‘Romance languages’ are very closely related spoken languages that have come down from the Latin language. The designation Romance came from the Latin phrase Romanica loqui, The Romance languages that have acquired national standing is because the official dialect of their countries is French.
History of French Language
The first document evidently was written in French most likely dates from 842. Known as the Strasbourg Oaths, Some plea that the content of that document is simply covered Latin design after the event to look authentic for political publicity purposes, while others suppose that its Latinizing inclination reveals the struggle of the transcriber with the problems of spelling French as it was uttered at the time.
The second existing text in Old French is a rendering of a short sequence by Prudentius on the life of St. Eulalia, precisely dated 880–882 CE. In the 12th century the “gem” of the narrative poems well-known as chansons de geste, La Chanson de Roland, was written. In the 12th–13th century the Francien dialect became powerful and it built up the status of natural language because of both the central position of the Île-de-France region and the political and cultural prestige of Paris.
The Francien accent was basically a north-central accent with some northern features. However, rooted Francien as the only official language after it proved to be the foremost popular written form. Dialectal features, which were admired and entertained by 16th-century writers, were derided in the 17th and 18th centuries when the grammar and vocabulary of the modern language were standardized and glossy to an extraordinary degree.
Francien has broadly replaced other regional accents of French spoken in northern and central France.
Characteristics of the French Language
French grammar, like that of the other Romance languages, has been broadly interpreted from Latin. Nouns were not declined in this case. Formerly, they were marked for plural by the addition of -s or -es, but the ending, though included in spelling, has generally disappeared in speech. Plural marking in communicated French is often similarly prominent. The verb in French is consolidated for three persons, singular and plural, but again, although adjoined in spelling, several of these forms are marked identically.
The grammatical change was more speedy and more radical in northern France than it was in other European Romance regions, and arouse from Latin was approximately slight.
The Case System
Broadly speaking, the trend or direction of change within the Romance languages has been to scale back the Latin case system through the elimination of the distinctive endings. Modern Romance languages, however, use only 1 singular form: French Porte, Italian and Portuguese porta, and Spanish Puerta.
French is a Romance language of the Indo-European family that evolved out of the Gallo-Romance spoken in northern France. The Vernacular attested in France in written documents is Gaulish. The Gauls were Celtic people that lived in Western Europe.
At the beginning of the 21st century, French became the official language of more than 25 countries. Furthermore, more than 49 million Africans—in such countries as Benin, Burkina Faso, Burundi, Cameroon, the Central African Republic, Chad, Congo (Brazzaville), etc. Many creole French speakers use standard French informal situations.
French is the second most studied language in the world and is taught in every country. Apart from this, French became the first language of the Canadian provinces of Quebec. French is additionally an official language of 29 other countries.
French has a long history as a global language of literature and scientific standards and is a primary or second language of the many international organizations. French is the third most widely spoken mother tongue or foreign language in the European Union’s after English and German.
French is one among the four official languages of Switzerland
French is also an official language of Monaco and Luxembourg, similarly as within the Aosta Valley region of Italy. French is generally the second language in Africa.
Wondering how the French language came to be? Here are a number of notable milestones within the history of the French language:
Roman Gaul
To understand how French came to be, we’ve to go back two millennia to the age of the Roman Empire. When the Gallic War ended, the territories located south of the Rhine became Roman provinces. This change led to the broadcasting of population centers and increased merchandising, which enhanced the communication between the Gauls and the Romans.
However, as Gaulish wasn’t predominantly used for writing, its survival was threatened in the more Romanized areas in the south. Eventually, Vulgar supplanted Gaulish because of the primary language of the region. Currently, of the 100,000 entries within the Le Grand Robert French dictionary, about 100 words are of Gaulish origin. Most of them ask land-related objects and animals, for instance, char (cart), bruyère (heather), chêne (oak), if (yew), Chemin (path), Caillou (stone), ruche (hive), mouton (lamb) and tonneau (barrel).
Origin of the French language
Gallo-Romance (5th-8th centuries)
When ancient Gaul, now modern France, was conquered by the Romans within the first century B.C., its inhabitants spoke Gaulish, a Celtic language, which was quickly replaced by the Latin of the Roman overlords.
Old French (9th-13th centuries)
The first written materials in starting the Strasbourg Oaths of 842. Old French literature developed in the 10th century. In the 11th-13th centuries, it was the dominant language of the English administration.
Middle French (14th-15th centuries)
This period was marked by changes both within the pronunciation and within the grammar. A common scholarly language, supported by the dialect of l’Île de France was promoted by the writers. French was replacing Latin within the texts of the general public administration in France.
Early Modern French (16th century)
In the 12th–13th century the Francien dialect became powerful and it built up the status of natural language because of both the central position of the Île-de-France region and the political and cultural prestige of Paris.
Francien rooted as the only official language after it proved to be the foremost popular written form.
The grammatical change was more speedy and more radical in northern France than it was in other European Romance regions, and arouse from Latin was approximately slight.
At the beginning of the 21st century, French became the official language of more than 25 countries.
The aim of the writers of this era was to elevate the French language to the extent of Latin as a medium for literary expression. In 1539, a royal decree proclaimed French the official language of the general public administration. Since that period, the govt was always involved in the development and also the standardization of the language.
When did Francien dialect became powerful?
When did Francien as the only official language?
Where was grammatical change more speedy?
When did French become official language in 25 countries?
