Latin and French

Development From Latin To French

            The French language is derived from Latin as it evolved in the area known to the Romans as Gaul.  Besides the Roman influence, the Greeks had an influence on the early history of the region with Mycenaean trade and the later establishment of the colony of Massilia around 600 B.C.  There was also Etruscan influence from Italy in the Rhône valley.  In 205  B.C., the Romans established the provinces of Hispania (Spain), which led to further contact with Gaul as an intermediary.  In 121 B.C., the Romans were called in to protect Massilia from a Celtic coalition, and as a result, the province of Gallia Narbonensis was created.  Caesar used the invasions by the Helvetians and Germans to justify his activity as governor of the province from 58-50 B.C., which expanded the area of the Roman province.  Augustus reorganized the area into four provinces (Narbonensis, Aquitania, Lugdunensis, and Belgica).  Under the Romans, there was extensive colonization and construction of roads, bridges, aqueducts, temples, theaters, and gates.  The Porta Nigra and Pont du Gard are still visible attractions today.  The province was famous for its pottery and also produced the historian Tacitus (first to second century A.D.) and the emperor Antoninus Pius (emperor A.D. 138-161).
In the third century, there was a massive movement of “barbarian” tribes, and the Franks established a hold in Gaul.  By the fourth century, Gaul had an “Indian summer” with the flourishing of Christian writers including Ambrose.  In the fifth century, there was another wave of barbarian invasions, including the Vandals, Burgundians, and Visigoths.  Rome was sacked by Alaric in A.D. 410   and the Romans withdrew their garrisons from Gaul.  In 481, the Romans were defeated by Clovis, king of the Franks.  He converted to orthodox Christianity, however, and received the support of the Catholic bishops and Roman officials in his attacks on the Arian Visigothic king Alaric II.  Clovis tried to fuse the Roman and German elements, forming the basis of modern French culture.

In A.D. 800, Carolus Magnus (Charlemagne), king of the Franks, was crowned ruler of the Holy Roman Empire.  He extended his rule with a strong central administration and patronage of learning and was responsible for what became known as the “Carolingian Renaissance.”  He brought in many scholars from the British isles, where classical learning had been preserved during the “Dark Ages” on the continent.  His decree that bishops should preach in “Latin” served as a recognition that what was then being spoken was different.  This is one of the benchmarks for the dating of the distinction between vulgar Latin and proto-Romance.

The “Norman Conquest” brought on by the victory of William of Normandy over King Harold of England in the Battle of Hastings in 1066 initiated a period of French influence on English for the next two centuries.  It was through this period of French use by the ruling class and for official matters that many Latin words found their way into the English language via French.

The French language has undergone extensive phonetic changes, which accounts in part for the apparent discrepancies between the spellings and pronunciation in French.  The correspondence between the Latin and French is not always as obvious as between Latin and Spanish.  For example, French has lost the “s” before many consonants;  the circumflex or acute accent reflects this loss (bête < Latin bestiam; étudier < Latin studēre).  Sometimes the connection may still be apparent, such as in calendar words and numbers.  In terms of forms, the French noun forms, as in Spanish also, were based on the Latin accusative, rather than nominative, forms.  The distinction between cases has been generally lost , but is partially preserved in the personal pronouns; these still have separate forms for subject, direct object, indirect object/dative, and as the object of prepositions.   Another example of the influence of the Latin ancestry is in the formation of the adverb.  This is based on the Latin ablative phrase, “______ mente” (“with a ____ mind, feeling”).  Since mente is a feminine noun in Latin, this explains why the French adverbs retain their formation based on the feminine form of the adjective.