French is a Romance language (meaning that it is descended from Latin) that evolved out of the Gallo-Romance: dialects spoken in Northern France.

The Roman invasion of Gaul

Before the Roman invasion of what is modern-day France by Julius Cæsar (58–52 BC), France was inhabited largely by a Celtic people to which the Romans referred as Gauls. There were also other linguistic/ethnic groups in France at this time, including Iberians in southern France and Spain, the Ligures on the Mediterranean coast, Greek colonies such as Marseille^[1], and the Vascons on the Spanish/French border.

The population of about 10 million Gauls was largely Celtic. Although the French often refer to their descent from Gallic ancestors (nos ancêtres les Gaulois), perhaps fewer than 200 words with a Celtic etymology remain in French today, largely places (ber, lande, grève 'sandy bank), plant names (berle 'water parsnip', chêne 'oak', if 'yew', baume 'balsa(m)') and words dealing with rural life and the earth (notably: mouton, tonne, crème, charrue, charriot, barde, bouc, boue, brosse, caillou, cervoise, druide, magouille, orteil, souche)^[2]. It should be noted that other Gallic words were imported in French through Latin, in particular words for Gallic objects and customs which were new to the Romans and for which there were no equivalent in Latin (e.g. braies, ambassade, matras). Latin quickly became a lingua franca across the entire Gallic region for both mercantile, official and educational reasons, yet it should be remembered that this was Vulgar Latin, the colloquial dialect spoken by the Roman army and its agents and not the literary dialect of Cicero. Nonetheless, a number of features can be attributed to Gaulish.

Phonological changes include:

• the raising of long [o:] to long [u:] (as in all Celtic languages)
• the fronting of long open /o/ [?:] to /eu/ [ø] or [?] (cf. Celtic *br?tu "judgement" > Late British *br?tu [br?:tu] > C bres, Br breut [?:])
• the fronting and raising of [a] to [æ] to [e] (as before nasals in Goidelic)
• ct > xt > it; lactem > lait (in all Brythonic languages)
• the frication and deletion of voiced intervocalic consonants (g, d, b)
• the palatalization of jod [j] to [dj] to [?]; ego > je (as Brythonic turned jod into [ð]; ex: PC *novíjo > W newydd, Corn nowyth, newyth, Br nevez)
• the diphthongization of closed [e] to [oi] (as in the Brythonic languages [ui, ue])
• the use of liaisons and enchaînement (as in all Celtic languages)
• nasalization (as in Breton and Gaelic)
• the insertion of epenthetic homorganic consonants between nasals and liquids; simulare > sembler, *venira > viendra (as in Welsh and Manx)

Other linguistic changes include:

• possession using à instead of de (ce livre est à moi) (as in all Celtic languages)
• the gallicism c'est...qui, que used in emphasis
• counting by twenties; quatre-vingts and in Old French treis vingts, cinq vingts (cf. Welsh ugain "twenty", deugain "forty", pedwar ugain "eighty, lit. four-twenties")
• the 1st person plural verb ending -ons (cf. Breton caromp, Welsh aethom)
• the influence of meaning and form on avec, car, oui, chez, aise, aveugle, tête, huitaine and quinzaine, fleur de farine, fois, and monde "people"
• the use of periphrastic phrases to denote aspect; i.e. en train de, venir de, après + verb, etc. (as in all Celtic languages)
• the adoption of the intensive prefix ro-, having become modern re- (compare: luire "to glisten" vs. reluire "to shine"; tirer "to pull" vs. retirer "to withdraw, take away"; cf. MW ry "too" (ry uawr "too big"), Br re, OIr ro- "very, too")

The Franks

From the third century on, Western Europe was invaded by Germanic tribes from the east, and some of these groups settled in Gaul. For the history of the French language, the most important of these groups are the Franks in northern France, the Alemanni in the German/French border, the Burgundians in the Rhône valley and the Visigoths in the Aquitaine region and Spain. Their language had a profound effect on the Latin spoken in their respective regions, altering both the pronunciation and the syntax. They also introduced a number of new words. Sources disagree on how much vocabulary of modern French comes from Germanic words, ranging from just 400 words ^[3] to 2% of modern vocabulary ^[4].

Changes in lexicon/morphology:

• the name of the language itself, français, comes from the Germanic Frank ('freeman'). The Franks referred to their land as Franko(n) which became Francia in Latin in the 3rd century (then an area in Gallia belgica, somewhere in modern-day Belgium or the Netherlands).
• several terms and expressions associated with their social structure (gars/garçon, maréchal) and military tactics (fief, flanc).
• a few colors derived from Frankish and other German languages (blanc, bleu, blond, brun, gris).
• other examples among the most usual words include auberge, fauteuil, laid, tuyau and many words starting with a hard g (like gagner, guerre) or with an aspired h (haine, hâte) ^[5]
• endings in -ard (from Frankish hard : bâtard), -and, -aud, -ais, -er, -ier and many verb endings in -ir ( choisir, jaillir).

