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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 was deemed no longer make to think of the varieties spoken in Gaul as Latin. Although a precise date can't be given, there is a general consensus (see Wright 1982, 1991, Lodge 1993) that an awareness of a vernacular, distinct from Latin, emerged at the end of the eighth century.] and mid-14th centuries. Rather than a unified Dialect#Dialect or language, language, Old French was a Dialect cluster, group of Romance languages, Romance dialects, Mutual intelligibility, mutually intelligible yet Dialect continuum, diverse. These dialects came to be collectively known as the , contrasting with the , the emerging Occitano-Romance languages of
Occitania Occitania is the historical region in Southern Europe where the Occitan language was historically spoken and where it is sometimes used as a second language. This cultural area roughly encompasses much of the southern third of France (except ...
, now the south of France. The mid-14th century witnessed the emergence of
Middle French Middle French () is a historical division of the French language that covers the period from the mid-14th to the early 17th centuries. It is a period of transition during which: * the French language became clearly distinguished from the other co ...
, the language of the
French Renaissance The French Renaissance was the cultural and artistic movement in France between the 15th and early 17th centuries. The period is associated with the pan-European Renaissance, a word first used by the French historian Jules Michelet to define ...
in the
テ四e-de-France The テ四e-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 ...
region; this dialect was a predecessor to Modern French. Other dialects of Old French evolved themselves into modern forms (, Gallo, Norman, Picard, Walloon, etc.), each with its linguistic features and history. The region where Old French was spoken natively roughly extended to the northern half of the
Kingdom of France The Kingdom of France is the historiographical name or umbrella term given to various political entities of France in the Middle Ages, medieval and Early modern France, early modern period. It was one of the most powerful states in Europe from th ...
and its vassals (including parts of the Angevin Empire), and the duchies of Upper and Lower Lorraine to the east (corresponding to modern north-eastern
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 ...
and Belgian
Wallonia Wallonia ( ; ; or ), officially the Walloon Region ( ; ), is one of the three communities, regions and language areas of Belgium, regions of Belgium窶蚤long with Flemish Region, Flanders and Brussels. Covering the southern portion of the c ...
), but the influence of Old French was much wider, as it was carried to
England England is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is located on the island of Great Britain, of which it covers about 62%, and List of islands of England, more than 100 smaller adjacent islands. It ...
and the
Crusader states The Crusader states, or Outremer, were four Catholic polities established in the Levant region and southeastern Anatolia from 1098 to 1291. Following the principles of feudalism, the foundation for these polities was laid by the First Crusade ...
as the language of a feudal elite and commerce.


