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The history of French

French has a unique charm and is enchanting. It is a Romance language because it comes from Latin. But, which are its origins?

The history of French language dates back to the Gallic invasion by the Roman Empire commanded by Julius Caesar. Before the coming of the Romans to this territory Celtic, Gaelic, Basque, among others were spoken. However, they ignored the local language and introduced Latin along with their administrative system. During this period, Latin and Gaelic coexisted but this adaptation and assimilation process was progressive and even some cities rejected Latin and continued using their own languages such as Breton in Britain and Basque in Spain.

With the decline of the Roman Empire, tribus of Franks, Visigoths and Burgundy came and attacked. Franks are the best known since they finally obtain a victory. The first French king comes from this tribe and is the one who will start the Merovingian dinasty. Clovis' story is famous above all because he rejected his own religion and converted to Catholicism.

The fall of the Roman Empire speeded up the process of Latin division, what gave birth to Old French. The dialects were classified in two according to the way of saying “Yes” (“oui”, in French): langue d'oïl spoken at the North of France and langue d'oc spoken at the South.

When Clovis becomes the first French king he decides to settle in what is now Paris. The langue d'oïl spoken by Franks was turned into a kind of regional dialect which will change little by little into the current French language.

Charlemagne shapes this primitive, giving it back its Latin roots, which he loved. He brought English monks who made masterpieces with words. In 842 the Oaths of Strasbourg are written, the oldest writing in French. 

The language continues its transformation. King Frances I turns it into the official language of decisions and trials in Court. He also establishes that French language should be compulsory not only in written texts but also in oral language all arounf France.

In 1635 Richelieu decides to create a body about French language. So he gathers 40 wise people about language, grammar and punctuation. However, people like Descartes, Pascal, Diderot, Flaubert, Balzac, Alejandro Dumas, Emile Zola never took part of the Academy even though they have tried to. The French Academy established the rules that we everybody including us today must learn.

Today, French is spoken by 200 million people all around the world. It is the official language in 29 countries and is the lingua franca in cuisine, dance, architecture, escenic arts.