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113-512: The term originates from the French gargouille, which in English is likely to mean "throat" or is otherwise known as the "gullet"; cf. Latin gurgulio, gula, gargula ("gullet"or "throat") and similar words derived from the root gar, "to swallow", which represented the gurgling sound of water (e.g., Portuguese and Spanish garganta, "throat"; gárgola, "gargoyle"). It is also connected to

226-399: A storm drain (u-bend) with 50 mm water seal to a combined drain. Water from rain gutters may be harvested in a rain barrel or a cistern . Rain gutters can be equipped with gutter screens, micro mesh screens, louvers or solid hoods to allow water from the roof to flow through, while reducing passage of roof debris into the gutter. Clogged gutters can also cause water ingress into

339-744: A French official to teachers in the department of Finistère , in western Brittany, included the following: "And remember, Gents: you were given your position in order to kill the Breton language". The prefect of Basses-Pyrénées in the French Basque Country wrote in 1846: "Our schools in the Basque Country are particularly meant to replace the Basque language with French..." Students were taught that their ancestral languages were inferior and they should be ashamed of them; this process

452-479: A common device used to shed rainwater from buildings until the early 18th century. From that time, more and more buildings used drainpipes to carry the water from the guttering roof to the ground and only very few buildings using gargoyles were constructed. This was because some people found them frightening, and sometimes heavy ones fell off, causing damage. In 1724, the London Building Act passed by

565-431: A comprehensive academic study entitled "The World's 10 most influential languages". In the article, Weber ranked French as, after English, the second-most influential language of the world, ahead of Spanish. His criteria were the numbers of native speakers, the number of secondary speakers (especially high for French among fellow world languages), the number of countries using the language and their respective populations,

678-555: A foreign language. Due to the rise of French in Africa, the total French-speaking population worldwide is expected to reach 700 million people in 2050. French is the fastest growing language on the continent (in terms of either official or foreign languages). French is increasingly being spoken as a native language in Francophone Africa, especially in regions like Ivory Coast , Cameroon , Gabon, Madagascar , and

791-526: A minimum 1 in 360 fall towards the downpipe. The pitch of a pitched roof is determined by the construction material of the covering. For slate this will be at 25%, for machine made tiles it will be 35%. Water falls towards a parapet gutter , a valley gutter or an eaves gutter . When two pitched roofs meet at an angle, they also form a pitched valley gutter : the join is sealed with valley flashing. Parapet gutters and valley gutters discharge into internal rainwater pipes or directly into external down pipes at

904-653: A period of prosperity and prominence among European nations. Richelieu established the Académie française to protect the French language. By the early 1800s, Parisian French had become the primary language of the aristocracy in France. Near the beginning of the 19th century, the French government began to pursue policies with the end goal of eradicating the many minorities and regional languages ( patois ) spoken in France. This began in 1794 with Henri Grégoire 's "Report on

1017-438: A rain gutter is fed, usually via a downpipe (also called a leader or conductor), from the roof edge to the base of the building where it is either discharged or collected. The down pipe can terminate in a shoe and discharge directly onto the surface, but using modern construction techniques would be connected through an inspection chamber to a drain that led to a surface water drain or soakaway. Alternatively it would connect via

1130-494: A relic of the old nominal case system of Latin longer than most other Romance languages (with the notable exception of Romanian which still currently maintains a case distinction), differentiating between an oblique case and a nominative case. The phonology was characterized by heavy syllabic stress, which led to the emergence of various complicated diphthongs such as -eau which would later be leveled to monophthongs. The earliest evidence of what became Old French can be seen in

1243-587: A second language. French is the second most taught foreign language in the EU. All institutions of the EU use French as a working language along with English and German ; in some institutions, French is the sole working language (e.g. at the Court of Justice of the European Union ). French is also the 16th most natively spoken language in the world, the sixth most spoken language by total number of speakers , and

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1356-526: A second language. However it has also become a native language in a number of urban areas, especially in regions like Ivory Coast , Cameroon , Gabon, Madagascar , and the Democratic Republic of the Congo . In some North African countries, though not having official status, it is also a first language among some upper classes of the population alongside indigenous languages, but only

1469-941: A second one among the general population. In 2015, approximately 40% of the Francophone population (including L2 and partial speakers) lived in Europe, 36% in sub-Saharan Africa and the Indian Ocean, 15% in North Africa and the Middle East, 8% in the Americas, and 1% in Asia and Oceania. French is the second most widely spoken mother tongue in the European Union . Of Europeans who speak other languages natively, approximately one-fifth are able to speak French as

1582-533: A sewerage system for London, that prevented run-off being channelled into the Thames. By the 1870s all houses were constructed with cast iron gutters and down pipes. The Victorian gutter was an ogee, 115 mm in width, that was fitted directly to the fascia boards eliminating the need for brackets. Square and half-round profiles were also available. For a brief period after the first world war , asbestos-cement guttering became popular due to it being maintenance free:

1695-413: A stainless steel gutter will undergo non-negligible cycles of thermal expansion and contraction as the temperature changes; if allowance for this movement is not made during installation, there will be a potential for deformation of the gutter, which may lead to improper drainage of the gutter system. Seamless gutters have the advantage of being produced on site with a portable roll forming machine to match

