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French French (french: français(e), link=no) may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to France ** French language, which originated in France, and its various dialects and accents ** French people, a nation and ethnic group identified with Franc ...
is a
Romance language The Romance languages, sometimes referred to as Latin languages or Neo-Latin languages, are the various modern languages that evolved from Vulgar Latin. They are the only extant subgroup of the Italic languages in the Indo-European language ...
(meaning that it is descended primarily from
Vulgar Latin Vulgar Latin, also known as Popular or Colloquial Latin, is the range of non-formal registers of Latin spoken from the Late Roman Republic onward. Through time, Vulgar Latin would evolve into numerous Romance languages. Its literary counterpa ...
) that specifically is classified under the
Gallo-Romance languages The Gallo-Romance branch of the Romance languages includes in the narrowest sense the Langues d'oïl and Franco-Provençal. However, other definitions are far broader, variously encompassing the Occitano-Romance, Gallo-Italic, and Rhaeto-Rom ...
. The discussion of the history of a language is typically divided into "external history", describing the ethnic, political, social, technological, and other changes that affected the languages, and "internal history", describing the phonological and grammatical changes undergone by the language itself.


External social and political history


Roman Gaul (''Gallia'')

Before the Roman conquest of what is now France by
Julius Caesar Gaius Julius Caesar (; ; 12 July 100 BC – 15 March 44 BC), was a Roman general and statesman. A member of the First Triumvirate, Caesar led the Roman armies in the Gallic Wars before defeating his political rival Pompey in a civil war, an ...
(58–52 BC), much of present France was inhabited by Celtic-speaking people referred to by the Romans as
Gauls The Gauls ( la, Galli; grc, Γαλάται, ''Galátai'') were a group of Celtic peoples of mainland Europe in the Iron Age and the Roman period (roughly 5th century BC to 5th century AD). Their homeland was known as Gaul (''Gallia''). They sp ...
and
Belgae The Belgae () were a large confederation of tribes living in northern Gaul, between the English Channel, the west bank of the Rhine, and the northern bank of the river Seine, from at least the third century BC. They were discussed in depth by Ju ...
. Southern France was also home to a number of other remnant linguistic and ethnic groups including
Iberians The Iberians ( la, Hibērī, from el, Ἴβηρες, ''Iberes'') were an ancient people settled in the eastern and southern coasts of the Iberian peninsula, at least from the 6th century BC. They are described in Greek and Roman sources (amon ...
along the eastern part of the Pyrenees and western Mediterranean coast, the remnant
Ligures The Ligures (singular Ligur; Italian: liguri; English: Ligurians) were an ancient people after whom Liguria, a region of present-day north-western Italy, is named. Ancient Liguria corresponded more or less to the current Italian regi ...
on the eastern
Mediterranean The Mediterranean Sea is a sea connected to the Atlantic Ocean, surrounded by the Mediterranean Basin and almost completely enclosed by land: on the north by Western and Southern Europe and Anatolia, on the south by North Africa, and on ...
coast and in the
alpine Alpine may refer to any mountainous region. It may also refer to: Places Europe * Alps, a European mountain range ** Alpine states, which overlap with the European range Australia * Alpine, New South Wales, a Northern Village * Alpine National P ...
areas,
Greek Greek may refer to: Greece Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe: *Greeks, an ethnic group. *Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family. **Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor ...
colonials in places such as
Marseille Marseille ( , , ; also spelled in English as Marseilles; oc, Marselha ) is the prefecture of the French department of Bouches-du-Rhône and capital of the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur region. Situated in the camargue region of southern Fra ...
and
Antibes Antibes (, also , ; oc, label= Provençal, Antíbol) is a coastal city in the Alpes-Maritimes department of southeastern France, on the Côte d'Azur between Cannes and Nice. The town of Juan-les-Pins is in the commune of Antibes and the Sop ...
, and
Vascones The Vascones were a pre-Roman tribe who, on the arrival of the Romans in the 1st century, inhabited a territory that spanned between the upper course of the Ebro river and the southern basin of the western Pyrenees, a region that coincides wi ...
and
Aquitani The Aquitani were a tribe that lived in the region between the Pyrenees, the Atlantic ocean, and the Garonne, in present-day southwestern France in the 1st century BCE. The Romans dubbed this region '' Gallia Aquitania''. Classical authors such ...
(Proto-
Basques The Basques ( or ; eu, euskaldunak ; es, vascos ; french: basques ) are a Southwestern European ethnic group, characterised by the Basque language, a common culture and shared genetic ancestry to the ancient Vascones and Aquitanians. Ba ...
) in much of the southwest. The Gaulish-speaking population is held to have continued speaking Gaulish even as considerable Romanisation of the local material culture occurred, with Gaulish and Latin coexisting for centuries under Roman rule and the last attestation of Gaulish to be deemed credible having been written in the second half of the 6th century about the destruction of a pagan shrine in
Auvergne Auvergne (; ; oc, label= Occitan, Auvèrnhe or ) is a former administrative region in central France, comprising the four departments of Allier, Puy-de-Dôme, Cantal and Haute-Loire. Since 1 January 2016, it has been part of the new region Au ...
. The Celtic population of Gaul had spoken
Gaulish Gaulish was an ancient Celtic language spoken in parts of Continental Europe before and during the period of the Roman Empire. In the narrow sense, Gaulish was the language of the Celts of Gaul (now France, Luxembourg, Belgium, most of Switze ...
, which is moderately well attested and appears to have wide dialectal variation including one distinctive variety,
Lepontic Lepontic is an ancient Alpine Celtic languageJohn T. Koch (ed.) ''Celtic culture: a historical encyclopedia'' ABC-CLIO (2005) that was spoken in parts of Rhaetia and Cisalpine Gaul (now Northern Italy) between 550 and 100 BC. Lepontic is att ...
. The French language evolved from
Vulgar Latin Vulgar Latin, also known as Popular or Colloquial Latin, is the range of non-formal registers of Latin spoken from the Late Roman Republic onward. Through time, Vulgar Latin would evolve into numerous Romance languages. Its literary counterpa ...
(a Latinised popular Italic dialect called ''sermo vulgaris''), but it was influenced by Gaulish. Examples include
sandhi Sandhi ( sa, सन्धि ' , "joining") is a cover term for a wide variety of sound changes that occur at morpheme or word boundaries. Examples include fusion of sounds across word boundaries and the alteration of one sound depending on near ...
phenomena (
liaison Liaison means communication between two or more groups, or co-operation or working together. Liaison or liaisons may refer to: General usage * Affair, an unfaithful sexual relationship * Collaboration * Co-operation Arts and entertainment * Li ...
,
resyllabification In some languages, resyllabification is a phenomenon where consonants become attached to vowels in a syllable different than the one from which they originally came. This can even occur across word boundaries, as happens in the ''enchaînment'' of ...
,
lenition In linguistics, lenition is a sound change that alters consonants, making them more sonorous. The word ''lenition'' itself means "softening" or "weakening" (from Latin 'weak'). Lenition can happen both synchronically (within a language at a pa ...
), the loss of unstressed syllables and the vowel system (such as raising , → , , fronting stressed → , → or ). Syntactic oddities attributable to Gaulish include the intensive prefix ''ro''- ~ ''re''- (cited in the Vienna glossary, 5th century) (cf. ''luire'' "to glimmer" vs. ''reluire'' "to shine"; related to
Irish Irish may refer to: Common meanings * Someone or something of, from, or related to: ** Ireland, an island situated off the north-western coast of continental Europe ***Éire, Irish language name for the isle ** Northern Ireland, a constituent unit ...
''ro''- and
Welsh Welsh may refer to: Related to Wales * Welsh, referring or related to Wales * Welsh language, a Brittonic Celtic language spoken in Wales * Welsh people People * Welsh (surname) * Sometimes used as a synonym for the ancient Britons (Celtic peopl ...
''rhy''- "very"), emphatic structures,
prepositional Prepositions and postpositions, together called adpositions (or broadly, in traditional grammar, simply prepositions), are a class of words used to express spatial or temporal relations (''in'', ''under'', ''towards'', ''before'') or mark various ...
periphrastic In linguistics, periphrasis () is the use of one or more function words to express meaning that otherwise may be expressed by attaching an affix or clitic to a word. The resulting phrase includes two or more collocated words instead of one in ...
phrases to render verbal aspect and the semantic development of ''oui'' "yes", ''aveugle'' "blind". Some sound changes are attested: → and → appears in a pottery inscription from
la Graufesenque La Graufesenque is an archaeological site 2 km from Millau, Aveyron, France, at the confluence of the rivers Tarn and Dourbie. As Condatomagus (market of the confluent), it was famous in the Gallo-Roman period for the production of high qu ...
(1st century) in which the word ''paraxsidi'' is written for ''paropsides''. Similarly, the development -''cs''- → → and -''ct''- → → , the latter being common to much of
Western Romance languages Western Romance languages are one of the two subdivisions of a proposed subdivision of the Romance languages based on the La Spezia–Rimini Line. They include the Gallo-Romance and Iberian Romance branches. Gallo-Italic may also be included ...
, also appears in inscriptions: ''Divicta'' ~ ''Divixta'', ''Rectugenus'' ~ ''Rextugenus'' ~ ''Reitugenus'', and is present in Welsh, e.g. *''seχtan'' → ''saith'' "seven", *''eχtamos'' → ''eithaf'' "extreme". For Romance, compare: * Latin ''fraxinus'' "ash (tree)" → OFr ''fraisne'' (mod. ''frêne''), Occitan ''fraisse'',
Catalan Catalan may refer to: Catalonia From, or related to Catalonia: * Catalan language, a Romance language * Catalans, an ethnic group formed by the people from, or with origins in, Northern or southern Catalonia Places * 13178 Catalan, asteroid #1 ...
''freixe'',
Portuguese Portuguese may refer to: * anything of, from, or related to the country and nation of Portugal ** Portuguese cuisine, traditional foods ** Portuguese language, a Romance language *** Portuguese dialects, variants of the Portuguese language ** Portu ...
''freixo'', Romansch ''fraissen'' (vs.
Italian Italian(s) may refer to: * Anything of, from, or related to the people of Italy over the centuries ** Italians, an ethnic group or simply a citizen of the Italian Republic or Italian Kingdom ** Italian language, a Romance language *** Regional Ita ...
''frassino'',
Romanian Romanian may refer to: *anything of, from, or related to the country and nation of Romania ** Romanians, an ethnic group **Romanian language, a Romance language ***Romanian dialects, variants of the Romanian language **Romanian cuisine, traditiona ...
(dial.) ''frapsin'',
Spanish Spanish might refer to: * Items from or related to Spain: **Spaniards are a nation and ethnic group indigenous to Spain **Spanish language, spoken in Spain and many Latin American countries **Spanish cuisine Other places * Spanish, Ontario, Can ...
''fresno''). * Latin ''lactem'' "milk" → French ''lait'', Welsh ''llaeth'', Portuguese ''leite'', Catalan ''llet'', Piemontese ''lait'', Liguro ''leite'' (vs. Italian ''latte'', Occitan ''lach'',
Lombardo Lombardo is an Italian demonym ("from Lombardy") and surname, most commonly found in Sicily where it is the third most common family name. Notable people with the name include: Surname * Andrea Lombardo (born 1987), Canadian football (soccer) play ...
''làcc'', Romansch ''latg'', Spanish ''leche''). Both changes sometimes had a cumulative effect in French: Latin ''capsa'' → *''kaχsa'' → ''caisse'' (vs. Italian ''cassa'', Spanish ''caja'') or ''captīvus'' → *''kaχtivus'' → Occitan ''caitiu'', OFr ''chaitif'' (mod. ''chétif'' "wretched, feeble", cf. Welsh ''caeth'' "bondman, slave", vs. Italian ''cattivo'', Spanish ''cautivo''). In French and the adjoining folk dialects and closely-related languages, some 200 words of Gaulish origin have been retained, most of which pertaining to folk life. They include: * land features (''bief'' "reach, mill race", ''combe'' "hollow", ''grève'' "sandy shore", ''lande'' "heath"); * plant names (''berle'' "water parsnip", ''bouleau'' "birch", ''bourdaine'' "black alder", ''chêne'' "oak", ''corme'' "service berry", ''gerzeau'' "corncockle", ''if'' "yew", ''vélar/vellar'' "hedge mustard"); * wildlife (''alouette'' "lark", ''barge'' "
godwit The godwits are a group of large, long-billed, long-legged and strongly migratory waders of the bird genus ''Limosa''. Their long bills allow them to probe deeply in the sand for aquatic worms and molluscs. In their winter range, they floc ...
", ''loche'' "
loach Loaches are fish of the superfamily Cobitoidea. They are freshwater, benthic (bottom-dwelling) fish found in rivers and creeks throughout Eurasia and northern Africa. Loaches are among the most diverse groups of fish; the 1249 known species of ...
", ''pinson'' "finch", ''vandoise'' " dace", ''vanneau'' "
lapwing Lapwings (subfamily Vanellinae) are any of various ground-nesting birds (family Charadriidae) akin to plovers and dotterels. They range from in length, and are noted for their slow, irregular wingbeats in flight and a shrill, wailing cry. A gro ...
"); * rural and farm life, most notably: ''boue'' "mud", ''cervoise'' "ale", ''charrue'' "plow", ''glaise'' "loam", ''gord'' "kiddle, stake net", ''jachère'' "fallow field", ''javelle'' "sheaf, bundle, fagot", ''marne'' "
marl Marl is an earthy material rich in carbonate minerals, clays, and silt. When hardened into rock, this becomes marlstone. It is formed in marine or freshwater environments, often through the activities of algae. Marl makes up the lower part ...
", ''mouton'' "sheep", ''raie'' "lynchet", ''sillon'' "furrow", ''souche'' "tree stump, tree base", ''tarière'' "auger, gimlet", ''tonne'' "barrel"; *some common verbs (''braire'' "to bray", ''changer'' "to change", ''craindre'' "to fear", ''jaillir'' "to surge, gush").; and * loan translations: ''aveugle'' "blind", from Latin ''ab oculis'' "eyeless", calque of Gaulish ''exsops'' "blind", literally "eyeless" (vs. Latin ''caecus'' → OFr ''cieu'', It. ''cieco'', Sp. ''ciego'', or ''orbus'' → Occ. ''òrb'', Venetian ''orbo'', Romanian ''orb''). Other Celtic words were not borrowed directly but brought in through Latin, some of which had become common in Latin, ''braies'' "knee-length pants", ''chainse'' "tunic", ''char'' "dray, wagon", ''daim'' "roe deer", ''étain'' "tin", ''glaive'' "broad sword", ''manteau'' "coat", ''vassal'' "serf, knave". Latin quickly took hold among the urban aristocracy for mercantile, official and educational reasons but did not prevail in the countryside until some four or five centuries later since Latin was of little or no social value to the
landed gentry The landed gentry, or the ''gentry'', is a largely historical British social class of landowners who could live entirely from rental income, or at least had a country estate. While distinct from, and socially below, the British peerage, t ...
and peasantry. The eventual spread of Latin can be attributed to social factors in the Late Empire such as the movement from urban-focused power to village-centred economies and legal serfdom.


