Where did French come from?

French is one of the most widely spoken languages in the world. Many people know that French is a descendant from Latin; but how did Latin really become French? We explore the language history and the linguistic transformations that led to the creation of French.
French was not only influenced by Latin, but by Gaulish (language spoken in Gaul, the region now known as France) and Germanic languages as well, primarily introduced by the Franks and the Alemanni (who spoke various dialects of Old High German). French isn't the only language which originated from Latin. Other languages like Italian, Spanish, Occitan, Catalan, Sardinian, Romansh, Romanian, Portuguese, and Galician descend from Latin as well.
🪴SUPPORT MY CHANNEL
Become a member of the Travelling Linguist community on Patreon ( / travelling_linguist . Joining the the community on Patreon helps to support me so that I can continue to research, animate, and publish videos for my amazing followers on KZbin!
👍 STAY CONNECTED
Subscribe to my channel: / thetravellinglinguist
Join our Patreon community: / travelling_linguist
Follow me on Instagram: / travelling_linguist
Like my Facebook page: / travellinglinguist
🎓 SIGN UP FOR MY BESTSELLING LANGUAGE COURSES
• Polyglot Masterclass: Become Fluent in any Language for Free: www.udemy.com/course/polyglot...
• French Level 1: A Complete to Master the French Basics: www.udemy.com/course/frenchon...
• French Level 2: Bring Your French to the Next Level: www.udemy.com/course/french-l...
• Conversational French 1: Master Spoken French for Beginners: www.udemy.com/course/frenchco...
• Italian Level 1: Master Speaking Italian and Travelling in Italy: www.udemy.com/course/travel-i...
• Conversational Italian 1: Master Spoken Italian for Beginners: www.udemy.com/course/italian-...
• Conversational Spanish 1: Master Spoken Spanish for Beginners: www.udemy.com/course/spanish-...
📚 REFERENCES
Lodge, R. A. (1993). French: From Dialect to Standard. New York: Routledge.
Mufwene, S.S. (2004). Language Birth and Death. Anthropology, 33, 201-222.
Polinsky, M., van Everbroeck, E. (June 2003). Development of Gender Classifications: Modeling the Historical Change from Latin to French. Language, 79(2), 356-390.
🎵 MUSIC
Retrieved from Bensound: www.bensound.com/royalty-free...

[@TheTravellingLinguist]

Which language history should I make a video about next? 🤔🌏

[@tamannajaiswal1725]

Hindi ~India

[@Exsecrabilis]

04/01/2022 @ 0017- Nahuatl Portuguese Hopi 🤓

[@davidbeattie1366]

How about Catalán or Portuguese which descended from Vulgar Latin but differently than did Spanish. Thanks

[@moimacart]

Swedish, Norwegian and Danish.

[@rifatalmahmudshanto561]

Bengali

[@msamour]

Wait! You forgot that there was one village of "irréductible Gaulois" that refused to be invaded by the Romans. That is where Asterix and Obelix are from.

[@vincentlefebvre9255]

That village in reality is Québec !

[@rrs_13]

In western continental europe, the only actual place where that could've hapened was in modern day basque country. Still, everyone was at least a tributary/protectorate of the romans.

[@savascool3416]

@@vincentlefebvre9255 ptdrr j'adore xdd

[@iamscoutstfu]

@@rrs_13 Well thats not true.

[@enricogolini5376]

​@Ragnar Ulrichson Yeah. I'd like to add that modern 'Bretons' must not be confused wil old 'Celts' from Asterix either (Grosso modo around -50BC as they mention Jules Cesar and Vercingetorix). Actually, Brittany received an influx of people from Britannia(Modern UK) around 500CE.

[@yasserj2144]

As a french teacher ; im very impressed with the amount of research and work put into this. I learned a lot myself, thank you

[@clairejonas6125]

really ? it's a joke I suppose... if not, what kind of teacher are you :-(

[@Showwieh]

@@clairejonas6125 just because you know how to speak a language does not mean you know it's origins or how it came to be

[@clairejonas6125]

@@Showwieh But if you have learn linguistic of your langage ? Is it to ?

[@GoToMan]

@@clairejonas6125 To teach French you don't study its ancestry not this guy neither 10+ tutors I have seen in Italki tio

[@henriquesmart9140]

@@clairejonas6125 or not...his name is a clue...

[@pauloperes9378]

I was wondering how the people managed to change the word "aqua" to "eau" and pronounce it as /o/. It's funny to think about it.

[@TheTravellingLinguist]

Yeah it's pretty crazy eh? One of my favourite websites is the Wiktionary (en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Wiktionary:Main_Page) where you can look for the history of most words in several different languages (including the major romance and germanic languages). Not sure if you speak any Spanish or Italian, but aqua can be seen pretty clearly in those languages (agua and acqua respectively). But when you compare with French eau, at first glance, it's hard to imagine how they can be related. My guess is that aqua became agua in Gaul, then the g became /ɣ/ and eventually just got deleted from the work altogether. And then the word aua went through some other transformations to arrive at eau. Funny things happen in words without consonants haha!

[@Xerxes2005]

According to the "Centre national de ressources textuelles et lexicales," aqua became agua, then egua (circa 1050 A.D.), then ewe (circa 1100 A.D.), then eaue (1185), and finally eau (1490). However, I know that in the XIIth century, all letters in a word were pronounced and those groups of vowels were diphtongues or even triphtongues. Which means that the were all pronounced in the same syllable. Therefore, "eau" may have been pronounced something like [yaw]. I imagin that it morphed into [aw] before ending in [o].

[@pauloperes9378]

@@Xerxes2005 fascinating

[@Furienna]

"Å" is the Swedish word for "creek" and has the same origin and pronounciation as the French Word "eau".

[@JackWalshissupercool]

@@TheTravellingLinguist that's interesting to know! My first guess would of been a Celtic origin, thus taking the long route to connect it to Irish "uisce".

