1. Latin to Old French
The colonization of Gaul by the Romans in the first two centuries bc led to the introduction of Latin into Gaul and the gradual Romanization of Gaul's education and administration. The term ‘Latin’ covers a whole range of different varieties including the ‘Classical’ Latin of Cicero and Caesar and what is often misleadingly referred to as ‘Vulgar Latin’, embracing the spoken language of the legionaries, and popular and late written forms which in their differences from classical norms are thought to be closest to speech and the common ancestor of the modern Romance languages. Diachronic developments attested in Latin, such as the simplification of the nominal declension system, increased use of prepositions and determiners, and the formation of new compound tenses, point the way to the new Romance vernaculars.
Pre-5th-c. texts suggest a relatively homogeneous language over the Empire, and the influence of the Celtic substrate in Gaul is most obviously lexical, notably in the fields of daily and country life (mouton, sapin, chemise). In the 5th c., however, Germanic tribes invaded Gaul, with the Visigoths settling south of the Loire, the Burgundians in the Rhône and Saône vallies, and the Franks in the north. On this occasion, in the face of the prestige of Roman language, law, and education, and with the conversion of the Frankish king Clovis to Christianity, the conquerors did not impose their language but gradually adopted Latin. In the south of Gaul, where Germanic influence was weakest, the language remained closer to Latin but, in the north, Germanic influence caused important changes. For instance, the strong expiratory accent of the Germanic speakers may well be responsible for phonological changes (such as the diphthongization of tonic free vowels) which differentiate northern Gaul (the langue d'oïl area and the ancestor of Modern French) from the south (langue d'oc) and from a third, wedge-shaped area in central eastern France (franco-provençal). Germanic vocabulary was assimilated into the lexicon, including outdoor, military, and affective terms (e.g. haie, guerre, honte, orgueil).
There is much dispute as to when it is appropriate to speak of a French vernacular distinct from Latin, but the Strasbourg Oaths (842 ad) are generally identified as the earliest extant text in the vernacular of Gaul. For convenience, the history of French is usually divided into broad periods, if possible using a combination of external or historical factors and key internal or linguistic changes. The period of Early Old French may be said to cover broadly the mid-9th c. until the end of the 11th c. Although termed ‘Early Old French’ it was not a single, undifferentiated language which emerged in Gaul. As well as the major division into langue d'oïl, langue d'oc, and franco-provençal, there was within each area a network of dialects which sometimes gradually shaded into each other, sometimes changed abruptly on either side of a geographical barrier.
The ‘heyday’ of Old French in the 12th and 13th c. witnessed a number of important developments. First came the gradual acceptance of francien, the language of the Île-de-France, and notably that of Paris, as the desirable spoken norm. Paris became the political, legal, and educational focus, and nearby Saint-Denis provided a spiritual centre. In occupying a fairly central position in the langue d'oïl area, francien was, moreover, linguistically less differentiated from the other dialects than those on the periphery. The prestige of francien is evident from the much-quoted 12th-c. comment by Garnier de Pont-Saint-Maxence: ‘Mes langages est buens, car en France fui nez’ (‘My language is good because I was born in France [i.e. Île-de-France]’). It is significant that there appears to be no text written in ‘pure’ dialect, for even the earliest texts show incompatible ‘Parisian’ forms alongside regional features to a degree which cannot be explained in terms of regional differences between author and scribe. By the end of the 12th c. francien had made considerable progress as the written norm, even before Paris became an important literary centre in the following century. In the 13th c. the strongest regional colouring was picard; champenois too appeared for a time as a possible competitor to francien, especially during the time of Chrétien de Troyes, but towards the end of the 13th c. its influence began to wane. Anglo-Norman was used by the ruling classes in England throughout the Old French period, and had a rich and abundant literature.
Throughout its history, the ‘standard’ language has had to compete not only with other dialects, but also with Latin [see Latinity]. During the 13th c. French was introduced to some extent in local documents in Picardy and from 1254 it was permitted alongside Latin in the royal chancellery. In the langue d'oc area, the role of Occitan as a literary language [see Occitan Language And Literature] was diminished by the Albigensian Crusade (1208-13) [see Cathars], which led to the demise of the Toulousain dynasty and the eventual submission of the south to the Crown; it nevertheless continued to be used for everyday purposes.
What are the principal characteristics of Old French? Phonologically, Old French possessed a whole range of vowel sounds including diphthongs and triphthongs. Broadly speaking, its spelling, used to transcribe an essentially oral literature, espoused the phonological principle, albeit imperfectly since the Roman alphabet was inadequate for representing all the new Romance sounds. Morphologically, Old French is characterized by a two-case nominal declension system which, although not always formally distinct, allowed to some extent the differentiation of subject and non-subject functions. The word order of Old French was fairly fluid, but favoured structures with the verb in the second position. Alongside the Germanic vocabulary, Old French exploited its own processes of word-formation, possessing great variety in the number and use of its suffixes.
