History of French
The language spoken in France during the first century before Christ was the galo. Later, the Romans’ invasion came to influence and change this language with different terms and sounds. The Franks made another significant contribution to the form modern French now has.
By the 6th century the language spoken in the region did not look like the galo, nor like the Frankish and becomes more different from Latin, thus becoming a language spoken in very different ways acording to the region so that, inasmuch it evolved, various dialects emerged at the end of the tenth century. A particular dialect spoken in the area of Paris starts to become popular and is trending among educated people, it is the Old French.
La Renaissance implies large loans to other languages like Greek and Latin due to the emergence of new terms, especially in the scientific field. In 1539 French imposed itself as the administrative language, taking Latin’s place. That French was known as middle French.
Towards the eleventh century, other loans from the Flemish, Vikings and Arabs among others have had an important influence in the further evolution of the language. In the 18th century classic French starts to become the norm with grammar treatise, dictionaries and the birth of the French Academy. During these times French begins to expand to the French colonies, giving birth to Creole languages. Currently French is spoken by 274 millions people and is the second most learnt language around the world after English. French is known as the language of love and is associated to elegance.
French: the language of love
Grammar tips
French levels
- 1
- 2