The language of French actually descended from a form of Latin called “Vulgar Latin” spoken by the Romans in the second and first centuries B.C. When the Romans, led by the infamous Julius Caesar, invaded and conquered Gaul, their Vulgar Latin infiltrated the Gaulish people’s vocabulary and vernacular. Before the invasion, the inhabitants of Gaul spoke a Celtic language called Gaulish. Later, in the fifth century A.D., a group of Germanic tribes called the Franks started to invade Gaul, but were ultimately overrun by Roman leadership and the Latin language.

Eventually, around the ninth century, a new dialect of Latin known as “French” emerged, which resulted from the Gaulish people getting “sloppy” with their Latin, and included a combination of Gaulish/Celtic words as well as Germanic words—although to this day French remains Latin-based as the majority of its vocabulary and inherent structure are direct derivatives of the Latin language. The beginnings of this new French dialect—known now as Old French—lasted until around the 13th century. Old French is first found in an ancient text which dates back to 842, called Oaths of Strasbourg.

Old French soon expanded into a variety of new dialects, the most notable of which is Francien, the particular dialect spoken in Paris and its surrounding regions. The rest of modern-day France’s inhabitants were speaking other versions of Old French or even non-Latin languages, particularly Occitan, which was spoken mostly in the southern parts of France. Breton was another of these “sub-standard” dialects. However, Francien soon enough became the standard form of French simply because of the expanding significance of Paris as a political and cultural centre. In fact, the dialect of Paris actually became the law during the French Revolution.

After this law came to pass, the French government worked hard at preserving their language, and anyone found speaking a different dialect, like Occitan or Breton, were often—and perhaps surprisingly—charged with treason. This actually was the norm until the early part of the 20th century.

From Old French evolved Middle French, which lasted through the 14th to the 16th centuries. Middle French was different from its predecessor in that it was a more refined language, with a significant number of words, phrases, and expressions borrowed from other languages, particularly Italian and Greek in addition to Latin. People were encouraged to develop and expand the language further, and to focus on developing their literature.

Modern French, the language as we now know it, began during the 17th century, particularly after the French Academy (“Académie Française”) was founded in 1635 by Cardinal Richelieu in order to retain the structure, integrity, and purity of the language—which essentially means ensuring it was not infiltrated by foreign influences, particularly of the English language—as well as to preserve its cultural significance and also to develop its literature.

Since then, the French language, particularly its style, has been influenced by various movements and periods, such as romanticism, but in the end the structure of the language has not changed a great deal since the time of Middle French. Literature and education have also helped a great deal with the modern standardization of the French language.

Besides being spoken throughout France and much of Western Europe as well as parts of Africa and Latin America, French is the second official language of Canada.

Patrick Stump
http://www.lingo24.com/language/French_translation_services.html