French is a

Romance language The Romance languages, also known as the Latin or Neo-Latin languages, are the languages that are Language family, directly descended from Vulgar Latin. They are the only extant subgroup of the Italic languages, Italic branch of the Indo-E ...

(meaning that it is descended primarily from

Vulgar Latin Vulgar Latin, also known as Colloquial, Popular, Spoken or Vernacular Latin, is the range of non-formal Register (sociolinguistics), registers of Latin spoken from the Crisis of the Roman Republic, Late Roman Republic onward. ''Vulgar Latin'' a ...

) 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 and variously encompass the Occitan or Occitano-Romance, Gallo-Italic o ...

. 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 or 13 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 Caesar's civil wa ...

(58–52 BC), much of present France was inhabited by Celtic-speaking people referred to by the Romans as

Gauls The Gauls (; , ''Galátai'') were a group of Celts, Celtic peoples of mainland Europe in the Iron Age Europe, Iron Age and the Roman Gaul, Roman period (roughly 5th century BC to 5th century AD). Their homeland was known as Gaul (''Gallia''). Th ...

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 b ...

. Southern France was also home to a number of other remnant linguistic and ethnic groups including Iberians along the eastern part of the Pyrenees and western Mediterranean coast, the remnant

Ligures The Ligures or Ligurians were an ancient people after whom Liguria, a region of present-day Northern Italy, north-western Italy, is named. Because of the strong Celts, Celtic influences on their language and culture, they were also known in anti ...

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 east by the Levant in West Asia, on the north by Anatolia in West Asia and Southern ...

coast and in the alpine areas,

Greek Greek may refer to: 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 of all kno ...

colonials in places such as

Marseille Marseille (; ; see #Name, below) is a city in southern France, the Prefectures in France, prefecture of the Departments of France, department of Bouches-du-Rhône and of the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur Regions of France, region. Situated in the ...

and

Antibes Antibes (, , ; ) is a seaside city in the Alpes-Maritimes Departments of France, department in Southeastern France. It is located on the French Riviera between Cannes and Nice; its cape, the Cap d'Antibes, along with Cap Ferrat in Saint-Jean-Ca ...

, and Vascones 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 BC. The Romans dubbed this region '' Gallia Aquitania''. Classical authors suc ...

(Proto-

Basques The Basques ( or ; ; ; ) are a Southwestern European ethnic group, characterised by the Basque language, a Basque culture, common culture and shared genetic ancestry to the ancient Vascones and Aquitanians. Basques are indigenous peoples, ...

) 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. The Celtic population of Gaul had spoken

Gaulish Gaulish is an extinct Celtic languages, 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, ...

, which is moderately well attested and appears to have wide dialectal variation including one distinctive variety, Lepontic. The French language evolved from

(a Latinised popular Italic dialect called ''sermo vulgaris''), but it was strongly influenced by Gaulish. Examples include

sandhi Sandhi ( ; , ) is any of 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 nearby sounds or the grammatical function o ...

phenomena ( liaison,

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 "weaker" in some way. The word ''lenition'' itself means "softening" or "weakening" (from Latin 'weak'). Lenition can happen both synchronically (within a language ...

), 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 ''ro''- and Welsh ''rhy''- "very"), emphatic structures, prepositional

periphrastic In linguistics and literature, periphrasis () is the use of a larger number of words, with an implicit comparison to the possibility of using fewer. The comparison may be within a language or between languages. For example, "more happy" is periph ...

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 (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, 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 ''freixe'', Portuguese ''freixo'', Romansch ''fraissen'' (vs. Italian ''frassino'', Romanian ''frasin'', Spanish ''fresno''). * Latin ''lactem'' "milk" → French ''lait'', Welsh ''llaeth'', Portuguese ''leite'', Catalan ''llet'', Piemontese ''lait'', Liguro ''leite'' (vs. Italian ''latte'', Occitan ''lach'', Lombardo ''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 Godwits are a group of four large, long-billed, long-legged and strongly bird migration, migratory waders of the bird genus ''Limosa''. Their long bills allow them to probe deeply in the sand for aquatic worms and mollusca, molluscs. In their ...