[@paulmakinson1965]

I live in the south west of France where the old folks speak a patois derived from Occitan. I had a friend from the valley of Prali (not too far from Turin, in his valley they all speak a Patois, Piemontese, French and Italian). He came to my place, over 1000km away, and could converse with my neighbor's mother each in their own patois. I also worked in St Moritz (Switzerland) where they speak Romanch. Some friends from Barcelona came to visit, (Catalan speakers) they could read the newspaper written in Romanch. They could barely understand it when spoken, they said it sounded like Catalan spoken with a thick german accent. They all derive from the Langue d'Oc: Patois, Occitan, Catalan, Balearic, Sarde, Aranese, Provencal, Romanch and more.

[@erickfp]

I think you could give these the status of language, not patois, as I'm sure you know it's a derogatory term.

[@nni9310]

My parents are from Calabria. I heard some Welsh spoken (on TV, by Richard Burton, Elizabeth Taylor's husband) (it sounded like "to mer moruu") and understood it without problem as it sounded very similar to my parents' dialect.

[@nni9310]

If by "Sarde" you mean Sardinian, as far as I know, it's far closer to Latin than any living Romance language.

[@fwcolb]

Amazing contribution to this lecture.

[@francinesicard464]

Correct! And if you speak French and Italian, it's even easier to understand some Romanche (Rumantsh) the 4th Swiss Federal language spoken in some part of the Grisons (Graubunden)

[@nqh4393]

Had Occitan triumphed over Parisian, French would've sounded much more similar to other romance languages nowadays.

[@Cjnw]

Paríso, la cità de las lumieres!

[@rrs_13]

So, french would've actually sounded good? 0.o

[@benlucas3625]

It does sound like them.

[@Itachi951000]

@Ragnar Ulrichson Huehuehuehuehuehue comedy genius /s

[@damedepique327]

@Ragnar Ulrichson Still the same pathetic joke.

[@QuietFries]

Why does English have the American Flag and not the British one?

[@TheTravellingLinguist]

No specific reason! 🙂 I flip flop between the British and American flags representing English in my videos. But in reality, I’m Canadian, so I’d like to use the Canadian flag (since I speak Canadian English). But the Canadian flag could represent either English or French.

[@Mi_Fa_Volare]

It is soo simple. That's because America superseded in significance over GB. Meaningless Great Britain is now, English language is no more shown with Union Jack or English flag to represent it. Do you live under a rock? You see the US flag representing English language quite often.

[@jeffkardosjr.3825]

Should be the flag of England.

[@Matthew-pw3ng]

Everyone knows what Prince Charles said about American English. We don't speak English here, we just speak the language of the Colonists, and a few more Colonists, and a couple more Colonists.

[@cellgrrl]

@@Matthew-pw3ng I wonder what his opinion is of Australians? You know, the convicts? I have been told but don't know if it is true, but most Americans can confuse Australian with British English.(I know sometimes I do) And that the Australians think Americans sound British! No way!

[@ian-hm6cx]

Could've sworn I was watching a video with upwards of 100k views because of the quality. Keep it up man

[@TheTravellingLinguist]

Thanks for your kind words man! Feel free to share my video. Maybe someday I’ll get too 100K 😁

[@J11_boohoo]

me too!! I thought this was a big channel!

[@J11_boohoo]

@@TheTravellingLinguist I suggest showing your subscriber count I think that will help cause if I would've known you were still a small I would've subscribe immediately to help out

[@TheTravellingLinguist]

@@J11_boohoo Good idea! Will do :) Thanks

[@skaigreen]

That's true...

[@sadalbatross846]

“Where did the french come from”? Africa: we wonder that too

[@vSpag_]

Daaang WWII Reference

[@Cancoillotteman]

@@vSpag_ More like XIXth century, but yeah, works for the "siege" (bluff) of Kuffra as well ^^

[@vSpag_]

@@Cancoillotteman ^^^

[@ROBYNMARKOW]

@@vSpag_ It's bcuz France has (or had) Colonies in Africa ( like Senegal)

[@vSpag_]

@@ROBYNMARKOW well thats what i mean cuz they got knocked out of mainland by germoney and had only parts of the colonies left to attack with(until USA came in and "saved" the day"

[@MHTutorials3D]

Your production value is phenomenal

[@TheTravellingLinguist]

Thank you!

[@troiscarottes]

Bullshit !

[@troiscarottes]

@@colettesini9480 Oui maîtresse. Bien maîtresse !. Would "horseshit" sound less offensive to your chaste ears?

[@johnprentice1527]

Such a good video, clear and concise. I wasn't sure how much information could be conveyed in 10 minutes, but boy did you deliver! Thanks.

[@ItWayTooEarlyForThis]

This popped up in my recommended feed and I really enjoyed it. Can’t wait to check out more of your content.

[@karmakanic]

Great video. There aren't enough videos like this on the transition from late Latin into Early Romance with a good amount of detail. Keep it up!

[@troiscarottes]

Oh! And what exactly did you learn in this video ? Some people are easily satisfied. That must feel good !

[@karmakanic]

@@troiscarottes Wow. So incredibly rude it's practically laughable. You have got to be kidding me-this is how you speak to total strangers? Were you raised in a barn?

[@troiscarottes]

@@karmakanic I was, but I learned a lot about foreign languages (and mine) in that barn, whereas you are obviously impervious to them, and probably to knowledge in general, judging by your reaction.

[@thetoweroffreedom9732]

I’m from Switzerland and I my grandmother speaks patois. It was only spoken between the people from villages or in countrysides (people from the cities all spoke French). Patois was banned after the French Revolution in an attempt to “unify” everyone by having everyone speak Parisian, the “noble” language spoke by the King. My grandma speaks French because she learned it in school, but otherwise she mostly spoke patois. I have spoken with many elderly patois-speakers and they have all told me their stories on how the teachers would punish a student if he spoke patois, how it was hard for them not to speak it in school since most of them didn’t know a single word in French as they had all grown up learning only patois. Soon, many parents would limit the patois at home and try to speak French as much as possible. Anyways, it’s really sad seeing such an old and beautiful language from my country slowly disappear... it’s what happens to many dialects; it isn’t needed in the world so people don’t bother teaching it to their children... I hope you thought this was interesting!

