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157-682: The Smurfs ( French : Les Schtroumpfs ; Dutch : De Smurfen ) is a Belgian comic franchise centered on a fictional colony of small, blue, humanoid creatures who live in mushroom -shaped houses in the forest. The Smurfs was created and introduced as a series of comic characters by the Belgian comics artist Peyo (the pen name of Pierre Culliford) in 1958, wherein they were known as Les Schtroumpfs . There are more than 100 Smurf characters, and their names are based on adjectives that emphasise their characteristics, such as "Jokey Smurf", who likes to play practical jokes on his fellow Smurfs. "Smurfette"
314-563: A black-and-white 87-minute animated film called Les Aventures des Schtroumpfs was released in theatres in Belgium. It consisted of five short cartoons made in the previous years for broadcasting on Walloon TV. German copies and copies with Dutch subtitles are known to exist. The stories were based on existing Smurf stories like The Black Smurfs and The Smurfs and the Egg , and were created by writer Maurice Rosy and artist Eddy Ryssack from
471-423: A classification of six demon classes , where clearly it is not all six, but just the fifth class of subterranean demons which are relevant to mining. This demon class is also equatable to Agricola's Cobali and "Getuli" (recté "Guteli") according to commentators. It has also been noted that Agricola distinguished the "mountain devil", exemplified by Rübezahl with the small-statured Bergmännlein . Although
628-559: A monograph on Berggeist ("mountain spirit") in the Grimms' Deutsche Sagen . The equivalent German appellations of the demons/spirits were made available by the subsequent gloss published 1563. Agricola here refers to the "gnome/mine spirit" is referred to by a variety of terms and phrases, such as virunuculus montanos ("montain manikin", i.e., German: bergmännlein ) or Greek/Latin cobelos / cobelus (German: kobel ) . The pertinent gloss, also quoted by Jacob Grimm, states that
785-546: A slipper which due to the series' success in Israel has now gone completely out of use in its original sense. Worldwide, there are about 55 translations of the word Schtroumpf , including The storylines tend to be simple tales of bold adventure. The cast has a simple structure as well: almost all the characters look essentially alike—mostly male (a few female Smurfs have appeared: Smurfette , Sassette, and Nanny Smurf), short ("three apples high"), with blue skin, white trousers with
942-453: A "spirit". However the elementals eat, drink and talk (like humans), distinguishing them from spirits. And according to Paracelsus's views, the so-called dwarf ( German : Zwerg, Zwerglein ) is merely monstra ( deformities ) of the earth spirit gnome. Note that Paracelsus also frequently resorts to circumlocutions like "mountain people" ( Bergleute ) or "mountain manikins" (" Bergmänlein " [ sic ] ) to denote
1099-617: A 9-disc 50th Anniversary Collection, containing a total of 52 episodes. In September 2009, a Smurfette-themed collection containing 25 episodes was made available followed by the "Papa Smurf Collection" in December 2009 containing 26 themed episodes. In July 2010, both the Smurfette and Papa Smurf Collection were included in a special 'Favourites Collection'. Also releasing at the same time was the Smurfs' first feature film (produced in 1975), The Smurfs and
1256-720: 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
1413-502: A German bushel or Scheffel [ de ] . Nineteenth-century miners in Bohemia and Hungary reported hearing knocking in the mines. The mining trade there interpreted such noises as warnings from the kobolds to not go in that direction. Although the Hungarian (or Czech) term was not given by the informant, and called "kobolds" of these mines, they were stated as the equivalents of
1570-586: A comic and expanded into advertising, films, TV series, ice capades , video games, theme parks, and toys. By 2008, the franchise had generated $ 4 billion in revenue, making The Smurfs one of the highest-grossing media franchises of all time . At the time he came up with the idea for the Smurfs, Peyo was the creator, artist, and writer of the Franco-Belgian comics series titled Johan et Pirlouit (translated to English as Johan and Peewit ), set in Europe during
1727-431: 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,
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#17330848544961884-505: A couple in New York who help the Smurfs get back to their village. It was suggested that Quentin Tarantino would play Brainy Smurf, but this "didn't work out" so Fred Armisen voices Brainy instead. A CGI/traditionally animated mini-film, titled The Smurfs: A Christmas Carol , was released on December 2, 2011, on The Smurfs DVD and Blu-ray. A sequel to The Smurfs , titled The Smurfs 2 ,
2041-514: A decade of success, NBC cancelled it due to decreasing ratings and plans to extend their Today morning show franchise to create a Saturday edition , although they did not do so until 1992 , two years later. The decreased ratings were the result of the network changing the format of the show, resulting in the final season featuring regular time travel with only a few Smurfs. In the TV series, many classical masterpieces are used as background music during
2198-543: 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
2355-412: A hole for their short tails, white hat in the style of a Phrygian cap , and sometimes some additional accessory that identifies a personality (for example, "Handy Smurf" wears overalls instead of the standard trousers, a brimmed hat, and a pencil above his ear). Smurfs can walk and run, but often move by skipping on both feet. They love to eat sarsaparilla (a species of Smilax ) leaves, whose berries
