The History of the French Language

Paper Summary:

This paper examines what influenced the evolution of the many different dialects of 5th Century France into the three main dialects of medieval France. France and provides evidence of the differences in phonology between them. It also looks at the geographical and political factors which influenced this development.

From the Paper:

"To understand how the different dialects came about, we need to look a little further back in history to around the 5th Century. The collapse of the Roman Empire and subsequently the time of the Germanic invasions led to the beginnings of the linguistic disparity between North and South. As the Romans retreated, many 'barbarian' tribes ventured into Gaul, adopting the lands abandoned by the Romans. Celts and Vikings settled in the far North-West, but the majority of the invaders came from Germany. The Franks and the Burgundians settled primarily in the North and the South East, but the Visigoths even went as far as the South West. "

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