[@thetoweroffreedom9732]

@@iyzabel yes, it’s truly sad what a linguistic groupe had to go through... so sad to think about this culture that will one day be completely lost...

[@firepod21]

This patois is called “francoprovençal” or also “arpitan”. Spoken in east France, Switzerland and northern Italy

[@hotspur666]

Speaking ''Parisian'' in Canada make every body laughing...(Too effete!)

[@marie-christinelange131]

OUI, TRÈS INTÉRESSANT !!@ Pareil pour les bretons : interdiction de parler breton à l'école car il fallait UNIFIER LE PAYS mais, dans les familles, on parlait breton...

[@ommsterlitz1805]

Franco provençal spoken from Auvergne to Switzerland and Vallée d'Aoste

[@raymendez3403]

You deserve way more views than you have! This video is perfect, it's informative and fun to watch, easy to keep up and the animations is great. Might be because I love languages and history but 9k views you deserve a million! Here's my like, my sub and comment altogether lol

[@itsmeiamb]

This was informative and entertaining. Paced beautifully, with animation that was fun. Thank you

[@Tranxhead]

Gaulish had more likeness with Welsh, Cornish and Breton than the Gaelics.

[@celtofcanaanesurix2245]

Yes the Romans noted how similar the ancient British language was to Gaulish, not only this but a faction of Celtic language scholars believe celtic can be divided between Q and P Celtic branches in which P has the common innovations of Kw -> P and Mr/Ml -> Br/Bl as well as a few other distinctions...

[@jfjoubertquebec]

Yes... Gaulish closer to Brythonic... p-Celtic not q-Celtic. In Québec, as in Poitou (Western France) we say "garrocher" to throw away violently and with disdain. May very well be linked to "garw" in Welsh meaning "rough, violent, coarse"

[@Mvenven]

Well they're all completely separate branches of the Celtic family.

[@christopherellis2663]

@@jfjoubertquebec loup- garou

[@jfjoubertquebec]

@@christopherellis2663 garde-robe

[@MapsCharts]

As a French I even learned things. The amount of work and the quality of this video are amazing. I hope you'll get more subs, anyway I subbed.

[@shaide5483]

RIP to other Gallo-Romances languages & Occitan, not being learned enough as French is.

[@TheTravellingLinguist]

I agree! I’ve always wondered what Dalmatian would sound like today. Even though its not Gallo-Romance, it is an extinct Romance language.

[@shaide5483]

Let’s hope other people can learn some the other languages

[@xolang]

it is ironic to see how France tries to "protect" French, which considering its position needs no protection IMO, whilst at the same time eliminates its own indigenous languages such as Occitan, Arpitan, Basque, Breton and Catalan.

[@hiskakun2276]

Catalan is still widely spoken. But it’s getting more and more castillian influence, that I think is separating from the gallo-romance branch and slowly entering the ibero-romance branch.

[@eb.3764]

@@hiskakun2276 Gramatically it's still gallo not ibero.

[@Vandan9166]

Great video. I've always been intrigued by the etymology of language and the formation of countries.

[@seantig479]

This was so informative and enjoyable. Thank you for this fascinating history!

[@gusantunez6224]

Very informative and entertaining video, keep up the good work and thanks for Lodge’s book recommendation.

[@TheTravellingLinguist]

Glad you liked it! :)

[@pol...]

I like how you mentioned Occitan, but it would have been nice if you had specified that Occitan was the main language of a big part of France until the 20th century and it's still spoken today.

[@alexlee7168]

45 regional languages ?

[@pol...]

@@alexlee7168 ?

[@louisg6296]

@@pol... I think he's saying that occitan wasnt and still isn't an unified language

[@mathewvanostin7118]

Lol occitan was only used in south of france for territories near mediteranian sea There was also lot of latin dialect in other parts of france. That was just discarded by history For example north of france spoke chti dialect. During the 1900s it was really made fun of in lot of french medias The north-center west of france spoke latin dialect similar to quebec french. Since most french settlers came from west parts of france cause this was were the ports were like. And there was no train at the time. So french people living far away for atlantic really didnt bother

[@vincentlasnier1353]

@@mathewvanostin7118 Occitan is not only spoken in the Mediterranean parts! All the map showing the Langue d'Oc, still speak Occitan dialects today! Even in a part of the French Basque Country and its surroundings Gascon is spoken (in addition to Basque of course)!! there are different, patois derived from Occitan which is the first language : the Béarnais, the Landais, the Limousin, the Provençal, the Alpine languages, Auvergnat, and I'm sure I'm forgetting more are Occitan! The Occitan language, extends from the Atlantic to Bordeaux to the south of Lyon in the Alps, to the Italian border (as far as the northern border is concerned), and in the south the border of this language being obviously the Pyrenees and the Mediterranean Sea !! ;)

[@chrism.t.7726]

Super vidéo! C'est à la fois instructif et divertissant :)

[@hauntinglykrista]

Congrats on monetization and the growth of your channel! So proud! :D

[@zsoltsandor3814]

Franch: a Latin-offspring, evolved among Celtic Gauls, adopted by Germanic Franks, named after the latter, except for the linguistic specialties, characteristics, manners, because those are called Gallicisms, yet French itself is full of Germanisms (eg. the obligatory personal pronoun).

[@lylecosmopolite]

French vowels include the Germanic umlauted a (spelled "é" in French), o (spelled "eu" in French) and u (spelled "u" in French; the u sound of other Romance languages is spelled "ou" in French).

[@fwcolb]

Interesting comments, both. Thanks.

