Re: the origins of French

From: Brian M. Scott (b.scott_at_csuohio.edu)
Date: 03/29/05 

Date: Mon, 28 Mar 2005 19:05:54 -0500

On 28 Mar 2005 01:33:31 -0600, brennus
<galaxym812000@yahoo-dot-com.no-spam.invalid> wrote in
<news:4247b34b$1_1@127.0.0.1> in sci.lang:

[...]

> Latin developed somewhat differently in Gaul than in Italy
> and the Iberian Peninsula. There is a theory that in Gaul
> Latin was basically the language of a ruling aristocracy.

Since French is a Romance language, it's clear that Latin
was a great deal more than that.

[...]

> We know for a fact that Gaul was Romanized more slowly
> than Italy and Spain.

We know that it was Romanized *later* than Italy and Spain,
which is not the same thing.

> For example, as late as the year 270 A.D. the bishop of Lyons
> tells us that he had to learn Celtic in order to preach to his
> congregation. Celtic was still spoken in Auvergne until the 7th
> century A.D.

Evidence, please.

> and may have existed in the high valleys of the Swiss
> Alps until about that time too. It is still spoken in Brittany today.

'Still' is misleading: Breton is basically an insular Celtic
language imported from Britain in the declining days of the
Roman empire. So far as I know, it's not even known whether
the British immigrants encountered any significant number of
speakers of Continental Celtic.

[...]

> Before the end of the 7th century the Franks gave up their
> High German Dialect and adopted the Gallo-Romance speech
> of their conquered subjects. It would later become known
> as French in the north and Provençal in the south.

Two distinct languages.

> How and why the Franks adopted their new language still
> remains a mystery.

Not really. We know that the towns of northern Gaul
remained Latin-speaking in the fifth century, so Franks
settling in them are likely to have shifted to Latin fairly
quickly; such shifts are common in urban settings. And the
majority of Franks who emigrated to Gaul as farmers, rather
than as merchants or artisans, settled in the countryside
alongside the Gallo-Romans.

[...]

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