Areal and dialectal divisions

The
area Area is the measure of a region's size on a surface. The area of a plane region or ''plane area'' refers to the area of a shape or planar lamina, while '' surface area'' refers to the area of an open surface or the boundary of a three-di ...
of Old French in contemporary terms corresponded to the northern parts of the
Kingdom of France The Kingdom of France is the historiographical name or umbrella term given to various political entities of France in the Middle Ages, medieval and Early modern France, early modern period. It was one of the most powerful states in Europe from th ...
(including Anjou and
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 ...
, which in the 12th century were ruled by the Plantagenet kings of England), Upper Burgundy and the
Duchy of Lorraine The Duchy of Lorraine was a principality of the Holy Roman Empire which existed from the 10th century until 1766 when it was annexed by the kingdom of France. It gave its name to the larger present-day region of Lorraine in northeastern France ...
. The Norman dialect was also spread to
England England is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is located on the island of Great Britain, of which it covers about 62%, and List of islands of England, more than 100 smaller adjacent islands. It ...
and
Ireland Ireland (, ; ; Ulster Scots dialect, Ulster-Scots: ) is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean, in Northwestern Europe. Geopolitically, the island is divided between the Republic of Ireland (officially Names of the Irish state, named Irelan ...
, and during the
Crusades The Crusades were a series of religious wars initiated, supported, and at times directed by the Papacy during the Middle Ages. The most prominent of these were the campaigns to the Holy Land aimed at reclaiming Jerusalem and its surrounding t ...
, Old French was also spoken in the
Kingdom of Sicily The Kingdom of Sicily (; ; ) was a state that existed in Sicily and the southern Italian peninsula, Italian Peninsula as well as, for a time, in Kingdom of Africa, Northern Africa, from its founding by Roger II of Sicily in 1130 until 1816. It was ...
, and in the Principality of Antioch and the
Kingdom of Jerusalem The Kingdom of Jerusalem, also known as the Crusader Kingdom, was one of the Crusader states established in the Levant immediately after the First Crusade. It lasted for almost two hundred years, from the accession of Godfrey of Bouillon in 1 ...
in the
Levant The Levant ( ) is the subregion that borders the Eastern Mediterranean, Eastern Mediterranean sea to the west, and forms the core of West Asia and the political term, Middle East, ''Middle East''. In its narrowest sense, which is in use toda ...
. As part of the emerging Gallo-Romance dialect continuum, the were contrasted with the , at the time also called "Provenテァal", adjacent to the Old French area in the southwest, and with the Gallo-Italic group to the southeast. The
Franco-Provenテァal Franco-Provenテァal (also Francoprovenテァal, Patois or Arpitan) is a Gallo-Romance languages, Gallo-Romance language that originated and is spoken in eastern France, western Switzerland, and northwestern Italy. Franco-Provenテァal has several di ...
group developed in Upper Burgundy, sharing features with both French and Provenテァal; it may have begun to diverge from the as early as the late 8th century and is attested as a distinct Gallo-Romance variety by the 12th century. Dialects or variants of Old French include: * Burgundian in
Burgundy Burgundy ( ; ; Burgundian: ''Bregogne'') is a historical territory and former administrative region and province of east-central France. The province was once home to the Dukes of Burgundy from the early 11th until the late 15th century. ...
, then an independent
duchy A duchy, also called a dukedom, is a country, territory, fiefdom, fief, or domain ruled by a duke or duchess, a ruler hierarchically second to the king or Queen regnant, queen in Western European tradition. There once existed an important differe ...
whose capital was at
Dijon Dijon (, ; ; in Burgundian language (Oテッl), Burgundian: ''Digion'') is a city in and the Prefectures in France, prefecture of the Cテエte-d'Or Departments of France, department and of the Bourgogne-Franche-Comtテゥ Regions of France, region in eas ...
; * Picard of
Picardy Picardy (; Picard language, Picard and , , ) is a historical and cultural territory and a former regions of France, administrative region located in northern France. The first mentions of this province date back to the Middle Ages: it gained it ...
and Romance Flanders, with
Lille Lille (, ; ; ; ; ) is a city in the northern part of France, within French Flanders. Positioned along the Deテサle river, near France's border with Belgium, it is the capital of the Hauts-de-France Regions of France, region, the Prefectures in F ...
,
Amiens Amiens (English: or ; ; , or ) is a city and Communes of France, commune in northern France, located north of Paris and south-west of Lille. It is the capital of the Somme (department), Somme Departments of France, department in the region ...
and
Arras Arras ( , ; ; historical ) is the prefecture of the Pas-de-Calais department, which forms part of the region of Hauts-de-France; before the reorganization of 2014 it was in Nord-Pas-de-Calais. The historic centre of the Artois region, with a ...
as some of the more prominent cities. It was said that the Picard language began at the east door of
Notre-Dame de Paris Notre-Dame de Paris ( ; meaning "Cathedral of Our Lady of Paris"), often referred to simply as Notre-Dame, is a Medieval architecture, medieval Catholic cathedral on the テ四e de la Citテゥ (an island in the River Seine), in the 4th arrondissemen ...
, so far-reaching was its influence. It would also spread northwards in the area of
Boulogne-sur-Mer Boulogne-sur-Mer (; ; ; or ''Bononia''), often called just Boulogne (, ), is a coastal city in Hauts-de-France, Northern France. It is a Subprefectures in France, sub-prefecture of the Departments of France, department of Pas-de-Calais. Boul ...
that had a strong presence of
Old Dutch In linguistics, Old Dutch ( Modern Dutch: ') or Old Low Franconian (Modern Dutch: ') is the set of dialects that evolved from Frankish spoken in the Low Countries during the Early Middle Ages, from around the 6th Page 55: "''Uit de zesde eeu ...
and
Middle Dutch Middle Dutch is a collective name for a number of closely related West Germanic dialects whose ancestor was Old Dutch. It was spoken and written between 1150 and 1500. Until the advent of Modern Dutch after 1500 or , there was no overarching sta ...
; * Old Norman, in
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 ...
, whose principal cities were
Caen Caen (; ; ) is a Communes of France, commune inland from the northwestern coast of France. It is the Prefectures in France, prefecture of the Departments of France, department of Calvados (department), Calvados. The city proper has 105,512 inha ...
and
Rouen Rouen (, ; or ) is a city on the River Seine, in northwestern France. It is in the prefecture of Regions of France, region of Normandy (administrative region), Normandy and the Departments of France, department of Seine-Maritime. Formerly one ...
. The
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 brought many Norman-speaking aristocrats into
Britain Britain most often refers to: * Great Britain, a large island comprising the countries of England, Scotland and Wales * The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, a sovereign state in Europe comprising Great Britain and the north-eas ...
. Most of the older Norman (sometimes called "French") words in English reflect its influence, which became a conduit for the introduction into the Anglo-Norman realm, as did Anglo-Norman control of Anjou and Gascony and other continental possessions. Anglo-Norman was a language that reflected a shared culture on both sides of 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 ...
. Ultimately, the language declined and fell, becoming
Law French Law French () is an archaic language originally based on Anglo-Norman, but increasingly influenced by Parisian French and, later, English. It was used in the law courts of England from the 13th century. Its use continued for several centur ...
, a jargon spoken by lawyers that was used in
English law English law is the common law list of national legal systems, legal system of England and Wales, comprising mainly English criminal law, criminal law and Civil law (common law), civil law, each branch having its own Courts of England and Wales, ...
until the reign of
Charles II of England Charles II (29 May 1630 窶 6 February 1685) was King of Scotland from 1649 until 1651 and King of England, Scotland, and King of Ireland, Ireland from the 1660 Restoration of the monarchy until his death in 1685. Charles II was the eldest su ...
; however, Norman varieties still survive in Normandy and the
Channel Islands The Channel Islands are an archipelago in the English Channel, off the French coast of Normandy. They are divided into two Crown Dependencies: the Jersey, Bailiwick of Jersey, which is the largest of the islands; and the Bailiwick of Guernsey, ...
as regional languages:
Jティrriais ( ; 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 ...
,
Guernテゥsiais Guernテゥsiais (), also known as Guerneseyese, ''Dgティrnテゥsiais'', Guernsey French, and Guernsey Norman French, is the variety of the Norman language spoken in Guernsey. It is sometimes known on the island simply as "patois". As one of the langues d ...
, Sercquiais, and Auregnais * Walloon, around
Namur Namur (; ; ) is a city and municipality in Wallonia, Belgium. It is the capital both of the province of Namur and of Wallonia, hosting the Parliament of Wallonia, the Government of Wallonia and its administration. Namur stands at the confl ...
, now in
Wallonia Wallonia ( ; ; or ), officially the Walloon Region ( ; ), is one of the three communities, regions and language areas of Belgium, regions of Belgium窶蚤long with Flemish Region, Flanders and Brussels. Covering the southern portion of the c ...
,
Belgium Belgium, officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a country in Northwestern Europe. Situated in a coastal lowland region known as the Low Countries, it is bordered by the Netherlands to the north, Germany to the east, Luxembourg to the southeas ...
; * Gallo of the
Duchy of Brittany The Duchy of Brittany (, ; ) was a medieval feudal state that existed between approximately 939 and 1547. Its territory covered the northwestern peninsula of France, bordered by the Bay of Biscay to the west, and the English Channel to the north. ...
; * Lorrain of the
Duchy of Lorraine The Duchy of Lorraine was a principality of the Holy Roman Empire which existed from the 10th century until 1766 when it was annexed by the kingdom of France. It gave its name to the larger present-day region of Lorraine in northeastern France ...
. Some modern languages are derived from Old French dialects other than Classical French, which is based on the テ四e-de-France dialect. They include Angevin, Berrichon, Bourguignon-Morvandiau,
Champenois Champenois (''lou champaignat'') is a Romance language among the ''langues d'oテッl'' spoken by a minority of people in Champagne and テ四e-de-France provinces in France, as well as in a handful of towns in southern Belgium (chiefly the municipalit ...
, Franc-Comtois, Gallo, Lorrain, Norman, Picard, Poitevin, Saintongeais, and Walloon.


History


Evolution and separation from Vulgar Latin

Beginning with
Plautus Titus Maccius Plautus ( ; 254 窶 184 BC) was a Roman playwright of the Old Latin period. His comedies are the earliest Latin literary works to have survived in their entirety. He wrote Palliata comoedia, the genre devised by Livius Andro ...
' time (254窶184 ), one can see phonological changes between
Classical Latin Classical Latin is the form of Literary Latin recognized as a Literary language, literary standard language, standard by writers of the late Roman Republic and early Roman Empire. It formed parallel to Vulgar Latin around 75 BC out of Old Latin ...
and what is called
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 ...
, the common spoken language of the
Western Roman Empire In modern historiography, the Western Roman Empire was the western provinces of the Roman Empire, collectively, during any period in which they were administered separately from the eastern provinces by a separate, independent imperial court. ...
. Vulgar Latin differed from Classical Latin 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 ...
and morphology as well as exhibiting lexical differences; however, they were mutually intelligible until the 7th century when Classical Latin "died" as a daily spoken language, and had to be learned as a second language (though it was long thought of as the formal version of the spoken language). Vulgar Latin was the ancestor of the
Romance languages 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 ...
, including Old French. By the late 8th century, when the
Carolingian Renaissance The Carolingian Renaissance was the first of three medieval renaissances, a period of cultural activity in the Carolingian Empire. Charlemagne's reign led to an intellectual revival beginning in the 8th century and continuing throughout the 9th ...
began, native speakers of Romance idioms continued to use Romance
orthoepy Orthoepy is the study of pronunciation of a particular language, within a specific oral tradition. The term is from the Greek , from () and (). The antonym is '' cacoepy'' "bad or wrong pronunciation". The pronunciation of the word ''orthoep ...
rules while speaking and reading Latin. When the most prominent scholar of Western Europe at the time, English deacon
Alcuin Alcuin of York (; ; 735 窶 19 May 804), also called Ealhwine, Alhwin, or Alchoin, was a scholar, clergyman, poet, and teacher from York, Northumbria. He was born around 735 and became the student of Ecgbert of York, Archbishop Ecgbert at Yor ...
, was tasked by
Charlemagne Charlemagne ( ; 2 April 748 窶 28 January 814) was List of Frankish kings, King of the Franks from 768, List of kings of the Lombards, King of the Lombards from 774, and Holy Roman Emperor, Emperor of what is now known as the Carolingian ...
with improving the standards of Latin writing in France, not being a native Romance speaker himself, he prescribed a pronunciation based on a fairly literal interpretation of Latin spelling. For example, in a radical break from the traditional system, a word such as now had to be read aloud precisely as it was spelled rather than (later spelled as ). Such a radical change had the effect of rendering Latin
sermon A sermon is a religious discourse or oration by a preacher, usually a member of clergy. Sermons address a scriptural, theological, or moral topic, usually expounding on a type of belief, law, or behavior within both past and present context ...
s completely unintelligible to the general Romance-speaking public, which prompted officials a few years later, at the Third Council of Tours, to instruct priests to read sermons aloud in the old way, in or 'plain Roman espeech'. As there was now no unambiguous way to indicate whether a given text was to be read aloud as Latin or Romance, various attempts were made in France to devise a new orthography for the latter; among the earliest examples are parts of the
Oaths of Strasbourg The Oaths of Strasbourg were a military pact made on 14 February 842 by Charles the Bald and Louis the German against their older brother Lothair I, the designated heir of Louis the Pious, the successor of Charlemagne. One year later the Treaty ...
and the '' Sequence of Saint Eulalia''.