[@yasserj2144]

1% - 1.3 % of all french words are inspired by germanic dialect. The people of Alsace-Lorraine have german names because their backgrounds are predominantly German

[@DB-jj5gx]

@@lylecosmopolite Yep - sort of german pronunciation of a gallo-roman language. Another giveaway is the letter R, which is totally hard in french, more "german-style", and not rolling like all the other latin-derived languages (italian spanish etc..). "Musicality" is also closer to german, and further from italian. Funny, and difficult, language in the end...

[@KamilaSousamusic]

@@yasserj2144 I think he isn't talking about vocabulary, but about pronunciation and some grammatical aspects.

[@Maximillienifyx]

C'est très intéressant, merci bien ^^

[@michaelstephan5685]

Very well done! You did a great job, and helped me explain to a student what verbal explanation and reading didn't clarify. Thank you ... your motivation in language inspires. *grateful smile*

[@TheTravellingLinguist]

Thanks Michael! 😄

[@HiLife4Ewa]

Really informative! Thanks so much! I’ve learned a lot from watching this.

[@skaccomatto86]

Some of the dialects spoken in some portions of center-north Italy are part of the Gallo-Italic languages. The dialect spoken in my region (Emilia Romagna) has a lot of common features with French, such as verbs, nouns and the phenomenon of nasalization. For examples, the numbers are almost the same of the French numbers (not in the written form of course, but in spoken dialect the similarities are very impressive).

[@2608heinz]

Italian and french languages are similar almost 80%. Dialects too

[@skaccomatto86]

@@2608heinz right, but the similarities between french and gallo-italic dialetcs are even more evident. Other dialects (central and southern) are more far from french and mostly share the latin roots with french, rather than a strict french influence

[@2608heinz]

@@skaccomatto86 ...i think occitan and catalan more than french

[@skaccomatto86]

@@2608heinz I tried to speak my dialect with a friend from Barcellona bit still have to admit that the similarities are stronger with French (thus confirmed by an italian-french friend who Is fluent in italian and romagnolo dialect)... perhaps with occitan, I'll ask him

[@hicetnuncmonamour]

Very interesting point ! thanks for sharing.

[@alexandermayes4957]

Only thing I'd say is this skips over the centuries of French centralisation which was based around national identity and therefore language - that's a huge reason why languages already dying out of use were basically killed off (so few Breton and Occitan speakers exist now because of government policy ostracising their use).

[@nco1970]

Exactly, I just posted about that. The imposition of French in the 19th century during the process to create a French identity after the loss against Prussia.

[@Blaqjaqshellaq]

As late as the 18th century there were large parts of England and France that largely spoke the informal dialects. (Compare them to regional Italian dialects today.)

[@patolt1628]

@@nco1970 Yes and No: in fact the process started in the 16th century but was completed before the loss against Prussia in 1870. In the Napoleonic period, the French armies were speaking French although the regional languages were still used locally. By the way everybody in the European aristocracy was speaking French at the time: it's amazing to know that in the famous battle of Austerlitz (French against Austrians and Russians), somehow everybody was speaking French on the battlefield ...

[@thomaslacornette1282]

For Briton, half brittany was speaking a gallo romance dialect named gallo (which was langue d'oïl family language), end never really spoke Briton which is look liking Welsh and was mainly speak in the west and had also many variants. Britons were kind of invaders and were representing the local elites but in east brittany the people always spoke a romance language.

[@alexandermayes4957]

@@thomaslacornette1282 I mean calling the Bretons invaders doesn’t really track with the timeline of the topic we were discussing. Settlers speaking Celtic languages were there during the Roman times so it’s not fair to write it off. The whole point is that eventually the Duchy of Brittany moved to use French as it’s official language in kind with French centralisation, and that really up until the 20th century Breton like other regional dialects and languages was systematically forced out of use as a way to centralise a national identity around French. Whilst there’s revival efforts today, French unlike English for example went through a huge codification and centralisation effort which needed to remove other languages late in its development due to it being a key component of what is French national identity. Besides, you can extend the point to Gallo that you mentioned - less than 200k native speakers a few years back and the language is dying, again due to the way French centralised. Was just an interesting point that got glossed over by the video, nothing more :)

[@colincbatch]

Very well done! -From one travelling linguist to another ;)

[@Aritul]

I thoroughly enjoy videos like these. Thank you for the video.

[@XE1GXG]

As a Spanish speaker, I am interested in other sister languages. Nice work!

[@fenrirgg]

As another Spanish speaker I'm interested in "why do they have frogs in their throats?"

[@XE1GXG]

@@fenrirgg Ser multilingüe es no sólo un privilegio, es una responsabilidad. Los que somos estudiosos del latín habemos un interes inagotable para con los idiomas derivados de éste. Y sí, también para con el inglés. Saludos

[@afrocyberdelia]

@@XE1GXG tu castellano es caca, imagino tu Latin....

[@XE1GXG]

@@afrocyberdelia Supongo que usted es Peninsular o argentino, porque la pedantería no es dominio exclusivo de nosotros en México...chale...

[@alltnorromOrustarNorrland]

@@fenrirgg probably because the Parisian elite where Franks, with other words they were Germanic. So they spoke with a strong Germanic accent. Hence the “frogs in the throat”. Nowadays Parisian French is Standard French. Southern French sounds much more like Catalan. And SouthEast French sound more like Italian.

[@hanjru]

As a Jamaican, I certainly wasn’t expecting the mention of our languages. Good stuff! (Or, in Jamaican, I can say “mi rate dis!”) 😄

[@dougkenney1348]

This is excellent work. Keep going! You'll get to at least 100K subscribers.

[@brianhealey5286]

Very informative and well presented. Thank you.

[@leonardotonin7608]

I'm italian from North. My ancestors were venetic and Cisalpine Gauls. Greetings my Gallic Transalpine Brothers. ☺️

[@smal750]

italians arent gauls and arent related to the french at all your tweaking

[@tahirawanga2466]

u are so good at speaking french like ur accent is exellent as a french person im impressed

[@johnvaughan7096]

Very high quality linguistic presentation. Not often seen in modern times. Well done!