Franks

In the 3rd century,
Western Europe Western Europe is the western region of Europe. The region's countries and territories vary depending on context. The concept of "the West" appeared in Europe in juxtaposition to "the East" and originally applied to the ancient Mediterranean ...
started to be invaded by
Germanic tribes The Germanic peoples were historical groups of people that once occupied Central Europe and Scandinavia during antiquity and into the early Middle Ages. Since the 19th century, they have traditionally been defined by the use of ancient and e ...
from the north and the east, and some of the groups settled in
Gaul Gaul ( la, Gallia) was a region of Western Europe first described by the Romans. It was inhabited by Celtic and Aquitani tribes, encompassing present-day France, Belgium, Luxembourg, most of Switzerland, parts of Northern Italy (only during ...
. In the history of the French language, the most important groups are the
Franks The Franks ( la, Franci or ) were a group of Germanic peoples whose name was first mentioned in 3rd-century Roman sources, and associated with tribes between the Lower Rhine and the Ems River, on the edge of the Roman Empire.H. Schutz: Tools ...
in northern France, the
Alemanni The Alemanni or Alamanni, were a confederation of Germanic tribes * * * on the Upper Rhine River. First mentioned by Cassius Dio in the context of the campaign of Caracalla of 213, the Alemanni captured the in 260, and later expanded into pres ...
in the modern German/French border area (
Alsace Alsace (, ; ; Low Alemannic German/ gsw-FR, Elsàss ; german: Elsass ; la, Alsatia) is a cultural region and a territorial collectivity in eastern France, on the west bank of the upper Rhine next to Germany and Switzerland. In 2020, it had ...
), the
Burgundians The Burgundians ( la, Burgundes, Burgundiōnes, Burgundī; on, Burgundar; ang, Burgendas; grc-gre, Βούργουνδοι) were an early Germanic tribe or group of tribes. They appeared in the middle Rhine region, near the Roman Empire, and ...
in the
Rhône The Rhône ( , ; wae, Rotten ; frp, Rôno ; oc, Ròse ) is a major river in France and Switzerland, rising in the Alps and flowing west and south through Lake Geneva and southeastern France before discharging into the Mediterranean Sea. At Ar ...
(and the Saone) Valley and the
Visigoths The Visigoths (; la, Visigothi, Wisigothi, Vesi, Visi, Wesi, Wisi) were an early Germanic people who, along with the Ostrogoths, constituted the two major political entities of the Goths within the Roman Empire in late antiquity, or what is k ...
in the
Aquitaine Aquitaine ( , , ; oc, Aquitània ; eu, Akitania; Poitevin-Saintongeais: ''Aguiéne''), archaic Guyenne or Guienne ( oc, Guiana), is a historical region of southwestern France and a former administrative region of the country. Since 1 Janu ...
region and Spain. The
Frankish language Frankish ( reconstructed endonym: *), also known as Old Franconian or Old Frankish, was the West Germanic language spoken by the Franks from the 5th to 9th century. After the Salian Franks settled in Roman Gaul, its speakers in Picardy ...
had a profound influence on the Latin spoken in their respective regions by altering both the pronunciation (especially the vowel system phonemes: ''e'', ''eu'', ''u'', short ''o'') and the
syntax In linguistics, syntax () is the study of how words and morphemes combine to form larger units such as phrases and sentences. Central concerns of syntax include word order, grammatical relations, hierarchical sentence structure ( constituenc ...
. It also introduced a number of new words (''see
List of French words of Germanic origin This is a list of Standard French words and phrases deriving from any Germanic language of any period, whether incorporated in the formation of the French language or borrowed at any time thereafter. #toc, French is a Romance languages, Romance l ...
''). Sources disagree on how much of the vocabulary of modern French (excluding French dialects) comes from Germanic words and range from just 500 words (≈1%) (representing loans from ancient Germanic languages:
Gothic Gothic or Gothics may refer to: People and languages *Goths or Gothic people, the ethnonym of a group of East Germanic tribes **Gothic language, an extinct East Germanic language spoken by the Goths **Crimean Gothic, the Gothic language spoken b ...
and Frankish) to 15% of the modern vocabulary (representing all Germanic loans up to modern times: Gothic, Frankish,
Old Norse Old Norse, Old Nordic, or Old Scandinavian, is a stage of development of North Germanic dialects before their final divergence into separate Nordic languages. Old Norse was spoken by inhabitants of Scandinavia and their overseas settlement ...
/Scandinavian, Dutch, German and English) to even higher if Germanic words coming from Latin and other Romance languages are taken into account. (Note that according to the ''
Académie française An academy (Attic Greek: Ἀκαδήμεια; Koine Greek Ἀκαδημία) is an institution of secondary or tertiary higher learning (and generally also research or honorary membership). The name traces back to Plato's school of philosop ...
'', only 5% of French words come from English.) Changes in
lexicon A lexicon is the vocabulary of a language or branch of knowledge (such as nautical or medical). In linguistics, a lexicon is a language's inventory of lexemes. The word ''lexicon'' derives from Greek word (), neuter of () meaning 'of or fo ...
/ morphology/
syntax In linguistics, syntax () is the study of how words and morphemes combine to form larger units such as phrases and sentences. Central concerns of syntax include word order, grammatical relations, hierarchical sentence structure ( constituenc ...
: * The name of the language itself, ''français'', comes from Old French ''franceis/francesc'' (compare
Medieval Latin Medieval Latin was the form of Literary Latin used in Roman Catholic Western Europe during the Middle Ages. In this region it served as the primary written language, though local languages were also written to varying degrees. Latin functioned ...
''franciscus'') from the Germanic ''frankisc'' "french, frankish" from ''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 Gallia Belgica ("Belgic Gaul") was a province of the Roman Empire located in the north-eastern part of Roman Gaul, in what is today primarily northern France, Belgium, and Luxembourg, along with parts of the Netherlands and Germany. In 50 BC, a ...
, somewhere in modern-day Belgium or the Netherlands). The name ''Gaule'' ("Gaul") was also taken from the Frankish *''Walholant'' ("Land of the Romans/Gauls"). * Several terms and expressions associated with their social structure (''baron/baronne, bâtard, bru, chambellan, échevin, félon, féodal, forban, gars/garçon, leude, lige, maçon, maréchal, marquis, meurtrier, sénéchal''). * Military terms (''agrès/gréer, attaquer, bière stretcher" dard, étendard, fief, flanc, flèche, gonfalon, guerre, garder, garnison, hangar, heaume, loge, marcher, patrouille, rang, rattraper, targe, trêve, troupe''). * Colours derived from Frankish and other Germanic languages (''blanc/blanche, bleu, blond/blonde, brun, fauve, gris, guède''). * Other examples among common words are ''abandonner, arranger, attacher, auberge, bande, banquet, bâtir, besogne, bille, blesser, bois, bonnet, bord, bouquet, bouter, braise, broderie, brosse, chagrin, choix, chic, cliché, clinquant, coiffe, corroyer, crèche, danser, échaffaud, engage, effroi, épargner, épeler, étal, étayer, étiquette, fauteuil, flan, flatter, flotter, fourbir, frais, frapper, gai, galant, galoper, gant, gâteau, glisser, grappe, gratter, gredin, gripper, guère, guise, hache, haïr, halle, hanche, harasser, héron, heurter, jardin, jauger, joli, laid, lambeau, layette, lécher, lippe, liste, maint, maquignon, masque, massacrer, mauvais, mousse, mousseron, orgueil, parc, patois, pincer, pleige, rat, rater, regarder, remarquer, riche/richesse, rime, robe, rober, saisir, salon, savon, soupe, tampon, tomber, touaille, trépigner, trop, tuyau'' and many words starting with a hard g (like ''gagner, garantie, gauche, guérir'') or with an aspired h (''haine, hargneux, hâte, haut'')
Le trésor de la langue française informatisé
'
* Endings in ''-ard'' (from Frankish ''hard'': ''canard, pochard, richard''), ''-aud'' (from Frankish ''wald'': ''
crapaud Crapaud is a French word meaning "toad". Etymology The word ultimately is rooted from Frankish ''*krappō'', ''*krappa'', meaning "hook", likely in reference to the toad's hooked feet. Heraldry Crapaud is sometimes used as an incorrect referen ...
, maraud, nigaud''), ''-an/-and'' (from old suffix ''-anc, -enc'': ''paysan, cormoran, Flamand, tisserand, chambellan'') all very common
family name affixes Family name affixes are a clue for surname etymology and can sometimes determine the ethnic origin of a person. This is a partial list of affixes. Prefixes * A – (Romanian) "son of" * Ab – (Welsh, Cornish, Breton) "son of" * Af – ( Dani ...
for French names. * Endings in ''-ange'' (Eng. ''-ing'', Grm. ''-ung''; ''boulange/boulanger, mélange/mélanger, vidange/vidanger''), diminutive ''-on'' (''oisillon'') * Many verbs ending in ''-ir'' (2nd group, see
French conjugation French conjugation refers to the variation in the endings of French verbs (inflections) depending on the person (I, you, we, etc), tense (present, future, etc) and mood (indicative, imperative and subjunctive). Most verbs are regular and can be en ...
) such as ''affranchir, ahurir, choisir, guérir, haïr, honnir, jaillir, lotir, nantir, rafraîchir, ragaillardir, tarir'', etc. * The prefix ''mé(s)-'' (from Frankish "''missa-''", as in ''mésentente'', ''mégarde'', ''méfait'', ''mésaventure'', ''mécréant'', ''mépris'', ''méconnaissance'', ''méfiance'', ''médisance'') * The prefix ''for-, four-'' as in ''forbannir, forcené, forlonger, (se) fourvoyer'', etc. from Frankish ''fir-, fur-'' (cf German ''ver-''; English ''for-'') merged with Old French ''fuers'' "outside, beyond" from Latin ''foris''. Latin ''foris'' was not used as a prefix in Classical Latin, but appears as a prefix in Medieval Latin following the Germanic invasions. * The prefix ''en-'', ''em-'' (which reinforced and merged with Latin ''in-'' "in, on, into") was extended to fit new formations not previously found in Latin. Influenced or calqued from Frankish *''in-'' and *''an-'', usually with an intensive or perfective sense: ''emballer, emblaver, endosser, enhardir, enjoliver, enrichir, envelopper:'' * The syntax shows the systematic presence of a subject pronoun in front of the verb, as in the Germanic languages: ''je vois'', ''tu vois'', ''il voit''. The subject pronoun is optional, function of the parameter pro-drop, in most other Romance languages (as in Spanish ''veo'', ''ves'', ''ve''). * The inversion of subject-verb to verb-subject to form the interrogative is characteristic of the Germanic languages but is not found in any major Romance language, except French (''Vous avez un crayon.'' vs. ''Avez-vous un crayon?'': "Do you have a pencil?"). * The adjective placed in front of the noun is typical of Germanic languages. The word order is more frequent in French than in the other major Romance languages and is occasionally compulsory (''belle femme'', '' vieil homme'', ''grande table'', ''petite table''). When it is optional, it can change the meaning: ''grand homme'' ("great man") and ''le plus grand homme'' ("the greatest man") vs. ''homme grand'' ("tall man") and ''l'homme le plus grand'' ("the tallest man"), ''certaine chose'' vs. ''chose certaine''. In Walloon, the order "adjective + noun" is the general rule, as in
Old French Old French (, , ; Modern French: ) was the language spoken in most of the northern half of France from approximately the 8th to the 14th centuries. Rather than a unified language, Old French was a linkage of Romance dialects, mutually intel ...
and North Cotentin Norman. * Several words are calqued or modelled on corresponding terms from Germanic languages (''bienvenue, cauchemar, chagriner, compagnon, entreprendre, manoeuvre, manuscrit, on, pardonner, plupart, sainfoin, tocsin, toujours''). Frankish had a determining influence on the birth of Old French, which partly explains that Old French is the earliest-attested Romance language, such as in the
Oaths of Strasbourg The Oaths of Strasbourg were a military pact made on 14 February 842 by Charles the Bald and Louis the German against their older brother Lothair I, the designated heir of Louis the Pious, the successor of Charlemagne. One year later the T ...
and '' Sequence of Saint Eulalia''. The new speech diverged so markedly from the Latin that it was no longer mutually intelligible. The Old Low Frankish influence is also primarily responsible for the differences between the ''langue d'oïl'' and ''langue d'oc'' ( Occitan) since different parts of Northern France remained bilingual in Latin and Germanic for several centuries, which correspond exactly to the places in which the first documents in Old French were written. Frankish shaped the popular Latin spoken there and gave it a very distinctive character compared to the other future Romance languages. The very first noticeable influence is the substitution of a Germanic stress accent for the Latin melodic accent, which resulted in diphthongisation, distinction between long and short vowels and the loss of the unaccentuated syllable and of final vowels: Latin ''decima'' > F ''dîme'' (> E ''dime''. Italian ''decima''; Spanish ''diezmo'');
Vulgar Latin Vulgar Latin, also known as Popular or Colloquial Latin, is the range of non-formal registers of Latin spoken from the Late Roman Republic onward. Through time, Vulgar Latin would evolve into numerous Romance languages. Its literary counterpa ...
''dignitate'' > OF ''deintié'' (> E ''dainty''. Occitan ''dinhitat''; Italian ''dignità''; Spanish ''dignidad''); VL ''catena'' > OF ''chaiene'' (> E ''chain''. Occitan ''cadena''; Italian ''catena''; Spanish ''cadena''). On the other hand, a common word like Latin ''aqua'' > Occitan ''aigue'' became Old French ''ewe'' > F ''eau'' 'water' (and ''évier'' sink) and was likely influenced by the OS or OHG word pronunciation ''aha'' (PG *''ahwo''). In addition, two new phonemes that no longer existed in Vulgar Latin returned: and (> OF ''g(u)-'', ONF ''w-'' cf. Picard ''w-''), e.g. VL ''altu'' > OF ''halt'' 'high' (influenced by OLF ''*hauh''; ≠ Italian, Spanish ''alto''; Occitan ''naut''); VL ''vespa'' > F ''guêpe'' (ONF ''wespe''; Picard ''wespe'') 'wasp' (influenced by OLF ''*waspa''; ≠ Occitan ''vèspa''; Italian ''vespa''; Spanish ''avispa''); L ''viscus'' > F ''gui'' 'mistletoe' (influenced by OLF ''*wihsila'' 'morello', together with analogous fruits, when they are not ripe; ≠ Occitan ''vesc''; Italian ''vischio''); LL ''vulpiculu'' 'little fox' (from L ''vulpes'' 'fox') > OF ''g pil'' (influenced by OLF ''*wulf'' 'wolf'; ≠ Italian ''volpe''). Italian and Spanish words of Germanic origin borrowed from French or directly from Germanic also retained wand It, Sp. ''guerra'' 'war'. These examples show a clear result of bilingualism, which frequently altered the initial syllable of the Latin. There is also the converse example in which the Latin word influenced the Germanic word: ''framboise'' 'raspberry' from OLF ''*brambasi'' (cf. OHG ''brāmberi'' > ''Brombeere'' 'mulberry'; E ''brambleberry''; ''*basi'' 'berry' cf. Got. ''-basi'', Dutch ''bes'' 'berry') conflated with LL ''fraga'' or OF ''fraie'' 'strawberry', which explains the shift to from and in turn the final ''-se'' of ''framboise'' turned ''fraie'' into ''fraise'' (≠ Occitan ''fragosta'' 'raspberry', Italian ''fragola'' 'strawberry'. Portuguese ''framboesa'' 'raspberry' and Spanish ''frambuesa'' are from French).
Philologists Philology () is the study of language in oral and written historical sources; it is the intersection of textual criticism, literary criticism, history, and linguistics (with especially strong ties to etymology). Philology is also defined ...
such as Pope (1934) estimate that perhaps 15% of the vocabulary of Modern French still derives from Germanic sources, but the proportion was larger in Old French, as the language was re-Latinised and partly Italianised by clerics and grammarians in the Middle Ages and later. Nevertheless, many such words like ''haïr'' "to hate" (≠ Latin ''odiare'' > Italian ''odiare'', Spanish ''odiar'', Occitan ''asirar'') and ''honte'' "shame" (≠ Latin ''vĕrēcundia'' > Occitan ''vergonha'', Italian ''vergogna'', Spanish ''vergüenza'') remain common. Urban T. Holmes Jr. estimated that German was spoken as a second language by public officials in western
Austrasia Austrasia was a territory which formed the north-eastern section of the Merovingian Kingdom of the Franks during the 6th to 8th centuries. It was centred on the Meuse, Middle Rhine and the Moselle rivers, and was the original territory of the ...
and
Neustria Neustria was the western part of the Kingdom of the Franks. Neustria included the land between the Loire and the Silva Carbonaria, approximately the north of present-day France, with Paris, Orléans, Tours, Soissons as its main cities. It late ...
as late as the 850s and that it had completely disappeared as a spoken language from those regions only in the 10th century, but some traces of Germanic elements still survive, especially in dialectal French ( Poitevin, Norman, Burgundian, Walloon, Picard etc.).