1808-609: A symbol of Christ and, therefore, were said to have the same characteristics as Christ. Supposedly, the lion's tail had the power to erase its tracks, and because of this could elude the devil. The lioness was said to give birth to dead cubs, which would resurrect 3 days later, like Jesus Christ. Among these divine attributes, lions were generally believed to be virtuous in a multitude of ways, such as being extremely loyal and in control of their emotions French language French ( français [fʁɑ̃sɛ] or langue française [lɑ̃ɡ fʁɑ̃sɛːz] )

1921-547: A variant of Canadian French , is spoken in parts of New England . Missouri French was historically spoken in Missouri and Illinois (formerly known as Upper Louisiana ), but is nearly extinct today. French also survived in isolated pockets along the Gulf Coast of what was previously French Lower Louisiana , such as Mon Louis Island , Alabama and DeLisle, Mississippi (the latter only being discovered by linguists in

2034-531: A variety of finishes and styles. Finlock gutters, a proprietary name for concrete gutters, can be employed on a large range of buildings. There were used on domestic properties in the 1950s and 1960s, as a replacement for cast iron gutters when there was a shortage of steel and surplus of concrete. They were discredited after differential movement was found to open joints and allow damp to penetrate, but can be fitted with an aluminium and bitumastic liner. Finlock concrete gutter units are made up of two troughs – one

2147-457: A wooden box gutter that drained into and through structural cast iron columns. The Industrial Revolution introduced new methods of casting-iron and the railways brought a method of distributing the heavy cast-iron items to building sites. The relocation into the cities created a demand for housing that needed to be compact. Dryer houses controlled asthma , bronchitis , emphysema as well as pneumonia . In 1849 Joseph Bazalgette proposed

2260-518: A −5 °C to 25 °C temperature range will need space to expand, 30 × 4 × 0.06 = 7.2 mm within its end stops. As a rule of thumb a 4-inch (100 mm) gutter with a single 68-millimetre (2.7 in) downpipe will drain a 600-square-foot (56 m ) roof. High quality stainless steel guttering systems are available for homes and commercial projects. The advantages of stainless steel are durability, corrosion-resistance, ease of cleaning, and superior aesthetics. Compared with concrete or wood,

2373-437: Is 95%, and in the French collectivity of Wallis and Futuna , it is 84%. In French Polynesia and to a lesser extent Wallis and Futuna, where oral and written knowledge of the French language has become almost universal (95% and 84% respectively), French increasingly tends to displace the native Polynesian languages as the language most spoken at home. In French Polynesia, the percentage of the population who reported that French

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2486-779: Is a Romance language of the Indo-European family . Like all other Romance languages, it descended from the Vulgar Latin of the Roman Empire . French evolved from Gallo-Romance , the Latin spoken in Gaul , and more specifically in Northern Gaul. Its closest relatives are the other langues d'oïl —languages historically spoken in northern France and in southern Belgium, which French ( Francien ) largely supplanted. French

2599-417: Is a quadruped with a serpent's head; there a fish with a quadruped's head; then again an animal: half horse, half goat... Surely, if we do not blush for such absurdities, we should at least regret what we have spent on them. While the theory that gargoyles were spiritual devices made to ward off devilish evil was very widely known and accepted, other schools of thoughts have developed over time. For example, in

2712-472: Is a widespread second language among the Lebanese people , and is taught in many schools along with Arabic and English. French is used on Lebanese pound banknotes, on road signs, on Lebanese license plates , and on official buildings (alongside Arabic). Today, French and English are secondary languages of Lebanon , with about 40% of the population being Francophone and 40% Anglophone. The use of English

2825-489: Is also a working language in nonprofit organisations such as the Red Cross (alongside English, German, Spanish, Portuguese, Arabic and Russian), Amnesty International (alongside 32 other languages of which English is the most used, followed by Spanish, Portuguese, German, and Italian), Médecins sans Frontières (used alongside English, Spanish, Portuguese and Arabic), and Médecins du Monde (used alongside English). Given

2938-529: Is also known as an eavestrough (especially in Canada ), spouting in New Zealand , rhone or rone ( Scotland ), eaves-shoot ( Ireland ) eaves channel, dripster , guttering , rainspouting or simply as a gutter . The word gutter derives from Latin gutta (noun), meaning "a droplet". Guttering in its earliest form consisted of lined wooden or stone troughs. Lead was a popular liner and

3051-430: Is among the top five most studied languages worldwide, with about 120 million learners as of 2017. As a result of French and Belgian colonialism from the 16th century onward, French was introduced to new territories in the Americas, Africa, and Asia. French has a long history as an international language of literature and scientific standards and is a primary or second language of many international organisations including

3164-462: Is an official language in 27 countries , as well as one of the most geographically widespread languages in the world, with about 50 countries and territories having it as a de jure or de facto official, administrative, or cultural language. Most of these countries are members of the Organisation internationale de la Francophonie (OIF), the community of 54 member states which share

