French belongs to the group of Romance languages, which also includes Spanish, Portuguese, Catalan (in the Iberian Peninsula), Provençal (in southern France), Sardinian, Italian, Romansh (in southeastern Switzerland), Romanian and Moldavian.

Like all Romance languages, French originates from the Latin language, which spread to the territory of present-day France after its conquest by Julius Caesar in 58-51 BC. e. From the testimony of Caesar himself and other ancient writers, it is known that this territory was inhabited by various peoples. The bulk of the population in the north and center of the country were peoples of the Celtic tribe or, as the Romans called them, Gauls, who spoke their Celtic (Gallic) language. Hence the ancient name of the country – Gaul. These tribes left a deep imprint of their presence, destroying all traces of previously existing languages, preserving only some place names. The Gallic language itself, the structure of which was not too different from the structure of the Latin language (A. Doza, A. Meilleux), disappeared only at the end of Roman rule, which lasted several centuries.

In the south of the country, most of the territory was occupied by the Aquitani, a people of a different origin, closer to the Iberians who inhabited the territory of ancient Spain. Since the conquest of Gaul by Caesar, it was divided into three provinces – Aquitaine, Lugunda and Belgium – and very quickly began to be Romanized. Roman schools, Roman culture, and Roman administration contributed to the fact that the population – primarily urban – began to assimilate the Latin language. In rural areas, this process was much slower, as evidenced, in particular, by the fact that about 300 Celtic words have been preserved in the French dictionary, relating primarily to the sphere of peasant life and economy [2, p. 12]. However, in the conquered provinces, it was not the language of the ruling strata of Roman society that was spread and assimilated, not literary Latin, in which Julius Caesar wrote his memoirs and Cicero delivered his speeches, but the vernacular language, the so-called “vulgar Latin”, the language of the predominantly urban population, spoken local administrators and officials, legionnaires and veterans, traders and freedmen, and after them a huge mass of small artisans and slaves. Moreover, in Aquitaine the local language of the indigenous inhabitants disappeared earlier, while in Gaul the Celtic language of the original population continued to be preserved for a long time.

Over the course of several centuries (until the 5th century), while the Latin language in its spoken form was being assimilated by the local population of Gaul, Vulgar Latin itself gradually changed. She moved further and further away from the literary language, which became the property of only educated people who went to school and lived in cities. The literary language became more and more archaic, preserving words that had already fallen out of everyday use and often became incomprehensible. A process of deep internal transformation took place in the spoken language, which in its main features boiled down to a change not only in the sound aspect, but also in the very structure of speech. This was the beginning of a gradual transition from a synthetic structure of speech to an analytical one, caused by certain shifts in thinking itself. In addition, Vulgar Latin adopted many elements from the language of the peoples that the population of the provinces had to encounter in the course of historical events. Thus, the contact with the Germans that began at the end of the 3rd century, especially as a result of military clashes and the service of German soldiers in the Roman legions, led to the penetration into the common spoken language of the Roman provinces of a number of Germanic words related to the field of military affairs, material culture, and the names of certain colours: guerre, bourg, blanc, gris, etc.

The spread of Christianity in the Western Roman Empire (especially from the 4th century, when Christianity, a minority religion in Gaul, gained victory and was established under the Emperor Constantine) brought with it into Vulgar Latin many religious and abstract terms of Greek origin, which received a special meaning already in Christian Greek language. Hence in modern French words such as: église, basilique, parabole, etc. The entire religious pagan vocabulary is gradually being forgotten. Rare names are preserved in a few compound words, for example in the names of the first five days of the week: lundi (“day of the moon”), mardi (“day of Mars”), mercredi (“day of Mercury”), jeudi (“day of Jupiter”), vendredi (“day of Venus”). In the designation of the sixth day, samedi (“Sabbath”, influenced by the Hebrew language) replaced “Saturn”, while the seventh day, dimanche, was naturally dedicated to the god.

In the 5th century, Gaul and Britain were invaded by Germanic tribes, but the consequences were varied. The most important thing in the history of France was its conquest at the end of the 5th century by the Franks under the leadership of Clovis, who at the beginning of the 6th century subjugated the Burgundians who came earlier and drove the Visigoths into Spain. The Frankish power of the Merovingians was formed, consisting of separate provinces, independently governed after Clovis by his successors. The complete unification of all these possessions was achieved only under Charlemagne, and 30 years after his death, in 843, they were finally divided by his successors into German and Roman halves. The Franks, who settled in Gallo-Roman territory, constituted the ruling class there, although they did not take land from the Roman landowners, who were even appointed to senior positions under the Merovingian kings.

During the relatively peaceful coexistence of the two peoples and under the influence of the higher Roman culture, the Franks assimilated with the local population and after several generations lost their language, adopting Gallo-Roman speech. According to A. Doza, the merger of the Gallo-Romans and the Franks ended in the 10th century [1, p. 17]. The Franks also adopted the Christian religion: starting from the era of Charlemagne, who revived real Latin education (in his palace academy, under the leadership of Alcuin, the study of classical poets, philosophers, and orators was revived, and its members began to create their own poetic works and scientific treatises in real Latin), words are borrowed from church Latin: ange, apôtre, bénédiction, etc.

In the 10th century, large fiefs were formed in France, only nominally subordinate to royal power, which, since the election of King Hugo Capet in 987, had been established in the center of the country in the Ile-de-France region with its capital in Paris.

The 11th-13th centuries are characterized by the stabilization of social relations and the establishment of the feudal system. There is a process of centralization around Paris and, to a lesser extent, around regional centers. The importance of the church, monasteries, and religious life reaches its apogee. From the end of the 11th century, epic, and then lyrical, dramatic and narrative literature began to flourish in the young French language, the abstract vocabulary of which was enriched under the influence of Latin: empereur, présenter, cristal, nature, patience, etc. Since the end of the 13th century, the number of Latinisms has been increasing. Lawyers introduce legal terms that were not in French: contrat, convention, procès, etc. Translators from Latin, whose role was very significant, give French form to numerous abstract words that did not have an exact equivalent in the popular language, and sometimes simply transfer them into the French text. In addition, in the 12th-13th centuries, the French language itself and French literature became widespread in Germany and Italy.

1. Доза, А. История французского языка. М. : Иноиздат, 1956.
2. Сергиевский, М. В. История французского языка: учебник для высш. учеб. Заведений. М. : Учпедгиз, 1938.
3. Википедия – свободная энциклопедия [Электронный ресурс]. – Режим доступа: http://ru.wikipedia.org/wiki/ .

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