FRENCH LANGUAGE OVERVIEW

Origin of French language

French is a Romance language. All languages originating from Latin are called Romance languages. Below is a chart showing the Romance language family tree.
INDO-EUROPEAN
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INDIC
HELLENIC
ITALIC
CELTIC
GERMANIC
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LATIN
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ROMANCE LANGUAGES
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ITALIAN
SPANISH
FRENCH
PORTUGUESE
ROMANIAN

 French evolves from Latin

The area of Gaul, which corresponds to modern day France and Belgium, was conquered by Julius Caesar in 52 B.C. Additional Roman conquests spread the use of Latin to many new lands and people. In addition, the Church adopted the use of Latin in Christian territories held by Romans. However, people in regions far away from Rome introduced their own idioms and expressions and, eventually, new languages were born. Those new languages are called the Romance languages.

By 700 A.D. the inhabitants of Gaul spoke a modified Latin different from the pure Latin spoken by the Church and administration officials. The modified Latin spoken by Gauls became the new official language of the region and evolved into Modern French. Below is an account of the milestones in the evolution of the French language.
842 A.D. "Gaul" Latin becomes a written language (Serments de Strasbourg)
882 A.D. "Gaul" Latin becomes an instrument of literature (Séquence de Sainte-Eulalie)
800 A.D. - 1300 A.D. Ancient French
1400 A.D. - 1600 A.D. Middle French
1600 A.D. - 1900 A.D. Classical and Modern French
1900 A.D. - present Contemporary French