Normans and terms from the Low Countries

In 1204 AD, the
Duchy of Normandy The Duchy of Normandy grew out of the 911 Treaty of Saint-Clair-sur-Epte between King Charles III of West Francia and the Viking leader Rollo. The duchy was named for its inhabitants, the Normans. From 1066 until 1204, as a result of the Norman c ...
was integrated into the
Crown lands of France The crown lands, crown estate, royal domain or (in French) ''domaine royal'' (from demesne) of France were the lands, fiefs and rights directly possessed by the kings of France. While the term eventually came to refer to a territorial unit, the ...
, and many words were introduced into French from Norman of which about 150 words of Scandinavian origin are still in use. Most of the words are about the sea and seafaring: ''abraquer, alque, bagage, bitte, cingler, équiper (to equip), flotte, fringale, girouette, guichet, hauban, houle, hune, mare, marsouin, mouette, quille, raz, siller, touer, traquer, turbot, vague, varangue, varech''. Others pertain to farming and daily life: ''accroupir, amadouer, bidon, bigot, brayer, brette, cottage, coterie, crochet, duvet, embraser, fi, flâner, guichet, haras, harfang, harnais, houspiller, marmonner, mièvre, nabot, nique, quenotte, raccrocher, ricaner, rincer, rogue''. Likewise, most words borrowed from
Dutch Dutch commonly refers to: * Something of, from, or related to the Netherlands * Dutch people () * Dutch language () Dutch may also refer to: Places * Dutch, West Virginia, a community in the United States * Pennsylvania Dutch Country People E ...
deal with trade or are nautical in nature: ''affaler'', ''amarrer'', ''anspect'', ''bar'' (sea-bass), ''bastringuer'', ''bière'' (beer), ''blouse'' (bump), ''botte'', ''bouée'', ''bouffer'', ''boulevard'', ''bouquin'', ''cague'', ''cahute'', ''caqueter'', ''choquer'', ''diguer'', ''drôle'', ''dune'', ''équiper'' (to set sail), ''frelater'', ''fret'', ''grouiller'', ''hareng'', ''hère'', ''lamaneur'', ''lège'', ''manne'', ''mannequin'', ''maquiller'', ''matelot'', ''méringue'', ''moquer'', ''plaque'', ''sénau'', ''tribord'', ''vacarme'', as are words from
Low German : : : : : (70,000) (30,000) (8,000) , familycolor = Indo-European , fam2 = Germanic , fam3 = West Germanic , fam4 = North Sea Germanic , ancestor = Old Saxon , ancestor2 = Middle ...
: ''bivouac'', ''bouder'', ''homard'', ''vogue'', ''yole'', and
English English usually refers to: * English language * English people English may also refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England ** English national ...
of this period: ''arlequin'' (from Italian ''arlecchino'' < Norman ''hellequin'' < OE *''Herla cyning''), ''bateau'', ''bébé'', ''bol'' (sense 2 ≠ bol < Lt. ''bolus''), ''bouline'', ''bousin'', ''cambuse'', ''cliver'', ''chiffe/chiffon'', ''drague'', ''drain'', ''est'', ''groom'', ''héler'', ''merlin'', ''mouette'', ''nord'', ''ouest'', ''potasse'', ''rade'', ''rhum'', ''sonde'', ''sud'', ''turf'', ''yacht''.