2512-691: A limited discussion on the "metallurgical or mine demon" ( dæmon metallicus ) touching on the "Corona rosacea" mine disaster (cf. § Rosenkranz mine, Annaberg ) and the framework of Psellosian demonology (cf. § Demonology ). A Latin-German gloss in later editions identify the being he called daemon metallicus as cypher for German Bergmännlein ( Das bergmenlin [ sic ], "mountain manikin", general term for earth spirit or mine spirit). Much more details were presented in Agricola's later Latin work De animatibus subterraneis (1549) (cf. § De animatibus subterraneis ), known as
2669-458: A magic flute, which required some sorcery by the wizard Homnibus. In this manner, they met a tiny, blue-skinned humanoid in white clothing called a "Schtroumpf", followed by his numerous peers who looked just like him, with an elderly leader who wore red clothing and had a white beard. Their first full appearance was published in Spirou on October 23, 1958. The characters proved to be a huge success, and
2826-688: 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
2983-531: A pint-sized steel coaster, " The Blue Streak ". Carowinds had an artificial island that was named Smurf Island that had a Smurf village—including toadstool houses which could be entered. Hanna–Barbera Land had a Smurf district. In 1989, in the French region of Lorraine, the Sorépark group opened a complete Smurfpark, named Big Bang Schtroumpf . In 1991, the park was bought by the successful Belgian Walibi Group and renamed Walibi Schtroumpf with new attractions. After
3140-494: 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
3297-573: 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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#17330848544963454-513: 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
3611-848: 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
3768-412: A type of bucket mentioned by Agricola, has been suggested by Karl Müller-Fraureuth. Peter Wothers suggests that cobalt could derive (without connection to Agricola) from cobathia for noxious smoke. The erudite Swedish Olaus Magnus in his Historia de Gentibus Septentrionalibus (1555) also provides a chapter on "demons in the mines". Although Olaus uses the term "demon" ( daemon ) and not
3925-536: 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
4082-475: A year. Over 300 million of them have been sold so far. Other Smurf figurines have been created for advertising purposes, e.g. worldwide for McDonald's and Kinder Surprise , or nationally for e.g. Albert Heijn in the Netherlands, and Delhaize in Belgium. Special Smurf comics were often created for advertising campaigns. This started in the 1960s for Kwatta and Kellogg's , and later for companies like BP in
4239-437: 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
4396-745: 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
4553-467: 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
4710-574: Is almost impossible for an outsider to find the Smurf village except when led by a Smurf. Papa Smurf is the leader of the community. Other Smurfs are generally named in reference to their main personality trait; for example, Brainy, Greedy, Vanity, Lazy, Clumsy, Hefty, Jokey, Dreamy, Grouchy; or their profession; for example, Poet, Actor, Handy, Harmony, Farmer, Clockwork, Painter, Tailor, Miner, Architect, Reporter, Timber, Barber and Doctor Smurf; much like Disney's Seven Dwarfs . The first female Smurf, Smurfette,
4867-484: 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
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5024-430: 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
5181-456: 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
5338-459: Is appended in the margin (pl. cobali , sing. cobalus ) They were thus called on account of them aping or mimicking humans. They have the penchant to laugh, while seeming to do things, without accomplishing anything. In classical Greek literature, kobalos ( κόβαλος ) refers to an "impudent rogue", or in more modern parlance, "joker" or "trickster". The chemist J. W. Mellor (1935) had suggested " mime ". These were otherwise called
5495-628: 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
5652-495: 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
5809-404: 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
5966-462: 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
6123-775: 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
6280-571: Is pronounced like the German word " Strumpf " meaning "sock". However, according to Peyo, the original author of the Smurfs comic strip, the term and the accompanying language of the Smurfs came during a meal he had with his colleague and friend André Franquin at the Belgian coast. Having momentarily forgotten the word "salt", Peyo asked him (in French) to pass the schtroumpf . Franquin jokingly replied, "Here's
6437-477: Is recognized to have derived from the German miners' legend about Bergmännlein or dæmon metallicus , the "metallurgical or mineralogical demon", according to Georg Agricola (1530), also called virunculus montanos (literal Latinization of Bergmännlein , = " mountain manikin ") by Agriocola in a later work (1549), and described by other names such as cobeli (sing. cobelus ; Latinization of German Kobel ). Agricola recorded that, according to
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6594-562: 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 ,
6751-538: 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
6908-479: 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
7065-492: 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