Non-Latin influences


Gaulish

Some
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, ...
words influenced Vulgar Latin and, through this, other Romance languages. For example, classical Latin was uniformly replaced in Vulgar Latin by 'nag, work horse', derived from Gaulish (cf. Welsh , Breton ), yielding , Occitan (), Catalan , Spanish , Portuguese , Italian , Romanian , and, by extension, English ''
cavalry Historically, cavalry (from the French word ''cavalerie'', itself derived from ''cheval'' meaning "horse") are groups of soldiers or warriors who Horses in warfare, fight mounted on horseback. Until the 20th century, cavalry were the most mob ...
'' and ''
chivalry Chivalry, or the chivalric language, is an informal and varying code of conduct that developed in Europe between 1170 and 1220. It is associated with the medieval Christianity, Christian institution of knighthood, with knights being members of ...
'' (both via different forms of ldFrench: Old Norman and Francien). An estimated 200 words of Gaulish etymology survive in Modern French, for example and . Within historical phonology and studies of
language contact Language contact occurs when speakers of two or more languages or varieties interact with and influence each other. The study of language contact is called contact linguistics. Language contact can occur at language borders, between adstratum ...
, various phonological changes have been posited as caused by a Gaulish substrate, although there is some debate. One of these is considered certain, because this fact is clearly attested in the Gaulish-language
epigraphy Epigraphy () is the study of inscriptions, or epigraphs, as writing; it is the science of identifying graphemes, clarifying their meanings, classifying their uses according to dates and cultural contexts, and drawing conclusions about the wr ...
on the pottery found at la Graufesenque ( 1st century). There, the Greek word (written in Latin) appears as . The consonant clusters /ps/ and /pt/ shifted to /xs/ and /xt/, e.g. > ''*kaxsa'' > ''caisse'' ( Italian ) or ''captトォvus'' > ''*kaxtivus'' > (mod. ''chテゥtif''; cf. Irish ''cacht'' ; 竕 Italian , Portuguese , Spanish ). This phonetic evolution is common in its later stages with the shift of the Latin cluster /kt/ in Old French ( > ''fait'', 竕 Italian , Portuguese , Spanish ; or ''lactem''* > ''lait'', 竕 Italian , Portuguese , Spanish ). This means that both /pt/ and /kt/ must have first merged into /kt/ in the history of Old French, after which this /kt/ shifted to /xt/. In parallel, /ps/ and /ks/ merged into /ks/ before shifting to /xs/, apparently under Gaulish influence. The
Celtic Celtic, Celtics or Keltic may refer to: Language and ethnicity *pertaining to Celts, a collection of Indo-European peoples in Europe and Anatolia **Celts (modern) *Celtic languages **Proto-Celtic language *Celtic music *Celtic nations Sports Foot ...
Gaulish language Gaulish is an extinct Celtic language spoken in parts of Continental Europe before and during the period of the Roman Empire. In the narrow sense, Gaulish was the language of the Celts of Gaul (now France, Luxembourg, Belgium, most of Switzerl ...
is thought to have survived into the 6th century in France, despite considerable cultural Romanization. Coexisting with Latin, Gaulish helped shape the
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 ...
dialects that developed into French, with effects including loanwords and
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 ...
s (including , the word for "yes"), sound changes shaped by Gaulish influence, and influences in conjugation and word order. A computational study from 2003 suggests that early gender shifts may have been motivated by the gender of the corresponding word in Gaulish.


Frankish

The pronunciation, vocabulary, and syntax of the Vulgar Latin spoken in
Roman Gaul Roman Gaul refers to GaulThe territory of Gaul roughly corresponds to modern-day France, Belgium and Luxembourg, and adjacent parts of the Netherlands, Switzerland and Germany. under provincial rule in the Roman Empire from the 1st century B ...
in
late antiquity Late antiquity marks the period that comes after the end of classical antiquity and stretches into the onset of the Early Middle Ages. Late antiquity as a period was popularized by Peter Brown (historian), Peter Brown in 1971, and this periodiza ...
were modified by the Old Frankish language, spoken by 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 ...
who settled in Gaul from the 5th century and conquered the future Old French-speaking area by the 530s. The word itself is derived from the
Late Latin Late Latin is the scholarly name for the form of Literary Latin of late antiquity.Roberts (1996), p. 537. English dictionary definitions of Late Latin date this period from the 3rd to 6th centuries CE, and continuing into the 7th century in ...
name for the Franks. The Old Frankish language had a definitive influence on the development of Old French, which partly explains why the earliest attested Old French documents are older than the earliest attestations in other Romance languages (e.g. Strasbourg Oaths, Sequence of Saint Eulalia). It is the result of an earlier gap created between Classical Latin and its evolved forms, which slowly reduced and eventually severed the
mutual intelligibility In linguistics, mutual intelligibility is a relationship between different but related language varieties in which speakers of the different varieties can readily understand each other without prior familiarity or special effort. Mutual intelli ...
between the two. The Old Low Franconian influence is also believed to be responsible for the differences between the and the (Occitan), being that various parts of Northern France remained bilingual between Latin and Germanic for some time, and these areas correspond precisely to where the first documents in Old French were written. This Germanic language shaped the popular Latin spoken here and gave it a very distinctive identity compared to the other future Romance languages. The first noticeable influence is the substitution of the Latin melodic accent with a Germanic stress and its result was diphthongization, differentiation between long and short vowels, the fall of the unaccented syllable and of the final vowels: * , ''-a'' > > French (> English ''dime''; Italian , Spanish ) * ''dignitate'' > (> English ''dainty''; Italian , Romanian ) * ''catena'' > (> English ''chain''; Italian , Spanish , Occitan , Portuguese ) Additionally, two phonemes that had long since died out in Vulgar Latin were reintroduced: and (> ''g(u)-'', ''w-'' cf. Picard ''w-''): * ''altu'' > (influenced by Old Low Frankish [] ''*hナ紘'' ; 竕 Italian, Portuguese , Catalan , Old Occitan ) * > ''wespe'', , French , Picard , Walloon , all (influenced by ; 竕 Occitan , Italian , Spanish ) * > French (influenced by with analogous fruits, when they are not ripe; 竕 Occitan , Italian ) * ''vulpiculu'' (from ) > ''golpilz'', Picard (influenced by ; 竕 Occitan , Old Italian ''volpiglio'', Spanish ) In contrast, the Italian, Portuguese and Spanish words of Germanic origin borrowed from French or directly from Germanic retain ~ , e.g. Italian, Spanish , alongside in French ). These examples show a clear consequence of bilingualism, that sometimes even changed the first syllable of the Latin words. One example of a Latin word influencing an loan is ''framboise'' , from , from (cf. Dutch ''braambes'', ''braambezie''; akin to German , English dial. ''bramberry'') blended with ''fraga'' or , which explains the replacement > and in turn the final ''-se'' of ''framboise'' added to to make ''freise'', modern (竕 Walloon , Occitan , Romanian , Italian , ''fravola'' ). Mildred Pope estimated that perhaps still 15% of the vocabulary of Modern French derives from Germanic sources. This proportion was larger in Old French, because
Middle French Middle French () is a historical division of the French language that covers the period from the mid-14th to the early 17th centuries. It is a period of transition during which: * the French language became clearly distinguished from the other co ...
borrowed heavily from Latin and Italian.


