French Translation Software and French Dialects

French is the official language of France and 24 other countries.

What is a French Dialect?

A dialect of a language means that in a certain area the speech may vary a little. The dialect usually applies to the vocabulary, grammar, and pronunciation characteristic of specific geographic localities or social classes.

English Dialects / American English compared to UK English

To understand dialects more let's look at English, there are many different dialects but if you know English you can still understand the different dialects. For example in England you can easily pick up a British newspaper and read it, but there are some words that have different meanings. For example, they may say the sentence, "I am going to move into a my flat this weekend. In America we would say, "I am moving into my apartment this weekend". They simply use the word "flat" instead of "apartment" but you can get the idea of what they are saying.

In Systran's Software we have built in the ability to translate using UK (British English) or American English.

Translation Software can Be trained for Different French Dialects:
The more professional translation software packages give you the ability to train the software for different dialects by letting you build customized dictionaries and even more advanced translation tools like translation memory.

French Dialects:

Standard French or Parisian French:
When translating French with translation software you need to know there are different French dialects. The standard French dialect is Parisian, which is the original French spoken in France. This is considered the standard dialect for French and you will find that books, movies and other forms of media use this standard dialect when converting information into French. Systran uses Standard French Dialect.

Candian French:
If you are in the United States you will encounter "Candian French" which is a dialect of the French language and is commonly found in the USA and Canada. Quebec which is a province of Canada is primarily made up of French speakers and there are attempts to make it the official language. You will hear the term "Canadian French" a lot to indicate the dialect of this region of Canada. Since the USA and Canada are very close in proximity we encounter this dialect a lot.

Standard French and the French spoken in Québec are about as different as British and American English. Differing vocabulary, pronunciation, and even grammar make Canadian French a dialect.

Cajun French:
Cajun French is the French dialect commonly spoken in the state of Louisiana in the USA.

In the year 1755 the Grand Dérangement forced Acadians (French colony of eastern Canada) to leave their homes and relocate. Many settled in Louisiana and their French language gradually evolved into what we call Cajun French.

African French:
French in Africa is spoken by many people. A large number of states in the continent of Africa speak the French language with local specificities. French arrived in Africa with colonization from France and Belgium.

Belgian French:
Belgian French and the French of France are almost identical and hence mutually intelligible, but there are distinct phonological and lexical differences.

Systran French Translation Software:

Systran's Translation Software uses the World Standard - Parisian French

Systran's translation software uses the Standard or Parisian French dialect for the translation. You can easily customize the French translation to another dialect by training the software to recognize different words for another dialect by building your own custom dictionaries, building translation memory and more. For example, you can easily create a "French Candian Dialect" dictionary.

Overall the differences between the French dialects of Europe and the USA with reference to pronunciation, vocabulary, and grammar are relatively minor so if you translate with the software usually a person that speaks the language can understand the minor differences.

French Translation Software packages available:

See all French Translation Software

Learning Center: French Language Translation - Help on translating French to English and English to French