7222-499: Is the single The Smurf Song and its accompanying album, created by Dutch musician Pierre Kartner who sang under the alias Father Abraham, which reached the #1 position in 16 countries. Worldwide, more than 10 million CDs with Smurf music have been sold between 2005 and 2007 alone. In 1989, I.M.P.S and R-Tek Music, International created Smurfin!: Tenth Anniversary Commemorative Album , released by Quality Special Products in Canada and
7379-424: 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
7536-663: Is to regard the lore of the various männlein or specifically Bergmännlein as essentially derivatives of the Zwerge / dvergr of pagan Germanic mythologies. In the 1960s there developed a general controversy between this "mythological school" and its opponents over how to interpret so-called "miner's legends". What sparked the controversy was not over the Bergmännlein type tale per se, but over Grimms' "Three Miners of Kuttenberg ", who are trapped underground but supernaturally maintain longevity through prayer. Siegfried Kube (1960) argued
7693-469: The Johan et Pirlouit stories, the Smurf village is made up of mushroom-like houses of different shapes and sizes in a desolate and rocky land with just a few trees. However, in the Smurf series itself, the mushroom-like houses are more similar to one another and are located in a clearing in the middle of a deep forest with grass, a river, and vegetation. Humans such as Gargamel are shown to live nearby, though it
7850-615: The Trullis (trolls?) as they are called especially by the Swedes, said to shapeshift into the guise of human males and females, and sometimes made to serve men. Purportedly a mountain demon incident caused 12 fatalities at a mine named Rosenkrans at Anneberg or rather Rosenkranz or Rosenkrone (Corona Rosacea ) at Annaberg-Buchholz , in the Erzgebirge ( Ore Mountains ) in Saxony . The demon took on
8007-453: The virunculos montanos , literally translatable into German as Bergmännlein , or English as "mountain manikin" due to their small stature (about 2 feet). They had the appearance of old age, and dressed like miners, in laced/filleted shirt and leather apron around the loins. And although they may pelt miners with gravel/pebbles they did no real harm, unless they were first provoked. Agricola goes on to add there are similar to
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#17330848544968164-689: 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
8321-459: 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
8478-753: The Bergeist burrowing underground which guides miners to exact spots. In the Harz area, it is a being Bergmönch or "mountain monk" who uses the so-called "mining light ( Grubenlicht or Geleucht ) to guide miners to their quarry or to their exit. The lantern he holds is apparently an ignited lump of tallow ( Unschlitt ). It is also said that the Bergmönch was originally a mine supervisor who begged God to let him continue oversight of mines after death. If ignored it will angrily appear in its giant true form, with eyes as large as cartwheels, his silver lantern measuring
8635-494: The Berggeist (instead of Bergmännlein ). Grimm also uses the Berggeist apparently as a type of Zwerg , but there has been issued a caveat that the meaning of the term Berggeist according to Grimm may not necessarily coincide with the meaning used by the proletarian Greverus. Gerhard Heilfurth [ de ] and Greverus's Bergbau und Bergmann (1967) amply discuss the Bergmännlein . The collection of tales under
8792-591: The Berggeist of the Germans. Nineteenth-century German miners also talked of the Berggeist , who appeared as small black men, scouting ahead of miners with a hammer, and with their banging sound indicating whether veins of ore, or breaks in the veins called 'faults', and the more knocks, the richer the vein lay ahead. There is also a experiential report of a German mine sprite communicating residents and visiting their house (cf. Kobold#Visitors from mines ). The gnomes of Swiss folklore are also associated with riches of
8949-539: 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
9106-485: 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
9263-547: 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,
9420-820: 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
9577-525: The Middle Ages and including elements of sword-and-sorcery . Johan serves as a brave young page to the king , and Peewit (called Pirlouit (pronounced Peer-loo-ee) in the original French version) functions as his faithful, if boastful and cheating, midget sidekick . In 1958, Spirou magazine started the prepublication of the new Johan et Pirlouit comic book La Flûte à six trous ("The Flute with Six Holes"). The adventure involved their recovery of
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#17330848544969734-609: 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
9891-516: The Schtroumpf —when you are done schtroumpfing , schtroumpf it back..." and the two spent the rest of that weekend speaking in " schtroumpf language". Both the comics and cartoons have been translated in many languages. In most cases, the original name "Schtroumpf" is replaced by a new term. The most common are variations of the Dutch translation "Smurf", which is also used as the name in English. However, other names are indicative of their gnome-like appearance. In English, they were briefly named
10048-520: 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
10205-505: The gnomi in the German edition (1567). There was a belief in early modern Germany about beings that lurked in the mines, known as Bergmännlein (var. Bergmännlin , Bergmänngen ), equatable to what Paracelsus called "gnomes". Paracelsus's contemporary, Georgius Agricola , being a supervisor of mines, collected his well-versed knowledge of this mythical being in his monograph , De amantibus subterraneis (recté De animatibus subterraneis , 1549). The (corrected) title suggests
