French is a Romance language, but it has a number of characteristics that make it stand out from other Romance languages. Below we provide a brief overview of its major development milestones. This information may help you if you decide to take a French and english to french course.
There has always been a significant linguistic difference between the north and south of France. In 120 BC in southeastern France (known as Gaul at the time), the Romans established a province and all the inhabitants gradually switched from the dying Ligurian language to Vulgar Latin (i.e. spoken Latin). Unlike the south, the Gaulish language (which was based on some Celtic dialects), which was spoken in the north of the country, resisted the influence of Latin until 58 BC, when Julius Caesar conquered Gaul. Thus, the Latin language in the south of France was 60 years ahead of the influence of the northern regions. A further difference between the north and
south of the country was caused by the German-Frankish invasion in the 400s. AD, which influenced the grammar, pronunciation and vocabulary of modern French (including the terms “France” and “French” themselves), since these invasions mainly affected the north of the country.
Dialect regions
This linguistic and cultural split eventually led to the emergence of three dialect regions.
1. The language “dey” (in the north)
2. Language and english to french“doc” (in the south)
3. Franco-Provencal (in the east of the country)
The first two dialect regions were named after the way the word “yes” was said there: “oïl” in the north and “oc” in the south. Franco-Provençal was a cross between these two languages, with different linguistic features from both the northern and southern regions of the country. Ultimately, all three regions split into a dozen regional dialects, such as Parisian French, Picardy, and Limousin. The political importance of the Parisian region eventually led to the ubiquity of the “deuil” language, with the French language of Paris and its environs becoming the dominant dialect. However, there are still about 70 spoken dialects in France.