History, evolution and future of the Molière language
History, evolution and future of the Molière language
BlogLanguagesFrenchEverything You Should Know About French: History, evolution and future of the Molière language
The history of French through the centuries
Are other languages spoken in France?
Variants of French
French today
The future of the French language
Better to learn French or Portuguese?
Useful phrases in French
Everyone knows a thing or two about the French language. Without having received French classes , we all know how to say a word or a loose phrase, either because we have read it in a book, we have heard it in a movie or seen it in an advertisement.
However, can we really say that we know his story? French and Spanish were originally the same language (Latin), but each one went on its way until they became the independent languages that we know today.
There are many varieties of French around the world and it is a language that bears many similarities to other languages, such as Portuguese, Spanish, Catalan or Italian, for the same reason that we mentioned before: they are all Romance languages.
In this article we propose to teach you the fascinating history of the French language.
Do you also want to know the reasons why you should learn the most romantic language in the world? Click on this link French course.
The history of French through the centuries: History, evolution and future of the Molière language
Today, in the 21st century, French is one of the most relevant languages on the planet. With more than 274 million speakers worldwide, the Molière language continues to be predominant within many international organizations such as the United Nations or the European Union.
Among all foreign languages, French is one of those preferred by students from all over the world, who have a real passion for its phonetics, its vocabulary, its grammar, etc. French is learned both as a first language (or mother tongue) and as a second (foreign language) in a huge number of countries spread over all continents.
But before reaching where it has come, this language has followed a very long journey full of adventures and adventures. Let’s take a little trip back in time to discover, hand in hand with the history of France, the history of its language.
In the 1st century BC, the Roman army, under the command of Julius Caesar, reached Gallic lands. As it passed, the soldiers and merchants were imposing their language, vulgar Latin. Despite the fact that Gaul and Vulgar Latin shared many similarities in terms of syntax or morphology, for example, Latin was assimilated little by little, over the centuries. At first it was used as a written language, especially in the administrative sphere, since Gaul, which conserved a predominantly oral tradition, was not written.
Thus, we can say that the history of the French language begins with the arrival of Latin, but we must not forget that the territory that France currently occupies centuries ago was populated by different ethnic groups that also left their mark on the language. We speak of Celts, Aquitaine, Ligurians and Greeks, whose languages were disappearing due to Roman colonization and the introduction of Latin, but whose influences are still perceived in modern French, especially in place names and agricultural terms.
The history of France is, in a way, the history of its language.
The decline of the Roman Empire brought with it the arrival of several Germanic peoples, such as the Franks (who settled in the north of the territory), the Visigoths (who settled in the south) and the Burgundians, (who settled in the eastern area ); not to forget the British Celts, who occupied some areas of northwestern Gaul, or the Vikings, who settled in the Normandy region. Of course, each people spoke their own language and only Breton predominated in the territory until today, until what we know today as modern Breton.
Consequently, the language spoken in northern Gaul was for a long time a mixture of Latin and Franzic (with influences from other languages). In the south, the evolution was somewhat different and gave rise to what we now know as langue d’oc, a language spoken by some 2 million people south of the Loire in France, in the Occitan Valleys of Italy and in the Arán Valley and the Lleida Pyrenees in Spain.
It is not easy to indicate exactly when Vulgar Latin stopped being Latin and became French, but we can say that it happened between the 6th and 9th centuries, when literary works and texts in a Romance language began to appear.
From the 11th century on, Old French began to consolidate, which continued to evolve until modern French. Between the 18th and 19th centuries, French began to establish itself as the language par excellence in European courts.
Also discover our selection of famous quotes from some of the most influential personalities from the neighboring country.