10362-420: The "Rosenkranz" mine localized in Saxony was already given above in § Rosenkranz mine, Annaberg . This and other near modern attestations are given in Wolfersdorf's anthology (1968) above. German lore regarding gnomes or berggeist (mine spirits) regard them as beneficial creatures, at least if they are treated respectfully, and lead miners to rich veins of ore. The silver thaler minted by Duke Henry
10519-517: The 1980s as well. Also Libby's and Heinz came out with Smurf-A-Getti canned pasta for the American and Canadian market. The Smurfs had a commercial in the 1980s for the Mexican snack cake company Marinela Submarinos with a rare version of Smurfette ( Pitufina ) dressed in a red dress and her hair done in pigtails. Over the decades, many singles and albums of Smurf music have been released in different countries and languages, sometimes very successfully, with millions of copies sold. The best known
10676-455: 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;
10833-415: The 19th century, growing in popularity during the 20th century as garden gnomes . The name of the element cobalt descends from kobelt , a 16th century German miners' term for unwanted ore ( cobalt -zinc ore, or possibly the noxious cobaltite and smaltite ), related as mischief perpetrated by the gnome Kobel (cf. § cobalt ore ). This Kobel is a synonym of Bergmännlein , technically not
10990-474: 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
11147-487: The 25-second episode was shown on the national television after the 9 p.m. timeslot to avoid children having to see it. It was the keystone in a fund-raising campaign by UNICEF's Belgian arm to raise money for the rehabilitation of former child soldiers in Burundi and the Democratic Republic of the Congo —both former Belgian colonies. French language French ( français [fʁɑ̃sɛ] or langue française [lɑ̃ɡ fʁɑ̃sɛːz] )
11304-738: 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
11461-886: 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,
11618-524: 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
11775-476: 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
11932-504: The Greek term, cadmia . This cadmia / kobelt appears to have denoted a cobalt-zinc ore, but Agricola ascribes to it corrosive dangers to the miners' feet, and it is noted that smaltite , a cobalt and nickel arsenide mixture presents corrosive properties. This ore, which defied being smelted by the metallurgy of that time, may also have been cobaltite , composed of cobalt, arsenic, and sulfur. The presence of this nuisance ore kobelt
12089-612: The Magic Flute , available for the first time on DVD, in Australia. On November 3, 2010, two "Just Smurfy" collections were released, each featuring episodes not yet released on DVD to the Australian market. December 3, 2010 saw the 3rd collection hit the market. A fourth Just Smurfy set was planned for release on March 2, 2011. Magna Home Entertainment in Australia have released Season 1 and Season 2 on August 24, 2011. Season 3 and Season 4
12246-587: The Other Spirits by Paracelsus , published posthumously in Nysa in 1566. The term may be an original invention of Paracelsus, possibly deriving the term from Latin * gēnomos , itself representing a Greek * γηνόμος , approximated by " * gē-nomos ", literally "earth-dweller". This is characterized by the Oxford English Dictionary (OED) as a case of "blunder", presumably referring to
12403-533: The Ox of Patufet and was inspired by the word Patufet. From the Catalan Patufet he derived the non-existent word Pitufo. (Catalans themselves use the term Barrufet , formerly used to mean goblin or gnome , to avoid confusion with their own Patufet.) The name later spread to most Spanish-language versions of the cartoon. In Hebrew , the name chosen was "Dardasim" (דרדסים), originally an old-fashioned Hebrew term for
12560-554: The Pooh and Tigger , Garfield , Alvin and the Chipmunks , the Muppet Babies ( Kermit , Piggy and Gonzo respectively), Slimer (from The Real Ghostbusters ), ALF , and Michelangelo (from Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles ). Smurfette appeared on the promotional poster, but never appeared in the actual film. From 1959 until the end of the 1960s, Dupuis produced Smurf figurines. But
12717-485: The River Smurf today". When used as a verb, "to smurf" typically means "to make", "to be", "to like", or "to do". Humans have found that replacing ordinary words with the term "smurf" at random is not enough: in one adventure, Peewit explains to some other humans that the statement "I'm smurfing to the smurf" means "I'm going to the wood", but a Smurf corrects him by saying that the proper statement would be "I'm smurfing to
12874-469: The Smurfs lived in a part of the world called "Le Pays Maudit" (French for "the Cursed Land"). To reach it required magic or travelling through dense forests , deep marshes , a scorching desert and a high mountain range . The Smurfs themselves use storks in order to travel long distances, such as to the kingdom where Johan and Pirlouit live, and keep up-to-date with events in the outside world. In
13031-513: The Smurfs naturally call "smurfberries". The smurfberries appear only in the cartoon; in the original comics, the Smurfs only eat the leaves from the sarsaparilla. The Smurfs fulfill simple archetypes of everyday people: "Lazy Smurf", "Grouchy Smurf", "Brainy Smurf", and so on. All Smurfs, with the exception of Papa, Baby, Smurfette, Nanny and Grandpa, are said to be 100 years old. There were originally 99 Smurfs, but this number increased as new Smurf characters appeared, such as Sassette and Nanny. All of
