Langue Française du Latin Médiéval

The French language has had several official versions over the many centuries since the first French King, Clovis, around 480 A.D.. This mode of expression first emanated out of the spoken and often mangled Latin of everyday life.

Cicero to Charlemagne

Cicero’s beautiful anecdotes regarding philosophical issues and Ovid’s poetic and amorous verses of the time of Augustus had both succumbed to a more popular but less academic form of human intercourse. The Latin-Vulgate had replaced its more literary parental forms.

But, certainly, by the days of Charlemagne, Holy Roman Emperor,  around 800 A.D., the Frankish influence of several Germanic tribes in and around Aachen  Germany had already created a new language for secular affairs. However, Latin remained the official tongue of government, church and local commerce well after this historic time period.

Doomsday Book to Magna Carta

As an example, the Doomsday Book published about twenty years after the Normand invasion of England in 1066 A.D. was written entirely in Church-Latin. In effect, this form of communication became the European language of international relations and commerce.

See below for some details. Go to:

Venerable Bede from the Doomsday Book

Also, the Magna Carta, the cornerstone of English law, originally outlined the jurisprudence of that country in Medieval Latin, which was still in use in 1215 AD.

Cardinal Richelieu – Influence on French Language

It was during the time of Louis XIV that Cardinal Richelieu – effectively the Secretary of State under this “Sun God” – greatly simplified the grammar of the language and significantly eliminated many words in common usage to arrive at a simpler, more sleek linguistic style.

Français d’aujourd’hui – Today’s French

Today, this simpler way of communicating is evident in the novels of Albert Camus, André Gide, Guy de Maupassant and Diderot’s encyclopedia plus it heard in Parisian and Montreal telecasts. Clearly, a national language is a living and breathing cultural attribute that is inseparable from those, who choose to use it.