Changes in pronunciation:

• reintroduction of the vowel [y]
• reintroduction of consonant h (that no longer exists in modern French, however a Germanic h usually disallows liaison: les halles , les haies , les haltes , whereas a Latin h allows liaison: les herbes , les hôtels .
• reintroduction of consonant [w], probably pronounced as in Dutch between /v/ and /w/, and developing into /gw/ and then /g/ in modern French (hence French guerre whereas the English form keeps the /w/: war).
• profound changes in the vowel structures, caused by the Frankish stress. Unstressed syllabes were often lost (particularly syllabes with the final vowel), while vowels in stressed syllabes often became diphthong (e.g. tela -> TEla -> toile)^[6]

Changes in syntax:

• maintenance of cases (compared to Spanish or Italian): hence Old French had li murs (the wall) or li fils (the son) (Modern French le mur, le fils), respectively from Latin murus, filius.
• subject pronoun: always present before the verb, whereas it is not necessary in Spanish or Italian. The pronoun on (from hom/homme) is an adaptation of Germanic pronoun man(n)- (one, general you, singular they).
• adjective before the noun: pauvre homme, belle femme, vieil homme, grande table, petite table (however most adjectives are placed after the noun).

Langue d'oïl

The medieval Italian poet Dante, writing in Latin in his De vulgari eloquentia, classified the Romance languages into three groups: "nam alii oc, alii si, alii vero dicunt oil" ("some say oc, others say si, others say oïl"), thereby defining oïl languages (in northern France); oc languages (in southern France) and si languages (in Italy and Iberia). Modern linguists typically divide the languages spoken in medieval France into three geographical subgroups: Langue d'oïl and Langue d'oc are the two major groups; the third group, Franco-Provençal, displays features in common with both other groups, without belonging to either. The oïl ? oc divide may be broadly compared to the divide illustrated by the use of "yes" in English and "aye" in Scots.

The area of langue d'oïl

Langue d'oc, the languages which use oc for "yes", is the language group in the south of France and northern Spain. These languages, such as Gascon and Provençal, have relatively little Frankish influence. Oc/òc derive from the Latin hoc.

Modern French has two words for "yes", oui and si; the latter is used to contradict negative statements or respond to negative questions, at least in Modern France itself. Si derives from Latin sic ("thus"), and is cognate to the word for "yes" in Spanish (sí), Portuguese (sim), Italian (sì), and Catalan (sí).

The early Middle Ages also saw the influence of other linguistic groups on the dialects of France:

From the 5th to the 8th cents, Celtic-speaking peoples from southwestern Britain (Wales, Cornwall, Devon) travelled across the English Channel, both for reasons of trade and as a result of the Anglo-Saxon invasions of England. They established themselves in Brittany. Their language was a dialect of the Brythonic languages, which has been named Breton in more recent centuries. This language gave notably bijou and menhir to French. It is part of the larger Celtic language family, though the modern dialects reflect a noticeable influence from French in their vocabulary (aven, a Breton word that French incorporated, is itself derived from the French word havre).

From the 6th to the 7th centuries, the Vascons crossed over the Pyrenees, a mountain range in the south of France. Their presence influenced the Occitan language spoken in southwestern France, resulting in the dialect called Gascon. Its influence is seen in words like boulbène, cargaison.

Scandinavian Vikings invaded France from the 9th century onwards and established themselves in what would come to be called Normandie (Normandy). They took up the langue d'oïl spoken there and contributed many words to French related to maritime environment (crabe, crique, falaise), amongst other things. Another example is boulevard which is derived from the Norse work for quay or bulwark (Danish: bolværk).

With their conquest of England in 1066, the Normans brought their language. The dialect that developed there as a language of administration and literature is referred to as Anglo-Norman. Anglo-Norman served as the language of the ruling classes and commerce in England from the time of the conquest until 1362, when the use of English became dominant again.http://languageandlaw.org/TEXTS/STATS/PLEADING.HTM Because of the Norman Conquest, the English language has borrowed a considerable amount of its vocabulary from French.

The Arab peoples also supplied many words to French around this time period, including words for luxury goods (élixir, orange), spices (camphre, safran), trade stuffs (alcool, bougie, coton), sciences (alchimie, hasard), and mathematics (algèbre, algorithme).

Modern French

For the period up to around 1300, some linguists refer to the oïl languages collectively as Old French (ancien français). The earliest extant text in French is the Oaths of Strasbourg from 842; Old French became a literary language with the chansons de geste that told tales of the paladins of Charlemagne and the heroes of the Crusades.

By the Ordinance of Villers-Cotterêts in 1539 King Francis I made French the official language of administration and court proceedings in France, ousting the Latin that had been used before then. With the imposition of a standardised chancery dialect and the loss of the declension system, the dialect is referred to as Middle French (moyen français). The first grammatical description of French, the Tretté de la Grammaire française by Louis Maigret, was published in 1550. Many of the 700 words ^[7] of modern French that originate from Italian were introduced in this period, including several denoting artistic concepts (scenario, piano), luxury items, and food.

