The Journey of the French Language

The origins and development of the French language from Latin over 2000 years. How French became the language of literature in Northern France.

00:00:00 French, with almost 275 million speakers, is one of the most widely spoken languages in the world. It developed from Latin over the past 2000 years, along with other languages like Portuguese, Spanish, Italian, and Romanian.

🗺️ French developed as a dialect from Latin over the past 2000 years, with several other European languages also descending from Latin.

⏳ To understand where French came from, we need to travel back in time to Northern Europe around 100 BCE, when the Gauls ruled the region.

🏛️ Julius Caesar led the Roman army into Gaul and annexed it as a province of the Roman Republic, which greatly influenced the development of French.

00:01:34 The emergence of new dialects of Latin in Gaul led to the development of Gallo-Romance, influenced by the Germanic tribes and Gaulish language. Latin eventually became the dominant language, leading to the decline of Gaulish.

Latin became the official language of Gaul due to colonization by the Roman Empire.

Latin and Gaulish influenced each other while coexisting in Gaul.

The combination of Germanic and Gaulish-Latin languages led to the emergence of Gallo-Romance dialects.

00:03:03 The origin of the name France and the development of diglossia in Gaul, where Latin and Gallo-Romance dialects were used for different functions in society.

🗺️ French evolved from the diglossia practice of using Latin for formal functions and Gallo-Romance dialects for everyday life in Gaul.

🇫🇷 The region of Gaul eventually became known as Francia, which led to the origin of the name France, despite the majority being descendants of Gauls and Romans.

📜 As the Gallo-Romance dialects diverged from Latin, Catholic priests began preaching in Gallo-Romance to ensure better understanding among the people.

00:04:23 The evolution of the French language from Latin and the societal changes that led to its rise as a written language in Southern France.

📚 The video discusses the origins of the French language and its distinction from Latin.

🔀 Southern France had Gallo-Romance speakers who could understand Latin, but they were still considered separate languages.

💡 Societal changes in Europe, such as increased literacy and the rise of the bourgeoisie, led to more written documents in the French dialects.

00:05:47 This video discusses the selection of the Parisian dialect as the national standard of French in the 14th century, and how French gained prestige and became the language of literature in Northern France.

🇫🇷 The Parisian dialect of Gallo-Romance became the national standard of French due to its high prestige in the 14th century.

🇬🇧 Similar to British English, the prestige of the Parisian dialect set the norms and standards for the French language.

📚 The success of French literature in the 14th and 15th centuries contributed to the dominance of the Parisian pronunciation and spelling in the Northern region of France.

00:07:07 A decree was made to make French the main language in the kingdom, replacing Latin, unintentionally affecting speakers of Occitan and other languages.

🌍 The decree aimed to make French the main language of the kingdom, replacing Latin.

🗣️ The decree unintentionally imposed French on speakers of Occitan and other regional languages.

👑 The goal was to centralize the language used in decrees and court proceedings.

Summary of a video "Where did French come from?" by The Travelling Linguist on YouTube.

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