13188-485: The Smurfs were the children's act in the Ice Capades travelling ice show. After they were retired from that function, the Smurf suits from the show were issued to Ice Capades Chalets, the show's subsidiary chain of ice rinks , lasting until the show was sold to a group of investors led by Dorothy Hamill . The Chalets were sold to Recreation World. The Smurfette suit in particular had a somewhat different hairstyle from what
13345-653: The UK and Australia, or Benco (a Dutch chocolate drink). These comics were often only part of a larger campaign, e.g. the Benco comics were accompanied by a TV ad. A Smurf balloon/float/ Falloon (which is half float, half balloon) continues to be presented in holiday parades such as Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade . Smurfs had two cereals in the 1980s made by Post Cereals : Smurf-Berry Crunch cereal and Smurfs Magic Berries. Both had animated commercials on Saturday morning. Two Smurfs pastas, made by Chef Boyardee and DelVerde , were made in
13502-577: The USA network until 1993, and on Cartoon Network until 2003. The Smurfs is still broadcast on the Boomerang channel throughout the United States. The show became a major success for NBC, spawning spin-off television specials on an almost yearly basis. The Smurfs was nominated multiple times for Daytime Emmy awards, and won Outstanding Children's Entertainment Series in 1982–1983. The Smurfs television show enjoyed continued success until 1990, when, after nearly
13659-463: The United States and Dino Music in Australia. It was also released in parts of Europe. The Album came out on LP, CD and cassette. The LP featured 20 tracks (The Canadian CD and cassette had 16, the American CD had 10). The songs were covers of popular songs like " Surfin' U.S.A. ", " Kokomo ", " The Lion Sleeps Tonight ", and " I Think We're Alone Now ", as well as two original songs. For several years,
13816-483: The United States. On February 26, 2008, Warner Home Video released Season 1 Volume 1 on DVD , containing the first 19 episodes. On October 7, 2008, Warner Bros. released Season 1 Volume 2 on DVD, containing the remaining 20 episodes from season 1. Though Warner Bros. has decided to discontinue the season sets and release single-disc volume sets instead, they are reportedly still following the correct order of episodes. Magna Home Entertainment in Australia has released
13973-585: The Walibi Group was acquired by Six Flags , the park was named Walibi Lorraine, and all the Smurfs references in the park were removed in 2003. Comics Station, Ankara Amusement Park, Motiongate Dubai , Movie Animation Park Studios , and Dream Island feature Smurf sections. The Smurfs have appeared in video games made for most major game consoles (including Nintendo's NES , Super NES , and Game Boy systems, Atari 2600 , ColecoVision , Sega's Game Gear , Master System , Mega Drive and Mega CD systems, and
14130-515: The Younger of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel which features a " wild man " (cf. right) was seen to reassert his claim of complete ownership of the local silver and forest resources of the Harz Mountains , probably depicting the supernatural that miners believed led them to the whereabouts of silver ore. Even though the wild man above surface could be a vague supernatural guide, it is pointed out that it must be
14287-490: The animated series became popular there) in an English language dubbed version titled The Smurfs and the Magic Flute . A few more full-length Smurf films were made, most notably The Baby Smurf and Here are the Smurfs . created from episodes of the Hanna-Barbera television cartoon series. Sony Pictures announced plans to begin a trilogy of live-action/animated Smurf films, with the first film released on July 29, 2011;
14444-449: The beings which the Germans called Guteli (singular: Gutelos ; German : Gütel , var. Güttgen ), which are amicable demons that are rarely seen, since they have business at their home taking care of livestock. A Gütel or Güttel is elsewhere explained as not necessarily a mountain spirit, but more generic, and may haunt forests and fields. The Hoovers render these as "goblins". Agricola finally adds these resemble
14601-449: The best known and most widely available Smurf figurines are those made by Schleich , a German toy company. Most of the Smurf figurines given away as promotional material (e.g. by National Garages in the 1970s and McDonald's in the 1990s) are also made by Schleich. New Smurf figures continue to appear; in fact, only in two years since 1969 (1991 and 1998) have no new Smurfs entered the market. Schleich currently produces 8 to 12 new figurines
14758-484: The classification of "Berggeist" was already anticipated as far back as Friedrich Wrubel (1883). Later Franz Kirnbauer [ de ] published Bergmanns-Sagen (1954), a collection of miner's legends which basically adopted Wrubel's four-part classification, except Wrubel's Part 2 was retitled as one about "Bergmännlein". In Karl Müllenhoff 's anthology (1845), legends No. 443 Das Glück der Grafen Ranzau and No. 444 Josias Ranzaus gefeites Schwert feature
14915-675: The country near French-speaking Quebec, however, it is the foreign language more commonly taught. Vowel phonemes in French Gnome A gnome ( / n oʊ m / ) is a mythological creature and diminutive spirit in Renaissance magic and alchemy , introduced by Paracelsus in the 16th century and widely adopted by authors, including those of modern fantasy literature. They are typically depicted as small humanoids who live underground. Gnome characteristics are reinterpreted to suit various storytellers and artists. Paracelsus's gnome
15072-508: 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
15229-546: The dwarf's Nebelkappe (known as Tarnkappe in the Nibelungenlied ) slipped from being known as a cape or cloak covering the body in earlier times, into being thought of as caps or head coverings in the post-medieval era. As an example, he cites the Bergmännlein wearing a pointed hat, according to Rollenhagen 's poem Froschmeuseler . As can be glimpsed by this example, the approach of Grimm's " Mythologische Schule "