Following a period of unification, regulation and purification, the French of the 17th to the 18th centuries is sometimes referred to as Classical French (français classique), although many linguists simply refer to French language from the 17th century to today as Modern French (français moderne).

The foundation of the Académie française (French Academy) in 1634 by Cardinal Richelieu created an official body whose goal has been the purification and preservation of the French language. This group of 40 members is known as the Immortals, not, as some erroneously believe, because they are chosen to serve for the extent of their lives (which they are), but because of the inscription engraved on the official seal given to them by their founder Richelieu—"À l'immortalité" ("to the Immortality (of the French language)"). The foundation still exists and contributes to the policing of the language and the adaptation of foreign words and expressions. Some recent modifications include the change from software to logiciel, packet-boat to paquebot, and riding-coat to redingote. The word ordinateur for computer was however not created by the Académie, but by a linguist appointed by IBM (see fr:ordinateur).

From the 17th to the 19th centuries, France was the leading power of Europe; thanks to this, together with the influence of the Enlightenment, French was the lingua franca of educated Europe, especially with regards to the arts, literature, and diplomacy; monarchs like Frederick II of Prussia and Catherine the Great of Russia could both speak and write in French.

During the 17th and 18th centuries, the French language established itself permanently in the Americas. There is an academic debate about how fluent in French were the colonists of New France. While a minority of colonists (mostly women) were from the region of Paris (approximately 20% of all colonists), most of them came from northern and western regions of France where French was not the primary language natively spoken by its inhabitants. It is not clearly known, however, how many among those colonists understood French as a second language, and how many among them ? who, in overwhelming majority, natively spoke an oïl language ? could understand, and be understood by, those who speak French thanks to interlinguistic similarity. In any case, a linguistic unification of all the groups coming from France happened (either in France, on the ships, or in "Canada") such that, according to many sources, the then "Canadiens" were all speaking French natively by the end of the 17th century, well before the unification was complete in France. Today, French is the language of about 10 million people (not counting French-based creoles, which are also spoken by about 10 million people) in the Americas.

Through the Académie, public education, centuries of official control and the role of media, a unified official French language has been forged, but there remains a great deal of diversity today in terms of regional accents and words. For some critics, the "best" pronunciation of the French language is considered to be the one used in Touraine (around Tours and the Loire River valley), but such value judgments are fraught with problems, and with the ever increasing loss of lifelong attachments to a specific region and the growing importance of the national media, the future of specific "regional" accents is often difficult to predict. The French nation-state, which appeared after the 1789 French Revolution and Napoleon's empire, unified the French people in particular through the consolidation of the use of the French language. Hence, according to historian Eric Hobsbawm, "the French language has been essential to the concept of 'France', although in 1789 50% of the French people didn't speak it at all, and only 12 to 13% spoke it 'fairly' - in fact, even in oïl language zones, out of a central region, it wasn't usually spoken except in cities, and, even there, not always in the faubourgs [approximatively translatable to "suburbs"]. In the North as in the South of France, almost nobody spoke French."^[8] Hobsbawm highlighted the role of conscription, invented by Napoleon, and of the 1880s public instruction laws, which allowed to mix the various groups of France into a nationalist mold which created the French citizen and his consciousness of membership to a common nation, while the various "patois" were progressively eradicated.

Modern issues

There is some debate in today's France about the preservation of the French language and the influence of English (see franglais), especially with regard to international business, the sciences and popular culture. There have been laws (see Toubon law) enacted which require that all print ads and billboards with foreign expressions include a French translation and which require quotas of French-language songs (at least 40%) on the radio. There is also pressure, in differing degrees, from some regions as well as minority political or cultural groups for a measure of recognition and support for their regional languages.

Once the most universal language, French lost most of its international significance to the English language in the 20th century. Nevertheless, French is the second most-studied foreign language in the world after English. The legacy of French as a living language outside Europe is mixed: it is nearly extinct in some former French colonies (Southeast Asia), while the language has changed to creoles, dialects or pidgins in the French departments in the West Indies and the South Pacific (French Polynesia). On the other hand, many former French colonies have adopted French as an official language, and the total number of French-speakers has increased, especially in Africa.

In Québec, the language has thrived and today is spoken by 80% of the province's population^[9]. Different laws ensure the preservation of French in administration, business and education since the seventies. Bill 101, for example, obliges every child whose parents did not attend an English school to be educated in French, thus preventing that English or non-Francophone languages supplant French in Québec as it is mostly the case in North America. Efforts are also made, by the Office québécois de la langue française for instance, to make more uniform the variation of French spoken in Québec as well as to preserve the distinctiveness of Quebec French.

There has been French emigration to the United States, Australia and South America, but the descendants of these immigrants have assimilated to the point that few of them still speak French. In the United States, efforts are ongoing in Louisiana (see CODOFIL) and parts of New England (particularly Maine) to preserve the language.

See also

• Old French
• History of the English language
• Language policy in France

References

External links

• Histoire de la langue française (in French)

es:Historia de la lengua francesa fr:Histoire de la langue française