The little language lexicon: the French language

Originally, the territory of what later became France was home mainly to the independent languages of the Celts, the Belgae and the Aquitani. Through the Romans, however, Latin spread more and more. After the conquest of northern Gaul by Gaius Julius Caesar (from 58 BC), Latin was widespread throughout the country. Many Celtic terms, however, made their way into spoken Vulgar Latin and thus had a significant influence on it.

After the Franks under Clovis I conquered Gaul in 486 AD, their West Germanic language shaped the vocabulary. Around 700 word stems found their way into today's French in this way. This influence lasted into the 9th century. Charlemagne, for example, still spoke Frankish.

Charlemagne's Carolingian educational reform aimed to teach a classical pronunciation of Latin. Until then, the pronunciation of Vulgar Latin had differed greatly from its spelling. This, however, led to communication difficulties between the educated clergy and the common people. At the Council of Tours in 813, a uniform language for sermons in church was laid down. This is sometimes regarded as the birth of the French language, since it shows an awareness that the language now spoken was different from Latin.

Subsequently, various dialects emerged, which were assigned either to the langues d'oïl (today's northern France) or to the langues d'oc (today's southern France). As Paris and the Île-de-France gradually became established as the political centre, the Francien dialect spoken there developed into the standard language. This is one of the reasons why today's French is also classed among the langues d'oïl.

With the Ordinance of Villers-Cotterêts of 15 August 1539, French became the language of administration, replacing Latin. French has been the official language of France ever since.

In 1635 Cardinal Richelieu founded the Académie française, which to this day is concerned with "standardising and cultivating the French language". From then on, French also became the lingua franca of the European nobility. French was now spoken at the courts of Europe. In the 18th and 19th centuries this also spread to Eastern Europe. French was also the language of diplomacy at that time. Only after the French Revolution and Napoleon's downfall did this custom change, as the 19th-century bourgeoisie displayed an increasingly strong national consciousness.

Facts about the French language:

• Spoken in: France, Belgium, Switzerland, Luxembourg, Monaco, Canada, parts of North, West and Central Africa, parts of Oceania, parts of South-East Asia, the Caribbean, some islands in the Indian Ocean
• Official language in: France, Belgium, Switzerland, Luxembourg, Monaco, Canada, USA (Maine), Benin, Burkina Faso, Ivory Coast, Guinea, Mali, Niger, Senegal, Togo, Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, Cameroon, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Republic of the Congo, Chad, Central African Republic, Burundi, Comoros, Djibouti, Madagascar, Mayotte, Réunion, Rwanda, Seychelles, French Guiana, Guadeloupe, Haiti, Martinique, Saint-Barthélemy, Saint-Martin, Saint-Pierre and Miquelon, French Polynesia, New Caledonia, Vanuatu, Wallis and Futuna, United Nations, African Union, European Union, Organization of American States
• Speakers: approx. 80 million (native speakers), approx. 200 million second-language speakers
• Language codes: fr (ISO 639-1), fre (ISO 639-2/B), fra (ISO 639-2/B), fra(ISO 639-3)
• Linguistic classification: Indo-European languages - Italic languages - Romance languages - Gallo-Romance languages - French

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