[Fwd: Number of words in French, quite beyond the million]

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I thought this might be of interest to those concerned with
vocabulary building.

--
John Cowan      http://www.ccil.org/~cowan              cowan@ccil.org
        You tollerday donsk?  N.  You tolkatiff scowegian?  Nn.
        You spigotty anglease?  Nnn.  You phonio saxo?  Nnnn.
                Clear all so!  'Tis a Jute.... (Finnegans Wake 16.5)
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From: "Alain" <alb@...>
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Date: Tue, 3 Nov 1998 06:43:24 -0800 (PST)
Subject: Number of words in French, quite beyond the million
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Contrary to a common belief, the French language has been actually survey=
ed
with over 1.2 million words so far and the count is not over. Source belo=
w.
This is news for me too, I must admit. I had seen in books written in
English (never in books written in French had I seen such limitative
statistics) that French only had about 100,000 words (these figures alway=
s
served as a comparison to say that the Oxford English Dictionary [OED] ha=
d
325,000 words while the most complete French dictionary had only 100,000 =
or
so -- that said when I speak/write English I often use words present in t=
he
OED that are French but have disappeared from most contemporary French
dictionaries [our dictionaries show new words every year and obsolete
others too, unfortunately], and English speakers in general don't
understand, except scholars -- in this way the OED is my most complete
French dictionary for historical research (; ). That said, words are not
the ultimate indication of the power and nature of a language, of course.
French, like English, is infinitely more powerful and rich than the list =
of
its words. But these statistics are interesting.

Alain LaBont=E9
Tel Aviv Ben Gurion airport
______________________________
[Question sur france_langue] :
>>Lors d'une discussion sur un forum avec des am=E9ricains, on a
>>essay=E9 de me faire croire qu'il existait moins de mots dans notre ch=E8=
re
>>langue que dans celle de l'oncle Sam. J'aimerais, s'il vous plait, et s=
i
>>possible, avoir les chiffres exacts du nombre de mots dans la Langue
>>fran=E7aise et, pour pouvoir comparer, le nombre de mots anglais.
[R=E9ponse] :
>Selon Henriette Walter, =ABLe fran=E7ais dans tous les sens=BB, p. 283, =
au
>sujet du r=E9pertoire lexical Tr=E9sor de la Langue fran=E7aise (Nancy) =
:
>=ABon arrive aujourd'hui =E0 un total stup=E9fiant de plus de 1.200.000 =
mots
>diff=E9rents.=BB LE TLF fait 23.000 pages, 10.000 FF la collection.
>
>Notez que ce dictionnaire ne recense m=EAme pas tous les mots de la
>Francophonie, une initiative ind=E9pendante, appel=E9e Tr=E9sor de la la=
ngue
>fran=E7aise au Qu=E9bec, est d'ailleurs en cours =E0 Universit=E9 Laval
>(Qu=E9bec) pour y rem=E9dier.
>
>Patrick Andries


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