", ''loche'' " loach", ''pinson'' "finch", ''vandoise'' " dace", ''vanneau'' " lapwing"); * 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, Clay minerals, clays, and silt. When Lithification, hardened into rock, this becomes marlstone. It is formed in marine or freshwater environments, often through the activities of algae. M ...

", ''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 (sometimes collectively known as the squirearchy), is a largely historical Irish and British social class of landowners who could live entirely from rental income, or at least had a country estate. It is t ...

and peasantry. This 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 extent varies depending on context. The concept of "the West" appeared in Europe in juxtaposition to "the East" and originally applied to the Western half of the ancient Mediterranean ...

started to be invaded by

Germanic tribes The Germanic peoples were tribal groups who lived in Northern Europe in Classical antiquity and the Early Middle Ages. In modern scholarship, they typically include not only the Roman-era ''Germani'' who lived in both ''Germania'' and parts ...

from the north and the east, and some of the groups settled in

Gaul Gaul () was a region of Western Europe first clearly described by the Roman people, Romans, encompassing present-day France, Belgium, Luxembourg, and parts of Switzerland, the Netherlands, Germany, and Northern Italy. It covered an area of . Ac ...

. In the history of the French language, the most important groups are the

Franks file:Frankish arms.JPG, Aristocratic Frankish burial items from the Merovingian dynasty The Franks ( or ; ; ) were originally a group of Germanic peoples who lived near the Rhine river, Rhine-river military border of Germania Inferior, which wa ...

in much of northern France, the

Alemanni The Alemanni or Alamanni were a confederation of Germanic peoples, Germanic tribes * * * on the Upper Rhine River during the first millennium. First mentioned by Cassius Dio in the context of the campaign of Roman emperor Caracalla of 213 CE ...

in the modern German/French border area (

Alsace Alsace (, ; ) is a cultural region and a territorial collectivity in the Grand Est administrative region of northeastern France, on the west bank of the upper Rhine, next to Germany and Switzerland. In January 2021, it had a population of 1,9 ...

), the

Burgundians The Burgundians were an early Germanic peoples, Germanic tribe or group of tribes. They appeared east in the middle Rhine region in the third century AD, and were later moved west into the Roman Empire, in Roman Gaul, Gaul. In the first and seco ...

in the

Rhône The Rhône ( , ; Occitan language, Occitan: ''Ròse''; Franco-Provençal, Arpitan: ''Rôno'') is a major river in France and Switzerland, rising in the Alps and flowing west and south through Lake Geneva and Southeastern France before dischargi ...

(and the Saone) Valley, the

Suebi file:1st century Germani.png, 300px, The approximate positions of some Germanic peoples reported by Graeco-Roman authors in the 1st century. Suebian peoples in red, and other Irminones in purple. The Suebi (also spelled Suavi, Suevi or Suebians ...

in the Spanish autonomous community of Galicia and Northern Portugal, the

Vandals The Vandals were a Germanic people who were first reported in the written records as inhabitants of what is now Poland, during the period of the Roman Empire. Much later, in the fifth century, a group of Vandals led by kings established Vand ...

in Southern

Andalusia Andalusia ( , ; , ) is the southernmost autonomous communities of Spain, autonomous community in Peninsular Spain, located in the south of the Iberian Peninsula, in southwestern Europe. It is the most populous and the second-largest autonomou ...

, and the

Visigoths The Visigoths (; ) were a Germanic people united under the rule of a king and living within the Roman Empire during late antiquity. The Visigoths first appeared in the Balkans, as a Roman-allied Barbarian kingdoms, barbarian military group unite ...

in much of southern France as well as

Spain Spain, or the Kingdom of Spain, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe with territories in North Africa. Featuring the Punta de Tarifa, southernmost point of continental Europe, it is the largest country in Southern Eur ...

. The

Frankish language Frankish (language reconstruction, reconstructed endonym: *), also known as Old Franconian or Old Frankish, was the West Germanic language spoken by the Franks from the 5th to 10th centuries. Franks under king Chlodio settled in Roman Gaul ...

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''). 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 and Frankish) to 15% of the modern vocabulary (representing all Germanic loans up to modern times: Gothic, Frankish,

Old Norse Old Norse, also referred to as Old Nordic or Old Scandinavian, was a stage of development of North Germanic languages, North Germanic dialects before their final divergence into separate Nordic languages. Old Norse was spoken by inhabitants ...

