The French Speaking Language-Can It Help Me In Business?

There are over 200 million people who speak French and of those 128 million speak the French language on a daily basis. Of the romance languages French is number three on the list of most people speaking it, it is also known as "Langue d'Oil."

French is the official language on 3 continents Africa, North America (Canada) and Europe and includes 33 countries. These native French speakers live in a community of French-speaking nations known as French La Francophonie.


The French Speaking Language History

It is estimated that the beginning of the French language was around the 8th century in northern Gaul (northern France). The language originated from Vulgar Latin during the Roman Empire. It was further influenced by other languages such as the Germanic language of the post-Roman Frankish invaders and the native Celtics of the Roman Gaul. You can notice the influence of the Franks and Celtics in the accent of the French Language. This is why some French spellings and sounds are noticeably different compared to other Romance languages. Also, this is the reason why some sounds in Spanish and Italian seems more alike compared to the French.

Français (archaically franceis) is the native name of the French language. This was derived from the country name France which stems from the Latin Francia which originally means "Land of the Franks.The English name French actually came from the Old English frencisc which means "Frankish - related to the Franks."

Even if French was descended from Vulgar Latin, it was highly influenced by the huge presence of the Franks who lived in the northern Gaul where they spoke the Germanic language Frankish during the 8th century. This is the reason northern Gaul was actually a Latin-Frankish bilingual country in the years between the 4th and 8th centuries. During the 8th and the 9th centuries, the northern Gaul was gradually emerging as a French-Frankish bilingual country before the language was christened as French.

History shows that the heavy Germanic influence of the French language is what sets it apart from other Romance languages. Moreover, it is the sole Romance language labeled after a Germanic ethnic group.


International Status of the French Speaking Language

During the 17th and 18th centuries, the French language was regarded as a lingua franca in Europe. It played a huge cultural and political role while being extensively used in diplomacy. Unfortunately, the international role of the language significantly declined. This was greatly felt after the World War II wherein the English language took over. However, it still garners international recognition as being one of the two working languages of the UN Secretariat as well as being one of the two official languages of NATO and IOC.


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