Chapter IV: BIBLIOGRAPHY.--The few works which treat of French philology as a

whole are now in many respects antiquated, and the important
discoveries of recent years, which have revolutionized our ideas of
Old French phonology and dialectology, are scattered in various
editions, periodicals, and separate treatises. For many things Diez's
_Grammatik der romanischen Sprachen_ (4th edition--a reprint of the
3rd--Bonn, 1876-1877; French translation, Paris, 1872-1875) is still
very valuable; Burguy's _Grammaire de la Langue d'Oil_ (2nd edition--a
reprint of the 1st--Berlin, 1869-1870) is useful only as a collection
of examples. Schwan's _Grammatik des Altfranzoesischen_, as revised by
Behrens in the 3rd edition (Leipzig, 1898; French translation, Leipzig
and Paris, 1900), is by far the best old French grammar we possess.
For the history of French language in general see F. Brunot, _Histoire
de la langue francaise des origines a 1900_ (Paris, 1905, 1906, &c.).
For the history of spelling, A. F. Didot, _Observations sur
l'orthographe ou ortografie francaise suivies d'une histoire de la
reforme orthographique depuis le XV^e siecle jusqu'a nos jours_ (2nd
ed., Paris, 1868). For the history of French sounds: Ch. Thurot, _De
la prononciation francaise depuis le commencement du XVI^e siecle,
d'apres les temoignages des grammairiens_ (2 vols., Paris, 1881-1883).
For the history of syntax, apart from various grammatical works of a
general character, much is to be gathered from Ad. Tobler's
_Vermischte Beitraege zur franzoesischen Grammatik_ (3 parts, 1886,
1894, 1899, parts i. and ii. in second editions, 1902, 1906). G.
Paris's edition of _La Vie de S. Alexis_ (Paris, 1872) was the pioneer
of, and retains an important place among, the recent original works on
Old French. Darmesteter and Hatzfeld's _Le Seizieme Siecle_ (Paris,
1878) contains the first good account of Early Modern French. Littre's
_Dictionnaire de la langue francaise_ (4 vols., Paris, 1863-1869, and
a Supplement, 1877); and Hatzfeld, Darmesteter and Thomas, _Dict.
general de la langue francaise_, more condensed (2 vols., Paris,
1888-1900), contain much useful and often original information about
the etymology and history of French words. For the etymology of many
French (and also Provencal) words, reference must be made to Ant.
Thomas's _Essais de philologie francaise_ (Paris, 1897) and _Nouveaux
essais de philologie francaise_ (Paris, 1904). But there is no French
dictionary properly historical. A _Dictionnaire historique de la
langue francaise_ was begun by the Academie francaise (4 vols.,
1859-1894), but it was, from the first, antiquated. It contains only
one letter (A) and has not been continued. The leading periodicals now
in existence are the _Romania_ (Paris), founded (in 1872) and edited
by P. Meyer and G. Paris (with Ant. Thomas since the death of G. Paris
in 1903), and the _Zeitschrift fuer romanische Philologie_ (Halle),
founded (in 1877) and edited by G. Groeber. To these reference should
be made for information as to the very numerous articles, treatises
and editions by the many and often distinguished scholars who,
especially in France and Germany, now prosecute the scientific study
of the language. It may be well to mention that, Old French phonology
especially being complicated, and as yet incompletely investigated,
these publications, the views in which are of various degrees of
value, require not mere acquiescent reading, but critical study. The
dialects of France in their present state (_patois_) are now being
scientifically investigated. The special works on the subject
(dictionaries, grammars, &c.) cannot be fully indicated here; we must
limit ourselves to the mention of Behren's _Bibliographie des patois
gallo-romans_ (2nd ed., revised Berlin, 1893), and of Gillieron and
Edmont's _Atlas linguistique de la France_ (1902 et seq.), a huge
publication planned to contain about 1800 maps. (H. N.; P. M.)