A Brief History of French
We know that French is a language coming from Latin.
When Julius Caesar and his Roman legions settled down in Gaul, Latin was spoken by Gallic populations not only with their "accent" but also by mixing the words belonging to their own language.
At that time Latin was in its first stage of evolution, but it had not yet become French.
Some centuries later the Germanic invasions would have a big impact on the way that Latin was spoken in Gaul.
And the Francs, who would then go on to give their name to the French language, would engrave a long-lasting mark on this already evolved form of Latin.
The Germanic influences would thus be very important for the development of this language, as it would concern the pronunciation and the grammar as well as the every day lexicon.
example; in French, most of the names of the colors are not of Latin descent but of Germanic origin.
But we cannot yet speak of the French language, because at the time it was still divided into several languages which were a little bit different from each other.
These languages originated from each of the regions from the high Middle Ages, which we call dialects.
One of these dialect would have more luck than the others: the one who had developed in the small kingdom of France and who was at first restricted to some ten or twenty leagues situated around Paris as it would spread throughout the whole kingdom following the conception of the French Republic and would be considered as the official language, French.
Meanwhile in parallel, each of the regions dialects continued to live on, not only the various dialects stemming from Latin but also the languages of different origins such as the Basque, the Breton, the Flemish, the Alsatian and Francisc Lorraine were still very alive until the beginning of the XXth century.
The current French language has thus become the result of a happy mixture between the language spread from the Ile-de-France and all those who had developed in the other provinces.
This variety of origin was later standardized in a more or less authoritarian way, and explains why every word of the French language has a story.
Today, French is one of the most beautiful spoken languages.
Just being able to understand this wonderful language, how it has evolved, and the history behind all the words, is a very beneficial aspect.
So when you are learning French, you are not only learning to speak a very beautiful language, but also a bit of European history as well.
When Julius Caesar and his Roman legions settled down in Gaul, Latin was spoken by Gallic populations not only with their "accent" but also by mixing the words belonging to their own language.
At that time Latin was in its first stage of evolution, but it had not yet become French.
Some centuries later the Germanic invasions would have a big impact on the way that Latin was spoken in Gaul.
And the Francs, who would then go on to give their name to the French language, would engrave a long-lasting mark on this already evolved form of Latin.
The Germanic influences would thus be very important for the development of this language, as it would concern the pronunciation and the grammar as well as the every day lexicon.
example; in French, most of the names of the colors are not of Latin descent but of Germanic origin.
But we cannot yet speak of the French language, because at the time it was still divided into several languages which were a little bit different from each other.
These languages originated from each of the regions from the high Middle Ages, which we call dialects.
One of these dialect would have more luck than the others: the one who had developed in the small kingdom of France and who was at first restricted to some ten or twenty leagues situated around Paris as it would spread throughout the whole kingdom following the conception of the French Republic and would be considered as the official language, French.
Meanwhile in parallel, each of the regions dialects continued to live on, not only the various dialects stemming from Latin but also the languages of different origins such as the Basque, the Breton, the Flemish, the Alsatian and Francisc Lorraine were still very alive until the beginning of the XXth century.
The current French language has thus become the result of a happy mixture between the language spread from the Ile-de-France and all those who had developed in the other provinces.
This variety of origin was later standardized in a more or less authoritarian way, and explains why every word of the French language has a story.
Today, French is one of the most beautiful spoken languages.
Just being able to understand this wonderful language, how it has evolved, and the history behind all the words, is a very beneficial aspect.
So when you are learning French, you are not only learning to speak a very beautiful language, but also a bit of European history as well.