Earliest written Old French

The earliest documents said to be written in the Gallo-Romance that prefigures French 窶 after the Reichenau and Kassel glosses (8th and 9th centuries) 窶 are the
Oaths of Strasbourg The Oaths of Strasbourg were a military pact made on 14 February 842 by Charles the Bald and Louis the German against their older brother Lothair I, the designated heir of Louis the Pious, the successor of Charlemagne. One year later the Treaty ...
(treaties and charters into which King
Charles the Bald Charles the Bald (; 13 June 823 窶 6 October 877), also known as CharlesII, was a 9th-century king of West Francia (843窶877), King of Italy (875窶877) and emperor of the Carolingian Empire (875窶877). After a series of civil wars during t ...
entered in 842): The second-oldest document in Old French is the Eulalia sequence, which is important for linguistic reconstruction of Old French pronunciation due to its consistent spelling. The royal
House of Capet The House of Capet () ruled the Kingdom of France from 987 to 1328. It was the most senior line of the Capetian dynasty 窶 itself a derivative dynasty from the Robertians and the Karlings. The direct line of the House of Capet came to an ...
, founded by
Hugh Capet Hugh Capet (; ; 941 窶 24 October 996) was the King of the Franks from 987 to 996. He is the founder of and first king from the House of Capet. The son of the powerful duke Hugh the Great and his wife Hedwige of Saxony, he was elected as t ...
in 987, inaugurated the development of northern French culture in and around
テ四e-de-France The テ四e-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 ...
, which slowly but firmly asserted its ascendency over the more southerly areas of
Aquitaine Aquitaine (, ; ; ; ; Poitevin-Saintongeais: ''Aguiテゥne''), archaic Guyenne or Guienne (), is a historical region of southwestern France and a former Regions of France, administrative region. Since 1 January 2016 it has been part of the administ ...
and Tolosa (
Toulouse Toulouse (, ; ; ) is a city in southern France, the Prefectures in France, prefecture of the Haute-Garonne department and of the Occitania (administrative region), Occitania region. The city is on the banks of the Garonne, River Garonne, from ...
); however, the Capetians' , the forerunner of modern standard French, did not begin to become the common speech of all of France until after the French Revolution.


Transition to Middle French

In the Late Middle Ages, the Old French dialects diverged into a number of distinct , among which
Middle French Middle French () is a historical division of the French language that covers the period from the mid-14th to the early 17th centuries. It is a period of transition during which: * the French language became clearly distinguished from the other co ...
proper was the dialect of the
テ四e-de-France The テ四e-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 ...
region. During the
Early Modern period The early modern period is a Periodization, historical period that is defined either as part of or as immediately preceding the modern period, with divisions based primarily on the history of Europe and the broader concept of modernity. There i ...
, French was established as the official language of the Kingdom of France throughout the realm, including the 窶都peaking territories in the south. It was only in the 17th to 18th centuries 窶 with the development especially of popular literature of the '' Bibliothティque bleue'' 窶 that a standardized
Classical French French is a Romance language (meaning that it is descended primarily from Vulgar Latin) that specifically is classified under the Gallo-Romance languages. The discussion of the history of a language is typically divided into "external histor ...
spread throughout France alongside the regional dialects.


