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Showing posts from October, 2024

Could the English language actually be French?

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  If some of you are familiar with the English and French language, you might have discovered some ressemblance between the two, most likely in our vocabulary. You might have guessed that this is not a coincidence and you would be right: the ressemblances between those two languages did not happen by accident but are the results of their common history and the meeting of different tribes and people.  Just as every language, the English language has been shaped by the combination of different dialects throughout History, the main ones being Latin and Germanic languages, spoken in the British isles after German tribes decided to settle there. The Angles, the Saxons and the Jutes invaded Britain in the 5th century [1]. The Angles gave their name to England (in French  Angleterre - literally land of the Angle) and together with the Saxons, gave a name to the "anglo-saxon" people. With the Jutes, they participated in shaping what is now called Old English. However, in 1066, En...

Alert: new volunteer at the library

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 Bonjour ! Hi, I am Adèle, the new volunteer working in the library. I am from France, from a small village in Brittany next to Fougères. Fougères is a very nice medieval city with one of the largest medieval fortress in Europe. I have lived there for 18 years before moving for my studies, first in Caen in Normandy and then in Lyon, the third biggest city in France. I have studied political sciences for three years there and started a master in international affairs. I am currently taking a gap year before going back to finish my studies, when I will specialise myself in development, project management and international cooperation. Apart from my studies, I am also a musician: I have played clarinet for many years, taking part to different orchestras but also choirs, as I started singing when I was 9. For me, nothing beats the feeling I get when I start playing my instrument after a long time. I just love feeling the air going through the clarinet while playing and the instrument v...