Language/French/History

Headings

Origins of the French language

In the first century AD, after 800 years of war, the Roman Empire stretched from Egypt to England, from Asia Minor to Spain and Germany to North Africa.

Latin was the official language and all the logistical and human resources were used to carry the Latin language deep into the empire. After a long period of bilingualism, the defeated nations adopted the Latin.

During the first century, the Latin spoken by the officials, the soldiers and the Roman colonists gradually changed. This new Latin with its regional colorations gradually became the most important language and was then used for writing official religious and civil documents. It defeated the classical Latin which was kept for the aristocracy and schools.

Over the centuries written Latin remained, while spoken languages which were about to become French, Italian, Spanish, Catalan, etc... slowly developed. It is in this sense we talk about the Romance languages.

In Gaul ttwo dialects were found:

- The langues d’oil: dialects spoken at the north of the Loire River North of the Loire River, the langues d’oil

- the langues d’oc: dialects spoken at the south of the Loire River

Then those Romance languages became more and more distinct while retaining many common elements.

The French language did not exist before the ninth century. It was then called the "rustic language (or vulgar language, vulgus: meaning "people") at the Council of Tours in 813.

The first record of Old French is Le Serment de Strasbourg (the Oaths of Strasbourg) in 842 telling the story of Louis le Germanique and Charles Le Chauve. It is the birth of the French language because all written documents previously were written only in Latin. The Oaths had to be written in a language all soldiers could understand.

This document can be considered "French" although we find this name applied to the language only to the twelfth century.

For political reasons in the 10th century, Hugues Capet, King of France imposes its dialect French as a national language but the language of administration and religious remains Latin.

It was only in 1539 that François the 1st impose French as the legal and administrative language. Latin remains a religious language

In the 17th century, in 1634, Cardinal Richelieu will create the French Academy which will create the first dictionary of the French language as well as grammar books.

History of French language

Gallo Romance: 2nd BC - 8th AD

French is known as one of the romance languages coming from Latin, the language of ancient Rome. It was referred to as "Vulgar Latin".

--Old French: 9th - 13th Centuries-- A new language began to immerge. It was a mixture of Gaulish/Celtic and Germanic words with a strong Latin basis. This French was know as "Old French" which developped into regional dialects: Langue d'Oïl and Langue d'Oc. These dialects included "Le Francien" (around Paris), "Breton" (Brittany), "Le Picard" (Picardie) and "Occitan" (Southern France). The dialect of Paris actually became the law during the French Revolution and Le Francien soon became the standard for French.

Middle French: 14th - 16th Centuries

"Old French" evolved into "Middle French". It was a more refined language, with many words and expressions borrowed from Italian, Greek or Latin. French was also beginning to replace Latin in the publications of administration.

Modern French: 17th Century - Modern Day

By the 17th century, "Modern French" began to grow. Cardinal Richelieu created "l'Académie Française" (the French Academy) in 1635 with the aim of preserving the language from foreign influences and to encourage people to develop French literature. The French language started to flourish and started to be spoken all over the world until becoming the language of international diplomacy. However English quickly gained its place in the international arena and still is the international language of communication. Nowedays, French however continues to play an important role as the language of international institutions.

French Today

In today's world, French is considered as the second "Global Language" after English.