Northern France, parts of Belgium (Wallonia), Scotland, England, Ireland, Kingdom of Jerusalem, Principality of Antioch, County of Edessa, Kingdom of Cyprus
Era
Evolved into Middle French by the mid-14th century
Language family
Indo-European
Italic
Latino-Faliscan
Latin
Romance
Italo-Western
Western Romance
Gallo-Iberian
Gallo-Romance
Gallo-Rhaetian?[1]
Arpitan–Oïl
Oïl
Old French
Early forms
Old Latin
Vulgar Latin
Proto-Romance
Old Gallo-Romance
Language codes
ISO 639-2
fro
ISO 639-3
fro
Glottolog
oldf1239
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Old French (franceis, françois, romanz; French: ancien français) was the language spoken in most of the northern half of France approximately between the late 8th[2] and the mid-14th century. Rather than a unified language, Old French was a linkage of Romance dialects, mutually intelligible yet diverse. These dialects came to be collectively known as the langues d'oïl, contrasting with the langues d'oc, the emerging Occitano-Romance languages of Occitania, now the south of France.
The mid-14th century witnessed the emergence of Middle French, the language of the French Renaissance in the Île-de-France region; this dialect was a predecessor to Modern French. Other dialects of Old French evolved themselves into modern forms (Poitevin-Saintongeais, Gallo, Norman, Picard, Walloon, etc.), each with its linguistic features and history.
The region where Old French was spoken natively roughly extended to the northern half of the Kingdom of France and its vassals (including parts of the Angevin Empire), and the duchies of Upper and Lower Lorraine to the east (corresponding to modern north-eastern France and Belgian Wallonia), but the influence of Old French was much wider, as it was carried to England and the Crusader states as the language of a feudal elite and commerce.[3]
^Hammarström, Harald; Forkel, Robert; Haspelmath, Martin; Bank, Sebastian (2022-05-24). "Oil". Glottolog. Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology. Archived from the original on 2022-10-08. Retrieved 2022-10-07.
^Battye, Adrian; Hintze, Marie-Anne; Rowlett, Paul (2000). The French Language Today (2nd ed.). Routledge. p. 12. ISBN 978-1-136-90328-1. [2-4; we might wonder whether there's a point at which it's appropriate to talk of the beginnings of French, that is, when it was deemed no longer make to think of the varieties spoken in Gaul as Latin. Although a precise date can't be given, there is a general consensus (see Wright 1982, 1991, Lodge 1993) that an awareness of a vernacular, distinct from Latin, emerged at the end of the eighth century.]
OldFrench (franceis, françois, romanz; French: ancien français) was the language spoken in most of the northern half of France approximately between...
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c. 1100–1200 CE (the OldFrench period) rather than modern pronunciation. This page documents the phonological history of French from a relatively technical...
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version of French that is largely intelligible to Modern French speakers, contrary to OldFrench. The most important change found in Middle French is the...
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the pied used in France. The French typographic point, the Didot point, was 1⁄72 of a French inch, i.e. two royal points. The French pica, called Cicéro...
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certain territory for a French settlement. The extent of the French Concession at the time of establishment extended south to the Old City's moat, north to...
"Lieutenant-General of France" corresponded to Général de division for the French Army, and Vice-Amiral (Vice-Admiral) for the French Navy. The rank of Général...
Australian Catholic Old Polish Polish Sign Language OldFrench Sign Language (VLSF, before l'Épée) Eastern French: Old Danish (edu. 1807), Old German, German...
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