HISTORY OF THE FRENCH LANGUAGE

The Gauls

Conquered by Romans

Language

French Gaule,  Latin Gallia,  the region inhabited by the ancient Gauls, comprising modern-day France and parts of Belgium, western Germany, and northern Italy. A Celtic race, the Gauls lived in an agricultural society divided into several tribes ruled by a landed class.  The Gauls were the only enemy of Rome that had sacked the Eternal City prior to its fall.

Both Diodorus and Cicero describe Gallic speech as being harsh. Diodorus (Book V. 31. 1) says that "when they meet together they converse with few words and in riddles, hinting darkly at things for the most part and using one word when they mean another...." All of the sources describe them as boasters. But Diodorus also says that they have sharp wits and "are not without cleverness at learning (Book V. 31. 1)."

The Romans conquered and annexed the southern fringe of France by 125-121 BC. Julius Caesar brought the rest of Gaul under Roman control during the Gallic Wars (58-51 BC). The province of Gaul prospered: it developed good communications, a network of cities crammed with public buildings and leisure facilities such as baths and amphitheaters, while in the countryside large villas were established. After 9 AD Romans were able to conquer the Germans and for some centuries Roman-German relations along the border were relatively peaceful despite a certain amount of rivalry back and forth.   By the 3rd century AD, however, barbarian raids from Germany were causing increasing havoc. From the 5th century barbarians began to settle throughout Gaul.

The Gauls learned to speak Latin and abandoned many of their Celtic terms.  The Latin they often picked up on was slang.   Latin – caput  - Latin Vulgar – testa – la tete  Latin – equus  Latin Vulgar – caballus – cheval.  So the French
language we see today is full of slang Latin expressions with a smattering of some Germanic words as well.  The Germanic word for Saturday "Samtag" is "Samedi" in French.
In 842 Vikings with a flotilla of 67 ships camped at  the estuary of the Loire River wondering where to go….visited by count Lambert’s emissary. They went on to devastate Tours and Orleons, Anges, seized Bordeaux, etc. Charles the Fat in 886 made an attempt to buy them off – between 845 and 926 AD they paid the Vikings 43, 000 pounds of silver and 695 pounds of gold. In 911 AD Hrolf (Gongu Hrolf or Hrolf the Walker (because no horse could carry him – short ponies – his legs were too long or he was too fat – grandson William the Conqueror was 7 feet tall):  (now Rollo) signed a treaty with the Frankish king Charles the Simple.  Rollo got the lands of Normandy.
The Norman Vikings learned to speak French and when Rollo's grandson, William the Conqueror conquered England in 1066, French soon became the language of the upper and ruling class of England and lasted for several hundred years, leaving a huge legacy of French and Latin words in the English language today.
 

 
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
   
  They spoke a Germanic language not too unlike German today.  "Guten Morgan"  is "Good morning"  in German.  "Wie geht es Ihnen?" is "How are you?" 
The days of the week in German are
"Sonntag, [Sunday] Montag, [Moonday] Dienstag, Mittwoch, [Midweek]
 Donnerstag, [Thor or Thunder day Freitag [an ancient goddess] and Samstag." [Saturday is still "Samedi" in French]