2. ‘Middle French’
Of all the period labels, ‘Middle French’ is probably the most controversial. Usually a date in the first half of the 14th c. is taken as the terminus a quo, but there is less agreement as to its end-point, notably as to whether the 16th c. should be considered a separate period of ‘Renaissance French’. Whatever the case, it is a period of significant change and restructuring of the language system, and of a growing national consciousness which had important linguistic repercussions.
The literature of the late Middle Ages is composed in French, which in the 14th c. means francien with a light picard colouring. Most of the early printed texts appeared in Latin, but gradually the use of French spread to official records and legal texts. In the south, Occitan continued to be the usual spoken language, but either French or Latin was used for written purposes and French gained ground in official documents. Outside France, however, French lost its influential position, for instance in southern Italy, Sicily, and Cyprus.
Some of the principal changes in the language may be summarized briefly. Phonologically, the period is marked by the levelling of Old French diphthongs and triphthongs, the lowering of nasal vowels, and the loss of final consonants. The spelling of Middle French came under the control of the practiciens, or legal clerks, who favoured an etymological spelling, essentially for the eye rather than the ear. As French pronunciation continued to evolve, this led to an ever-widening gap between sounds and letters. By the beginning of the Middle French period, the disintegration of the two-case nominal system was virtually complete. With this came increased use of determiners. Irregularities or variation of either verb stems or endings introduced by the ‘blind’ operation of sound change were removed by analogical reworking. Syntactically, there is an increase in Suject-Verb-Complement constructions, but Middle French sentences are typically loosely structured, showing, for instance, the separation of relatives and antecedents and unattached participle clauses. The vocabulary was enriched as required, especially with Latinisms, which sometimes form doublets with their ‘popular’ counterparts (e.g. esmer/estimer); borrowings from Italian also begin to feature, a fashion which reached its peak in the 16th c.
3. The Sixteenth Century
The 16th c. witnesses the spread of French to further domains such as theology, science, mathematics, and dialectic, and early attempts to analyse and describe the language with the first grammars of French published in France. Despite the unrest caused by wars with Italy and the Holy Roman Empire and outbreaks of civil war, the political unification of France proceeded. In the south, French slowly gained ground with the literate minority, although the number of speakers remained very small. In the north, French increasingly rivalled Latin in official documents. A series of royal edicts from 1490 promoted the use of French in legal proceedings, the most famous of which, the Ordonnances de Villers-Cotterêts of 1539, prescribed that all deeds and court proceedings were to be recorded henceforth ‘en langage maternel françois et non aultrement’. Abroad, French continued to be employed by the aristocracy and for trade and diplomacy.
Early discussions of French focused on the need to give it stability and rules to lend it the dignity of Latin. It was believed that one way to ‘improve’ French was through lexical innovation, with the doctrine of richesse typifying attitudes to language; there was, therefore, an openness to neologisms, archaisms, dialect terms, calques, and borrowings. Early in the century there was also a positive attitude to Italianisms, but in the second half of the century the change of attitude is symbolized by Henri Estienne's polemic against these borrowings.
During the century the relationship of French and Latin permeated much linguistic thought, and early grammarians found it difficult to free themselves from Latin descriptive models [see Grammars]. The question of the degree to which French should depend on its ancestor also surfaced in the debate on spelling reforms. Despite the attempts of reformers (such as Louis Meigret) to introduce a phonologically based spelling system for French, the traditional etymological spelling showing family relations, morphological function, and differentiating homonyms dominated, as represented in Robert Estienne's French-Latin dictionary of 1539/40 [see Dictionaries, I]. Nevertheless, some simplification of orthography was achieved, and the cedilla, acute accent on final close e, and apostrophe became established.
The use of French by writers in the 16th c., especially the first half, is equally typified by Latin influence, encouraged at least in part through the work of translators of Latin into French [see Translation, I]. Not only is the lexicon full of learned material, there was also direct imitation of Latin constructions. This, however, abated as the century progressed, so that even before Malherbe's arrival at court at the beginning of the 17th c., the use of French was tending towards greater independence from Latin and clarity of expression.
4. Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries
The 17th and 18th c. are the period of classical and neoclassical French. The rise of absolutism, culminating in the reign of Louis XIV, is paralleled by increased regimentation and codification of the language in the 17th c. In the 18th c., with the decline of the influence of the court and the rise of the bour geoisie during a period of wars and financial crises under Louis XV, there came some relaxation of linguistic control, especially as regards the lexicon, but on the whole the entire period is characterized by the establishment of the written norms of standard French, essentially unchanged to the present day. The influence of Latin continued to wane, and dialect speakers were increasingly stigmatized. In the north of France the upper classes normally spoke French, whilst the lower classes either used French with a regional colouring or were bilingual in French and dialect. In the south the use of French continued to spread, especially in towns. From 1714 French was adopted in international treaties. Its prestige abroad is reflected in the essay subject set for a prize offered by the Berlin Academy in 1782: ‘Qu'est-ce qui a rendu la langue française universelle?’ The 17th c. was also the first period of French colonization, with settlement in Canada, Louisiana, the West Indies, Africa, and on the Indian continent.
