French

French grew out of the Vulgar Latin of Roman Gaul, over a Celtic Gaulish substrate that left its mark in liaison and some two hundred rural words. Germanic Franks settled the north from the third century and gave French its name, and a vocabulary of war and lordship; Vikings who took Normandy in the 900s added seafaring terms.

The oïl dialects, named for their word for yes, included Picard, Norman, Walloon and the Francien of Paris. The earliest surviving French text is the Oaths of Strasbourg of 842, and after 1066 Anglo-Norman ruled the courts of England.

In 1337 Francien was still one dialect among many. The Ordinance of Villers-Cotterêts of 1539 made French the sole language of legal documents, and Richelieu founded the Académie française in 1634. By 1789 perhaps half the king's subjects still spoke only a regional patois.