Literature

The material and cultural conditions in France and associated territories around the year 1100 triggered what Charles Homer Haskins termed the "
Renaissance of the 12th century The Renaissance of the 12th century was a period of many changes at the outset of the High Middle Ages. It included social, political and economic transformations, and an intellectual revitalization of Western Europe with strong philosophical and ...
", resulting in a profusion of creative works in a variety of genres. Old French gave way to
Middle French Middle French () is a historical division of the French language that covers the period from the mid-14th to the early 17th centuries. It is a period of transition during which: * the French language became clearly distinguished from the other co ...
in the mid-14th century, paving the way for early French Renaissance literature of the 15th century. The earliest extant French literary texts date from the ninth century, but very few texts before the 11th century have survived. The first literary works written in Old French were saints' lives. The '' Canticle of Saint Eulalie'', written in the second half of the 9th century, is generally accepted as the first such text. Further, some of the earliest medieval music has lyrics in Old French, composed by the earliest composers known by name. At the beginning of the 13th century, Jean Bodel, in his '' Chanson de Saisnes'', divided medieval French narrative literature into three subject areas: the Matter of France or Matter of
Charlemagne Charlemagne ( ; 2 April 748 窶 28 January 814) was List of Frankish kings, King of the Franks from 768, List of kings of the Lombards, King of the Lombards from 774, and Holy Roman Emperor, Emperor of what is now known as the Carolingian ...
; the Matter of Rome ( romances in an ancient setting); and the
Matter of Britain The Matter of Britain (; ; ; ) is the body of medieval literature and legendary material associated with Great Britain and Brittany and the list of legendary kings of Britain, legendary kings and heroes associated with it, particularly King Art ...
( Arthurian romances and Breton lais). The first of these is the subject area of the ("songs of exploits" or "songs of (heroic) deeds"),
epic poem In poetry, an epic is a lengthy narrative poem typically about the extraordinary deeds of extraordinary characters who, in dealings with gods or other superhuman forces, gave shape to the mortal universe for their descendants. With regard to ...
s typically composed in ten-syllable
assonance Assonance is the repetition of identical or similar phonemes in words or syllables that occur close together, either in terms of their vowel phonemes (e.g., ''lean green meat'') or their consonant phonemes (e.g., ''Kip keeps capes ''). However, in ...
d (occasionally
rhyme A rhyme is a repetition of similar sounds (usually the exact same phonemes) in the final Stress (linguistics), stressed syllables and any following syllables of two or more words. Most often, this kind of rhyming (''perfect rhyming'') is consciou ...
d) '' laisses''. More than one hundred have survived in around three hundred manuscripts. The oldest and most celebrated of the is '' The Song of Roland'' (earliest version composed in the late 11th century). Bertrand de Bar-sur-Aube in his '' Girart de Vienne'' set out a grouping of the into three cycles: the ''Geste du roi'' centering on Charlemagne, the '' Geste de Garin de Monglane'' (whose central character was William of Orange), and the ''Geste de Doon de Mayence'' or the "rebel vassal cycle", the most famous characters of which were
Renaud de Montauban Renaud (or Renaut or Renault) de Montauban (Modern ; ; ; or ) was a legendary hero and knight which appeared in a 12th-century Old French known as ''The Four Sons of Aymon''. The four sons of Duke Aymon are Renaud, Richard, Alard and Guiscard, ...
and Girart de Roussillon. A fourth grouping, not listed by Bertrand, is the '' Crusade cycle'', dealing with the
First Crusade The First Crusade (1096窶1099) was the first of a series of religious wars, or Crusades, initiated, supported and at times directed by the Latin Church in the Middle Ages. The objective was the recovery of the Holy Land from Muslim conquest ...
and its immediate aftermath. Jean Bodel's other two categories窶杯he "Matter of Rome" and the "Matter of Britain"窶把oncern the French romance or ''roman''. Around a hundred verse romances survive from the period 1150窶1220. From around 1200 on, the tendency was increasingly to write the romances in prose (many of the earlier verse romances were adapted into prose versions), although new verse romances continued to be written to the end of the 14th century. The most important romance of the 13th century is the '' Romance of the Rose'', which breaks considerably from the conventions of the chivalric adventure story. Medieval French
lyric poetry Modern lyric poetry is a formal type of poetry which expresses personal emotions or feelings, typically spoken in the first person. The term for both modern lyric poetry and modern song lyrics derives from a form of Ancient Greek literature, t ...
began in the late 11th century, arising from the poetic and cultural traditions in
Southern France Southern France, also known as the south of France or colloquially in French as , is a geographical area consisting of the regions of France that border the Atlantic Ocean south of the Marais Poitevin,Louis Papy, ''Le midi atlantique'', Atlas e ...
and
Provence Provence is a geographical region and historical province of southeastern France, which stretches from the left bank of the lower Rhテエne to the west to the France窶的taly border, Italian border to the east; it is bordered by the Mediterrane ...
窶琶ncluding
Toulouse Toulouse (, ; ; ) is a city in southern France, the Prefectures in France, prefecture of the Haute-Garonne department and of the Occitania (administrative region), Occitania region. The city is on the banks of the Garonne, River Garonne, from ...
and the
Aquitaine Aquitaine (, ; ; ; ; Poitevin-Saintongeais: ''Aguiテゥne''), archaic Guyenne or Guienne (), is a historical region of southwestern France and a former Regions of France, administrative region. Since 1 January 2016 it has been part of the administ ...
region, and flourished until the end of the 13th century. These first lyric poets composed and performed in Old Provenテァal (
Old Occitan Old Occitan (, ), also called Old Provenテァal, was the earliest form of the Occitano-Romance languages, as attested in writings dating from the 8th to the 14th centuries. Old Occitan generally includes Early and Old Occitan. Middle Occitan is some ...
) and were called from the verb "to compose, to discuss, to invent". The French word is borrowed from this Occitan word. Inspired by the Provenテァal poets, lyric poetry spread to their Northern French counterparts, who instead spoke and were known as . It is thought that the Provenテァal troubadours were originally influenced by music and poetry from the Hispano-Arab world. By the late 13th century, the poetic tradition in France had begun to develop in ways that differed significantly from the troubadour poets, both in content and in the use of certain fixed forms. The new poetic (and musical) tendencies are apparent in the '' Roman de Fauvel'' in 1310 and 1314, a satire on abuses in the medieval church, filled with medieval
motet In Western classical music, a motet is mainly a vocal musical composition, of highly diverse form and style, from high medieval music to the present. The motet was one of the preeminent polyphonic forms of Renaissance music. According to the Eng ...
s, lais, rondeaux and other new secular forms of poetry and music (mostly anonymous, but with several pieces by
Philippe de Vitry Philippe de Vitry (31 October 12919 June 1361) was a French composer-poet, bishop and Music theory, music theorist in the style of late medieval music. An accomplished, innovative, and influential composer, he was widely acknowledged as a le ...
, who would coin the expression ''
ars nova ''Ars nova'' ()Fallows, David. (2001). "Ars nova". ''The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians'', second edition, edited by Stanley Sadie and John Tyrrell. London: Macmillan. refers to a musical style which flourished in the Kingdom of ...
'' to distinguish the new musical practice from the music of the immediately preceding age). The best-known poet and composer of ''ars nova'' secular music and chansons of the incipient
Middle French Middle French () is a historical division of the French language that covers the period from the mid-14th to the early 17th centuries. It is a period of transition during which: * the French language became clearly distinguished from the other co ...
period was
Guillaume de Machaut Guillaume de Machaut (, ; also Machau and Machault; 窶 April 1377) was a French composer and poet who was the central figure of the style in late medieval music. His dominance of the genre is such that modern musicologists use his death to ...
. Discussions about the origins of non-religious theater ()窶巴oth drama and farce窶琶n the Middle Ages remain controversial, but the idea of a continuous popular tradition stemming from Latin comedy and tragedy to the 9th century seems unlikely. Most historians place the origin of medieval drama in the church's liturgical dialogues and "tropes".
Mystery play Mystery plays and miracle plays (they are distinguished as two different forms although the terms are often used interchangeably) are among the earliest formally developed plays in medieval Europe. Medieval mystery plays focused on the represe ...
s were eventually transferred from the monastery church to the chapter house or refectory hall and finally to the open air, and the vernacular was substituted for Latin. In the 12th century one finds the earliest extant passages in French appearing as refrains inserted into
liturgical drama Liturgical drama refers to medieval forms of dramatic performance that use stories from the Bible or Christian hagiography. The term has developed historically and is no longer used by most researchers. It was widely disseminated by well-known the ...
s in Latin, such as a
Saint Nicholas Saint Nicholas of Myra (traditionally 15 March 270 窶 6 December 343), also known as Nicholas of Bari, was an early Christian bishop of Greeks, Greek descent from the maritime city of Patara (Lycia), Patara in Anatolia (in modern-day Antalya ...
(patron saint of the student clerics) play and a
Saint Stephen Stephen (; ) is traditionally venerated as the protomartyr or first martyr of Christianity."St ...
play. An early French dramatic play is () written in octosyllabic rhymed couplets with Latin stage directions (implying that it was written by Latin-speaking clerics for a lay public). A large body of
fable Fable is a literary genre defined as a succinct fictional story, in prose or verse, that features animals, legendary creatures, plants, inanimate objects, or forces of nature that are anthropomorphized, and that illustrates or leads to a parti ...
s survive in Old French; these include (mostly anonymous) literature dealing with the recurring trickster character of
Reynard Reynard the Fox is a list of literary cycles, literary cycle of medieval allegorical Folklore of the Low Countries, Dutch, English folklore, English, French folklore, French and German folklore, German fables. The first extant versions of the cy ...
the Fox. Marie de France was also active in this genre, producing the '' Ysopet'' (Little
Aesop Aesop ( ; , ; c. 620窶564 BCE; formerly rendered as テsop) was a Greeks, Greek wikt:fabulist, fabulist and Oral storytelling, storyteller credited with a number of fables now collectively known as ''Aesop's Fables''. Although his existence re ...
) series of fables in verse. Related to the fable was the more bawdy , which covered topics such as cuckolding and corrupt clergy. These would be an important source for
Chaucer Geoffrey Chaucer ( ; 窶 25 October 1400) was an English poet, author, and civil servant best known for '' The Canterbury Tales''. He has been called the "father of English literature", or, alternatively, the "father of English poetry". He ...
and for the Renaissance short story ( or ). Among the earliest works of
rhetoric Rhetoric is the art of persuasion. It is one of the three ancient arts of discourse ( trivium) along with grammar and logic/ dialectic. As an academic discipline within the humanities, rhetoric aims to study the techniques that speakers or w ...
and
logic Logic is the study of correct reasoning. It includes both formal and informal logic. Formal logic is the study of deductively valid inferences or logical truths. It examines how conclusions follow from premises based on the structure o ...
to appear in Old French were the translations of ''
Rhetorica ad Herennium The ''Rhetorica ad Herennium'' (''Rhetoric for Herennius'') is the oldest surviving Latin book on rhetoric, dating from the late 80s BC. It was formerly attributed to Cicero or Cornificius, but is in fact of unknown authorship, sometimes ascri ...
'' and
Boethius Anicius Manlius Severinus Boethius, commonly known simply as Boethius (; Latin: ''Boetius''; 480窶524 AD), was a Roman Roman Senate, senator, Roman consul, consul, ''magister officiorum'', polymath, historian, and philosopher of the Early Middl ...
' ''De topicis differentiis'' by John of Antioch in 1282. In northern Italy, authors developed Franco-Italian, a mixed language of Old French and Venetian or Lombard used in literary works in the 13th and 14th centuries.