3277-652: Is enacted only in New Brunswick, where about one third of the population is Francophone. French is also an official language of all of the territories ( Northwest Territories , Nunavut , and Yukon ). Out of the three, Yukon has the most French speakers, making up just under 4% of the population. Furthermore, while French is not an official language in Ontario , the French Language Services Act ensures that provincial services are available in

3390-503: Is growing in the business and media environment. Out of about 900,000 students, about 500,000 are enrolled in Francophone schools, public or private, in which the teaching of mathematics and scientific subjects is provided in French. Actual usage of French varies depending on the region and social status. One-third of high school students educated in French go on to pursue higher education in English-speaking institutions. English

3503-404: Is known as Old French. The period of Old French spanned between the 8th and 14th centuries. Old French shared many characteristics with Latin. For example, Old French made use of different possible word orders just as Latin did because it had a case system that retained the difference between nominative subjects and oblique non-subjects . The period is marked by a heavy superstrate influence from

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3616-469: Is often considered to be a useful skill by business owners in the United Kingdom; a 2014 study found that 50% of British managers considered French to be a valuable asset for their business, thus ranking French as the most sought-after foreign language there, ahead of German (49%) and Spanish (44%). MIT economist Albert Saiz calculated a 2.3% premium for those who have French as a foreign language in

3729-471: Is often made from UPVC sections. The first PVC pipes were introduced in the 1930s for use in sanitary drainage systems. Polyethylene was developed in 1933. The first pressurised plastic drinking water pipes were installed in the Netherlands in the 1950s. During the 1960s rain water pipes, guttering and down pipes using plastic materials were introduced followed by PVC soil systems which became viable with

3842-828: Is one of the official languages of such major international and regional courts, tribunals, and dispute-settlement bodies as the African Court on Human and Peoples' Rights , the Caribbean Court of Justice , the Court of Justice for the Economic Community of West African States , the Inter-American Court of Human Rights , the International Court of Justice , the International Criminal Tribunal for

3955-400: Is still used in pitched valley gutters. Many materials have been used to make guttering: cast iron , asbestos cement , UPVC (PVCu), cast and extruded aluminium , galvanized steel , wood , copper , zinc , and bamboo . Gutters prevent water ingress into the fabric of the building by channelling the rainwater away from the exterior of the walls and their foundations. Water running down

4068-576: Is taught in universities around the world, and is one of the world's most influential languages because of its wide use in the worlds of journalism, jurisprudence , education, and diplomacy. In diplomacy, French is one of the six official languages of the United Nations (and one of the UN Secretariat 's only two working languages ), one of twenty official and three procedural languages of the European Union , an official language of NATO ,

4181-438: Is that the pores quickly get clogged and thus need replacement due to not allowing water to pass through. Reverse curve or surface tension guards reduce clogged gutters by narrowing the opening of the gutters. Many find them to be unattractive and difficult to maintain. Screen gutter guards are among the most common and most effective. They can be snapped on or mounted, made of metal or plastic. Micromesh gutter guards provide

4294-553: Is the language of business and communication, with French being an element of social distinction, chosen for its emotional value. French is an official language of the Pacific Island nation of Vanuatu , where 31% of the population was estimated to speak it in 2023. In the French special collectivity of New Caledonia , 97% of the population can speak, read and write French while in French Polynesia this figure

4407-483: Is the native language of about 23% of the Swiss population, and is spoken by 50% of the population. Along with Luxembourgish and German, French is one of the three official languages of Luxembourg , where it is generally the preferred language of business as well as of the different public administrations. It is also the official language of Monaco . At a regional level, French is acknowledged as an official language in

4520-492: Is the second-most spoken language (after English) in the states of Maine and New Hampshire . In Louisiana , it is tied with Spanish for second-most spoken if Louisiana French and all creoles such as Haitian are included. French is the third most spoken language (after English and Spanish) in the states of Connecticut , Rhode Island , and New Hampshire . Louisiana is home to many distinct French dialects, collectively known as Louisiana French . New England French , essentially

4633-424: Is the sole official language in the province of Quebec , where some 80% of the population speak it as a native language and 95% are capable of conducting a conversation in it. Quebec is also home to the city of Montreal , which is the world's fourth-largest French-speaking city, by number of first language speakers. New Brunswick and Manitoba are the only officially bilingual provinces, though full bilingualism

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4746-625: Is the visible gutter and the other sits across the cavity wall. The blocks which can range from 8 to 12 inches (200 to 300 mm) can be joined using reinforcing rods and concrete , to form lintels for doors and windows. Guttering can be made from any locally available material such as stone or wood. Porous materials may be lined with pitch or bitumen . Today in Western construction we use mainly three types of gutter - K-Style, round, and square. In days past there were 12 gutter shapes/styles. K-Style gets its name from its letter designation being

4859-764: The Aosta Valley region of Italy where it is the first language of approximately 50% of the population, while French dialects remain spoken by minorities on the Channel Islands . It is also spoken in Andorra and is the main language after Catalan in El Pas de la Casa . The language is taught as the primary second language in the German state of Saarland , with French being taught from pre-school and over 43% of citizens being able to speak French. The majority of

