What is the origin of the French language?

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Where does French come from ? How did this language appear in France? Who spoke this Romance language ? From Roman Gaul to the founding of the Académie française , including the Oaths of Strasbourg , the history of French is an adventure full of twists and turns. Here is an overview of the origins of the French language .

The origins of the French language: the conquest of Gaul by the Romans
History of the French language

To understand the origins of the French language, we must go back to the 1st century BC. At that time, the inhabitants of Gaul (the territory of France) spoke Gaulish, a Celtic language. In 50 BC, Gaul was invaded by the Romans. The latter imposed their language: Latin.

The Latin spoken by the Romans, called vulgar, then rubbed shoulders with Gaulish. However, Latin was spoken, but it was also written, unlike Gaulish. Latin then became the language of the mexico whatsapp number data administration, the Church and the army and ended up supplanting the Celtic language.

However, Gaulish had time to influence the Latin language. In linguistic jargon, we call this phenomenon the substratum.

Of this Celtic language, not much remains to us today. The current French lexicon contains less than a hundred words of Celtic origin. We still find traces in the field:

In the 5th century, the Western Roman Empire came under pressure from barbarian invasions and collapsed. The territory was then fragmented and the barbarian peoples took possession of different regions.

In Gaul, it was the Merovingian Franks, a Germanic people, who came to power. To better govern the country, King Clovis adopted the customs and religion of the colonized people. Above all, he decided to abandon his language in favor of Latin.

Under the influence of the Frankish people, Latin will undergo some transformations. The Franks will pronounce Latin in their own way and will introduce new sounds like "eu" (in fear) and "oe" (in hollow). This will give birth to a new language: Romance.

Today, there are traces of these Germanic influences in the French language, whether in terms of vocabulary, syntax or the phonetics of words.

Vocabulary
The current French lexicon contains words of Germanic origin in the fields of:

the kitchen: escalope, waffle, soup;
war and construction: town, spy, arrow, war, hangar;
the sea: grappling hook, swell, herring.
Word order
In French, the adjective epithet is generally found after the noun. In Germanic languages, it is the opposite. For example, "une voiture rouge" in French and "a red car" in English. However, traces of Germanic influence can be found in place names: Neufchâteau, Rougemont, Francheville... The adjective is placed in front!

The aspirated h
Why do we make the connection with the word "man", but not with the word "hut"? It is because of the influence of the Franks! For words of Germanic origin like "halle" or "haie", the consonant "h" at the beginning of the word was heard in French, unlike Latin words.