Langue d'oïl

The
medieval Italian Italian (''italiano'' or ) is a Romance language of the Indo-European language family that evolved from the Vulgar Latin of the Roman Empire. Together with Sardinian, Italian is the least divergent language from Latin. Spoken by about 85 ...
poet
Dante Dante Alighieri (; – 14 September 1321), probably baptized Durante di Alighiero degli Alighieri and often referred to as Dante (, ), was an Italian poet, writer and philosopher. His ''Divine Comedy'', originally called (modern Italian: ' ...
, in his
Latin Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic languages, Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through ...
''
De vulgari eloquentia ''De vulgari eloquentia'' (; "On eloquence in the vernacular") is the title of a Latin essay by Dante Alighieri. Although meant to consist of four books, it abruptly terminates in the middle of the second book. It was probably composed shortly aft ...
'', classified the Romance languages into three groups by their respective words for "yes": ''Nam alii oc, alii si, alii vero dicunt oil'', "For some say ''oc'', others say ''si'', others say ''oïl''". The ''oïl'' languagesfrom
Latin Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic languages, Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through ...
'' '', "that is it"occupied northern France, the ''oc'' languagesfrom
Latin Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic languages, Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through ...
', "that"southern France, and the ''si'' languagesfrom
Latin Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic languages, Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through ...
', "thus"the
Italian Italian(s) may refer to: * Anything of, from, or related to the people of Italy over the centuries ** Italians, an ethnic group or simply a citizen of the Italian Republic or Italian Kingdom ** Italian language, a Romance language *** Regional Ita ...
and
Iberian peninsula The Iberian Peninsula (), ** * Aragonese and Occitan: ''Peninsula Iberica'' ** ** * french: Péninsule Ibérique * mwl, Península Eibérica * eu, Iberiar penintsula also known as Iberia, is a peninsula in southwestern Europe, def ...
s. Modern linguists typically add a third group within France around
Lyon Lyon,, ; Occitan: ''Lion'', hist. ''Lionés'' also spelled in English as Lyons, is the third-largest city and second-largest metropolitan area of France. It is located at the confluence of the rivers Rhône and Saône, to the northwest of ...
, the "Arpitan" or "
Franco-Provençal language Franco-Provençal (also Francoprovençal, Patois or Arpitan) is a language within Gallo-Romance originally spoken in east-central France, western Switzerland and northwestern Italy. Franco-Provençal has several distinct dialects and is sepa ...
", whose modern word for "yes" is ''ouè''. The
Gallo-Romance The Gallo-Romance branch of the Romance languages includes in the narrowest sense the Langues d'oïl and Franco-Provençal. However, other definitions are far broader, variously encompassing the Occitano-Romance, Gallo-Italic, and Rhaeto-Rom ...
group in the north of France, the '' langue d'oïl'' like Picard, Walloon and
Francien Francien is a 19th-century term in linguistics that was applied to the French dialect that was spoken in the Île-de-France region (with Paris at its centre) before the establishment of the French language as a standard language."Ce terme est un ...
, were influenced by the
Germanic languages The Germanic languages are a branch of the Indo-European language family spoken natively by a population of about 515 million people mainly in Europe, North America, Oceania and Southern Africa. The most widely spoken Germanic language, ...
spoken by the Frankish invaders. From the time period of
Clovis I Clovis ( la, Chlodovechus; reconstructed Frankish: ; – 27 November 511) was the first king of the Franks to unite all of the Frankish tribes under one ruler, changing the form of leadership from a group of petty kings to rule by a single ki ...
, the Franks extended their rule over northern Gaul. Over time, the French language developed from either the Oïl language found around
Paris Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. Si ...
and
Île-de-France The Île-de-France (, ; literally "Isle of France") is the most populous of the eighteen regions of France. Centred on the capital Paris, it is located in the north-central part of the country and often called the ''Région parisienne'' (; en, Pa ...
(the Francien theory) or from a standard administrative language based on common characteristics found in all Oïl languages (the
lingua franca A lingua franca (; ; for plurals see ), also known as a bridge language, common language, trade language, auxiliary language, vehicular language, or link language, is a language systematically used to make communication possible between groups ...
theory). ''
Langue d'oc Occitan (; oc, occitan, link=no ), also known as ''lenga d'òc'' (; french: langue d'oc) by its native speakers, and sometimes also referred to as ''Provençal'', is a Romance language spoken in Southern France, Monaco, Italy's Occitan Valley ...
'' used ''oc'' or ''òc'' for "yes" and is the language group in the south of France and northernmost
Spain , image_flag = Bandera de España.svg , image_coat = Escudo de España (mazonado).svg , national_motto = '' Plus ultra'' (Latin)(English: "Further Beyond") , national_anthem = (English: "Royal March") , ...
. The languages, such as Gascon and Provençal, have relatively little Frankish influence. The Middle Ages also saw the influence of other linguistic groups on the dialects of France. Modern French, which was derived mainly from the ''langue d'oïl'', acquired the word ''si'' to contradict negative statements or respond to negative questions, from cognate forms of "yes" in
Spanish Spanish might refer to: * Items from or related to Spain: **Spaniards are a nation and ethnic group indigenous to Spain **Spanish language, spoken in Spain and many Latin American countries **Spanish cuisine Other places * Spanish, Ontario, Can ...
and
Catalan Catalan may refer to: Catalonia From, or related to Catalonia: * Catalan language, a Romance language * Catalans, an ethnic group formed by the people from, or with origins in, Northern or southern Catalonia Places * 13178 Catalan, asteroid #1 ...
(''sí''),
Portuguese Portuguese may refer to: * anything of, from, or related to the country and nation of Portugal ** Portuguese cuisine, traditional foods ** Portuguese language, a Romance language *** Portuguese dialects, variants of the Portuguese language ** Portu ...
(''sim''), and
Italian Italian(s) may refer to: * Anything of, from, or related to the people of Italy over the centuries ** Italians, an ethnic group or simply a citizen of the Italian Republic or Italian Kingdom ** Italian language, a Romance language *** Regional Ita ...
(''sì''). From the 4th to the 7th centuries,
Brythonic Brittonic or Brythonic may refer to: *Common Brittonic, or Brythonic, the Celtic language anciently spoken in Great Britain *Brittonic languages, a branch of the Celtic languages descended from Common Brittonic *Britons (Celtic people) The Br ...
-speaking peoples from
Cornwall Cornwall (; kw, Kernow ) is a Historic counties of England, historic county and Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South West England. It is recognised as one of the Celtic nations, and is the homeland of the Cornish people ...
,
Devon Devon ( , historically known as Devonshire , ) is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in South West England. The most populous settlement in Devon is the city of Plymouth, followed by Devon's county town, the city of Exeter. Devo ...
and
Wales Wales ( cy, Cymru ) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is bordered by England to the east, the Irish Sea to the north and west, the Celtic Sea to the south west and the Bristol Channel to the south. It had a population in ...
travelled across the
English Channel The English Channel, "The Sleeve"; nrf, la Maunche, "The Sleeve" ( Cotentinais) or ( Jèrriais), ( Guernésiais), "The Channel"; br, Mor Breizh, "Sea of Brittany"; cy, Môr Udd, "Lord's Sea"; kw, Mor Bretannek, "British Sea"; nl, Het Ka ...
for reasons of trade and of flight from the
Anglo-Saxon The Anglo-Saxons were a cultural group who inhabited England in the Early Middle Ages. They traced their origins to settlers who came to Britain from mainland Europe in the 5th century. However, the ethnogenesis of the Anglo-Saxons happened wit ...
invasions of England. They established themselves in
Armorica Armorica or Aremorica (Gaulish: ; br, Arvorig, ) is the name given in ancient times to the part of Gaul between the Seine and the Loire that includes the Brittany Peninsula, extending inland to an indeterminate point and down the Atlantic Coast ...
, and their language became Breton in more recent centuries, which gave French ''bijou'' "jewel" (< Breton ''bizou'' from ''biz'' "finger") and ''menhir'' (< Breton ''maen'' "stone" and ''hir'' "long"). Attested since the time of
Julius Caesar Gaius Julius Caesar (; ; 12 July 100 BC – 15 March 44 BC), was a Roman general and statesman. A member of the First Triumvirate, Caesar led the Roman armies in the Gallic Wars before defeating his political rival Pompey in a civil war, an ...
, a non-Celtic people who spoke a
Basque Basque may refer to: * Basques, an ethnic group of Spain and France * Basque language, their language Places * Basque Country (greater region), the homeland of the Basque people with parts in both Spain and France * Basque Country (autonomous co ...
-related language inhabited the
Novempopulania Novempopulania (Latin for "country of the nine peoples") was one of the provinces created by Diocletian (Roman emperor from 284 to 305) out of Gallia Aquitania, which was also called ''Aquitania Tertia''. Early Roman period The area of Novemp ...
(''Aquitania Tertia'') in southwestern France, but the language gradually lost ground to the expanding
Romance Romance (from Vulgar Latin , "in the Roman language", i.e., "Latin") may refer to: Common meanings * Romance (love), emotional attraction towards another person and the courtship behaviors undertaken to express the feelings * Romance languages, ...
during a period spanning most of the Early Middle Ages.
Proto-Basque Proto-Basque ( eu, aitzineuskara; es, protoeuskera, protovasco; french: proto-basque), or Pre-Basque, is the reconstructed predecessor of the Basque language before the Roman conquests in the Western Pyrenees. Background The first linguist w ...
influenced the emerging Latin-based language spoken in the area between the
Garonne The Garonne (, also , ; Occitan, Catalan, Basque, and es, Garona, ; la, Garumna or ) is a river of southwest France and northern Spain. It flows from the central Spanish Pyrenees to the Gironde estuary at the French port of Bordeaux – ...
and the
Pyrenees The Pyrenees (; es, Pirineos ; french: Pyrénées ; ca, Pirineu ; eu, Pirinioak ; oc, Pirenèus ; an, Pirineus) is a mountain range straddling the border of France and Spain. It extends nearly from its union with the Cantabrian Mountains to ...
, which eventually resulted in the dialect of Occitan called Gascon. Its influence is seen in words like ''boulbène'' and ''cargaison''.
Vikings Vikings ; non, víkingr is the modern name given to seafaring people originally from Scandinavia (present-day Denmark, Norway and Sweden), who from the late 8th to the late 11th centuries raided, pirated, traded and se ...
from
Scandinavia Scandinavia; Sámi languages: /. ( ) is a subregion in Northern Europe, with strong historical, cultural, and linguistic ties between its constituent peoples. In English usage, ''Scandinavia'' most commonly refers to Denmark, Norway, and S ...
invaded France from the 9th century onwards and established themselves mostly in what would be called
Normandy Normandy (; french: link=no, Normandie ; nrf, Normaundie, Nouormandie ; from Old French , plural of ''Normant'', originally from the word for "northman" in several Scandinavian languages) is a geographical and cultural region in Northwestern ...
. The
Normans The Normans ( Norman: ''Normaunds''; french: Normands; la, Nortmanni/Normanni) were a population arising in the medieval Duchy of Normandy from the intermingling between Norse Viking settlers and indigenous West Franks and Gallo-Romans. ...
took up the langue d'oïl spoken there, but
Norman French Norman or Norman French (, french: Normand, Guernésiais: , Jèrriais: ) is a Romance language which can be classified as one of the Oïl languages along with French, Picard and Walloon. The name "Norman French" is sometimes used to descri ...
remained heavily influenced by
Old Norse Old Norse, Old Nordic, or Old Scandinavian, is a stage of development of North Germanic dialects before their final divergence into separate Nordic languages. Old Norse was spoken by inhabitants of Scandinavia and their overseas settlement ...
and its dialects. They also contributed many words to French related to sailing (''mouette'', ''crique'', ''hauban'', ''hune'' etc.) and farming. After the 1066
Norman conquest The Norman Conquest (or the Conquest) was the 11th-century invasion and occupation of England by an army made up of thousands of Norman, Breton, Flemish, and French troops, all led by the Duke of Normandy, later styled William the Conq ...
of England, the Normans' language developed into
Anglo-Norman Anglo-Norman may refer to: *Anglo-Normans, the medieval ruling class in England following the Norman conquest of 1066 *Anglo-Norman language **Anglo-Norman literature *Anglo-Norman England, or Norman England, the period in English history from 1066 ...
, which served as the language of the ruling classes and commerce in England until the
Hundred Years' War The Hundred Years' War (; 1337–1453) was a series of armed conflicts between the kingdoms of England and France during the Late Middle Ages. It originated from disputed claims to the French throne between the English House of Plantagen ...
, when the use of French-influenced English had spread throughout English society. Around then, many words from
Arabic Arabic (, ' ; , ' or ) is a Semitic language spoken primarily across the Arab world.Semitic languages: an international handbook / edited by Stefan Weninger; in collaboration with Geoffrey Khan, Michael P. Streck, Janet C. E.Watson; Walter ...
(or from Persian via Arabic) entered French, mainly indirectly through
Medieval Latin Medieval Latin was the form of Literary Latin used in Roman Catholic Western Europe during the Middle Ages. In this region it served as the primary written language, though local languages were also written to varying degrees. Latin functioned ...
, Italian and Spanish. There are words for luxury goods (''élixir, orange''),
spices A spice is a seed, fruit, root, bark, or other plant substance primarily used for flavoring or coloring food. Spices are distinguished from herbs, which are the leaves, flowers, or stems of plants used for flavoring or as a garnish. Spices are ...
(''camphre, safran''), trade goods (''alcool, bougie, coton''), sciences (''alchimie, hasard''), and
mathematics Mathematics is an area of knowledge that includes the topics of numbers, formulas and related structures, shapes and the spaces in which they are contained, and quantities and their changes. These topics are represented in modern mathematics ...
(''algèbre, algorithme''). It was only after the 19th-century development of French colonies in North Africa that French borrowed words directly from Arabic (''toubib'', ''chouia'', ''mechoui'').


