What is the history of the French Language?

The French language originates from Latin and was spoken on the borders of the Roman Empire. Its influence comes from two sources; a language is spoken by the Gauls, who were a Celtic tribe, and from the Germanic language spoken by the Franks. These influences distinguish French pronunciation and spelling from Spanish and Italian. As the two major languages of the Western World, English and French naturally have contributed many words to each other. Recent French contributions to English – with the French pronunciation retained as closely as possible – include such expressions as hors d’oeuvre, en route, rendezvous, carte blanche, savoir-faire, faux pas, fait accompli, par excellence, bon vivant, joie de vivre, coup d’état, nouveau riche, laissez-faire, pièce de resistance, and RSVP. In recent years, French has been virtually inundated with English words of all kinds – so much so that the resulting jargon has been dubbed Franglais, a combination of Français and Anglais. A few examples among hundreds are le hamburger, le drugstore, le weekend, le strip-tease, le tee-shirt, le chewing gum, and les blue-jeans.

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