15386-448: 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
15543-585: 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
15700-417: The episodes, among them Franz Schubert 's Unfinished Symphony (Symphony No. 8 in B minor), Edvard Grieg 's Peer Gynt and Modest Mussorgsky 's Pictures at an Exhibition . The Smurfs was named the 97th best animated series by IGN . It has been called "kiddie cocaine" for people growing up during the 1980s. On August 31, 2017, it was announced that IMPS and Dupuis Audiovisuel would be working on
15857-568: The first appearance of the Smurfs in Johan et Pirlouit in 1958, more than 40 Smurf comics volumes have been created, 16 of them by Peyo, the others by his studio. Originally, the Smurf stories appeared in Spirou magazine with reprints in many different magazines, but after Peyo left the publisher Dupuis , many comics were first published in dedicated Smurf magazines, which existed in French, Dutch, German and Turkish. A number of short stories and one page gags have been collected into comic books next to
16014-506: 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
16171-609: The first independent Smurf stories appeared in Spirou in 1959, together with the first merchandising. The Smurfs shared more adventures with Johan and Pirlouit, got their own series and all subsequent publications of the original story were retitled La Flûte à six Schtroumpfs (also the title of the movie version of the story ). With the commercial success of the Smurfs came the merchandising empire of Smurf miniatures, models, games, and toys. Entire collecting clubs have devoted themselves to collecting PVC Smurfs and Smurf merchandise. Schtroumpf ( IPA [ʃtʁumf] )
16328-858: 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 ,
16485-818: 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
16642-481: The gloss reveals that the "metallurgical demon" ( daemon metallicus ) or Bergmännlein is somehow responsible for leaving a rich vein of ore ( fundige zech ), specifically a rich vein of silver. According to Agricola in De animatibus subterraneis (1549), these mountain-cave demons were called by the same name, cobalos , in both Greek (i.e. kobalos ) and German (i.e. kobel var. kobal ). The Latin form
16799-502: The goblins in the book Dilly Duckling and the Goblins (1973) before being renamed the Smurfs . In Spanish, they are called Pitufos , a term invented by Miguel Agustí who was the head of the Spanish magazine Strong , which first published the cartoon in Spanish. According to Agustí, he was walking around Barcelona while trying to come up a name for the cartoon. He came across a sculpture of
16956-516: The guise of the horse, and killed the twelve men with its breath, according to Agricola. Agricola has a passage in Bermanus which is quoted by a modern scholar as relevant to the study of his contemporary Paracelsus. The passage contains the line basically repeated by Olaus, as "there exist in ore-bearing regions six kinds of demon more malicious than the rest". This is probably misstated or misleading, since Bermanus cites Psellus , who devised
17113-401: 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
17270-474: 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
17427-602: 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 ,
17584-475: 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
17741-534: The legends of that profession, these mining spirits acted as miming and laughing pranksters who sometimes threw pebbles at miners, but could also reward them by depositing a rich vein of silver ore. Paracelsus also called his gnomes occasionally by these names ( Bergmännlein , etc.) in the German publications of his work (1567). Paracelsus claimed gnomes measured 2 spans (18 inches) in height, whereas Agricola had them to be 3 dodrans (3 spans, 27 inches) tall. Lawn ornaments crafted as gnomes were introduced during
17898-480: The measurement of what he calls the Bergmännrigen at "drey viertel einer Ellen lang", perhaps shy of one and a half feet. The mention of kobolde here as a name for the underground spirit is an unresolved contradiction to Praetorius dedicating a wholly separate chapter on the kobold as house sprite with a separate frontispiece art labeled "8. Haußmänner/Kobolde/Gütgen" for the house spirits. The anecdote of
18055-497: The mines. They are said to have caused the landslide that destroyed the Swiss village of Plurs in 1618 - the villagers had become wealthy from a local gold mine created by the gnomes, who poured liquid gold down into a vein for the benefit of humans, and were corrupted by this newfound prosperity, which greatly offended the gnomes. Grimm discusses the Bergmänlein somewhat under the subsection of Dwarfs ( Zwerge ), arguing that
18212-507: The more ferocious of the "underground demons" ( daemon subterraneus ) were called in German Berg-Teufel or "mountain-devil", while the milder ones were called Bergmännlein, Kobel, Güttel . And the daemon metallicus "mine demon" aka Bergmännlein ( bergmenlein [ sic ]) is somehow responsible for depositing rich veins of ore (" fundige zech )" (specifically rich silver ore). A different entry in
18369-610: The movie was pushed back to February 14, 2025, with Sonic the Hedgehog 3 taking its previous release date. The Smurfs secured their place in North American pop culture in 1981, when the Saturday morning cartoon series The Smurfs , produced by Hanna-Barbera Productions in association with SEPP International S.à.r.l., aired on NBC from September 12, 1981, to December 2, 1989 (reruns until August 25, 1990). The show continued to air on
18526-420: 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