Phonology

Old French was constantly changing and evolving; however, the form in the late 12th century, as attested in a great deal of mostly poetic writings, can be considered standard. The writing system at this time was more phonetic than that used in most subsequent centuries. In particular, all written consonants (including final ones) were pronounced, except for ''s'' preceding non-
stop consonant In phonetics, a plosive, also known as an occlusive or simply a stop, is a pulmonic consonant in which the vocal tract is blocked so that all airflow ceases. The occlusion may be made with the tongue tip or blade (, ), tongue body (, ), lip ...
s and ''t'' in ''et'', and final ''e'' was pronounced . The phonological system can be summarised as follows:


Consonants

Notes: * All
obstruent An obstruent ( ) is a speech sound such as , , or that is formed by ''obstructing'' airflow. Obstruents contrast with sonorants, which have no such obstruction and so resonate. All obstruents are consonants, but sonorants include vowels as well ...
s (plosives, fricatives and affricates) were subject to word-final devoicing, which was usually indicated in the orthography. * The
affricate An affricate is a consonant that begins as a stop and releases as a fricative, generally with the same place of articulation (most often coronal). It is often difficult to decide if a stop and fricative form a single phoneme or a consonant pai ...
s , , , became
fricative A fricative is a consonant produced by forcing air through a narrow channel made by placing two articulators close together. These may be the lower lip against the upper teeth, in the case of ; the back of the tongue against the soft palate in ...
s (, , , ) in
Middle French Middle French () is a historical division of the French language that covers the period from the mid-14th to the early 17th centuries. It is a period of transition during which: * the French language became clearly distinguished from the other co ...
. ** had three spellings 窶 ''c'' before ''e'' or ''i'', ''テァ'' before other vowels, or ''z'' at the end of a word 窶 as seen in ''cent'', ''chanテァon'', ''priz'' ("a hundred, song, price"). ** was written as ''z'', as in ''doze'' , and occurred only in the middle of the word. * (''l mouillテゥ''), as in ''conseil'', ''travaillier'' ("advice, to work"), became in Modern French. * appeared not only in the middle of a word but also at the end, as in ''poing'' . At the end of a word, was later lost, leaving a nasalized vowel. * was found only in Germanic loanwords or words influenced by Germanic (cf. ''haut, hurler''). It was later lost as a consonant, though it was transphonologized as the so-called aspirated h that blocks liaison. In native Latin words, had been lost early on, as in ''om'', ''uem'', from ''homナ''. * Intervocalic from both Latin and was lenited to in the early period (cf. contemporary Spanish: ''amado'' ). At the end of words, it was also devoiced to . In some texts it was sometimes written as ''dh'' or ''th'' (''aiudha, cadhuna, Ludher, vithe''). By 1100 it disappeared altogether.


Vowels

In Old French, the nasal vowels were not separate phonemes but only
allophone 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 plos ...
s of the oral vowels before a nasal consonant. The nasal consonant was fully pronounced; was pronounced ( ). Nasal vowels were present even in
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 ...
s before nasals where Modern French has oral vowels, as in ''bone'' ( ).


Monophthongs

Notes: * had formerly existed but then closed to ; the original Western Romance having previously been fronted to across most of what is now France and northern Italy. ** would later appear again when monophthongized and also when closed in certain positions (such as when it was followed by original or but not by , which later became ). ** may have similarly become closed to , in at least in some dialects, since it was borrowed into
Middle English Middle English (abbreviated to ME) is a form of the English language that was spoken after the Norman Conquest of 1066, until the late 15th century. The English language underwent distinct variations and developments following the Old English pe ...
as > ( > > English ''count''; > > English ''round''; > > English ''bounty''). In any case, traces of such a change were erased in later stages of French, when the close nasal vowels were opened to become . * may have existed in the unstressed third-person plural verb ending ''-ent'', but it may have already passed to , which is known to have happened no later than the Middle French period.


Diphthongs and triphthongs

Notes: * In Early Old French (up to about the mid-12th century), the spelling represented a diphthong instead of the later
monophthong 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 ...
, and represented the diphthong , which merged with in Late Old French (except when it was nasalized). * In Early Old French, the diphthongs described above as "rising" may have been falling diphthongs (, , ). In earlier works with vowel
assonance Assonance is the repetition of identical or similar phonemes in words or syllables that occur close together, either in terms of their vowel phonemes (e.g., ''lean green meat'') or their consonant phonemes (e.g., ''Kip keeps capes ''). However, in ...
, the diphthong written did not assonate with any pure vowels, which suggests that it cannot have simply been . * The pronunciation of the vowels written and is debated. In the first records of Early Old French, they represented and were written as , and by
Middle French Middle French () is a historical division of the French language that covers the period from the mid-14th to the early 17th centuries. It is a period of transition during which: * the French language became clearly distinguished from the other co ...
, they had both merged as , but the transitional pronunciations are unclear. * Early Old French had additional triphthongs and (equivalent to diphthongs followed by ); these soon merged into and respectively. * The diphthong was rare and had merged into by Middle French ( > ; > Late ''suire'' > ).


Hiatus

In addition to diphthongs, Old French had many instances of hiatus between adjacent vowels because of the loss of an intervening consonant. Manuscripts generally do not distinguish hiatus from true diphthongs, but modern scholarly transcription indicates it with a diaeresis, as in Modern French: * > ' ( ) * *''vidナォta'' > ' ( ''vue'') * > ', ( ''reine'') * > ' ( ''pays'') * > ' ( ''aoテサt'') * > ' ( ''poテェle'') * ''quaternum'' > ' ( ''cahier'') * ''aetト》icum'' > ', ' ( )


Sample text

Presented below is the first laisse of ''The Song of Roland'' along with a broad transcription reflecting reconstructed pronunciation .