/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 tertiary education. The name traces back to Plato's school of philosophy, founded approximately 386 BC at Akademia, a sanctuary of Athena, the go ...

'', only 5% of French words come from English.) Changes in

lexicon A lexicon (plural: lexicons, rarely lexica) 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 () ...

/ morphology/

: * 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 Church, Roman Catholic Western Europe during the Middle Ages. It was also the administrative language in the former Western Roman Empire, Roman Provinces of Mauretania, Numidi ...

''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 Roman province, 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 German ...

, 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, maraud, nigaud''), ''-an/-and'' (from old suffix ''-anc, -enc'': ''paysan, cormoran, Flamand, tisserand, chambellan'') all very common family name affixes 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 Conjugation is the variation in the endings of verbs (inflections) depending on the person (I, you, we, etc), tense (present, future, etc.) and mood (indicative, imperative, subjunctive, etc.). Most French verbs are regular and their inflections ...

) 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 Venetian and 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 (, , ; ) was the language spoken in most of the northern half of France approximately between the late 8th [2-4; we might wonder whether there's a point at which it's appropriate to talk of the beginnings of French, that is, when it wa ...

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 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'');

''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 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 the northeastern kingdom within the core of the Francia, Frankish Empire during the Early Middle Ages, centring on the Meuse, Middle Rhine and the Moselle rivers. It included the original Frankish-ruled territories within what had ...

and

Neustria Neustria was the western part of the Kingdom of the Franks during the Early Middle Ages, in contrast to the eastern Frankish kingdom, Austrasia. It initially included land between the Loire and the Silva Carbonaria, in the north of present-day ...

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 Charles the Simple, 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 r ...

was integrated into the Crown lands of France, 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 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 Low German is a West Germanic languages, West Germanic language variety, language spoken mainly in Northern Germany and the northeastern Netherlands. The dialect of Plautdietsch is also spoken in the Russian Mennonite diaspora worldwide. "Low" ...

: ''bivouac'', ''bouder'', ''homard'', ''vogue'', ''yole'', and English 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'', ''lac'', ''merlin'', ''mouette'', ''nord'', ''ouest'', ''potasse'', ''rade'', ''rhum'', ''sonde'', ''sud'', ''turf'', ''yacht''.

Langue d'oïl

The

medieval Italian Italian (, , or , ) is a Romance language of the Indo-European language family. It evolved from the colloquial Latin of the Roman Empire. Italian is the least divergent language from Latin, together with Sardinian. It is spoken by about 68 ...

poet

Dante Dante Alighieri (; most likely baptized Durante di Alighiero degli Alighieri; – September 14, 1321), widely known mononymously as Dante, was an Italian Italian poetry, poet, writer, and philosopher. His ''Divine Comedy'', originally called ...

, in his

Latin Latin ( or ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic languages, Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally spoken by the Latins (Italic tribe), Latins in Latium (now known as Lazio), the lower Tiber area aroun ...

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 ...

'', 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

'' '', "that is it"occupied northern France, the ''oc'' languagesfrom

', "that"southern France, and the ''si'' languagesfrom

', "thus"the Italian and

Iberian Peninsula The Iberian Peninsula ( ), also known as Iberia, is a peninsula in south-western Europe. Mostly separated from the rest of the European landmass by the Pyrenees, it includes the territories of peninsular Spain and Continental Portugal, comprisin ...

s. Modern linguists typically add a third group within France around

Lyon Lyon (Franco-Provençal: ''Liyon'') is a city in France. It is located at the confluence of the rivers Rhône and Saône, to the northwest of the French Alps, southeast of Paris, north of Marseille, southwest of Geneva, Switzerland, north ...

, the "Arpitan" or " Franco-Provençal language", whose modern word for "yes" is ''ouè''. The Gallo-Romance group in the north of France, the '' langue d'oïl'' like Picard, Walloon and Francien, were influenced by the

Germanic languages The Germanic languages are a branch of the Indo-European languages, 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 spoke ...

spoken by the Frankish invaders. From the time period of

Clovis I Clovis (; reconstructed Old Frankish, Frankish: ; – 27 November 511) was the first List of Frankish kings, king of the Franks to unite all of the Franks under one ruler, changing the form of leadership from a group of petty kings to rule by a ...