[@FunsongsCoUkaction_songs]

Excellently produced and animated. Interesting and of high educational value. Good job!

[@TheTravellingLinguist]

Thanks so much! :)

[@starlordjae2577]

As a Jamaican I prove 🇯🇲❤️

[@albertmutton1687]

Beer can = bacon is a well known example

[@starlordjae2577]

@@albertmutton1687 what do mean?

[@albertmutton1687]

Try saying 'bacon' with a Jamaican accent and not end up saying 'beer can' :-)

[@bobbiusshadow6985]

bumbaclot

[@starlordjae2577]

@@albertmutton1687 ahhh i hear it. But bcuz of the -r it sounds off 😂

[@ricois3]

Latin is not a dead language, it's an immortal language

[@bluepapaya77]

Latin's a dead language It's dead as dead can be It killed off all the Romans And now it's killing me.

[@daPawlak]

@@bluepapaya77 in Polish: Łacina martwy język, Dziś każdy o tym wie. Samarytan dobił, Dobija teraz mnie. I think there is a version of this ryme in all european langages.

[@c.norbertneumann4986]

Roma eterna

[@shaungordon9737]

No one speaks it as a native or daily language, which in linguistics is a dead language

[@c.norbertneumann4986]

@@shaungordon9737 I've heard that there are a couple of clerics in Vatican City said to speak Latin as daily language. But I don't know for sure, it might just be a rumour.

[@librocara78]

very well done, superb work, j'ai beaucoup appris!

[@birdie972.]

This is so good ! Thank you

[@MyrtleSnow0]

A part 2 with Portuguese and Spanish would be awesome!

[@simko8665]

From France, if I'm not mistaken.

[@jonathanrouse36]

Well... that's an overly simplistic answer. The language was developing and evolving long before there was a "France" as the nation we know today.

[@Olivia-rc2ro]

😂😂😂

[@TheIsraelMendoza]

More like _The Carolongian Empire_

[@mariavalentinaisea6395]

i was just about to comment that lmaoo

[@fmhuonker1838]

Very interesting! Thanks for all the work.

[@Tholomaios]

A question I long had, finally answered! Merci beacoup!

[@christopherrobertson7723]

“To” has become “na” in the expression “going to” into “gonna” even by influential public speakers. “Too” and “two” have remained unchanged but “to” sometimes becomes “tuh” by many of our role models.

[@tiadeets]

A good video. It is to be noted that Villers-Cotterêts (to be pronounced "Vilère" and not with a "y" sound) only talked about official documents and regional languages, dialects, and patois continued to be spoken by pretty much everyone until the French Revolution when people were forced to give up their own languages, dialects, and patois to unify France. Something that is still being felt today (France still isn't respecting or supporting regional languages)

[@SuperLalilalilali]

I am studying French Linguistic and this was very helpful! Thank you! :)

[@Thirteenwindows]

Cool video. Very informative

[@TheFlowerGirl13]

I studied french for four years and loved it, and love everything Celtic/Irish. This video sums up everything I thought about french

[@tysonl.taylor-gerstner1558]

Although your focus was on the development of French, I think it is important to point out that the language spoken by the Franks was not "German" but "Germanic" They spoke a dialect that gave rise to the Dutch-Flemish language and includes dialects still spoken by minority language communities in Norhtern and Eastern France. It would have shown the importance of understanding why why there are regional differences in Languages that produce National languages of today rather than indirectly/negligently insinuating that the Latin language drifted while the Germans spoke German. You did clear it up at the End by saying no language is immune (my wording) to language drift. Please do a video about codeswitching though. I mean I could do it, but I like the way you explain, and I am the lazy linguist LOL

[@MrMorgan316]

The language group you're speaking about is Old Franconian. And yes. Franconian is exactly what you think it is...Frankish( German dialect) in Germany, Old Old Saxon which broke up into Saxon(or low German) and old dutch dialects. Then dutch broke up into 2 dialects, Common Dutch and Flemish. And obviously Common Dutch created Afrikaans later on. But Old Franconian is technically a dialect of Proto Western Germanic just like Anglo-Saxon however the old Franconian speakers eventually became nationalistic within the Germanic realm and became Franconian-Germans. The Franconians are the Germanic people that invaded the Gallic and Latin Region of modern day France. In modern day France in the northern portion there still is a lot of Frankish Origin words spoken there. The region of Alcace Lorain (idk how to spell it) is a region often disputed between the french and germans. But Frankish is spoken there along with Luxembourg who claim their Dialect of German Is a seperate language... it's not

[@lodewijkvandoornik3844]

@@MrMorgan316 Frankish or Franconian is not a German dialect. What do you mean by "German dialect" ? German as standard German language? Germanic is different as German. It is like Romans and Romanians. It is related but different. So different. First there are low Frankish and high Frankish dialects. Low Frankish is the original language of Franks. The saliens and merovegians. Those have invaded Gauls. That language gave Dutch and Flemish (there some part of Flemish in northern France). Then you have high Frankish dialects. These dialects like alsacians are called Frankish because some Franks families start speaking it (as Franks speak language of the land they conquered, they were not able to impose their language and identity). A frank family that did it was the Carolingian, they spoke a langue different from their predecessors. That's why you found some dialect in Germany (and Eastern France Alsace) called Frankish/Franconian. It is more because they invaded these lands than a origin of Franks. Franks came from salse: Nederland long to the Rhin.

[@afjo972]

@@lodewijkvandoornik3844 Not true. There is a German dialect called Frankish, spoken in Franconia, which, however, heavily differs from what’s the predecessor language of Dutch.

[@pavolkocis7456]

All western Europe and Scandinavia are German origin. Also, the majority in Spain and Italy too.

[@merovingien69]

I'm from northern France and my grand grand mother spoke a dialect which is very close to actual flemish. It's fascinating to see that even after 2000's some ppl in France were still speaking this germanic dialect !