Modern French

For the period until around 1300, some linguists refer to the oïl languages collectively as
Old French Old French (, , ; Modern French: ) was the language spoken in most of the northern half of France from approximately the 8th to the 14th centuries. Rather than a unified language, Old French was a linkage of Romance dialects, mutually intel ...
(''ancien français''). The earliest extant text in French is the
Oaths of Strasbourg The Oaths of Strasbourg were a military pact made on 14 February 842 by Charles the Bald and Louis the German against their older brother Lothair I, the designated heir of Louis the Pious, the successor of Charlemagne. One year later the T ...
from 842; Old French became a
literary language A literary language is the form (register) of a language used in written literature, which can be either a nonstandard dialect or a standardized variety of the language. Literary language sometimes is noticeably different from the spoken langua ...
with the ''
chansons de geste The ''chanson de geste'' (, from Latin 'deeds, actions accomplished') is a medieval narrative, a type of epic poem that appears at the dawn of French literature. The earliest known poems of this genre date from the late 11th and early 12th ...
'' that told tales of the paladins of
Charlemagne Charlemagne ( , ) or Charles the Great ( la, Carolus Magnus; german: Karl der Große; 2 April 747 – 28 January 814), a member of the Carolingian dynasty, was King of the Franks from 768, King of the Lombards from 774, and the first E ...
and the
hero A hero (feminine: heroine) is a real person or a main fictional character who, in the face of danger, combats adversity through feats of ingenuity, courage, or strength. Like other formerly gender-specific terms (like ''actor''), ''her ...
es of the
Crusade The Crusades were a series of religious wars initiated, supported, and sometimes directed by the Latin Church in the medieval period. The best known of these Crusades are those to the Holy Land in the period between 1095 and 1291 that were ...
s. The first government authority to adopt Modern French as official was the
Aosta Valley , Valdostan or Valdotainian it, Valdostano (man) it, Valdostana (woman)french: Valdôtain (man)french: Valdôtaine (woman) , population_note = , population_blank1_title = Official languages , population_blank1 = Italian French ...
in 1536, three years before
France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of Overseas France, overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic, Pacific Ocean, Pac ...
itself. By the Ordinance of Villers-Cotterêts in 1539 King
Francis I Francis I or Francis the First may refer to: * Francesco I Gonzaga (1366–1407) * Francis I, Duke of Brittany (1414–1450), reigned 1442–1450 * Francis I of France (1494–1547), King of France, reigned 1515–1547 * Francis I, Duke of Saxe-Lau ...
made French the
official language An official language is a language given supreme status in a particular country, state, or other jurisdiction. Typically the term "official language" does not refer to the language used by a people or country, but by its government (e.g. judiciary, ...
of administration and court proceedings in France, which ousted
Latin Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic languages, Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through ...
, which had been used earlier. With the imposition of a standardised chancery dialect and the loss of the
declension In linguistics, declension (verb: ''to decline'') is the changing of the form of a word, generally to express its syntactic function in the sentence, by way of some inflection. Declensions may apply to nouns, pronouns, adjectives, adverbs, and ...
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 of Modern French that originate from
Italian Italian(s) may refer to: * Anything of, from, or related to the people of Italy over the centuries ** Italians, an ethnic group or simply a citizen of the Italian Republic or Italian Kingdom ** Italian language, a Romance language *** Regional Ita ...
were introduced in this period, including several denoting artistic concepts (''scenario'', ''piano''), luxury items and food. The earliest history of the French language and its literature was also written in this period: the ''Recueil de l'origine de la langue et poesie françoise'', by Claude Fauchet, published in 1581. Following a period of unification, regulation and purification, the French of the 17th and the 18th centuries is sometimes referred to as Classical French (''français classique''), but many linguists simply refer to French language from the 17th century to today as Modern French (''français moderne''). The foundation of the
Académie française An academy (Attic Greek: Ἀκαδήμεια; Koine Greek Ἀκαδημία) is an institution of secondary or tertiary higher learning (and generally also research or honorary membership). The name traces back to Plato's school of philosop ...
(French Academy) in 1634 by
Cardinal Richelieu Armand Jean du Plessis, Duke of Richelieu (; 9 September 1585 – 4 December 1642), known as Cardinal Richelieu, was a French clergyman and statesman. He was also known as ''l'Éminence rouge'', or "the Red Eminence", a term derived from the ...
created an official body whose goal has been the purification and preservation of the French language. The 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 heImmortality f the French language). The foundation still exists and contributes to the policing of the language and to 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'', however was created not by the Académie but by a linguist appointed by IBM (see :fr:ordinateur). From the 17th to the 19th centuries, France was the leading land power in Europe; together with the influence of the Enlightenment, French was therefore the
lingua franca A lingua franca (; ; for plurals see ), also known as a bridge language, common language, trade language, auxiliary language, vehicular language, or link language, is a language systematically used to make communication possible between groups ...
of educated Europe, especially with regards to the arts, literature and
diplomacy Diplomacy comprises spoken or written communication by representatives of states (such as leaders and diplomats) intended to influence events in the international system.Ronald Peter Barston, ''Modern diplomacy'', Pearson Education, 2006, p. ...
. Monarchs like
Frederick II of Prussia Frederick II (german: Friedrich II.; 24 January 171217 August 1786) was King in Prussia from 1740 until 1772, and King of Prussia from 1772 until his death in 1786. His most significant accomplishments include his military successes in the S ...
and
Catherine the Great , en, Catherine Alexeievna Romanova, link=yes , house = , father = Christian August, Prince of Anhalt-Zerbst , mother = Joanna Elisabeth of Holstein-Gottorp , birth_date = , birth_name = Princess Sophie of Anha ...
of Russia spoke and wrote in excellent French. The Russian, German and Scandinavian courts spoke French as their main or official language and regarded their national languages as the language of the peasants. The spread of French to other European countries was also aided by emigration of persecuted
Huguenots The Huguenots ( , also , ) were a religious group of French Protestants who held to the Reformed, or Calvinist, tradition of Protestantism. The term, which may be derived from the name of a Swiss political leader, the Genevan burgomaster B ...
. In the 17th and the 18th centuries, French established itself permanently in the
Americas The Americas, which are sometimes collectively called America, are a landmass comprising the totality of North America, North and South America. The Americas make up most of the land in Earth's Western Hemisphere and comprise the New World. ...
. There is an academic debate about how fluent in French the colonists of
New France New France (french: Nouvelle-France) was the area colonized by France in North America, beginning with the exploration of the Gulf of Saint Lawrence by Jacques Cartier in 1534 and ending with the cession of New France to Great Britain and Spa ...
were. Less than 15% of colonists (25% of the women – chiefly '' filles du roi'' – and 5% of the men) were from the
Paris Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. Si ...
region and presumably spoke French, but most of the rest came from north-western and western regions of France in which French was not the usual first language. It is not clearly known how many among those colonists understood French as a second language, and how many among them, nearly all of whom natively spoke an oïl language, could understand and be understood by those who spoke French because of interlinguistic similarity. In any case, such a linguistic unification of all the groups coming from France happened (either in France, on the ships, or in Canada) that many sources noted that all "Canadiens" spoke French ( King's French) natively by the end of the 17th century, well before the unification was complete in France. Canada had a reputation of speaking French as well as in Paris. 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 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 Touraine (; ) is one of the traditional provinces of France. Its capital was Tours. During the political reorganization of French territory in 1790, Touraine was divided between the departments of Indre-et-Loire, :Loir-et-Cher, Indre and Vien ...
(around
Tours Tours ( , ) is one of the largest cities in the region of Centre-Val de Loire, France. It is the prefecture of the department of Indre-et-Loire. The commune of Tours had 136,463 inhabitants as of 2018 while the population of the whole metro ...
and the Loire 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 A nation state is a political unit where the state and nation are congruent. It is a more precise concept than "country", since a country does not need to have a predominant ethnic group. A nation, in the sense of a common ethnicity, may in ...
, which appeared after the 1789
French Revolution The French Revolution ( ) was a period of radical political and societal change in France that began with the Estates General of 1789 and ended with the formation of the French Consulate in November 1799. Many of its ideas are conside ...
and
Napoleon I Napoleon Bonaparte ; it, Napoleone Bonaparte, ; co, Napulione Buonaparte. (born Napoleone Buonaparte; 15 August 1769 – 5 May 1821), later known by his regnal name Napoleon I, was a French military commander and political leader wh ...
's empire, unified the
French people The French people (french: Français) are an ethnic group and nation primarily located in Western Europe that share a common French culture, history, and language, identified with the country of France. The French people, especially the na ...
in particular through the consolidation of the use of the French language. Hence, according to the historian
Eric Hobsbawm Eric John Ernest Hobsbawm (; 9 June 1917 – 1 October 2012) was a British historian of the rise of industrial capitalism, socialism and nationalism. A life-long Marxist, his socio-political convictions influenced the character of his work. ...
, "the French language has been essential to the concept of 'France', although in 1789 50% of the French people did not 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 was not usually spoken except in cities, and, even there, not always in the faubourgs pproximatively translatable to "suburbs" In the North as in the South of France, almost nobody spoke French." Hobsbawm highlighted the role of
conscription Conscription (also called the draft in the United States) is the state-mandated enlistment of people in a national service, mainly a military service. Conscription dates back to Ancient history, antiquity and it continues in some countries to th ...
, invented by Napoleon, and of the 1880s public instruction laws, which allowed to mix the various groups of France into a
nationalist Nationalism is an idea and movement that holds that the nation should be congruent with the state. As a movement, nationalism tends to promote the interests of a particular nation (as in a group of people), Smith, Anthony. ''Nationalism: Th ...
mold, which created the French citizen and his consciousness of membership to a common nation, and the various "
patois ''Patois'' (, pl. same or ) is speech or language that is considered nonstandard, although the term is not formally defined in linguistics. As such, ''patois'' can refer to pidgins, creoles, dialects or vernaculars, but not commonly to jargon o ...
" were progressively eradicated.