, 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 city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of France. With an estimated population of 2,048,472 residents in January 2025 in an area of more than , Paris is the List of ci ...

and

Île-de-France The Île-de-France (; ; ) is the most populous of the eighteen regions of France, with an official estimated population of 12,271,794 residents on 1 January 2023. Centered on the capital Paris, it is located in the north-central part of the cou ...

(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, link language or language of wider communication (LWC), is a Natural language, language systematically used to make co ...

theory). '' Langue d'oc'' used ''oc'' or ''òc'' for "yes" and is the language group in the south of France and northernmost

. 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 and Catalan (''sí''), Portuguese (''sim''), and Italian (''sì''). From the 4th to the 7th centuries, Brythonic-speaking peoples from

Cornwall Cornwall (; or ) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South West England. It is also one of the Celtic nations and the homeland of the Cornish people. The county is bordered by the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, ...

Devon Devon ( ; historically also known as Devonshire , ) is a ceremonial county in South West England. It is bordered by the Bristol Channel to the north, Somerset and Dorset to the east, the English Channel to the south, and Cornwall to the west ...

and

Wales Wales ( ) is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is bordered by the Irish Sea to the north and west, England to the England–Wales border, east, the Bristol Channel to the south, and the Celtic ...

travelled across the

English Channel The English Channel, also known as the Channel, is an arm of the Atlantic Ocean that separates Southern England from northern France. It links to the southern part of the North Sea by the Strait of Dover at its northeastern end. It is the busi ...

for reasons of trade and of flight from the

Anglo-Saxon The Anglo-Saxons, in some contexts simply called Saxons or the English, were a Cultural identity, cultural group who spoke Old English and inhabited much of what is now England and south-eastern Scotland in the Early Middle Ages. They traced t ...

invasions of England. They established themselves in

Armorica In ancient times, Armorica or Aremorica (Gaulish: ; ; ) was a region of Gaul between the Seine and the Loire that includes the Brittany Peninsula, and much of historical Normandy. Name The name ''Armorica'' is a Latinized form of the Gauli ...

, 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

, 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 (''Aquitania Tertia'') in southwestern France, but the language gradually lost ground to the expanding Romance during a period spanning most of the Early Middle Ages. Proto-Basque influenced the emerging Latin-based language spoken in the area between the Garonne and the

Pyrenees The Pyrenees are a mountain range straddling the border of France and Spain. They extend nearly from their union with the Cantabrian Mountains to Cap de Creus on the Mediterranean coast, reaching a maximum elevation of at the peak of Aneto. ...

, which eventually resulted in the dialect of Occitan called Gascon. Its influence is seen in words like ''boulbène'' and ''cargaison''.

Vikings Vikings were 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 settled throughout parts of Europe.Roesdahl, pp. 9� ...

from

Scandinavia Scandinavia is a subregion#Europe, subregion of northern Europe, with strong historical, cultural, and linguistic ties between its constituent peoples. ''Scandinavia'' most commonly refers to Denmark, Norway, and Sweden. It can sometimes also ...

invaded France from the 9th century onwards and established themselves mostly in what would be called

Normandy Normandy (; or ) is a geographical and cultural region in northwestern Europe, roughly coextensive with the historical Duchy of Normandy. Normandy comprises Normandy (administrative region), mainland Normandy (a part of France) and insular N ...

. The

Normans The Normans (Norman language, Norman: ''Normaunds''; ; ) were a population arising in the medieval Duchy of Normandy from the intermingling between Norsemen, Norse Viking settlers and locals of West Francia. The Norse settlements in West Franc ...

took up the langue d'oïl spoken there, but

Norman French Norman or Norman French (, , Guernésiais: , Jèrriais: ) is a '' langue d'oïl'' spoken in the historical and cultural region of Normandy. The name "Norman French" is sometimes also used to describe the administrative languages of '' Angl ...

remained heavily influenced by

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 Normans, Norman, French people, French, Flemish people, Flemish, and Bretons, Breton troops, all led by the Du ...

of England, the Normans' language developed into Anglo-Norman, 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 conflict between the kingdoms of Kingdom of England, England and Kingdom of France, France and a civil war in France during the Late Middle Ages. It emerged from feudal disputes over the Duchy ...