18683-410: The new Smurfs TV series with CGI animation. The series was scheduled for 2020 but postponed to 2021. It is co produced by Ketnet (Flanders), TF1 (France), KiKa (Germany), OUFTIVI (Wallonia), Peyo Productions, and Dupuis Audiovisuel (the TV branch of the comics publisher). It shows new stories, not adaptations of comics or other older stories. Nickelodeon picked up the series for a 2021 release in
18840-553: The noxious ore which Agricola called cadmia is clarified as that which German miners called cobelt (also kobelt , cobalt ), and a demon the Germans called kobel was held responsible for the mischief of its existence, according to the preacher. The kobel demon was also blamed for the " hipomane " [ sic ] or horse's poison (cf. hippomanes , § Rosenkranz mine, Annaberg ). Agricola, in his earlier Latin work Bermanus, sive, de re metallica (first printed 1530, reprinted 1546, etc.), did delve into
18997-574: 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;
19154-525: The omission of the ē to arrive at gnomus . However, this conjectural derivation is not substantiated by any known prior attestation in literature, and one commentator suggests the truth will never be known, short of a discovery of correspondence from the author. Paracelsus uses Gnomi as a synonym of Pygmæi and classifies them as earth elementals . He describes them as two spans tall. They are able to move through solid earth, as easily as humans move through air, and hence described as being like
19311-472: The ore is characterized as a "gnome or a goblin" by science writer Philip Ball . However, 20th century dictionaries had suggested derivation from kobold , for example, Webster's in 1911 which didn't distinguish kobel from kobold and lumped them together, and the OED which conjectured that the ore kobolt and the spirit kobolt/kobold was the same word. An alternative etymology deriving kobolt ore from Kübel ,
19468-478: The original Smurfs were male; later female additions are Smurfette and Sassette. Smurfette was Gargamel's creation, while Sassette was created by the Smurflings. A characteristic of the Smurf language is the frequent use of the undefinable word "smurf" and its derivatives in a variety of meanings. The Smurfs frequently replace both nouns and verbs in everyday speech with the word "smurf": "We're going smurfing on
19625-456: The original Sony PlayStation ) and for the PC. In 2010, the Smurfs expanded into the world of apps for Android, the iPad, iPhone, and iPod Touch with the game Smurf Village . In 2005, an advertisement featuring The Smurfs was aired in Belgium in which the Smurf village is annihilated by warplanes. Designed as a UNICEF advertisement, and with the approval of the family of the Smurfs' late creator Peyo,
19782-528: 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
19939-575: The popular notion was that Rübezahl was indeed lord of the gnomes, as told in folktales around the Risengibirge ( Giant Mountains ) region in Silesia, published by 18th century folktale collector Musäus . Agricola explaining that the "mine demon" dæmon metallicus or " Bergmenlin " somehow deposited "rich mines" was mentioned above. Agricola knew of certain noxious unwanted ores the Germans miners called kobelt , though he generally referred to it by
20096-462: 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
20253-735: The project had been in various stages of development since 2003. In June 2008, it was announced that Columbia Pictures and Sony Pictures Animation had acquired film rights from Lafig Belgium. Jordan Kerner produced the film, with the screenwriters including Shrek 2 and Shrek the Third screenwriters J. David Stem and David N. Weiss . The film stars Jonathan Winters as Papa Smurf, Katy Perry as Smurfette, George Lopez as Grouchy Smurf, Gary Basaraba as Hefty Smurf, John Oliver as Vanity Smurf, Alan Cumming as Gutsy Smurf, Paul Reubens as Jokey Smurf, Hank Azaria as Gargamel, Neil Patrick Harris as Patrick Winslow and Jayma Mays as Grace Winslow,
20410-528: The regular series. English translations have been published in the U.S. by the graphic novel publisher Papercutz as well as a mini series published by Marvel Comics in the mid-1980s. Peyo's drawing style is similar to his fellow cartoonists from the Marcinelle school . The emphasis is on movement, enhanced by the use of Indian ink , with comic aspects regularly appearing. This style was approached by his successors, although there are also differences. In 1965,
20567-464: 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
20724-456: The same as kobold , but there is confusion or conflation between them. The terms Bergmännlein / Bergmännchen or Berggeist [ de ] are often used in German publications as the generic, overall term for the mine spirits told in "miners' legends" ( Bergmannssage ). The word comes from Renaissance Latin gnomus, gnomos , (pl. gnomi ) which first appears in A Book on Nymphs, Sylphs, Pygmies, and Salamanders, and on
20881-402: The small Dupuis animation studios. In total, ten animated shorts were created between 1961 and 1967, the first series in black and white and the later ones in colour. In 1976, La Flûte à six schtroumpfs (an adaptation of the original "Johan et Pirlouit" story) was released. Michel Legrand provided the musical score to the film. The film would be released in the United States in 1983 (after
21038-530: The smurf"; whereas what Peewit said was "I'm warbling to the dawn". So "I'm smurfing to the smurf" is not the same as "I'm smurfing to the smurf". In the animated series, only some words (or a portion of the word) are replaced with the word "smurf". Context offers a reliable understanding of this speech pattern, but common vocabulary includes remarking that something is "just smurfy" or in some cases, "smurftastic". In Schtroumpf vert et vert Schtroumpf (see Smurf Versus Smurf ), published in Belgium in 1972, it
