial skills)?

Like maybe having a “lot of hair“?

If that were the case, one could then argue that West Francia, namely France, would have been better off with him than his “voluntarily bald“ brother, Charles.

After all, a huge part of this originally Celtic territory was for long known as “la Gaule chevelue“, meaning “Hairy Gaul.“   

Capillary qualities, a symbol of spiritual power, were probably better appreciated there than anywhere else in the Holy Empire. 

The names of flowers in French can be really fun to learn: Sometimes they are un peu étranges (a bit weird), other times they are plain drôles (funny), and quite often they refer to a very far away country—most likely the country of their origins, or at least thought to be so.

Granted, this bouquet we are offering you today will not turn you overnight into an astute botaniste.

It will, however, allow you to know the names of beaucoup de fleurs (many flowers) en français.

So please accept this “International” bouquet graciously offered to you: Our French fans!

Let us start with the flowers which have (essentially) the same name in French and English: Adonis is also the English Adonis; Alysse is the English Alyssum; Anémone is Anemone (just with the accent); ditto for Camélia; Dahlia is identical to the English Dahlia;  Chrysanthème is Chrysanthemum; Edelweiss is exactly the same as the English Edelweiss; Émilia is obviously Emilia; the same for Iris, although it is not to be simply confused with the Iris Tigré, namely the Belamcanda; and finally Mimosa, the same as the English Mimosas.

But, obviously, not all famous flowers need to have similar names in both languages!

For example, Capucine is not Capucine in English, but rather Nasturtium; the Fleur de pâques is called Pulsatilla; the Genêt is Cytisus; the Lavande refers to Lavender; and the royal flower Lis is Lily.

Now, for the world countries that lent their names to French flowers, the list is rather lenghty:

Japan gave the French the so-called Erable Japonais (Acer), and China provided them with le lis géant de l’Himalaya, meaning the “Giant Lily from Himalaya”  (the French name of Cardiocrinum), as well as le Chapeau Chinois, literally meaning “the Chinese Hat“, which is the French name of Rhodochiton.

Another “hat flower” is le Chapeau Mexicain, namely “the Mexican Hat“, which is the English Ratibida.

Also from Mexico, a country that has once been invaded by France but many people now tend to forget it, comes le lierre du Mexique (“The Ivy from Mexico“, which is the name of Cobaea.)

Another type of Ivy is la Clochette d’Irlande (“the Little Bell from Irelande“, namely the Moluccella)

Back to the Americas: We find that Chile has also offered its own Clochettes to France: les Clochettes du Chili (the “Little Bells from Chile“) is how the French call Lapageria.

Neighboring Perou offered France le coqueret du Pérou, meaning the Physalis, as well as la Merveille de Pérou (the “Marvel from Perou“), which refers to Mirabilis. 

African countries such as Madagascar and l’Afrique du Sud (South Africa) gave France, respectively, le Jasmin de Madagascar (the French name of Stephanotis) and la Marguerite du cap (meaning Felicia, the cap in question being Cape Town.)

Finally, even faraway Nouvelle Zélande (New Zeland) made a contribution to the names of flowers in French: the Lin de nouvelle zélande, which refers to Phormium!