French Language

• French language schools in the United States
• Dictionaries of French language
• Old French
• The Gaulish Language
• French Literature

It is believed that French language is mainly derived from Latin, with Germanic and Celtic languages playing a large part in its development.

Origins

The formation of the French language can be traced back to 2000 years ago, when the Celtic language was
spoken in Gaul, the regions where today’s France exists. French is said to be a part of the Romance family of languages, which means that it derives from the way the Romans spoke Latin. It is also believed by some that French people are descendents of the earlier Celtic people, as the French language includes several Celtic words.

The northern half of the Gaulic territory that later became France was conquered by the Franks, a Gothic tribe, after the fall of the Roman Empire. This led to a blending of the Celtic-influenced Latin spoken in the region and other Germanic languages. Some also declare that there are several hundred Germanic words that were introduced into the French language during this period. The Latin spoken in the regions occupied by Franks had different sentence structures and words had varied pronunciations than the Latin spoken in Rome.

During the sixteenth century, the French government announced that French would be used as an official language, mainly in the court and day to day administration by King Francis, I who ruled France during those times. Further, in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, French was refined with new regulations and word structures that greatly improved the language, and was termed Classical French by some enthusiasts.

From the seventeenth through the nineteenth centuries, France was one of the dominating nations of the continent, and as a result, the French language was widely spread across Europe. However, some scholars observe that the French language in modern days has been highly influenced by English, which they attribute largely to business globalization and the domination of the English language in the business world.

Different features of French adapted by other languages

Some linguists state that nearly one third of all English words used today are borrowed from French. They believe that after incorporating these words in English, they were pronounced in the unique English style. Some of these words include: routine, div, publicity, police and machine.

The other language that has words from French is the Persian language. There are hundreds of words that originally belonged to French that are incorporated in the Persian or Farsi language today.

In addition to these major languages, some of the Creole languages are also formulated on the basis of French. These include Antillean Creole, French Guiana Creole and Louisiana Creole.