The Old French language was spoken during the Middle Ages in Belgium, Switzerland, and the northern part of France during this period. It was distinguished from the language of southern France, which was influenced by Provencal.

Old French was heavily influenced by Gaulish language, the original Celtic language of what is known as modern France (then known as Gaul), Latin, which propagated influence during the time of Julius Caesar’s occupation and rule of the French territory, and Frankish language, the language spoken by the tribes of Germanic people living in the areas that bordered Gaul. There were a few words of Gaulish that survived into Old French. Latin language and Frankish were more influential. The basic structure of Old French was influenced by vulgar Latin, and much of its vocabulary (and the name of the language itself) was influenced by Frankish.

Studying Old French can provide a lot of insight into the historical linguistics of French. When one compares Old French to later versions of French, it is easy to trace the development and evolution of French. Anyone learning to speak modern French can sometimes feel frustrated by the pronunciation and orthographical inconsistencies. In writing, Old French was much more phonetic than modern French. Modern French, for instance, is known for dropping the pronunciation of the final consonants in words. Speakers of Old French language, however, did pronounce most of these these consonants, which made the Old French words sound very different from their modern counterparts. Old French had a different nasal quality than modern French, as well, because while in modern French the nasal consonants are not fully pronounced, in Old French this was not the case. Continue reading →