Issues

There is some debate in today's France about the preservation of the French language and the influence of English (see
Franglais Franglais (; also Frenglish ) is a French blend that referred first to the overuse of English words by French speakers and later to diglossia or the macaronic mixture of French () and English (). Etymology The word ''Franglais'' was first att ...
), especially with regard to international business, the sciences and popular culture. There have been laws (see Toubon law) enacted to require all print ads and billboards with foreign expressions to include a French translation and to 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 key international language in Europe, being the language of diplomacy from the 17th to the mid-20th centuries, French lost most of its international significance to English in the 20th century, especially after
World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...
, with the rise of the United States as a dominant global
superpower A superpower is a state with a dominant position characterized by its extensive ability to exert influence or project power on a global scale. This is done through the combined means of economic, military, technological, political and cultural ...
. A watershed was the
Treaty of Versailles The Treaty of Versailles (french: Traité de Versailles; german: Versailler Vertrag, ) was the most important of the peace treaties of World War I. It ended the state of war between Germany and the Allied Powers. It was signed on 28 June 1 ...
, which ended
World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was List of wars and anthropogenic disasters by death toll, one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, ...
and was written in both French and English. A small but increasing number of large multinational firms headquartered in France use English as their working language even in their French operations. Also, to gain international recognition, French scientists often publish their work in English. Those trends have met some resistance. In March 2006, President
Jacques Chirac Jacques René Chirac (, , ; 29 November 193226 September 2019) was a Politics of France, French politician who served as President of France from 1995 to 2007. Chirac was previously Prime Minister of France from 1974 to 1976 and from 1986 to ...
briefly walked out of an EU summit after Ernest-Antoine Seilliere began addressing the summit in English. In February 2007, Forum Francophone International began organising protests against the "linguistic hegemony" of English in France and in support of the right of French workers to use French as their working language. French remains the second most-studied foreign language in the world, after English, and is a
lingua franca A lingua franca (; ; for plurals see ), also known as a bridge language, common language, trade language, auxiliary language, vehicular language, or link language, is a language systematically used to make communication possible between groups ...
in some regions, notably in Africa. The legacy of French as a living language outside Europe is mixed: it is nearly extinct in some former French colonies (
Southeast Asia Southeast Asia, also spelled South East Asia and South-East Asia, and also known as Southeastern Asia, South-eastern Asia or SEA, is the geographical south-eastern region of Asia, consisting of the regions that are situated south of mainland ...
), but the language has changed to creoles, dialects or pidgins in the French departments in the
West Indies The West Indies is a subregion of North America, surrounded by the North Atlantic Ocean and the Caribbean Sea that includes 13 independent island countries and 18 dependencies and other territories in three major archipelagos: the Greate ...
even though its people are educated in Standard French. 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 Africa is the world's second-largest and second-most populous continent, after Asia in both cases. At about 30.3 million km2 (11.7 million square miles) including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of Earth's total surface area ...
. In the Canadian province of
Quebec Quebec ( ; )According to the Canadian government, ''Québec'' (with the acute accent) is the official name in Canadian French and ''Quebec'' (without the accent) is the province's official name in Canadian English is one of the thirte ...
, different laws have promoted the use of French in administration, business and education since the 1970s.
Bill 101 The ''Charter of the French Language'' (french: link=no, La charte de la langue française), also known in English as Bill 101, Law 101 (''french: link=no, Loi 101''), or Quebec French Preference Law, is a law in the province of Quebec in Canada ...
, for example, obliges most children whose parents did not attend an English-speaking school to be educated in French. Efforts are also made such as by the ''
Office québécois de la langue française The (, OQLF; en, Quebec Board of the French Language) is a public organization established on 24 March 1961, by the Liberal government of Jean Lesage. Attached to the , its initial mission, defined in its report of 1 April 1964, was "to align ...
'' to reduce the variation of French spoken in Quebec and to preserve the distinctiveness of
Quebec French Quebec French (french: français québécois ), also known as Québécois French, is the predominant variety of the French language spoken in Canada. It is the dominant language of the province of Quebec, used in everyday communication, in educ ...
. There has been French emigration to the United States, Australia and South America, but the descendants of those immigrants have been so assimilated that few of them still speak French. In the United States, efforts are ongoing in
Louisiana Louisiana , group=pronunciation (French: ''La Louisiane'') is a state in the Deep South and South Central regions of the United States. It is the 20th-smallest by area and the 25th most populous of the 50 U.S. states. Louisiana is bord ...
(''see
CODOFIL The Council for the Development of French in Louisiana (CODOFIL; french: le Conseil pour le développement du français en Louisiane) is Louisiana's Office of Francophone Affairs (french: Agence des affaires francophones). It is a state agency wh ...
'') and parts of
New England New England is a region comprising six states in the Northeastern United States: Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, and Vermont. It is bordered by the state of New York to the west and by the Canadian provinces ...
(particularly
Maine Maine () is a state in the New England and Northeastern regions of the United States. It borders New Hampshire to the west, the Gulf of Maine to the southeast, and the Canadian provinces of New Brunswick and Quebec to the northeast and nor ...
) to preserve French there.


Internal phonological history

French has radically transformative
sound change A sound change, in historical linguistics, is a change in the pronunciation of a language. A sound change can involve the replacement of one speech sound (or, more generally, one phonetic feature value) by a different one (called phonetic chan ...
s, especially compared to other Romance languages such as
Spanish Spanish might refer to: * Items from or related to Spain: **Spaniards are a nation and ethnic group indigenous to Spain **Spanish language, spoken in Spain and many Latin American countries **Spanish cuisine Other places * Spanish, Ontario, Can ...
,
Portuguese Portuguese may refer to: * anything of, from, or related to the country and nation of Portugal ** Portuguese cuisine, traditional foods ** Portuguese language, a Romance language *** Portuguese dialects, variants of the Portuguese language ** Portu ...
,
Italian Italian(s) may refer to: * Anything of, from, or related to the people of Italy over the centuries ** Italians, an ethnic group or simply a citizen of the Italian Republic or Italian Kingdom ** Italian language, a Romance language *** Regional Ita ...
and
Romanian Romanian may refer to: *anything of, from, or related to the country and nation of Romania ** Romanians, an ethnic group **Romanian language, a Romance language ***Romanian dialects, variants of the Romanian language **Romanian cuisine, traditiona ...
:


Vowels

The
Vulgar Latin Vulgar Latin, also known as Popular or Colloquial Latin, is the range of non-formal registers of Latin spoken from the Late Roman Republic onward. Through time, Vulgar Latin would evolve into numerous Romance languages. Its literary counterpa ...
underlying French and most other Romance languages had seven vowels in stressed syllables (, which are similar to the vowels of
American English American English, sometimes called United States English or U.S. English, is the set of varieties of the English language native to the United States. English is the most widely spoken language in the United States and in most circumstances ...
''pat/pot pet pate peat caught coat coot'' respectively), and five in unstressed syllables (). Portuguese and Italian largely preserve that system, and Spanish has innovated only in converting to and to , which resulted in a simple five-vowel system . In French, however, numerous sound changes resulted in a system with 12–14
oral vowel A nasal vowel is a vowel that is produced with a lowering of the soft palate (or velum) so that the air flow escapes through the nose and the mouth simultaneously, as in the French vowel or Amoy []. By contrast, oral vowels are produced witho ...
s and 3–4
nasal vowel A nasal vowel is a vowel that is produced with a lowering of the soft palate (or velum) so that the air flow escapes through the nose and the mouth simultaneously, as in the French vowel or Amoy []. By contrast, oral vowels are produced with ...
s (see French phonology). Perhaps the most salient characteristic of French vowel history is the development of a strong stress accent, which is usually ascribed to the influence of the
Germanic languages The Germanic languages are a branch of the Indo-European language family spoken natively by a population of about 515 million people mainly in Europe, North America, Oceania and Southern Africa. The most widely spoken Germanic language, ...
. It has led to the disappearance of most unstressed vowels and to pervasive differences in the pronunciation of stressed vowels in syllables that were
open Open or OPEN may refer to: Music * Open (band), Australian pop/rock band * The Open (band), English indie rock band * Open (Blues Image album), ''Open'' (Blues Image album), 1969 * Open (Gotthard album), ''Open'' (Gotthard album), 1999 * Open (C ...
or
closed syllable A syllable is a unit of organization for a sequence of speech sounds typically made up of a syllable nucleus (most often a vowel) with optional initial and final margins (typically, consonants). Syllables are often considered the phonological ...
s (a closed syllable is here a syllable that was followed by two or more consonants in Vulgar Latin, and an open syllable was followed by at most one consonant). It is commonly thought that stressed vowels in open syllables were lengthened, and most of the long vowels were then turned into
diphthongs A diphthong ( ; , ), also known as a gliding vowel, is a combination of two adjacent vowel sounds within the same syllable. Technically, a diphthong is a vowel with two different targets: that is, the tongue (and/or other parts of the speech ...
. The loss of unstressed vowels, particularly those after the stressed syllable, ultimately produced the situation in Modern French in which the accent is uniformly found on the last syllable of a word. (Conversely, Modern French has a stress accent that is quite weak, with little difference between the pronunciation of stressed and unstressed vowels.)


Unstressed vowels

Vulgar Latin had five vowels in unstressed syllables: . When they occurred word-finally, all were lost in
Old French Old French (, , ; Modern French: ) was the language spoken in most of the northern half of France from approximately the 8th to the 14th centuries. Rather than a unified language, Old French was a linkage of Romance dialects, mutually intel ...
except for , which turned into a
schwa In linguistics, specifically phonetics and phonology, schwa (, rarely or ; sometimes spelled shwa) is a vowel sound denoted by the IPA symbol , placed in the central position of the vowel chart. In English and some other languages, it rep ...
(written ''e''): A final schwa also developed when the loss of a final vowel produced a consonant cluster that was then unpronounceable word-finally, usually consisting of a consonant followed by ''l'', ''r'', ''m'' or ''n'' (VL = Vulgar Latin, OF = Old French): * "people" > ''peuple'' * "between" > VL * > ''entre'' * "father" > ''père'' * "donkey" > OF ''asne'' > ''âne'' * "island" > OF ''isle'' > ''île'' The final schwa was eventually lost as well but has left its mark in the spelling and in the pronunciation of final consonants, which normally remain pronounced if a schwa followed but are often lost otherwise: ''fait'' "done (masc.)" vs. ''faite'' "done (fem.)" . Intertonic vowels (unstressed vowels in interior syllables) were lost entirely except for ''a'' in a syllable preceding the stress, which (originally) became a schwa. The stressed syllable is underlined in the Latin examples: * "people" > ''peuple'' * "donkey, ass" > OF ''asne'' > ''âne'' * "angel" > ''ange'' * "priest" > VL * > OF ''prestre'' > ''prêtre'' * "fourteen" > VL * > ''quatorze'' * "Stephen" > VL * > OF ''Estievne'' > ''Étienne'' * "week" > VL * > ''semaine'' * * "to speak" > VL * > ''parler'' * "sacrament" > OF ''sairement'' > ''serment'' "oath" * "to help" > ''aider'' * "to break one's fast" > OF ''disner'' > ''dîner'' "to dine"


Stressed vowels

As noted above, stressed vowels developed quite differently depending on whether they occurred in an
open syllable A syllable is a unit of organization for a sequence of speech sounds typically made up of a syllable nucleus (most often a vowel) with optional initial and final margins (typically, consonants). Syllables are often considered the phonological " ...
(followed by at most one consonant) or a
closed syllable A syllable is a unit of organization for a sequence of speech sounds typically made up of a syllable nucleus (most often a vowel) with optional initial and final margins (typically, consonants). Syllables are often considered the phonological ...
(followed by two or more consonants). In open syllables, the Vulgar Latin mid vowels all diphthongized, becoming Old French ''ie oi ue eu'' respectively (''ue'' and ''eu'' later merged), while Vulgar Latin was raised to Old French ''e''. In closed syllables, all Vulgar Latin vowels originally remained unchanged, but eventually, merged into , became the
front rounded vowel A front rounded vowel is a particular type of vowel that is both front and rounded. The front rounded vowels defined by the IPA include: * , a close front rounded vowel (or "high front rounded vowel") * , a near-close front rounded vowel (or " ...
and was raised to . (The last two changes occurred unconditionally, in both open and closed and in both stressed and unstressed syllables.) This table shows the outcome of stressed vowels in open syllables: This table shows the outcome of stressed vowels in closed syllables:


Nasal vowels

Latin that ended up not followed by a vowel after the loss of vowels in unstressed syllables was ultimately absorbed into the preceding vowel, which produced a series of
nasal vowel A nasal vowel is a vowel that is produced with a lowering of the soft palate (or velum) so that the air flow escapes through the nose and the mouth simultaneously, as in the French vowel or Amoy []. By contrast, oral vowels are produced with ...
s. The developments are somewhat complex (even more so when a palatal element is also present in the same cluster, as in "point, dot" > ''point'' ). There are two separate cases, depending on whether the originally stood between vowels or next to a consonant (whether a preceding stressed vowel developed in an
open syllable A syllable is a unit of organization for a sequence of speech sounds typically made up of a syllable nucleus (most often a vowel) with optional initial and final margins (typically, consonants). Syllables are often considered the phonological " ...
or
closed syllable A syllable is a unit of organization for a sequence of speech sounds typically made up of a syllable nucleus (most often a vowel) with optional initial and final margins (typically, consonants). Syllables are often considered the phonological ...
context, respectively). See the article on the
phonological history of French French exhibits perhaps the most extensive phonetic changes (from Latin) of any of the Romance languages. Similar changes are seen in some of the northern Italian regional languages, such as Lombard or Ligurian. Most other Romance languages are ...
for full details.


Long vowels

Latin before a consonant ultimately was absorbed into the preceding vowel, which produced a
long vowel In linguistics, vowel length is the perceived length of a vowel sound: the corresponding physical measurement is duration. In some languages vowel length is an important phonemic factor, meaning vowel length can change the meaning of the word, ...
(indicated in Modern French spelling with a
circumflex The circumflex () is a diacritic in the Latin and Greek scripts that is also used in the written forms of many languages and in various romanization and transcription schemes. It received its English name from la, circumflexus "bent around" ...
accent). For the most part, the long vowels are no longer pronounced distinctively long in Modern French (although long ''ê'' is still distinguished in
Quebec French Quebec French (french: français québécois ), also known as Québécois French, is the predominant variety of the French language spoken in Canada. It is the dominant language of the province of Quebec, used in everyday communication, in educ ...
). In most cases, the formerly-long vowel is pronounced identically to the formerly short vowel (''mur'' "wall" and ''mûr'' "mature" are pronounced the same), but some pairs are distinguished by their quality (''o'' vs. ''ô'' ). A separate later vowel lengthening operates
allophonic In phonology, an allophone (; from the Greek , , 'other' and , , 'voice, sound') is a set of multiple possible spoken soundsor ''phones''or signs used to pronounce a single phoneme in a particular language. For example, in English, (as in ' ...
ally in Modern French and lengthens vowels before the final voiced
fricatives A fricative is a consonant produced by forcing air through a narrow channel made by placing two articulators close together. These may be the lower lip against the upper teeth, in the case of ; the back of the tongue against the soft palate in t ...
(e.g. ''paix'' "peace" vs. ''pair'' "even").