, when the use of French-influenced English had spread throughout English society. Around then, many words from

Arabic Arabic (, , or , ) is a Central Semitic languages, Central Semitic language of the Afroasiatic languages, Afroasiatic language family spoken primarily in the Arab world. The International Organization for Standardization (ISO) assigns lang ...

(or from Persian via Arabic) entered French, mainly indirectly through

, Italian and Spanish. There are words for luxury goods (''élixir, orange''),

spices In the culinary arts, a spice is any seed, fruit, root, Bark (botany), bark, or other plant substance in a form primarily used for flavoring or coloring food. Spices are distinguished from herbs, which are the leaves, flowers, or stems of pl ...

(''camphre, safran''), trade goods (''alcool, bougie, coton''), sciences (''alchimie, hasard''), and

mathematics Mathematics is a field of study that discovers and organizes methods, Mathematical theory, theories and theorems that are developed and Mathematical proof, proved for the needs of empirical sciences and mathematics itself. There are many ar ...

(''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

(''ancien français''). The earliest extant text in French is the Oaths of Strasbourg from 842; Old French became a literary language with the ''chanson de geste, chansons de geste'' that told tales of the paladins of Charlemagne and the heroes of the Crusades. The first notarized document in Modern French was redacted in

Aosta Aosta ( , , ; ; , or ; or ) is the principal city of the Aosta Valley, a bilingual Regions of Italy, region in the Italy, Italian Alps, north-northwest of Turin. It is situated near the Italian entrance of the Mont Blanc Tunnel and the G ...

in 1532, when in Paris Latin was still in use. The first government authority to adopt Modern French as official was the

Aosta Valley The Aosta Valley ( ; ; ; or ), officially the Autonomous Region of Aosta Valley, is a mountainous Regions of Italy#Autonomous regions with special statute, autonomous region in northwestern Italy. It is bordered by Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes, Fr ...

in 1536, three years before

France France, officially the French Republic, is a country located primarily in Western Europe. Overseas France, Its overseas regions and territories include French Guiana in South America, Saint Pierre and Miquelon in the Atlantic Ocean#North Atlan ...

itself. By the Ordinance of Villers-Cotterêts in 1539 King Francis I made French the

official language An official language is defined by the Cambridge English Dictionary as, "the language or one of the languages that is accepted by a country's government, is taught in schools, used in the courts of law, etc." Depending on the decree, establishmen ...

of administration and court proceedings in France, which ousted

, 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 an inflection. Declension may apply to nouns, pronouns, adjectives, adverbs, and det ...

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 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

(French Academy) in 1634 by

Cardinal Richelieu Armand Jean du Plessis, 1st Duke of Richelieu (9 September 1585 – 4 December 1642), commonly known as Cardinal Richelieu, was a Catholic Church in France, French Catholic prelate and statesman who had an outsized influence in civil and religi ...

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 International Business Machines Corporation (using the trademark IBM), nicknamed Big Blue, is an American Multinational corporation, multinational technology company headquartered in Armonk, New York, and present in over 175 countries. It is ...

(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

of educated Europe, especially with regards to the arts, literature and

diplomacy Diplomacy is the communication by representatives of State (polity), state, International organization, intergovernmental, or Non-governmental organization, non-governmental institutions intended to influence events in the international syste ...

. Monarchs like Frederick II of Prussia and

Catherine the Great Catherine II. (born Princess Sophie of Anhalt-Zerbst; 2 May 172917 November 1796), most commonly known as Catherine the Great, was the reigning empress of Russia from 1762 to 1796. She came to power after overthrowing her husband, Peter I ...

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 ( , ; ) are a Religious denomination, religious group of French people, French Protestants who held to the Reformed (Calvinist) tradition of Protestantism. The term, which may be derived from the name of a Swiss political leader, ...

. In the 17th and the 18th centuries, French established itself permanently in the

Americas The Americas, sometimes collectively called America, are a landmass comprising the totality of North America and South America.''Webster's New World College Dictionary'', 2010 by Wiley Publishing, Inc., Cleveland, Ohio. When viewed as a sing ...

