Editing Middle French (section)

==History==
The most important change found in Middle French is the complete disappearance of the noun [[declension]] system, which had been underway for centuries. There was no longer a distinction between [[nominative]] and [[oblique case|oblique]] forms of [[nouns]], and [[plurals]] became indicated by simply an ''s''. The transformations necessitated an increased reliance on [[word order]] in the sentence, which becomes more or less the [[syntax]] of Modern but with a continued reliance on the verb in the second position of a sentence, or "[[V2 word order|verb-second structure]]", until the 16th century.<ref>Larousse, xxvi.</ref>

Among the elites, Latin was still the language of education, administration, and bureaucracy. That changed in 1539, with the [[Ordinance of Villers-Cotterêts]], in which [[Francis I of France|Francis I]] made [[French language|French]] the sole language for legal acts. Regional differences were still extreme throughout the [[Kingdom of France]]: in the south of France, [[Occitan language|Occitan]] languages dominated; in east-central France, [[Franco-Provençal language|Franco-Provençal]] languages were predominant; and in the north of France, Oïl languages other than [[Francien language|Francien]] continued to be spoken.

The fascination with classical texts led to numerous borrowings from Latin and [[Greek language|Greek]]. Numerous [[neologisms]] based on Latin roots were introduced, and some scholars modified the spelling of French words to bring them into conformity with their Latin roots, sometimes erroneously. That often produced a radical difference between a word's spelling and pronunciation.<ref>Larousse, vi, xiii–xiv, xvii; Bonnard, pp. 113–114.</ref> Nevertheless, Middle French spelling was overall fairly close to the pronunciation; unlike Modern French, word-final consonants were still pronounced though they were optionally lost when they preceded another consonant that started the next word.

Between the 1490s and the 1550s, the [[French wars in Italy]] and the presence of [[Italians]] in the French court brought the French into contact with [[Italy|Italian]] [[humanism]]. Many words dealing with the military ({{Lang|frm|alarme}}, {{Lang|frm|cavalier}}, {{Lang|frm|espion}}, {{Lang|frm|infanterie}}, {{Lang|frm|camp}}, {{Lang|frm|canon}}, {{Lang|frm|soldat}}) and artistic (especially architectural: {{Lang|frm|arcade}}, {{Lang|frm|architrave}}, {{Lang|frm|balcon}}, {{Lang|frm|corridor}}; also literary: {{Lang|frm|sonnet}}) practices were borrowed from Italian.<ref>Wartburg, p. 160; Bonnard, p. 114.</ref> Those tendencies would continue through [[Classical French]].

There were also some borrowings from [[Spanish language|Spanish]] ({{Lang|frm|casque}}) and [[German language|German]] ({{Lang|frm|reître}}) and from the Americas ({{Lang|frm|cacao}}, {{Lang|frm|hamac}}, {{Lang|frm|maïs}}).<ref>Bonnard, p. 114.</ref>

The influence of the [[Anglo-Norman language]] on [[English language|English]] had left words of French and [[Norman language|Norman]] origin in England. Some words of Romance origin now found their way back into French as [[doublet (linguistics)|doublets]] through war and trade.

Also, the meaning and usage of many words from Old French transformed.

Spelling and punctuation were extremely variable. The introduction of printing in 1470 highlighted the need for [[reforms of French orthography|reform in spelling]]. One proposed reform came from [[Jacques Peletier du Mans]], who developed a phonetic spelling system and introduced new typographic signs (1550), but his attempt at spelling reform was not followed.

The period saw the publication of the first French grammars and of the French-Latin dictionary of [[Robert Estienne]] (1539).

At the beginning of the 17th century, French would see the continued unification of French, the suppression of certain forms, and the prescription of rules, leading to Classical French.