Effect of palatalised consonants

Late Vulgar Latin of the French area had a full complement of palatalised consonants, and more developed over time. Most of them, if preceded by a vowel, caused a sound (a
palatal approximant The voiced palatal approximant, or yod, is a type of consonant used in many spoken languages. The symbol in the International Phonetic Alphabet that represents this sound is . The equivalent X-SAMPA symbol is j, and in the Americanist phonetic n ...
, as in the English words ''you'' or ''yard'') to appear before them, which combined with the vowel to produce a diphthong and eventually developed in various complex ways. A also appeared after them if they were originally followed by certain stressed vowels in
open syllable A syllable is a unit of organization for a sequence of speech sounds typically made up of a syllable nucleus (most often a vowel) with optional initial and final margins (typically, consonants). Syllables are often considered the phonological " ...
s (specifically, or ). If the appearance of the sound produced a triphthong, the middle vowel was dropped. Examples show the various sources of palatalized consonants: # From Latin or in
hiatus Hiatus may refer to: * Hiatus (anatomy), a natural fissure in a structure * Hiatus (stratigraphy), a discontinuity in the age of strata in stratigraphy *''Hiatus'', a genus of picture-winged flies with sole member species '' Hiatus fulvipes'' * G ...
: #* "to lower" > VL * > OF ''baissier'' > ''baisser'' #* "palace" > VL * > ''palais'' # From Latin or followed by a
front vowel A front vowel is a class of vowel sounds used in some spoken languages, its defining characteristic being that the highest point of the tongue is positioned as far forward as possible in the mouth without creating a constriction that would otherw ...
(i.e. or ): #* "peace" > VL * > ''paix'' #* "wax" > VL * > * > ''cire'' # From Latin sequences such as , , : #* "done" > Western Vulgar Latin * > ''fait'' #* "to release" > Western Vulgar Latin * > OF ''laissier'' > ''laisser'' "to let" #* "black" > Western Vulgar Latin * > Early Old French ''neir'' > ''noir'' #* "night" > Western Vulgar Latin * > * > * ''nuit'' # From Latin or followed by except after a vowel: #* "dog" > pre-French * > ''chien'' #* "to load" > Western Vulgar Latin * > * > pre-French * > OF ''chargier'' # From Latin consonantal : #* "worse" > Western Vulgar Latin * > pre-French * > ''pire'' #* "he lies (on the ground)" > pre-French * > * > OF ''gist'' > ''gît''


Effect of ''l''

In Old French, ''l'' before a consonant became ''u'' and produced new diphthongs, which eventually resolved into
monophthongs A monophthong ( ; , ) is a pure vowel sound, one whose articulation at both beginning and end is relatively fixed, and which does not glide up or down towards a new position of articulation. The monophthongs can be contrasted with diphthongs, wh ...
: "false" > ''fausse'' . See the article on the
phonological history of French French exhibits perhaps the most extensive phonetic changes (from Latin) of any of the Romance languages. Similar changes are seen in some of the northern Italian regional languages, such as Lombard or Ligurian. Most other Romance languages are ...
for details.


Consonants

The sound changes involving consonants are less striking than those involving vowels. In some ways, French is actually relatively conservative. For example, it preserves initial ''pl-'', ''fl-'', ''cl-'', unlike Spanish, Portuguese and Italian: "to rain" > ''pleuvoir'' (Spanish ''llover'', Portuguese ''chover'', Italian ''piovere'').


Lenition

Consonants between vowels were subject to a process called
lenition In linguistics, lenition is a sound change that alters consonants, making them more sonorous. The word ''lenition'' itself means "softening" or "weakening" (from Latin 'weak'). Lenition can happen both synchronically (within a language at a pa ...
, a type of weakening. That was more extensive in French than in Spanish, Portuguese or Italian. For example, between vowels went through the following stages in French: > > > no sound. However, in Spanish only the first two changes happened; in Brazilian Portuguese, only the first change happened, and in Italian, no change happened. Compare "life" > ''vie'' with Italian ''vita'', Portuguese ''vida'', Spanish ''vida'' . This table shows the outcomes:


Palatalization

As described above, Late Vulgar Latin of the French area had an extensive series of palatalized consonants that developed from numerous sources. The resulting sounds tended to drop a /j/ before and/or after them, which formed diphthongs that later developed in complex ways. Latin and in
hiatus Hiatus may refer to: * Hiatus (anatomy), a natural fissure in a structure * Hiatus (stratigraphy), a discontinuity in the age of strata in stratigraphy *''Hiatus'', a genus of picture-winged flies with sole member species '' Hiatus fulvipes'' * G ...
position (directly followed by another vowel) developed into /j/ in Vulgar Latin and then combined with the preceding consonant to form a palatalized consonant. All consonants could be palatalized in that fashion. The resulting consonants developed as follows (some developed differently when they became final as a result of the early loss of the following vowel): followed by or developed into Vulgar Latin *, which was lenited to * between vowels (later ''-is-''). The pronunciation was still present in Old French but was later simplified to : * "hundred" > ''cent'' * "to please" > ''plaisir'' "pleasure" * "peace" > OF ''pais'' > ''paix'' before or developed originally into Vulgar Latin *, which subsequently became when it was not between vowels. The pronunciation was still present in Old French but was later simplified to . Between vowels, often disappeared: * "people" > ''gents'' > ''gents'' * "queen" > OF ''reïne'' > ''reine'' * "forty" > ''quarante'' * "to read" > pre-French */ljɛjrʲe/ > ''lire'' and before except after a vowel developed into and , respectively. Both and persisted the Old French but were later subsequently simplified to and : * "chariot" > ''char'' * "leg" > ''jambe'' * "sleeve" > */manka/ > ''manche'' * "dry (fem.)" > ''sèche'' In various consonant combinations involving or + another consonant, the or developed into /j/, which proceeded to palatalize the following consonant: * "done" > ''fait'' * "to release" > OF ''laissier'' "to let" > ''laisser'' * "old" > > OF ''vieille'' * "joint" > VL */arteklu/ > ''orteil'' "toe" * "to keep watch" > OF ''veillier'' > ''veiller'' In some cases, the loss of an intertonic vowel led to a similar sequence of /j/ or palatalized consonant + another consonant, which was palatalized in turn: * "half" > */mejjetate/ > */mejtʲat/ > ''moitié'' * "to think" >> * > */kujetare/ > Western Vulgar Latin */kujedare/ > pre-French */kujdʲare/ > OF ''cuidier'' > ''cuider'' * * "household" > OF ''maisniée'' * * "to worsen" > OF ''empoirier''


Changes to final consonants

As a result of the pre-French loss of most final vowels, all consonants could appear word-finally except and , which were always followed by at least a schwa, stemming from either a final or a
prop vowel In phonology, epenthesis (; Greek ) means the addition of one or more sounds to a word, especially in the beginning syllable ('' prothesis'') or in the ending syllable (''paragoge'') or in-between two syllabic sounds in a word. The word ''epenth ...
. In
Old French Old French (, , ; Modern French: ) was the language spoken in most of the northern half of France from approximately the 8th to the 14th centuries. Rather than a unified language, Old French was a linkage of Romance dialects, mutually intel ...
, however, all underlying
voiced Voice or voicing is a term used in phonetics and phonology to characterize speech sounds (usually consonants). Speech sounds can be described as either voiceless (otherwise known as ''unvoiced'') or voiced. The term, however, is used to refer ...
stops and
fricative A fricative is a consonant produced by forcing air through a narrow channel made by placing two articulators close together. These may be the lower lip against the upper teeth, in the case of ; the back of the tongue against the soft palate in ...
s were pronounced
voiceless In linguistics, voicelessness is the property of sounds being pronounced without the larynx vibrating. Phonologically, it is a type of phonation, which contrasts with other states of the larynx, but some object that the word phonation implies ...
word-finally. That was clearly reflected in Old French spelling: the adjectives ''froit'' "cold" (feminine ''froide''), ''vif'' "lively" (feminine ''vive''), ''larc'' "large" (feminine ''large'') and the verbs, ''je doif'' "I must" vs. ''ils doivent'' "they must", ''je lef'' "I may wash" vs. ''ils levent'' "they (may) wash". Most of the alternations have since disappeared (partly because of morphological reshaping and partly because of respelling once most final consonants had been lost, as described below), but the adjectival alternation ''vif'' vs. ''vive'' (and similarly for other adjectives in ''-f'') has remained. In the
Middle French Middle French (french: moyen français) is a historical division of the French language that covers the period from the 14th to the 16th century. It is a period of transition during which: * the French language became clearly distinguished from t ...
, most final consonants became gradually lost. That proceeded in stages: # The loss of final consonants when appearing before another word beginning with a consonant. This stage is preserved in the words ''six'' and ''dix'', which are pronounced standing alone but before a word beginning with a consonant and before a word beginning with a vowel. If the word ended in a stressed vowel followed by /s/ (as, for example, in plurals), the same process apparently operated as elsewhere when an /s/ preceded a consonant, with a long vowel resulting. (This situation is still found, for example, in
Jèrriais (french: Jersiais, also known as the Jersey Language, Jersey French and Jersey Norman French in English) is a Romance language and the traditional language of the Jersey people. It is a form of the Norman language spoken in Jersey, an island i ...
, a dialect of the
Norman language Norman or Norman French (, french: Normand, Guernésiais: , Jèrriais: ) is a Romance language which can be classified as one of the Oïl languages along with French, Picard and Walloon. The name "Norman French" is sometimes used to descri ...
, which preserves long vowels and has words ending in a vowel lengthening that vowel in the plural.) # Loss of final consonants before a pause. That left a two-way pronunciation for most words, with final consonants pronounced before a following vowel-initial word but not elsewhere, and is the origin of the modern phenomenon of
liaison Liaison means communication between two or more groups, or co-operation or working together. Liaison or liaisons may refer to: General usage * Affair, an unfaithful sexual relationship * Collaboration * Co-operation Arts and entertainment * Li ...
. # Loss of final consonants in all circumstances. The process is still ongoing, which causes a gradual loss of liaison, especially in informal speech, except in certain limited contexts and fixed expressions. The final consonants that are normally subject to loss are , , , sometimes and , rarely (in ''clé'' < the earlier and still occasional ''clef''). The consonants and were normally preserved, but , , and did not occur (the voiced obstruents ). A more recent countervailing tendency, however, is the restoration of some formerly-lost final consonants, as in ''sens'', now pronounced but formerly , as still found in the expressions ''sens dessus dessous'' "upside down" and ''sens devant derrière'' "back to front". The restored consonant may stem from the liaison pronunciation or the spelling, and it serves to reduce ambiguity. For example, is also the pronunciation of ''cent'' "hundred", ''sang'' "blood" and ''sans'' "without" (among others).