. There is an academic debate about how fluent in French the colonists of

New France New France (, ) was the territory colonized by Kingdom of France, 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 Kingdom of Great Br ...

were. Less than 15% of colonists (25% of the women – chiefly '' filles du roi'' – and 5% of the men) were from the

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. 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 (around

Tours Tours ( ; ) is the largest city in the region of Centre-Val de Loire, France. It is the Prefectures in France, prefecture of the Departments of France, department of Indre-et-Loire. The Communes of France, commune of Tours had 136,463 inhabita ...

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, or nation-state, is a political entity in which the state (a centralized political organization ruling over a population within a territory) and the nation (a community based on a common identity) are (broadly or ideally) con ...

, which appeared after the 1789 French Revolution and

Napoleon I Napoleon Bonaparte (born Napoleone di Buonaparte; 15 August 1769 – 5 May 1821), later known by his regnal name Napoleon I, was a French general and statesman who rose to prominence during the French Revolution and led Military career ...

's empire, unified the

French people French people () are a nation primarily located in Western Europe that share a common Culture of France, French culture, History of France, history, and French language, language, identified with the country of France. The French people, esp ...

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. His best-known works include his tetralogy about what he called the "long 19th century" (''Th ...

, "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 known as the draft in the United States and Israel, is the practice in which the compulsory enlistment in a national service, mainly a military service, is enforced by law. Conscription dates back to antiquity and it conti ...

, 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 or movement that holds that the nation should be congruent with the State (polity), state. As a movement, it presupposes the existence and tends to promote the interests of a particular nation,Anthony D. Smith, Smith, A ...

mold, which created the French citizen and his consciousness of membership to a common nation, and the various "

patois ''Patois'' (, 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 or sl ...

" 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), 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 (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

, with the rise of the United States as a dominant global

superpower Superpower describes a sovereign state or supranational union that holds a dominant position characterized by the ability to Sphere of influence, exert influence and Power projection, project power on a global scale. This is done through the comb ...

. A watershed was the

Treaty of Versailles The Treaty of Versailles was a peace treaty signed on 28 June 1919. As the most important treaty of World War I, it ended the state of war between Germany and most of the Allies of World War I, Allied Powers. It was signed in the Palace ...

, which ended

World War I World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...

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 French politician who served as President of France from 1995 to 2007. He was previously Prime Minister of France from 1974 to 1976 and 1986 to 1988, as well as Mayor of Pari ...

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

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 is the geographical United Nations geoscheme for Asia#South-eastern Asia, southeastern region of Asia, consisting of the regions that are situated south of China, east of the Indian subcontinent, and northwest of the Mainland Au ...

), but the language has changed to creoles, dialects or pidgins in the French departments in the

West Indies The West Indies is an island subregion of the Americas, surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean and the Caribbean Sea, which comprises 13 independent island country, island countries and 19 dependent territory, dependencies in thr ...

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. At about 30.3 million km2 (11.7 million square miles) including adjacent islands, it covers 20% of Earth's land area and 6% of its total surfac ...

. In the Canadian province of

Quebec Quebec is Canada's List of Canadian provinces and territories by area, largest province by area. Located in Central Canada, the province shares borders with the provinces of Ontario to the west, Newfoundland and Labrador to the northeast, ...

, different laws have promoted the use of French in administration, business and education since the 1970s. Bill 101, 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; ) is an agency of the Quebec provincial government charged with ensuring legislative requirements with respect to the right to use French are respected. Established on 24 March 1961 by the Liberal government of Jean Lesage, the ...

'' to reduce the variation of French spoken in Quebec and to preserve the distinctiveness of

Quebec French Quebec French ( ), also known as Québécois French, is the predominant variety (linguistics), variety of the French language spoken in Canada. It is the dominant language of the province of Quebec, used in everyday communication, in education, ...

. 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 ( ; ; ) is a state in the Deep South and South Central regions of the United States. It borders Texas to the west, Arkansas to the north, and Mississippi to the east. Of the 50 U.S. states, it ranks 31st in area and 25 ...

(''see CODOFIL'') and parts of

New England New England is a region consisting of 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 (state), New York to the west and by the ...