4972-462: The Aosta Valley region of Italy; and various communities elsewhere. French is estimated to have about 310 million speakers, of which about 80 million are native speakers. According to the OIF, approximately 321 million people worldwide are "able to speak the language" as of 2022, without specifying the criteria for this estimation or whom it encompasses. In Francophone Africa, it is spoken mainly as

5085-539: The Democratic Republic of Congo . There is not a single African French , but multiple forms that diverged through contact with various indigenous African languages . Sub-Saharan Africa is the region where the French language is most likely to expand, because of the expansion of education and rapid population growth. It is also where the language has evolved the most in recent years. Some vernacular forms of French in Africa can be difficult to understand for French speakers from other countries, but written forms of

5198-485: The European Union , French was the dominant language within all institutions until the 1990s. After several enlargements of the EU (1995, 2004), French significantly lost ground in favour of English, which is more widely spoken and taught in most EU countries. French currently remains one of the three working languages, or "procedural languages", of the EU, along with English and German. It is the second-most widely used language within EU institutions after English, but remains

5311-559: The Francien dialect is one that not only continued but also thrived during the Middle French period (14th–17th centuries). Modern French grew out of this Francien dialect. Grammatically, during the period of Middle French, noun declensions were lost and there began to be standardized rules. Robert Estienne published the first Latin-French dictionary, which included information about phonetics, etymology, and grammar. Politically,

5424-877: The International Olympic Committee , the Council of Europe , the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development , Organization of American States (alongside Spanish, Portuguese and English), the Eurovision Song Contest , one of eighteen official languages of the European Space Agency , World Trade Organization and the least used of the three official languages in the North American Free Trade Agreement countries. It

5537-626: The Oaths of Strasbourg and the Sequence of Saint Eulalia , while Old French literature began to be produced in the eleventh century, with major early works often focusing on the lives of saints (such as the Vie de Saint Alexis ), or wars and royal courts, notably including the Chanson de Roland , epic cycles focused on King Arthur and his court , as well as a cycle focused on William of Orange . It

5650-485: The Parliament of Great Britain made the use of downpipes compulsory in all new construction. There are divided ideas as to the purpose of adding gargoyles to religious structures. Some state that gargoyles were meant to illustrate evil and sin, while others have posited that grotesques in architecture were apotropaic devices. In the 12th century, before the use of gargoyles as rain spouts, St. Bernard of Clairvaux

5763-1012: The United Nations , the European Union, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization , the World Trade Organization , the International Olympic Committee , the General Conference on Weights and Measures , and the International Committee of the Red Cross . French is a Romance language (meaning that it is descended primarily from Vulgar Latin ) that evolved out of the Gallo-Romance dialects spoken in northern France. The language's early forms include Old French and Middle French . Due to Roman rule, Latin

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5876-496: The marble or terracotta cymatium of the cornice . An excellent example of this are the 39 remaining lion-headed water spouts on the Temple of Zeus . Originally, it had 102 gargoyles or spouts, but due to the heavy weight (they were crafted from marble), many snapped off and had to be replaced. Many medieval cathedrals included gargoyles and chimeras. According to French architect and author Eugène Viollet-le-Duc , himself one of

5989-487: The thanes erected buildings with large overhanging roofs to throw the water clear of the walls in the same way that occurs in thatched cottages . The cathedral builder used lead parapet gutters , with elaborate gargoyles for the same purpose. With the dissolution of the monasteries - those buildings were recycled and there was plenty of lead that could be used for secular building. The yeoman would use wooden gutters or lead lined wooden gutters. When The Crystal Palace

6102-472: The 12th Century, when gargoyles appeared in Europe, the Roman Catholic Church was growing stronger and converting many new people. Most of the population at this time was illiterate, so images were very important to convey ideas. Many early gargoyles depicted some version of a dragon, especially in France. In addition to serving as spouts for water, the gaping mouths of these gargoyles evoked

6215-506: The 1990s) but these varieties are severely endangered or presumed extinct. French is one of two official languages in Haiti alongside Haitian Creole . It is the principal language of education, administration, business, and public signage and is spoken by all educated Haitians. It is also used for ceremonial events such as weddings, graduations, and church masses. The vast majority of the population speaks Haitian Creole as their first language;

6328-781: The 20th century, when it was replaced by English as the United States became the dominant global power following the Second World War . Stanley Meisler of the Los Angeles Times said that the fact that the Treaty of Versailles was written in English as well as French was the "first diplomatic blow" against the language. During the Grand Siècle (17th century), France, under the rule of powerful leaders such as Cardinal Richelieu and Louis XIV , enjoyed

6441-666: The British Standards Institute notes that an indicative storm in Essex, (annual rainfall 500 mm per annum) delivers 0.022 L/s/m²- while one in Cumbria (annual rainfall 1800 mm per annum) delivers 0.014 L/s/m². Eaves gutters can be made from a variety of materials such as cast iron , lead , zinc , galvanised steel, painted steel , copper , painted aluminium , PVC (and other plastics) and occasionally from concrete , stone , and wood . Water collected by

6554-703: The Canadian capital, is also effectively bilingual, as it has a large population of federal government workers, who are required to offer services in both French and English, and is just across the river from the Quebecois city of Gatineau . According to the United States Census Bureau (2011), French is the fourth most spoken language in the United States after English, Spanish, and Chinese, when all forms of French are considered together and all dialects of Chinese are similarly combined. French