21195-676: The subject to be "subterranean animate beings". It was regarded as a treatise on the "Mountain spirit" ( Berggeist by the Brothers Grimm , in Deutsche Sagen . Agricola is the earliest and probably most reliable source on Berggeist [ de ] , then known as Bergmännlein , etc. Agricola's contemporary Johannes Mathesius , a Lutheran reformist theologian , in Sarepta Oder Bergpostill (1562) uses these various mine-lore terminology in his German sermon, so that
21352-470: The tale was based on ancient mythology, i.e., pagan alpine worship. This was countered by Wolfgang Brückner [ de ] (1961) who regarded the tale as inspired by medieval Catholic notion of the purgatory . Whereas Ina-Maria Greverus (1962), presented yet a different view, that it was not based on organized church doctrine, but a world-view and faith in the miner's unique microcosm. Greverus at least in her 1962 piece, centered her argument on
21509-462: 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
21666-673: 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
21823-598: The uninvented coinage "gnome", the accompanying woodcut he provided (cf. Fig. right) has been represented as "gnome" in modern reference sources. Johannes Praetorius in Anthropodemus Plutonicus (1666) devotes a chapter of considerable length to the beings he calls Bergmännrigen or Erdleute "earth people", and follows Agricola to a large extent. Thus he considers earth spirits to be of two types, one more evil and sinister looking. The other, more benevolent and known as bergmännlein or kobolde . He gives
21980-508: 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
22137-479: 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
22294-531: 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
22451-402: 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
22608-417: 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
22765-461: Was blamed on the similar-sounding kobel mine spirits, as Mathesius noted in his preaching. The inferred etymology of kobelt deriving from kobel , which Mathesius does not quite elocute, was explicitly articulated by Johannes Beckmann in Beiträge zur Geschichte der Erfindungen (tr. English as The History of Inventions, discoveries and origins , 1797). The kobel spirit possibly the namesake of
22922-404: Was created by Gargamel to lure the other Smurfs. Papa Smurf then changed her into what we see today. The non-Smurf characters who would appear later would include their enemies: the wizard Gargamel , his cat Azrael, an ugly witch Hogatha, and Gargamel's godfather Balthazar; and their friends: the page Johan and his young friend Peewit, and the wizard Homnibus. There are more than 100 Smurfs. Since
23079-791: 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
23236-456: 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
23393-633: 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
23550-466: Was portrayed in the Hanna-Barbera cartoons. In 1984, the Smurfs began appearing in North American theme parks owned by Kings Entertainment Corporation . Each park featured a Smurf attraction and Smurf walk-around figures. Canada's Wonderland had an entire Smurf village to walk through, ending with Gargamel's Castle. " The Smurfs' Enchanted Voyage " was located in Kings Island . Kings Dominion has " Smurf Mountain ". California's Great America featured
23707-440: Was released on July 31, 2013. A fully animated Smurfs reboot film, Smurfs: The Lost Village , was released on April 7, 2017, with Demi Lovato starring as Smurfette. At CinemaCon on August 25, 2021, it was announced that a new Smurfs movie is in the works. The movie will be a musical and it is planned for a December 20, 2024 release for Paramount Pictures and Nickelodeon . In August 2022, Paramount Pictures announced that
23864-442: Was released on October 5, 2011. A limited edition "Ultimate Collection 1", which features the first five seasons, was released on August 24, 2011. An "Ultimate Collection 2", which features Season 6 to Season 9, was released on November 2, 2011. The show was released on DVD in the UK through a joint conjunction with Arrow Films and Fabulous Films Ltd. The complete 1st season was released in a four-disc box set on July 5, 2010. Season 2
24021-456: Was released on September 6, 2010, Seasons 3, 4 and 5 were released on July 1, 2013, and the original Smurfs feature film, The Smurfs and The Magic Flute , was released on DVD and Blu-ray on October 11, 2010. Papa Smurf, Hefty Smurf, and Brainy Smurf appeared in the cartoon crossover Cartoon All-Stars to the Rescue along with Bugs Bunny and Daffy Duck (from the Looney Tunes franchise), Huey, Dewey, and Louie (from DuckTales ), Winnie
24178-487: Was revealed that the smurf village was divided between North and South, and that the Smurfs on either side had different ideas as to how the term "smurf" should be used: for instance, the Northern Smurfs called a certain object a "bottle smurfer", while the Southern Smurfs called it a "smurf opener". This story is considered a parody on the still ongoing taalstrijd (language war) between French- and Dutch-speaking communities in Belgium. When they first appeared in 1958,
24335-411: 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
24492-407: Was the first female Smurf to be introduced in the series. The Smurfs wear Phrygian caps , which came to represent freedom during the modern era. The word "smurf" is the original Dutch translation of the French "schtroumpf", which, according to Peyo, is a word he invented during a meal with fellow cartoonist André Franquin when he could not remember the word salt . The Smurfs franchise began as
24649-437: 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 ,
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