(particularly

Maine Maine ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the New England region of the United States, and the northeasternmost state in the Contiguous United States. It borders New Hampshire to the west, the Gulf of Maine to the southeast, and the Provinces and ...

) to preserve French there.

Internal phonological history

French has radically transformative

sound change In historical linguistics, a sound change 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, Portuguese, Italian and Romanian:

Vowels

The

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 variety (linguistics), varieties of the English language native to the United States. English is the Languages of the United States, most widely spoken lang ...

''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 /ɑ̃/ () or Amoy []. By contrast, oral vowels are prod ...

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 /ɑ̃/ () or Amoy []. By contrast, oral vowels are p ...

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

. 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), 1969 * ''Open'' (Gerd Dudek, Buschi Niebergall, and Edward Vesala album), 1979 * ''Open'' (Go ...

closed syllable A syllable is a basic unit of organization within a sequence of speech sounds, such as within a word, typically defined by linguists as a ''nucleus'' (most often a vowel) with optional sounds before or after that nucleus (''margins'', which are ...

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 or a vowel glide, 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 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 (, , ; ) was the language spoken in most of the northern half of France approximately between the late 8th -4; we might wonder whether there's a point at which it's appropriate to talk of the beginnings of French, that is, when it wa ...

except for , which turned into a schwa (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 basic unit of organization within a sequence of Phone (phonetics), speech sounds, such as within a word, typically defined by linguists as a ''nucleus'' (most often a vowel) with optional sounds before or after that nucleus (''ma ...

(followed by at most one consonant) or a

(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 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

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

context, respectively). See the article on the phonological history of French 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 or actual duration of a vowel sound when pronounced. Vowels perceived as shorter are often called short vowels and those perceived as longer called long vowels. On one hand, many languages do not d ...

(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 "bent around"a translation of ...

accent). For the most part, the long vowels are no longer pronounced distinctively long in Modern French (although long ''ê'' is still distinguished in

). 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 one of multiple possible spoken soundsor '' phones''used to pronounce a single phoneme in a particular language. For example, in English, the voiceless plosi ...

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 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 notation i ...

, 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

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: #* "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 approximately as far forward as possible in the mouth without creating a constriction th ...

(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, or one whose articulation at beginning and end is relatively fixed, with the tongue moving neither up nor down and neither forward nor backward towards a new position of articulation. A monophthong can be ...

: "false" > ''fausse'' . See the article on the phonological history of French 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

, 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 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 * > ''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" > * > ''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

Old French Old French (, , ; ) was the language spoken in most of the northern half of France approximately between the late 8th

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 refe ...

stops and fricative">stop consonant">stops and fricatives were pronounced voiceless consonant">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 v ...

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, 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 ( ; also known as the Jersey language, Jersey French and Jersey Norman French in English) is a Romance languages, Romance language and the traditional language of the Jersey people. It is a form of the Norman language spoken in Jersey, an isla ...

, a dialect of the

Norman language Norman or Norman French (, , Guernésiais: , Jèrriais: ) is a ''Langues d'oïl, langue d'oïl'' spoken in the historical region, historical and Cultural area, cultural region of Normandy. The name "Norman French" is sometimes also used to des ...

, 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. # 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 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 (formerly also phonemics or phonematics: "phonemics ''n.'' 'obsolescent''1. Any procedure for identifying the phonemes of a language from a corpus of data. 2. (formerly also phonematics) A former synonym for phonology, often pre ...

: * The reintroduction of the consonant at the beginning of a word is caused 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: ''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 among the ''langues d'oïl'' 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 the municipalit ...

, 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 – ) and Standard French (–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

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) corresponds closely to the limit of Celtic settlement in

ancient Rome In modern historiography, ancient Rome is the Roman people, Roman civilisation from the founding of Rome, founding of the Italian city of Rome in the 8th century BC to the Fall of the Western Roman Empire, collapse of the Western Roman Em ...

. 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 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), 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 ...

al tenses, especially the ''

passé composé The (; ) is a past tense in the 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 unknown) time in the past. It originally corresponded in function to t ...

'', 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; ) is the earliest stage of the German language, conventionally identified as the period from around 500/750 to 1050. Rather than representing a single supra-regional form of German, Old High German encompasses the numerous ...

''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").

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