[@MBAinternetmktg]

Excellent research, thank you!

[@maiaallman4635]

Excellent video. Thank you.

[@andrefmartin]

I'd like to find out a video with more details on how the old substract languages shaped and framed the Latin-Gallo-Romance languages. I mean, what characterists and aspects are still present in the current French language that reveal its "barbarian" origin!

[@TheTravellingLinguist]

Yeah that’s a great question! I wonder if maybe the reason why French sounds so different than the other latin languages is the result of extended contact with Germanic languages (like the uvular R and weakening of the ends of most French words)

[@andrefmartin]

@@TheTravellingLinguist For example, it is clair that French negation expression "ne (verb) pas" comes from the similar expression such as in Breton "ne (verb) ket". So, whatelse?

[@andrefmartin]

@@TheTravellingLinguist Another exemple, I guess, when the French speakers say "Moi, je pense que ..", this reinforcement of the subject at the begin of the phrases, as the most important part to be highlighted

[@Louisianish]

andrefmartin That exists in Spanish as well, although it’s not quite as common. Example: "A mi, me gusta leer."

[@Louisianish]

andrefmartin That’s really cool about the way negation is formed in Breton! Moi, je ne le savais pas!

[@pyrene_ict]

Ho thanks for mentioning "Occitan" at the first minute 👀. It's really hard in France to defend cultures with traditionals languages 😭👌🏼

[@8a41jt]

Yes, and Occitan is still spoken!!! (so is Catalan)

[@pyrene_ict]

@@8a41jt I learned Occitan at school when I was younger. Catalan is very close to Occitan 👌🏼

[@PawPatrolTheLionGuardFan]

@@pyrene_ict J’aimerai bien apprendre l’Occitan ! Dommage que le gouvernement ne reconnaisse aucune langue...

[@pyrene_ict]

@@PawPatrolTheLionGuardFan Oui tout a fait, c'est devenu un "combat" pour essayer de faire vivre les langues minoritaires 🤷🏼‍♀️

[@laurenth7187]

Yes because some day you may want to be independent like Catalonia.

[@boba9599]

WOW you only have 10k subs? you deserve so much more. Thanks for the help on my project btw

[@TheTravellingLinguist]

Thanks so much! Feel free to share away😂 Happy to help with your project haha

[@kaymuldoon3575]

This was very interesting!

[@leohochhauser]

Pronounciation of the word combo: langue d’oïl. The letter combination of “o ï l” may not be pronounced as “o i l”. The 2 dots on the letter i denote that it must be pronounced like the English “ee”, similar to the German, Spanish and the French “ i ” as in “isle de france” where the “ i ”sounds like the English “ee” but not like the English “ i ” as in island. The “l” after “ ï “ should be pronounced in French like a double ll after an i (as in Braille) with a sound like “y” as in the letter combination “oy”. From there the sound shift to “oui” is easy to understand. I’m not a linguist but did have some exposure to the development of Romance languages at school in Germany 60 years ago.

[@opheliegardet6948]

This ï might also refer to an S : OISL [oil] or [ojl] ?

[@leohochhauser]

@@opheliegardet6948 The letter "â" denotes the missing letter "s" as in pâques a derivative of the Latin pasqua. Same for "ê" as in évêque from the Latin episcopus.

[@patolt1628]

I'm not a linguist either but I'm French and I'm impressed with your knowledge. I knew that but many young French people don't. Congratulations

[@patolt1628]

@@leohochhauser That's right, derivative from Latin or even an evolution from old French. Evêque is right but not as obvious as pâques or "hôpital" from hospital although the "s" remains in some related words like "hospitalier" (as "hospital staff"), "hospitaliser" meaning "to admit a patient to the hospital", "hospitalité" meaning taking care of the guests. Also "hôtel" from hostel which goes back to the Latin "hospitale", meaning guest house. You can find the old word "hostellerie" used again but referring now to a "luxury hotel". Etc ...

[@iparipaitegianiparipaitegi4643]

Oïl was first pronounced like the english word oil. Then the stress went from the O to the Ï.

[@gioq4702]

it comes from drunken Gauls trying to speak Latin.

[@keyos1955]

So true

[@cameroonemperor755]

Then drunken Germans trying to imitate

[@elbentos7803]

The most important thing here is : drinking

[@ermacro1987]

So french language would not exist without these alcoholic men 🤔

[@TCt83067695]

@@ermacro1987 basically lol

[@suzy3959]

Merci ! Très bien expliqué 👍

[@TheTravellingLinguist]

Merci beaucoup ! :)

[@wetblockz1280]

Some are watching this at school, I’m watching this at home for fun 🤣 great vid bro 💯

[@pestylenz7344]

Gauls already spoke a bit of Greek, and their languages were close to Latin anyway. So they scattered the Latin language. The verb "posse" (to can, be able to) was transformed into "potere" and became "pouvoir" in French. The vulgar latin verb "Manducare" (to chew), became [mandiucare] then [mandjure] and currently "manger" means "to eat"

[@clairejonas6125]

we speaks about spoken latin language, not litterary, writen latin... very different

[@mirage2585]

no Gaulish was not close to Latin before the Roman invasion

[@edwardsaulnier892]

You gave a lot of good detail about how Latin evolved into French. Perhaps, however, you could have pointed out the difference between Classical Latin and Vulgar Latin -- the latter being the true ancestor of the Romance languages. Maybe you could have briefly mentioned how French has spread into the new world, such as in North America, and Africa etc.

[@strafrag1]

Excellent video. Thanks.

[@May-yh9rb]

this helped me do my homework thank you so much! bam subscribed lol

[@Robwolf28]

The English word eagle is from French aigle it is L' Aquila (The eagle) in Italian and Latin, but it is not pronounced like French. The Germanic word for eagle is Arnr örn, ørn, (Old Norse, Icelandic, Norwegian, Danish, Swedish) earnes (Old English).