6667-917: The Caribbean that are collectively referred to as the French West Indies , namely Guadeloupe , Saint Barthélemy , Saint Martin , and Martinique . French is the official language of both French Guiana on the South American continent, and of Saint Pierre and Miquelon , an archipelago off the coast of Newfoundland in North America. French was the official language of the colony of French Indochina , comprising modern-day Vietnam , Laos , and Cambodia . It continues to be an administrative language in Laos and Cambodia, although its influence has waned in recent decades. In colonial Vietnam,

6780-408: The Empire, this local elite had been slowly abandoning Gaulish entirely, but the rural and lower class populations remained Gaulish speakers who could sometimes also speak Latin or Greek. The final language shift from Gaulish to Vulgar Latin among rural and lower class populations occurred later, when both they and the incoming Frankish ruler/military class adopted the Gallo-Roman Vulgar Latin speech of

6893-418: The French verb gargariser, which shares a Latin root with the verb "gargle" and is likely imitative in origin. The Italian word for gargoyle is doccione or gronda sporgente, an architecturally precise phrase which means "protruding gutter". Italian also uses gargolla or garguglia , when it has a grotesque shape. When not constructed as a waterspout and only serving an ornamental or artistic function,

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7006-416: The Germanic Frankish language , which non-exhaustively included the use in upper-class speech and higher registers of V2 word order , a large percentage of the vocabulary (now at around 15% of modern French vocabulary ) including the impersonal singular pronoun on (a calque of Germanic man ), and the name of the language itself. Up until its later stages, Old French , alongside Old Occitan , maintained

7119-400: The building as the water backs up. Clogged gutters can also lead to stagnant water build up which in some climates allows mosquitoes to breed. The Romans brought rainwater systems to Britain. The technology was subsequently lost, but was re-introduced by the Normans. The White Tower , at the Tower of London had external gutters. In March 1240 the Keeper of the Works at the Tower of London

7232-470: The case of gargoyles unattributable to any one or two animals, some say that they were simply the product of pagan mythology passed down through generations in the medium of fireside tales. Akin to the leading catholic theory but slightly different, some suggest that gargoyles were meant not to intimidate evil spirits or demons, but humans. It is said that at the gateway of the city of Amiens, France, two gargoyles stood guard, and anyone with bad intentions toward

7345-442: The city and its people would be spewed with acid before being able to enter. On the contrary, the king of Amiens would be showered with coins with every return. Other gargoyles were meant to strike fear into the heart of the pious, specifically those that were anthropomorphized. Gargoyles that were mostly human but had animalistic attributes, like the harpy (half human half bird) or cynocephali (dog-headed human) were meant to represent

7458-428: The country near French-speaking Quebec, however, it is the foreign language more commonly taught. Vowel phonemes in French Rain gutter A rain gutter , eavestrough, eaves-shoot or surface water collection channel is a component of a water discharge system for a building. It is necessary to prevent water dripping or flowing off roofs in an uncontrolled manner for several reasons: to prevent it damaging

7571-435: The creature with a crucifix, or he captured the creature with the help of the only volunteer, a condemned man. In each, the monster is led back to Rouen and burned, but its head and neck would not burn due to being tempered by its own fire breath. The head was then mounted on the walls of the newly built church to scare off evil spirits, and used for protection. In commemoration of St. Romain, the Archbishops of Rouen were granted

7684-404: The demographic prospects of the French-speaking nations of Africa, researcher Pascal-Emmanuel Gobry wrote in 2014 that French "could be the language of the future". However, some African countries such as Algeria intermittently attempted to eradicate the use of French, and as of 2024 it was removed as an official language in Mali and Burkina Faso . Significant as a judicial language, French

7797-436: The disadvantages however ensured this was a short period: it was more bulky and fractured on impact. Cast iron gutters were introduced in the late 18th century as an alternative to lead. Cast iron enabled eaves gutters to be mass-produced: they were rigid and non-porous while lead could only be used as a liner within timber gutters. Installation was a single process and didn't require heat. They could be attached directly to

7910-448: The economic power of the countries using the language, the number of major areas in which the language is used, and the linguistic prestige associated with the mastery of the language (Weber highlighted that French in particular enjoys considerable linguistic prestige). In a 2008 reassessment of his article, Weber concluded that his findings were still correct since "the situation among the top ten remains unchanged." Knowledge of French

8023-702: The eleventh out of the twelve. Gutter guards (also called gutter covers , gutter protection or leaf guards ) are primarily aimed at preventing damage caused from clogged gutters and reducing the need for regular gutter cleaning. They are a common add-on or included as an option for custom-built homes . Brush gutter guards resemble pipe cleaners and are easy to install. They prevent large debris from clogging gutters, but are less effective at reducing smaller debris. Foam gutter guards are also easy to install. They fit into gutters, so they prevent large objects from obstructing waterflow, but they do not prevent algae and plant growth. A negative feature of foam type filters