Grammar


Nouns

Old French maintained a two-case system, with a
nominative case In grammar, the nominative case ( abbreviated ), subjective case, straight case, or upright case is one of the grammatical cases of a noun or other part of speech, which generally marks the subject of a verb, or (in Latin and formal variants ...
and an
oblique case In grammar, an oblique ( abbreviated ; from ) or objective case ( abbr. ) is a nominal case other than the nominative case and, sometimes, the vocative. A noun or pronoun in the oblique case can generally appear in any role except as subject, ...
, for longer than some other Romance languages as Spanish and Italian did. Case distinctions, at least in the masculine
gender Gender is the range of social, psychological, cultural, and behavioral aspects of being a man (or boy), woman (or girl), or third gender. Although gender often corresponds to sex, a transgender person may identify with a gender other tha ...
, were marked on both the
definite article In grammar, an article is any member of a class of dedicated words that are used with noun phrases to mark the identifiability of the referents of the noun phrases. The category of articles constitutes a part of speech. In English, both "the" ...
and the noun itself. Thus, the masculine noun was declined as follows: In later Old French, the distinctions had become moribund. As in most other Romance languages, it was the
oblique case In grammar, an oblique ( abbreviated ; from ) or objective case ( abbr. ) is a nominal case other than the nominative case and, sometimes, the vocative. A noun or pronoun in the oblique case can generally appear in any role except as subject, ...
form that usually survived to become the Modern French form: represents the old oblique (Latin accusative ''トォnfantem''); the nominative was ( ''トォnfト]s''). There are some cases with significant differences between nominative and oblique forms (derived from Latin nouns with a stress shift between the nominative and other cases) in which either it is the nominative form that survives or both forms survive with different meanings: * , (reflecting respectively *''seiior'', *''seiiore'') as well as (nom. ), originally ''senior'', ''seniナ荒em'', survive in the vocabulary of later French (, , ) as different ways to refer to a feudal
lord Lord is an appellation for a person or deity who has authority, control, or power (social and political), power over others, acting as a master, chief, or ruler. The appellation can also denote certain persons who hold a title of the Peerage o ...
. * is the nominative form ( < Latin nominative ''soror''); the oblique form (< Latin accusative ''sorナ荒em'') no longer survives. * is the nominative form ( < ''presbyter''); the oblique form , later (< ''presbyterem'') survives only in the Paris street name ''Rue des Prouvaires''. * indefinite pronoun continues Old French nominative (< ''homナ''); continues the oblique form ( < ''hominem''). In a few cases in which the only distinction between forms was the nominative ''-s'' ending, the ''-s'' was preserved. An example is '' fils'' (< Latin nominative ''fトォlius''). It is irregular that the ''-s'' in the word is still pronounced today; but this has to do with later developments 窶 namely the
Middle French Middle French () is a historical division of the French language that covers the period from the mid-14th to the early 17th centuries. It is a period of transition during which: * the French language became clearly distinguished from the other co ...
and Early Modern French system of
pausa In linguistics, pausa (Latin for 'break', from Greek マホア眩ヲマπケマ, ''pテ「usis'' 'stopping, ceasing') is the hiatus between prosodic declination units. The concept is somewhat broad, as it is primarily used to refer to allophones that occur in ...
l pronunciations. As in Spanish and Italian, the neuter gender was eliminated, and most old neuter nouns became masculine. Some Latin neuter plurals, which ended in ''-a'', were reanalysed as feminine singulars: was more widely used in the plural form , which was taken for a singular in Vulgar Latin and ultimately led to (feminine singular). Nouns were declined in the following
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 ...
s: Class I is derived from the Latin first declension. Class Ia mostly comes from Latin feminine nouns in the
third declension The third declension is a category of nouns in Latin and Greek with broadly similar case formation 窶 diverse stems, but similar endings. Sanskrit also has a corresponding class (although not commonly termed as ''third''), in which the so-ca ...
. Class II is derived from the Latin second declension. Class IIa generally stems from second-declension nouns ending in ''-er'' and from third-declension masculine nouns; in both cases, the Latin nominative singular did not end in ''-s'', which is preserved in Old French. The classes show various analogical developments: Class I nominative plural ''-es'' from the accusative instead of ''-竏'' (''-e'' after a consonant cluster) in Class I nominative plural ( ''-ae'', although there is evidence to suggest this analogy had already occurred in VL), ''li pere'' instead of ''*li peres'' ( ) in Class IIa nominative plural, modelled on Class II, etc. Class III nouns show a separate stem in the nominative singular that does not occur in any of the other forms: * IIIa nouns are
agent noun In linguistics, an agent noun (in Latin, ) is a word that is derived from another word denoting an action, and that identifies an entity that does that action. For example, ''driver'' is an agent noun formed from the verb ''drive''. Usually, '' ...
s that ended in ''-ト》or'', ''-ト》ナ荒em'' in Latin and preserve the stress shift. * IIIb nouns also had a stress shift, from ''-ナ'' to ''-ナ肱em'' although several IIIb nouns actually continue Frankish weak nouns with a similar inflection: Frankish ''*barナ'' ~ ''*baran'' becomes ''ber'' ~ ''baron''. * IIIc nouns are an Old French creation and have no clear Latin antecedent. * IIId nouns represent various other third-declension Latin nouns with stress shift or a change of consonant (''soror'', ''sorナ荒em; トォnfト]s, トォnfト]tem; presbyter, presbyterem; seiior, seiiナ荒em; comes, comitem''). Regular feminine forms of masculine nouns are formed by adding an ''-e'' to the masculine stem unless the masculine stem already ends in ''-e''. For example, becomes ( and ).


Adjectives

Adjectives agree in terms of
number A number is a mathematical object used to count, measure, and label. The most basic examples are the natural numbers 1, 2, 3, 4, and so forth. Numbers can be represented in language with number words. More universally, individual numbers can ...
, gender and case with the noun that they are qualifying. Thus, a feminine plural noun in the nominative case requires any qualifying adjectives to be feminine, plural and nominative. For example, in , has to be in the feminine plural form. Adjectives can be divided into three declensional classes:Moignet (1988, p. 26窶31), Zink (1992, p. 39窶48), de La Chaussテゥe (1977, p. 39窶44) * Class I corresponding roughly to Latin 1st- and 2nd-declension adjectives * Class II corresponding roughly to Latin 3rd-declension adjectives * Class III containing primarily the descendants of Latin synthetic comparative forms in ''-ior'', ''-iナ荒em''. Class I adjectives have a feminine singular form (nominative and oblique) ending in ''-e''. They can be further subdivided into two subclasses, based on the masculine nominative singular form. Class Ia adjectives have a masculine nominative singular ending in ''-s'': : (< , > ) : For Class Ib adjectives, the masculine nominative singular ends in ''-e'', like the feminine. There are descendants of Latin second- and third-declension adjectives ending in ''-er'' in the nominative singular: : (< , > ) : For Class II adjectives, the feminine singular is not marked by the ending ''-e'': : (< , > ) : An important subgroup of Class II adjectives is the present participial forms in ''-ant''. Class III adjectives have a stem alternation, resulting from stress shift in the Latin third declension and a distinct neuter form: : (< , > ) : In later Old French, Classes II and III tended to be moved across to Class I, which was complete by Middle French. Modern French thus has only a single adjective declension, unlike most other Romance languages, which have two or more.