[@Fenditokesdialect]

The word earn is still used for instead of sea eagle ya know

[@ScorieDivine]

Most English words come from French dialects, mainly Normand.

[@giuvannicammora2821]

ACVILA

[@guzy1971]

Aigle = Adler in german

[@afrocyberdelia]

But the intonation is like the Italian A....kwila =E....gel

[@rolibus2606]

excellente étude de la construction et de l'évolution du Français d'aujourd'hui :)) Les textes du Moyen Age en vieux Français sont pour nous incompréhensibles aujourd'hui !! Mais l'étude du latin, qu'on pouvait faire à l'école, nous aidait beaucoup à comprendre le sens de certains mots employés maintenant: les "racines" des mots étaient très souvent latines !! Merci pour cette brillante étude :))

[@guzy1971]

D’un autre côté le Français médiéval était d’après ce que j’ai lu plus germanique la langue a été relatinisee à la Renaissance par les clercs qui voulaient fonder la la sur des bases plus prestigieuses Exemple : le heaume du moyen âge (Helm en allemand) est redevenu le casque

[@martinderome1142]

Bravo pour le bon travail!

[@edidelon]

Awesome video !!

[@papitas6061]

The Celtic language, Breton, still exists in northern France. It is closely related to the Gaulish languages, but originates in Great Britain.

[@TheTravellingLinguist]

Good point! I wonder if the two languages were similar enough to be able to understand each other to a certain degree.

[@CyrilleParis]

Only in part of Brittany. It came from the migration of Welch people in the begining of the middle-ages. It has nothing to do with Gaulish which had disapeared at the time. Both Gaulish Langages and that kind of Welch came from the same family but, for what I have understood, were quite different.

[@fablb9006]

papitas breton is not a survinving « autochtonous language » related to Gaulish, that resisted latinization, bit a language brought from outside by mogrations from the British isles, in a region that was speaking a latin language at that time... while Gaulish was a group of celtic language from central Europe. Only half of Britanny become receltized by British settlers, the eastern part of it (Rennes, Nantes stayed latin).

[@jetaddicted]

Western France, that is. In the North we spoke Flemish, and Picard.

[@CyrilleParis]

@@jetaddicted Le Picard est une langue d'Oîl, donc une langue romane (issue du latin). Le Flamand est une langue germanique. Rien à voir avec le gaulois dont on parlais plus haut.

[@thkrz5541]

For the Ordinance stuff, we pronounce "Vee-Lair Cotrey" that's a city of Picardy, where i come from

[@davidlacoste]

Vous prononcez le "r"?

[@mathias9242]

@@davidlacoste Oui

[@davidlacoste]

@@mathias9242 Merci. J'ai appris quelque-chose aujourd'hui.

[@iasnaia-poliana]

Very good job! Many thanks

[@janedmunds4218]

Merci beaucoup pour cette video

[@orleanslecanut3031]

Nice approach for explaining the origin of the language, but : - Gaulish people didn't have big moustaches, it's a stereotype. In fact they were very close to Romans ;) - Vikings didn't wear horned helmets - A better pronunciation of "françois" it the 14th century would have been [frɑ̃n'swɛ] - The demise of the langue d'oc is often considered to have been caused by the loss of its prestige due to the destruction of the templars who were loosely linked to occitan litterature at that time. - The correct pronunciation of Villers-Cotterêts is [vilɛʁkɔtʁɛ], not [vijekɔtʁɛ]

[@TheTravellingLinguist]

My design for the Gaulish was based on this horribly grainy painting from god knows where/when. So, I'm not surprised that was not historically accurate 😂

[@celtofcanaanesurix2245]

Well actually the Gauls did have big mustaches just not at the time of Julius Caesar because they had begun to adopt Roman fashion, the northern tribes still did have mustaches as described by many Roman writers as they said that they shaved every part of their body but the hair on their heads and their mustaches...

[@alejandror.planas9802]

Actually, a moustache was a symbol of status in Gaul, it wasn't used by everyone, but certainly by nobility.

[@patapoufsuper8118]

Les gaulois sans moustaches ? Mec c'est comme si je te dis que les moines tibétains portent des dreadlocks...

[@changminscreamsalot]

@@patapoufsuper8118 ça a fait ma soirée, merci

[@DutchScape]

French came from next door. She is the illegitimate daughter of a romance between Frank and some gal with a lot of gaul.

[@nathaliemartel64]

So poetic ...

[@lmnll2742]

Not really, french is a roman language, the influence of "frank" and "gaul" is almost non-inexistant

[@smal750]

​@@lmnll2742 least complexed french :

[@lmnll2742]

@@smal750 all languages

[@TheDharma2009]

Interesting and brilliantly executed. Thanks.

[@TheTravellingLinguist]

Thanks! Glad you enjoyed it :)

[@SuperManning11]

Très bien fait! Bravo

[@boink800]

Another good book to consult on the topic is "The Story of French" by Nadeau/Barlow.

[@minir.3182]

Super! Merci beaucoup! Here in Québec, we still speak the old french from rural France of the 17ème century. (The 1600’s) My parents borned in the 50’s still learned latin at school and heard it when they went to church as the priests would sometimes give the mass in latin. A more classic form of French was also used in certain social situations, on radio and television, etc. Its changed a lot as we all speak French Canadian now, In all situations, and Latin is no longer a part of our lifes.

[@diegovisoso4587]

Very informative

[@O-soba_mask]

Vraiment intéressant merci pour cet éclaircissement ! Thank you very much, it was amazing to discover the evolution of French among the ages. In fact, French comes from Latin, gaulish and partly by german ?

[@O-soba_mask]

We can conclude that : The least you are invaded the least your language could be changed.

[@celica9098]

I was always curious why French sounds so different than Portuguese, Spanish, and Italian despite they’re all part of the Latin family.