8136-594: The elites primarily spoke French, while many servants who worked in French households spoke a French pidgin known as " Tây Bồi " (now extinct). After French rule ended, South Vietnam continued to use French in administration, education, and trade. However, since the Fall of Saigon and the opening of a unified Vietnam's economy, French has gradually been effectively displaced as the first foreign language of choice by English in Vietnam. Nevertheless, it continues to be taught as

8249-416: The end of the run. The capacity of the gutter is a significant design consideration. The area of the roof is calculated (metres) and this is multiplied by rainfall (litres/sec/metres²) which is assumed to be 0.0208. This gives a required discharge outfall capacity. (litres/sec) . Rainfall intensity, the amount of water likely to generated in a two-minute rainstorm is more important than average rainfall,

8362-404: The fascia board. Cast iron gutters are still specified for restoration work in conservation areas , but are usually replaced with cast aluminium made to the same profile. Extruded aluminium gutters can be made to a variety of profiles from a roll of aluminium sheet on site in lengths of up to 30 m. They feature internal brackets at 400 mm spacing. In UK domestic architecture, guttering

8475-508: The fearsome destructiveness of these legendary beasts, reminding the laity of the need for the church's protection. Human qualities were sometimes ascribed to specific animals—that is, the animals were anthropomorphized . This was especially common for pagans, and using these ideas helped conversion to Catholicism. Humans were often depicted in bawdy positions, some leaning over the ledge they're perched on to vomit or defecate off of. The orifice that rainwater would come out of would imply that it

8588-516: The first government authority to adopt Modern French as official was the Aosta Valley in 1536, while the Ordinance of Villers-Cotterêts (1539) named French the language of law in the Kingdom of France . During the 17th century, French replaced Latin as the most important language of diplomacy and international relations ( lingua franca ). It retained this role until approximately the middle of

8701-915: The former Yugoslavia , International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda , the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea the International Criminal Court and the World Trade Organization Appellate Body . It is the sole internal working language of the Court of Justice of the European Union , and makes with English the European Court of Human Rights 's two working languages. In 1997, George Weber published, in Language Today ,

8814-460: The former chancellor of the Merovingian king Chlothar II who was made bishop of Rouen , relates how he delivered the country around Rouen from a monster called Gargouille or Goji . La Gargouille is said to have been the typical dragon with bat-like wings, a long neck, and the ability to breathe fire from its mouth. Multiple versions of the story are given, either that St. Romanus subdued

8927-829: The gender of the corresponding word in Gaulish. The estimated number of French words that can be attributed to Gaulish is placed at 154 by the Petit Robert , which is often viewed as representing standardized French, while if non-standard dialects are included, the number increases to 240. Known Gaulish loans are skewed toward certain semantic fields, such as plant life ( chêne , bille , etc.), animals ( mouton , cheval , etc.), nature ( boue , etc.), domestic activities (ex. berceau ), farming and rural units of measure ( arpent , lieue , borne , boisseau ), weapons, and products traded regionally rather than further afield. This semantic distribution has been attributed to peasants being

9040-683: The great producers of gargoyles in the 19th century, the earliest known medieval gargoyles appear on Laon Cathedral (c. 1200–1220). One of the more famous examples is the gargoyles of Notre-Dame de Paris . Although most have grotesque features, the term gargoyle has come to include all types of images. Some gargoyles were depicted as monks, or combinations of real animals and people, many of which were humorous. Unusual animal mixtures, or chimeras, did not act as rainspouts and are more properly called grotesques. They serve as ornamentation but are now popularly called gargoyles. Both ornamented and unornamented waterspouts projecting from roofs at parapet level were

9153-532: The introduction of ring seals. A British Standard was launched for soil systems, local authorities started to specify PVC systems. By 1970 plastic rainwater systems accounted for over 60% of new installations. A European Standard EN607 has existed since 2004. It is easy to install, economical, lightweight requires minimum maintenance and has a life expectancy of 50 years. The material has a disadvantageous coefficient of thermal expansion 0.06 mm/m°C, so design allowances have to be made. A 4-metre gutter, enduring

9266-519: The language are very closely related to those of the rest of the French-speaking world. French is the second most commonly spoken language in Canada and one of two federal official languages alongside English. As of the 2021 Canadian census , it was the native language of 7.7 million people (21% of the population) and the second language of 2.9 million (8% of the population). French

9379-479: The language, although it has now given way to Tamil and English. A former French mandate , Lebanon designates Arabic as the sole official language, while a special law regulates cases when French can be publicly used. Article 11 of Lebanon's Constitution states that "Arabic is the official national language. A law determines the cases in which the French language is to be used". The French language in Lebanon

9492-612: The language. The Act applies to areas of the province where there are significant Francophone communities, namely Eastern Ontario and Northern Ontario . Elsewhere, sizable French-speaking minorities are found in southern Manitoba, Nova Scotia , Prince Edward Island and the Port au Port Peninsula in Newfoundland and Labrador, where the unique Newfoundland French dialect was historically spoken. Smaller pockets of French speakers exist in all other provinces. The Ontarian city of Ottawa ,