Effect of substrate and superstrate languages

French is noticeably different from most other Romance languages. Some of the changes have been attributed to substrate influence, which is from Gaulish (Celtic), or
superstrate In linguistics, a stratum (Latin for "layer") or strate is a language that influences or is influenced by another through contact. A substratum or substrate is a language that has lower power or prestige than another, while a superstratum or sup ...
influence, which is from Frankish (Germanic). In practice, it is difficult to say with confidence which sound and grammar changes were caused by substrate and superstrate influences, since many of the changes in French have parallels in other Romance languages or are changes that are undergone by many languages in their process of development. However, the following are likely candidates. In
phonology Phonology is the branch of linguistics that studies how languages or dialects systematically organize their sounds or, for sign languages, their constituent parts of signs. The term can also refer specifically to the sound or sign system of a ...
: * The reintroduction of the consonant at the beginning of a word is causes by Frankish influence and occurs mostly in words borrowed from Germanic. The sound no longer exists in Standard Modern French (it survives dialectally, particularly in the regions of Normandy, Picardy, Wallonia and Louisiana), but a Germanic ''h'' usually disallows
liaison Liaison means communication between two or more groups, or co-operation or working together. Liaison or liaisons may refer to: General usage * Affair, an unfaithful sexual relationship * Collaboration * Co-operation Arts and entertainment * Li ...
: ''les halles'' , ''les haies'' , ''les haltes'' , but a Latin ''h'' allows liaison: ''les herbes'' , ''les hôtels'' . * The reintroduction of in Northern Norman, Picard, Walloon,
Champenois Champenois (''lou champaignat'') is a Romance language of the ''langues d'oïl'' language family spoken by a minority of people in Champagne and Île-de-France provinces in France, as well as in a handful of towns in southern Belgium (chiefly ...
, Bourguignon and Bas-Lorrain is caused by Germanic influence. All Romance languages have borrowed Germanic words containing , but all languages south of the isogloss, including the ancestor of Modern French ("Central French"), converted it to , which usually developed subsequently into . English has borrowed words from Norman French (1066 – c. 1200 AD) and Standard French (c. 1200–1400 AD), which sometimes results in doublets like ''warranty'' and ''guarantee'' or ''warden'' and ''guardian''. * The occurrence of an extremely-strong stress accent led to the loss of unstressed vowels and the extensive modification of stressed vowels (diphthongization), which is likely caused by Frankish influence and possibly Celtic influence since both languages had a strong initial stress (''tela'' -> ''TEla'' -> ''toile'') This feature also no longer exists in Modern French, but its influence remains in the uniform final word stress in Modern French since the strong stress caused all vowels after it to be ultimately lost. * Nasalization resulting from compensatory vowel lengthening in stressed syllables was caused by Germanic and/or Celtic stress accent. Among Romance languages, it occurs primarily in French, Occitan, Arpitan and Portuguese, all of which have possible Celtic substratums. However, scattered dialects of Romance languages, including Sardinian, Spanish and Lombard, also have the phenomenon as an allophonic (though not phonemic) property. Among the four Romance languages in which it is prominent beyond divergent dialects, the only one for which it is undebatably phonemic is French * The development of front-rounded vowels , , and may be caused by Germanic influence, as few Romance languages other than French have such vowels, but Gallo-Romance languages have them and share a Germanic influence. At least one sound, , still exists in Celtic languages. A number of other scholars, most famously including Romance linguist Ascoli, have attributed the French sound to the Celtic substratum. The attribution of the sounds to Celtic influence actually predates the emergence of academic linguistics as early as the 1500s, when it was attested as being called "Gaulish u". Among Romance languages, its distribution strongly correspondent with areas of suspected Celtic substratum: French, Arpitan, Occitan, Romansch and Gallo-Italic dialects, along with some dialects of Portuguese. The change may have occurred around the same time as a similar fronting of long to in the British Celtic languages. On the other hand, scholars such as Posner and Meyer-Lübke acknowledge the possibility of Celtic influence but see the development as internally motivated. * The
lenition In linguistics, lenition is a sound change that alters consonants, making them more sonorous. The word ''lenition'' itself means "softening" or "weakening" (from Latin 'weak'). Lenition can happen both synchronically (within a language at a pa ...
of intervocalic consonants (see above) may be caused by Celtic influence. A similar change happened in Celtic languages about the same time, and the demarcation between Romance dialects with and without this change (the
La Spezia–Rimini Line The La Spezia–Rimini Line (also known as the ''Massa–Senigallia Line''), in the linguistics of the Romance languages, is a line that demarcates a number of important isoglosses that distinguish Romance languages south and east of the line fr ...
) corresponds closely to the limit of Celtic settlement in
ancient Rome In modern historiography, ancient Rome refers to Roman people, Roman civilisation from the founding of the city of Rome in the 8th century BC to the collapse of the Western Roman Empire in the 5th century AD. It encompasses the Roman Kingdom ...
. The lenition also affected words that were borrowed from Germanic (''haïr'' < ''hadir'' < ''*hatjan''; ''flan'' < *''fladon''; ''(cor)royer'' < *''(ga)rēdan''; etc.), which suggests that the tendency persisted for some time after it had been introduced. * The devoicing of word-final voiced consonants in Old French was caused by Germanic influence (e.g. ''grant/grande, blont/blonde, bastart/bastarde''). In other areas: * Various words may have shifted gender under the influence from words of the same meaning or with a similar sound in Gaulish, as a result of the Celtic substrate. A connectionist model predicting shifts in gender assignment for common nouns more accurately predicted historical developments when the Gaulish genders of the same words were considered in the model. The loss of the neuter may have been accelerated in French also because Gaulish neuters were very hard to distinguish and were possibly lost earlier than Latin neuters. In comparison, Romanian retains the neuter gender and Italian retains it for a couple of words. Portuguese, Sardinian, Catalan and Spanish also retain remnants of the neuter outside nouns in demonstrative pronouns and the like, but they have lost the neuter for nouns. * The development of
verb-second In syntax, verb-second (V2) word order is a sentence structure in which the finite verb of a sentence or a clause is placed in the clause's second position, so that the verb is preceded by a single word or group of words (a single constituent). ...
syntax in Old French in which the verb must come in the second position in a sentence, regardless of whether the subject precedes or follows the verb, was probably caused by Germanic influence. * The first-person plural ending ''-ons'' (Old French ''-omes'', ''-umes'') is likely derived from the Frankish termination ''-ōmês'', ''-umês'' (vs. Latin ''-āmus'', ''-ēmus'', ''-imus'', and ''-īmus''; cf. OHG ''-ōmēs'', ''-umēs'').Pope, From Latin to modern French, with especial consideration of Anglo-Norman, p. 16. * The use of the letter ''k'' in Old French, which was replaced by ''c'' and ''qu'' during the Renaissance, was caused by Germanic influence. Typically, ''k'' was not used in Latin and other Romance languages. Similarly, the use of ''w'' and ''y'' also diminished. * The impersonal pronoun ''on'' "one, you, they" but more commonly replacing ''nous'' "we" (or "us") in colloquial French (first-person plural pronoun, see
Ingvaeonic nasal spirant law In historical linguistics, the Ingvaeonic nasal spirant law (also called the Anglo-Frisian or North Sea Germanic nasal spirant law) is a description of a phonological development that occurred in the Ingvaeonic dialects of the West Germanic lan ...
), from Old French ''(h)om'', a reduced form of ''homme'' "man", was a
calque In linguistics, a calque () or loan translation is a word or phrase borrowed from another language by literal word-for-word or root-for-root translation. When used as a verb, "to calque" means to borrow a word or phrase from another language ...
of the Germanic impersonal pronoun ''man'' "one, you, they" reduced form of ''mann'' "man" (cf Old English ''man'' "one, you, they", from ''mann'' "man"; German ''man'' "one, you, they" vs. ''Mann'' "man"). * The expanded use of ''avoir'' "to have" over the more customary use of ''tenir'' "to have, hold" in other Romance languages was likely the influence from the Germanic word for "have", which has a similar form (cf. Frankish *''habēn'', Gothic ''haban'', Old Norse ''hafa'', English ''have''). * The increased use of
auxiliary verb An auxiliary verb ( abbreviated ) is a verb that adds functional or grammatical meaning to the clause in which it occurs, so as to express tense, aspect, modality, voice, emphasis, etc. Auxiliary verbs usually accompany an infinitive verb or a ...
al tenses, especially the ''
passé composé The ''passé composé'' (, ''compound past'') (meaning compound past) is a past tense in the modern French language. It is used to express an action that has been finished completely or incompletely at the time of speech, or at some (possibly un ...
'', is probably caused by Germanic influence. Unknown in Classical Latin, the ''passé composé'' begins to appear in Old French in the early 13th century, after the Germanic and the Viking invasions. Its construction is identical to the one seen in all other Germanic languages at the time and earlier: "verb "be" (''être'') + past participle" when there is movement, indication of state or change of condition but ""have" (''avoir'') + past participle" for all other verbs. The ''passé composé'' is not universal to the Romance language family since only languages known to have Germanic superstrata display that type of construction, and they do so in varying degrees. The languages nearest to Germanic areas show constructions most similar to those seen in Germanic. Italian, Spanish and Catalan are other Romance languages with this type of compound verbal tense. * The heightened frequency of ''si'' ("so") in Old French correlates to
Old High German Old High German (OHG; german: Althochdeutsch (Ahd.)) is the earliest stage of the German language, conventionally covering the period from around 750 to 1050. There is no standardised or supra-regional form of German at this period, and Old Hig ...
''so'' and ''thanne''. * The tendency in Old French to use adverbs to complete the meaning of a verb, as in ''lever sur'' ("raise up"), ''monter en amont'' ("mount up"), ''aller avec'' ("go along/go with"), ''traire avant'' ("draw forward"), etc., is likely to be of Germanic origin. * The lack of a future tense in conditional clauses is likely caused by Germanic influence. * Pre-Roman Celtic languages in Gaul also made use of a vigesimal system, but it largely vanished early in French linguistic history or became severely marginalised in its range. The Nordic vigesimal system may possibly derive ultimately from the Celtic. Old French also had ''treis vingts'', ''cinq vingts'' (compare Welsh ''ugain'' "20", ''deugain'' "40", ''pedwar ugain'' "80", lit. "four-twenties").


See also

*
Gaulish Gaulish was an ancient Celtic language spoken in parts of Continental Europe before and during the period of the Roman Empire. In the narrow sense, Gaulish was the language of the Celts of Gaul (now France, Luxembourg, Belgium, most of Switze ...
*
History of the English language English is a West Germanic language that originated from Ingvaeonic languages brought to Britain in the mid-5th to 7th centuries AD by Anglo-Saxon migrants from what is now northwest Germany, southern Denmark and the Netherlands. The Anglo-Sa ...
*
History of the Italian language Italian (''italiano'' or ) is a Romance language of the Indo-European language family that evolved from the Vulgar Latin of the Roman Empire. Together with Sardinian, Italian is the least divergent language from Latin. Spoken by about ...
*
History of the Portuguese language The Portuguese language developed in the Western Iberian Peninsula from Latin spoken by Roman soldiers and colonists starting in the 3rd century BC. Old Portuguese, also known as Medieval Galician, began to diverge from other Romance languages af ...
*
History of the Spanish language The language known today as Spanish is derived from a dialect of spoken Latin, which was brought to the Iberian Peninsula by the Romans after their occupation of the peninsula that started in the late 3rd century BC. Influenced by the peninsul ...
*
Influence of French on English The influence of French on English pertains mainly to its lexicon but also to its syntax, grammar, orthography, and pronunciation. Most of the French vocabulary in English entered the language after the Norman Conquest of England in 1066, w ...
*
Language policy in France France has one official language, the French language. The French government does not regulate the choice of language in publications by individuals, but the use of French is required by law in commercial and workplace communications. In add ...
*
List of French words of Germanic origin This is a list of Standard French words and phrases deriving from any Germanic language of any period, whether incorporated in the formation of the French language or borrowed at any time thereafter. #toc, French is a Romance languages, Romance l ...
*
Old Frankish Frankish ( reconstructed endonym: *), also known as Old Franconian or Old Frankish, was the West Germanic language spoken by the Franks from the 5th to 9th century. After the Salian Franks settled in Roman Gaul, its speakers in Picardy ...
*
Old French Old French (, , ; Modern French: ) was the language spoken in most of the northern half of France from approximately the 8th to the 14th centuries. Rather than a unified language, Old French was a linkage of Romance dialects, mutually intel ...
*
Reforms of French orthography French orthography was already (more or less) fixed and (from a phonological point of view) outdated when its lexicography developed in the late 17th century and the Académie française was mandated to establish an "official" prescriptive no ...
*
Vulgar Latin Vulgar Latin, also known as Popular or Colloquial Latin, is the range of non-formal registers of Latin spoken from the Late Roman Republic onward. Through time, Vulgar Latin would evolve into numerous Romance languages. Its literary counterpa ...


Explanatory notes


References


External links


Histoire de la langue française
(in French) * The Breton Wikipedia page on the French language gives examples from various stages in the development of French. {{DEFAULTSORT:History of French French phonology