The French Language And Its History By Everaert Patrice At Isnare.com Ezine Articles

The French language came originally from Vulgar Latin that also is known from the Roman Empire as the vernacular Latin. At the time the Romans conquered Ancient Gaul (now known as France) in the 2nd and 1st Century B.C. they spoke a Celtic language called "Gaulish".

Around the 5th Century a Romanized Germanic Tribe invaded Gaul. Even if modern French owes much of its vocabulary and structure to Latin a couple of hundred words of German and Celtic origin make apart of it.

Only by the 9th Century the language known in Gaul was almost the same as the one we know of modern France and it was enough different of the Latin language to be a distinct language. It is also known as Old French and was used from the 9th to the 13th Century. The oldest still remaining text dated from 842 in Old French is the Oaths of Strasbourg.

Because of the Cultural and Political importance of Paris the dialect of Old French called "Francien" became the most standard form of speech in Paris and its suburbs.
By the 14th until the 16th Century the French language was known as "Middle French". To improve and develop their literature and language some French Poets called " Pléiade" where pushing the French because at that time a lot of words where taking from Latin, Italian and Greek.

Only in the 17th Century the French language took its own steps to modernization. Cardinal Richelieu was the founder of the French Academy in 1635 and strived to keep the French language pure as its literature and he was the ultimate judge to approve the usage of the French.

Even if the style of Modern French and its vocabulary is influenced by romanticism and realism, actually until now it only changed a little bit from the "Middle French" period. By ways of widespread education and mass media the French language has been aided in modern times to gain a real standardization.
As you see there's a lot of the French language that we didn't even knew.

And believe me! There's still a lot to learn. It isn't a coincidence that over years and years different countries and cultures are striving to attain the goal to speak that very beautiful language.

You could ask yourself: For which purpose?

•A lot of them just want to penetrate the world and
history of the French culture with its language.

•Others only want to be able to go and live one day in the
ancient villages that are still visited by
thousands and thousands of people the day of today.

•Some of them want to gain the knowledge of a language
that had and still has its importance in this
world.

•…

What ever it is! Nobody can tell me that this "Language of Romance" isn't marvelous…

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