9605-479: The last to hold onto Gaulish. The beginning of French in Gaul was greatly influenced by Germanic invasions into the country. These invasions had the greatest impact on the northern part of the country and on the language there. A language divide began to grow across the country. The population in the north spoke langue d'oïl while the population in the south spoke langue d'oc . Langue d'oïl grew into what

9718-420: The necessity and means to annihilate the patois and to universalize the use of the French language". When public education was made compulsory , only French was taught and the use of any other ( patois ) language was punished. The goals of the public school system were made especially clear to the French-speaking teachers sent to teach students in regions such as Occitania and Brittany . Instructions given by

9831-656: The objective of the viewer to pin one purpose to the entirety of gargoyles.According to Lester Burbank Bridaham, writing in Gargoyles, Chimeres and the Grotesque in French Gothic Sculpture , "There is much symbolism in the sculpture of the Gothic period; but we must be wary of reading in too much meaning." The ancient Egyptians , Greeks , Etruscans , and Romans all used animal-shaped waterspouts. During

9944-589: The official use or teaching of French. It is spoken as a first language (in descending order of the number of speakers) in France; Canada (especially in the provinces of Quebec, Ontario, and New Brunswick); Belgium ( Wallonia and the Brussels-Capital Region ); western Switzerland (specifically the cantons forming the Romandy region); parts of Luxembourg; parts of the United States (the states of Louisiana, Maine, New Hampshire, and Vermont); Monaco;

10057-534: The other main foreign language in the Vietnamese educational system and is regarded as a cultural language. All three countries are full members of La Francophonie (OIF). French was the official language of French India , consisting of the geographically separate enclaves referred to as Puducherry . It continued to be an official language of the territory even after its cession to India in 1956 until 1965. A small number of older locals still retain knowledge of

10170-471: The preferred language of certain institutions or administrations such as the Court of Justice of the European Union , where it is the sole internal working language, or the Directorate-General for Agriculture . Since 2016, Brexit has rekindled discussions on whether or not French should again hold greater role within the institutions of the European Union. A leading world language , French

10283-471: The rest largely speak French as a first language. As a French Creole language , Haitian Creole draws the large majority of its vocabulary from French, with influences from West African languages, as well as several European languages. It is closely related to Louisiana Creole and the creole from the Lesser Antilles . French is the sole official language of all the overseas territories of France in

10396-494: The right to set a prisoner free on the day that the reliquary of the saint was carried in procession (see details at Rouen ). The term gargoyle is most often applied to medieval work, but throughout all ages, some means of water diversion, when not conveyed in gutters, was adopted. In ancient Egyptian architecture, gargoyles showed little variation, typically in the form of a lion's head. Similar lion-mouthed water spouts were also seen on Greek temples , carved or modelled in

10509-557: The specifications of the structure and are generally installed by experienced tradesman. Seamless gutter is .027" thick and if properly installed will last 30+ years. In commercial and domestic architecture, guttering is often made from zinc coated mild steel for corrosion resistance. Metal gutters with bead stiffened fronts is governed in the UK by BS EN612:2005. Aluminium gutters offer good corrosion resistance, are lightweight, and are easy to install. Additionally, aluminium gutters come in

10622-399: The technical term for such a sculpture is a grotesque , chimera, or boss . There are also regional variations, such as the hunky punk . Just as with bosses and chimeras , gargoyles are said to protect what they guard, such as a church, from any evil or harmful spirits. A French legend that sprang up around the name of St. Romanus ( French : Romain ; fl. c.  631–641 AD ),

10735-467: The torturous fate of sinners. Some gargoyles were purely decoration, like the monkey in the courtyard of the palace of Jacques Coeur in Bourges, France. This stylistic choice was supposedly a nod to Cours exotic and adventurous lifestyle, as monkeys are a species not native to france. It is most likely that gargoyles meant all of these things depending on where and when they were made, and it shouldn't be

10848-466: The total number of French speakers will reach approximately 500 million in 2025 and 650 million by 2050, largely due to rapid population growth in sub-Saharan Africa . OIF estimates 700 million French speakers by 2050, 80% of whom will be in Africa. In a study published in March 2014 by Forbes , the investment bank Natixis said that French could become the world's most spoken language by 2050. In

10961-679: The two official languages—along with Dutch —of the Brussels-Capital Region , where it is spoken by the majority of the population (approx. 80%), often as their primary language. French is one of the four official languages of Switzerland, along with German, Italian, and Romansh , and is spoken in the western part of Switzerland, called Romandy , of which Geneva is the largest city. The language divisions in Switzerland do not coincide with political subdivisions, and some cantons have bilingual status: for example, cities such as Biel/Bienne and cantons such as Valais , Fribourg and Bern . French

11074-508: The urban intellectual elite. The Gaulish language likely survived into the sixth century in France despite considerable Romanization . Coexisting with Latin, Gaulish helped shape the Vulgar Latin dialects that developed into French contributing loanwords and calques (including oui , the word for "yes"), sound changes shaped by Gaulish influence, and influences in conjugation and word order. Recent computational studies suggest that early gender shifts may have been motivated by

11187-485: The use of French in official government publications, public education except in specific cases, and legal contracts; advertisements must bear a translation of foreign words. In Belgium, French is an official language at the federal level along with Dutch and German. At the regional level, French is the sole official language of Wallonia (excluding a part of the East Cantons , which are German-speaking ) and one of

