Editing Middle French (section)

{{Short description|Historical variety of French used from the mid-14th century to the early 17th century}}
{{Missing information|article|the phonology of Middle French|date=April 2020}}
{{Infobox language
| name          = Middle French
| nativename    = {{lang|frm|françois, franceis}}
| region        = [[France]]
| era           = Evolved into [[French language|Modern French]] by the early 17th century
| familycolor   = Indo-European
| fam2          = [[Italic languages|Italic]]
| fam3          = [[Latino-Faliscan languages|Latino-Faliscan]]
| fam4          = [[Latin]]ic
| fam5          = [[Romance languages|Romance]]
| fam6          = [[Italo-Western languages|Italo-Western]]
| fam7          = [[Western Romance languages|Western]]
| fam8          = [[Gallo-Romance languages|Gallo]]-[[Iberian Romance languages|Iberian]]<ref name="glottoGI">{{Cite web |url=https://glottolog.org/resource/languoid/id/shif1234 |title=Glottolog 4.8 - Shifted Western Romance |date=2022-05-24 |access-date=2023-11-11 |website=[[Glottolog]] |last1=Hammarström |first1=Harald |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231127113834/https://glottolog.org/resource/languoid/id/shif1234 |archive-date=2023-11-27 |url-status=live |publisher=[[Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology]] |last2=Forkel |first2=Robert |last3=Haspelmath |first3=Martin |last4=Bank |first4=Sebastian}}</ref>
| fam9          = [[Gallo-Romance languages|Gallo-Romance]]
| fam10         = Gallo-Rhaetian?<ref name="glotto_GR">{{Cite web |url=https://glottolog.org/resource/languoid/id/gall1280 |title=Glottolog 5.1 - Gallo-Rhaetian |date=2024-11-16 |access-date=2024-11-16 |website=[[Glottolog]] |last1=Hammarström |first1=Harald |archive-url=|publisher=[[Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology]] |last2=Forkel |first2=Robert |last3=Haspelmath |first3=Martin |last4=Bank |first4=Sebastian}}</ref>
| fam11         = [[Franco-Provençal|Arpitan]]–[[Langues d'oïl|Oïl]]
| fam12         = [[Langues d'oïl|Oïl]]
| fam13         = [[Langues d'oïl#Francien zone (zone francienne)|Francien zone]]
| ancestor      = [[Old Latin]]
| ancestor2     = [[Vulgar Latin]]
| ancestor3     = [[Proto-Romance language|Proto-Romance]]
| ancestor4     = [[Old Gallo-Romance language|Old Gallo-Romance]]
| ancestor5     = [[Old French]]
| iso2          = frm
| iso3          = frm
| glotto        = midd1316
| glottorefname = Middle French
}}
'''Middle French''' ({{langx|fr|moyen français}}) is a historical division of the [[French language]] that covers the period from the mid-14th to the early 17th centuries.<ref>{{Cite book|last1=Ducos|first1=Joëlle|title=L'ancien et le moyen français|last2=Soutet|first2=Olivier|publisher=PUF|year=2012|isbn=978-2-13-061687-0|pages=4}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|date=2015|title=Dictionnaire du Moyen Français (1330–1500)|url=http://zeus.atilf.fr/dmf/|publisher=ATILF – CNRS & Université de Lorraine}}</ref> It is a period of transition during which:
* the French language became clearly distinguished from the other competing [[Oïl languages]], which are sometimes subsumed within the concept of [[Old French]] ({{lang|fr|l'ancien français}})
* the French language was imposed as the [[official language]] of the [[Kingdom of France]] in place of [[Latin]] and other Oïl and [[Occitan language|Occitan]] languages
* the literary development of French prepared the vocabulary and grammar for the [[Classical French]] ({{lang|fr|le français classique}}) spoken in the 17th and 18th centuries.
It is the first version of French that is largely [[mutual intelligibility|intelligible]] to Modern French, contrary to [[Old French]].