[@Slo-ryde]

Because it is from the north of France where the Germanic people had the greatest influence; and that is why it is phonetically Germanic. In other words, it is Gaulish Latin spoken with a strong Germanic accent, with many foreign words, but the basic structure is similar to other Romance languages. Occitan French was more similar to Catalan!

[@jeanlaureaudoynaud4776]

@@Slo-ryde Superbe réponse. En effet, le français est une langue latine germanisée. Oui l'occitan français est très proche du catalan. Mon papa qui avait pour langue maternelle le patois limousin, comprenait tout ce qu'on lui disait à Barcelone. Il en était tout étonné. Le français, sous influence germanique, a notamment perdu la dernière syllabe des mots latins conservée en italien ou espagnol comme par exemple, en latin "tabula" qui donne "tavola" en italien et "table" en français et tant d'autres coupures de cette sorte. Intéressant aussi à noter, les voyelles nasales qui n' existent pas en italien par exemple ainsi que le son u inexistant en latin, héritage du son germanique Ce sont ces nouveaux sons inexistants en latin qui sont, en partie, à l'origine de la complexité de l'orthographe française. Les moines copistes ont été incapables d'inventer de nouveaux signes pour ces nouveaux sons, et ont opté pour une accumulation de lettres. Mais il y avait aussi un but pécuniaire, car étant payés à la ligne, ils avaient intérêt à en rajouter !! Voilà pourquoi, aujourd'hui, nous nous cassons la tête face à une orthographe épouvantable. Bien cordialement à vous.

[@Slo-ryde]

@@jeanlaureaudoynaud4776grand merci !

[@donmarley69]

You missed the French Revolution and the subsequent total Francification of France! but great video!

[@zied6456]

Also the public school, and the radio/TV. Mais sinon bien vù!

[@patolt1628]

The "francification" started far before the revolution (16th century)...

[@zagork78]

WOWWW thank u so much for all the research... I'm French but had kinda forgotten these events I learned so long ago, I might even not have learned it with that many details

[@laurentladouari1207]

Pure brilliance. Félicitations !

[@sylvainb2366]

It's not the Romance languages that come from Latin but the Celtic languages that preceeded them, that's the reason why there's an Italo-Celtic group of languages. Common words like the numbers are almost identical as are many other words, but the split between both groups happened long before the use of writing since the substratum speakers of Celtic modified many Latin grammar features which were mostly simplified.

[@saidhammar5006]

Thanks for the video. Very nice. But why American flag for English language?

[@stephanevilboux1706]

Bonjour. Votre vidéo est vraiment très bien faite et historiquement juste. Cordialement.

[@mayb3]

Thank you for your video, I'm French and didn't even know this ! It's so interesting

[@user-yu1yz6qk1g]

in Villers-Cotterets, "Villers" is pronounced as in English, although the 's' is silent

[@GenericUsername1388]

But doesn't the r make the rrggghhh sound?

[@user-yu1yz6qk1g]

@@GenericUsername1388 Villers is prounced "veel air". They don't all sound like Mireille Matthieu or Edith Piaf. :-)

[@patolt1628]

@@user-yu1yz6qk1g Bon exemple rappelant cette horrible façon de chanter genre années 30 ...

[@jonathanconnor8190]

The Frankish/German influence early on in French is why in French you have to use the pronouns like je and tu and not so much in the likes of Spanish and Italian.

[@alexandermayes4957]

Yes and no - as a way to simplify sure, but don't forget that Spain also had its fair share of Germanic tribes so it's not as black and white as that.

[@pak3ton]

@@alexandermayes4957 spanish is more relates to arab language than germanic. In spanish there is a lot of words with almost same pronunciation in arab. Like Aceite zayt

[@alexandermayes4957]

@@pak3ton yeah exactly - I’m just saying you can’t say it’s a lack of Germanic influence it’s more that they had other influences but just felt the comment was inaccurate 😁

[@pak3ton]

@@alexandermayes4957 well at least here in latin america we dont have that much germanic influence... maybe :v

[@arnobozo9722]

No, it is not German influence.. In English : if you don't use I, you or we, then you can not tell who is the subject. In French : if you don't use je, tu, nous, sometimes you can not tell who is the subject. Using pronouns is more clear. In Spanish : even if you don't use io, tu, nosotros, you can always tell who is the subject. Because the conjugation of the verb gives the subject.

[@jphelk]

Thank you for your very interesting historical account. My grand-mother was speaking a patois of occitan at home, but at school near world war 1, she would have been punished if not speaking French. As a French speaker, I would also like to mention that Villers-Coteret is pronounced just as if it would be written Vilère, or like in the words "ville air" and unlike "fille".

[@richardhindley4459]

Thanks for a very interesting video. I just wondered where I could find out more about ancient Gaulish. I had always thought it was closer to modern Welsh, Breton and Cornish than Scottish, Irish and Manx Gaelic.

[@lmnll2742]

as much as romanian and portuguese

[@romain6275]

I guess French toponymy and patois are best for finding Gallic remains

[@The_Gallowglass]

Yeah, that happens when I speak my working-class southside Chicago way and people can't understand me. Then I have to speak English. D:

[@davidw1518]

The Gallic / Gaelic language did not completely disappear from France as you say it did. In Bretagne (Brittany), the north-west tip of France, they (or some of them) still speak a language that comes directly from Gallic, and is not dissimilar to the languages of Wales and Cornwall (the south-western tip of England, directly across the Channel from Bretagne).

[@morvil73]

No, Breton is not derived from Gaulish, but from British.

[@romain6275]

@@morvil73 Brythonic, and there were the same languages

[@carymnuhgibrilsamadalnasud1222]

​@@romain6275Facts

[@Slo-ryde]

@@morvil73 you are not wrong because Brittany took in many Brit refugees, escaping the Anglosaxon invasions of then Britain…… hence the name Brittany!

[@jxyzbxt2355]

Amazing video! And absolutely amazig french pronunciation for what I assume to be a native English speakers (and probably even American). KUDOS! very well done :)