The tone of much of the linguistic writing of the century is set by Malherbe's annotations on the poetry of Desportes. The ideal of quantity of terms characteristic of the 16th c. is replaced by one of quality of usage, so that the vocabulary is purified by the banishment of neologisms, archaisms, technical terms, and regionalisms, and syntax made more explicit and regular. The same desire to fix and purify the language is evident in the aims of the Académie Française, founded in 1635. It is in the context of a climate of linguistic awareness, with discussion of language being common in the salons and cabinets of the age, that we must view the Remarques of Vaugelas, who established an élitist norm for good usage and laid the basis for much subsequent usage. Throughout the period every aspect of the language was codified, with very high demands made in terms of clarity and choice of the mot juste. While the essentials of modern French usage date from this period, the spoken language has continued to evolve, with the gap between the two media widening.
In classical and neoclassical French, spelling remained essentially etymological, but some reforms did gradually permeate usage. Sound changes included the dropping of h from pronunciation, the restoration of some final consonants, and the debate between the ouïstes and non-ouïstes as to the correct pronunciation of words like chose (versus chouse). Use of the past historic and imperfect subjunctive declined in speech. Above all, the syntax was dominated by concern for clarity and explicitness and the Subject-Verb-Complement word order was adopted as the norm. In some cases elaborate, not to say complex, rules were established.
5. Since the Revolution
The period from the Revolution to 1945 is marked by increased standardization and the loss of many dialects [see, however, Patois And Dialect Writing]. Contemporary French dates from the end of World War II, a period when the French have felt the need to protect their language from Anglicisms and casual usage, and assert its role as a world language by promoting la francophonie.
The Revolutionaries considered that a unified language would help achieve the political ideals of the Revolution. Abbé Grégoire was charged with establishing the extent of the knowledge of the language in France. Of an estimated population of 25 million, at least 6 million, mainly in the south, knew no French at all, and only 3 million were able to speak it correctly [see Literacy]. The title of his report of 1794 is significant: Sur la nécessité et les moyens d'anéantir les patois et d'universaliser l'usage de la langue française. Since then, linguistic unification has been dramatic [see Education, 2c]. At the turn of the 20th c. Gilliéron and Edmont, aware of the rapid decline of the dialects, recorded them in the Atlas linguistique de la France (1902-10); since then further loss has occurred. With this has come the rise of regional varieties of French, French which differs little syntactically from the standard language, but has local terms and regional pronunciation. We should also not forget the minority languages spoken in France: Occitan, Breton [see Brittany], Flemish, Catalan, Corsican, and Basque. In 1951 the Loi Deixonne went some way towards protecting the study of Basque, Breton, Occitan, and Catalan by allowing them as optional subjects for the baccalauréat; in 1974 Corsican was added.
The period 1830-1918 was a second major period of French colonialism, with the establishment of a considerable empire in Africa, the Far East, and Oceania. French, as the language of the conqueror and the élite, became widely established. In the 20th c. much of this empire has been lost, but this has not necessarily entailed the demise of French [see Francophonie]. Today, French is one of few languages spoken in all five continents, although there are few speakers left in Asia. Realistically, we may think of some 90-100 million native speakers of French world-wide, with some 200 million more using it as a second language. Its status ranges from that of official language used only by an élite, as in the 22 countries of Black Africa south of the Sahara, through being widely used but not the official language, as in Algeria, Tunisia, and Morocco, to being the native language as in Quebec and parts of Belgium and Switzerland.
Whilst the speed of evolution has been slowed somewhat by normative grammar, the French language has changed since the Revolution. If the essential syntactic rules of correct written French have remained fairly constant, stylistic variants such as the use of reprise (i.e. the ‘picking-up’ of a substantive by a pronoun allowing greater freedom of word order) or the narrative imperfect have become more prevalent. Moreover, the spoken language shows marked differences, such as the reduction of negative ne … pas to simple pas or the avoidance of inversion, especially for interrogation, and in more informal registers the differences are even more pronounced. The vocabulary of Modern French has had to expand to meet new political, cultural, and technical needs. By far the most common sources of new words are derivations and compounds, which frequently make use of Latin and Greek elements. More controversial has been the influx of Anglo-American borrowings, which have engendered a series of adverse reactions from the purists—ranging from the satire of Etiemble to legislation (the so-called Loi Bas-Lauriol (1975) proscribing the use of anglicisms in the description of products and political bodies). There have also been proposals throughout the 20th c. to reform and simplify French spelling, but if the past is anything to judge by, reformers will have a tough battle against French purism and conservatism.
[<auth>Wendy Ayres-Bennett]
Bibliography
- M. K. Pope, From Latin to Modern French (1934)
- G. Price, The French Language: Present and Past (1971)
- P. Rickard, A History of the French Language, 2nd edn. (1989)