Verbs

Verbs in Old French show the same extreme phonological deformations as other Old French words; however, morphologically, Old French verbs are extremely conservative in preserving intact most of the Latin alternations and irregularities that had been inherited in Proto-Romance. Old French has much less analogical reformation than Modern French has and significantly less than the oldest stages of other languages (such as
Old Spanish Old Spanish (, , ; ), also known as Old Castilian or Medieval Spanish, refers to the varieties of Ibero-Romance spoken predominantly in Castile and environs during the Middle Ages. The earliest, longest, and most famous literary composition in O ...
) despite that the various phonological developments in Gallo-Romance and Proto-French led to complex alternations in the majority of commonly-used verbs. For example, the verb ( ''lavト〉e'') is conjugated , , in the present indicative and , , in the present subjunctive, in both cases regular phonological developments from Latin indicative ''lavナ'', ''lavト《'', ''lavat'' and subjunctive ''lavem'', ''lavト都'', ''lavet''. The following paradigm is typical in showing the phonologically regular but morphologically irregular alternations of most paradigms: * The alternation ~ is a regular result of the final
devoicing In phonology, voicing (or sonorization) is a sound change where a voiceless consonant becomes voiced due to the influence of its phonological environment; shift in the opposite direction is referred to as devoicing or surdization. Most commonl ...
triggered by loss of final /o/ but not /a/. * The alternation ~ is a regular result of the diphthongization of a stressed
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 ...
/a/ into /ae/ > > . * The alternation ~ ~ in the subjunctive is a regular result of the simplification of the final clusters /fs/ and /ft/, resulting from loss of /e/ in final syllables. Modern French, on the other hand, has , , in both indicative and subjunctive, reflecting significant analogical developments: analogical borrowing of unstressed vowel /a/, analogical ''-e'' in the first singular (from verbs like , with a regular ''-e'' ) and wholesale replacement of the subjunctive with forms modelled on ''-ir''/''-oir''/''-re'' verbs. All serve to eliminate the various alternations in the verb paradigm. Even modern "irregular" verbs are not immune from analogy: For example, , , (''vivre'' ) has yielded to modern , , , eliminating the unpredictable ''-f'' in the first-person singular. The
simple past The simple past, past simple, or past indefinite, in English equivalent to the preterite, is the basic form of the past tense in Modern English. It is used principally to describe events in the past, although it also has some other uses. Regular E ...
also shows extensive analogical reformation and simplification in Modern French, as compared with Old French. The Latin pluperfect was preserved in very early Old French as a past tense with a value similar to a
preterite The preterite or preterit ( ; abbreviated or ) is a grammatical tense or verb form serving to denote events that took place or were completed in the past; in some languages, such as Spanish, French, and English, it is equivalent to the simple p ...
or
imperfect The imperfect ( abbreviated ) is a verb form that combines past tense (reference to a past time) and imperfective aspect (reference to a continuing or repeated event or state). It can have meanings similar to the English "was doing (something)" o ...
. For example, the Sequence of Saint Eulalia (878 AD) has past-tense forms such as (< ), (< ), alternating with past-tense forms from the Latin perfect (continued as the modern "simple past").
Old Occitan Old Occitan (, ), also called Old Provenテァal, was the earliest form of the Occitano-Romance languages, as attested in writings dating from the 8th to the 14th centuries. Old Occitan generally includes Early and Old Occitan. Middle Occitan is some ...
also preserved this tense, with a conditional value; Spanish still preserves this tense (the ''-ra'' imperfect subjunctive), as does Portuguese (in its original value as a pluperfect indicative).


Verb alternations

In Latin, stress was determined automatically by the number of syllables in a word and the
weight In science and engineering, the weight of an object is a quantity associated with the gravitational force exerted on the object by other objects in its environment, although there is some variation and debate as to the exact definition. Some sta ...
(length) of the syllables. That resulted in certain automatic stress shifts between related forms in a paradigm, depending on the nature of the suffixes added. For example, in ''pensナ'' , the first syllable was stressed, but in ''pensト[us'' , the second syllable was stressed. In many Romance languages, vowels diphthongized in stressed syllables under certain circumstances but not in unstressed syllables, resulting in alternations in verb paradigms: Spanish vs. ( ), or vs. ( ). In the development of French, at least five vowels diphthongized in stressed,
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 ...
s. Combined with other stress-dependent developments, that yielded 15 or so types of alternations in so-called strong verbs in Old French. For example, diphthongized to before
nasal stop In phonetics, a nasal, also called a nasal occlusive or nasal stop in contrast with an oral stop or nasalized consonant, is an occlusive consonant produced with a lowered velum, allowing air to escape freely through the nose. The vast major ...
s in stressed, open syllables but not in unstressed syllables, yielding ( ''amナ'') but ( ''amト[us''). The different types are as follows: In Modern French, the verbs in the ''-er'' class have been systematically . Generally, the "weak" (unstressed) form predominates, but there are some exceptions (such as modern ). The only remaining alternations are in verbs like and , with unstressed alternating with stressed and in (largely-learned) verbs like , with unstressed alternating with stressed . Many of the non-''er'' verbs have become obsolete, and many of the remaining verbs have been levelled; however, a few alternations remain in what are now known as
irregular verbs A regular verb is any verb whose Verb conjugation, conjugation follows the typical pattern, or one of the typical patterns, of the language to which it belongs. A verb whose conjugation follows a different pattern is called an irregular verb. Th ...
, such as , ; , ; and , . Some verbs had a more irregular alternation between different-length stems, with a longer, stressed stem alternating with a shorter, unstressed stem. That was a regular development stemming from the loss of unstressed intertonic vowels, which remained when they were stressed: * < ''adiナォtナ'', ''adiナォtト〉e'' * < ''adratiナ肱ナ'', ''adratiナ肱ト〉e'' * < dト途atiナ肱ナ'', ''dト途atiナ肱ト〉e'' * < ''disiト妬ナォnナ'', ''disiト妬ナォnト〉e'' * < ''mandナォcナ'', ''mandナォcト〉e'' * < ''*paraulナ'', ''*paraulト〉e'' < ''parabolナ'', ''parabolト〉e'' The alternation of ''je desjun'', ''disner'' is particularly complicated; it appears that: Both stems have become full verbs in Modern French: and . Furthermore, does not derive directly from (< , with total loss of unstressed ''-ト妬-''). Instead, it comes from , based on the alternative form (< , with loss of only ''-i-'', likely influenced by < < < : ''iト-'' is an initial rather than intertonic so the vowel ''-ト-'' does not disappear).


Example of regular ''-er'' verb: ''durer'' (to last)

Non-finite forms: * Infinitive: * Present participle: * Past Participle: Auxiliary verb:


Example of regular ''-ir'' verb: (to end)

Non-finite forms: * Infinitive: * Present participle: * Past participle: Auxiliary verb:


Example of regular ''-re'' verb: (to run)

Non-finite forms: * Infinitive: * Present participle: * Past participle: Auxiliary verb:


Examples of auxiliary verbs


= (to have)

= Non-finite forms: * Infinitive: (earlier ) * Present participle: * Past participle: Auxiliary verb:


= (to be)

= Non-finite forms: * Infinitive: * Present participle: * Past participle: Auxiliary verb:


Other parts of speech

Adverbs, prepositions, conjunctions and interjections are generally invariable. Pronouns are usually declinable.


See also

* History of French *
Anglo-Norman literature Anglo-Norman literature is literature composed in the Anglo-Norman language and developed during the period of 1066窶1204, as the Duchy of Normandy and the Kingdom of England were united in the Anglo-Norman realm. Introduction The Norman langu ...
* Arabic窶徹ld French glossary * Bartsch's law


Explanatory notes


References


Citations


General sources

* * * * * * * Grandgent, Charles Hall (1907). ''An introduction to Vulgar Latin''. Boston: D.C. Heath & Co. * Hall, Robert Anderson (October 1946). "Old French phonemes and orthography". ''Studies in Philology''. Vol. 43, No. 4. 575窶585. . * * * Laborderie, Noテォlle (2009). ''Prテゥcis de Phonテゥtique Historique''. Paris: Armand Colin. * * * * * * Rickard, Peter (1989). ''A history of the French language''. London: Unwin Hyman. * *


External links

*
An Introduction to Old French
' by Franテァois Frテゥdテゥric Roget (1887)
Old French Online
by Brigitte L. M. Bauer and Jonathan Slocum, free online lessons at th
Linguistics Research Center
at the
University of Texas at Austin The University of Texas at Austin (UT Austin, UT, or Texas) is a public university, public research university in Austin, Texas, United States. Founded in 1883, it is the flagship institution of the University of Texas System. With 53,082 stud ...

Historical French Reader : medieval period
by Paul Studer and E.G.R Waters (1924)
Dテ韻T
(Electronic Dictionary of Chretien de Troyes): complete lexicon and transcriptions of the five romances of this Old French author. University of Ottawa, Le Centre national de la recherche scientifique (CNRS). * {{Authority control French language Languages attested from the 8th century French, 1