11300-449: The walls causes dampness in the affected rooms and provides a favourable environment for growth of mould , and wet rot in timber. A rain gutter may be a: A roof must be designed with a suitable fall to allow the rainwater to discharge. The water drains into a gutter that is fed into a downpipe. A flat roof should have a watertight surface with a minimum finished fall of 1 in 80. They can drain internally or to an eaves gutter, which has

11413-424: The walls, drenching persons standing below or entering the building, and to direct the water to a suitable disposal site where it will not damage the foundations of the building. In the case of a flat roof, removal of water is essential to prevent water ingress and to prevent a build-up of excessive weight. Water from a pitched roof flows down into a valley gutter, a parapet gutter or an eaves gutter. An eaves gutter

11526-536: The workplace. In 2011, Bloomberg Businessweek ranked French the third most useful language for business, after English and Standard Mandarin Chinese . In English-speaking Canada, the United Kingdom, and Ireland, French is the first foreign language taught and in number of pupils is far ahead of other languages. In the United States, French is the second-most commonly taught foreign language in schools and universities, although well behind Spanish. In some areas of

11639-402: The world's French-speaking population lives in Africa. According to a 2023 estimate from the Organisation internationale de la Francophonie , an estimated 167 million African people spread across 35 countries and territories can speak French as either a first or a second language . This number does not include the people living in non-Francophone African countries who have learned French as

11752-417: Was also influenced by native Celtic languages of Northern Roman Gaul like Gallia Belgica and by the ( Germanic ) Frankish language of the post-Roman Frankish invaders. Today, owing to the French colonial empire , there are numerous French-based creole languages , most notably Haitian Creole . A French-speaking person or nation may be referred to as Francophone in both English and French. French

11865-434: Was designed in 1851 by Joseph Paxton with its innovative ridge-and-furrow roof, the rafters that spanned the space between the roof girders of the glass roof also served as the gutters. The wooden Paxton gutters had a deep semi-circular channel to remove the rainwater and grooves at the side to handle the condensation. They were under trussed with an iron plate and had preformed notches for the glazing bars: they drained into

11978-819: Was during the period of the Crusades in which French became so dominant in the Mediterranean Sea that became a lingua franca ("Frankish language"), and because of increased contact with the Arabs during the Crusades who referred to them as Franj , numerous Arabic loanwords entered French, such as amiral (admiral), alcool (alcohol), coton (cotton) and sirop (syrop), as well as scientific terms such as algébre (algebra), alchimie (alchemy) and zéro (zero). Within Old French many dialects emerged but

12091-455: Was famous for speaking out against gargoyles carved on the walls of his monastery's cloister: What are these fantastic monsters doing in the cloisters before the eyes of the brothers as they read? What is the meaning of these unclean monkeys, these strange, savage lions and monsters? To what purpose are here placed these creatures, half beast, half man or these spotted tigers? I see several bodies with one head and several heads with one body. Here

12204-400: Was gradually adopted by the inhabitants of Gaul. As the language was learned by the common people, it developed a distinct local character, with grammatical differences from Latin as spoken elsewhere, some of which is attested in graffiti. This local variety evolved into the Gallo-Romance tongues, which include French and its closest relatives, such as Arpitan . The evolution of Latin in Gaul

12317-652: Was known in the Occitan-speaking region as Vergonha . Spoken by 19.71% of the European Union's population, French is the third most widely spoken language in the EU, after English and German and the second-most-widely taught language after English. Under the Constitution of France , French has been the official language of the Republic since 1992, although the Ordinance of Villers-Cotterêts made it mandatory for legal documents in 1539. France mandates

12430-594: Was ordered by King Henry "to have the Great Tower whitened both inside and out". This was according to the fashion at the time. Later that year the king wrote to the Keeper, commanding that the White Tower's lead guttering should be extended with the effect that "the wall of the tower ... newly whitened, may be in no danger of perishing or falling outwards through the trickling of the rain". In Saxon times,

12543-594: Was shaped by its coexistence for over half a millennium beside the native Celtic Gaulish language , which did not go extinct until the late sixth century, long after the fall of the Western Roman Empire . The population remained 90% indigenous in origin; the Romanizing class were the local native elite (not Roman settlers), whose children learned Latin in Roman schools. At the time of the collapse of

12656-570: Was the language they use the most at home rose from 67% at the 2007 census to 74% at the 2017 census. In Wallis and Futuna, the percentage of the population who reported that French was the language they use the most at home rose from 10% at the 2008 census to 13% at the 2018 census. According to a demographic projection led by the Université Laval and the Réseau Démographie de l'Agence universitaire de la Francophonie ,

12769-580: Was vomit or fecal matter. Some animals (such as the rhinoceros and the hippopotamus ) were unknown in western Europe during the Middle Ages, so gargoyles of these species (such as the ones at Laon Cathedral ) are modern gargoyles and therefore did not have symbolic meaning in Medieval times. The Lion was the most prominent figure for animal gargoyles, likely due to their frequent appearances in other medieval art and even art in antiquity. Lions became

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