Editing Old French (section)

==History==
===Evolution and separation from Vulgar Latin===
Beginning with [[Plautus]]' time (254–184 {{smallcaps|b.c.}}), one can see phonological changes between [[Classical Latin]] and what is called [[Vulgar Latin]], the common spoken language of the [[Western Roman Empire]]. Vulgar Latin differed from Classical Latin in [[phonology]] and [[Morphology (linguistics)|morphology]] as well as exhibiting lexical differences; however, they were mutually intelligible until the 7th century when Classical Latin "died" as a daily spoken language, and had to be learned as a second language (though it was long thought of as the formal version of the spoken language).<ref>{{Cite book |last=Jozsef |first=Herman |title=Vulgar Latin |date=1997 |publisher=Pennsylvania State University Press |isbn=0-271-02000-8 |translator-last=Wright |translator-first=Roger |chapter=The end of the history of Latin}}</ref>{{rp|109–115}} Vulgar Latin was the ancestor of the [[Romance languages]], including Old French.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Brill Online Dictionaries |url=http://iedo.brillonline.nl/dictionaries/content/latin/index.html |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130617111122/http://iedo.brillonline.nl/dictionaries/content/latin/index.html |archive-date=2013-06-17 |access-date=2013-06-16 |publisher=Iedo.brillonline.nl}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=Romance languages |url=https://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/508379/Romance-languages |access-date=2013-06-16 |publisher=Encyclopædia Britannica }}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last1=Mallory |first1=J. P. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=tzU3RIV2BWIC&q=%22The+predominance+of+the+Latin+language%22 |title=Encyclopedia of Indo-European Culture – Google Boeken |last2=Adams |first2=Douglas Q. |publisher=Taylor & Francis |year=1997 |isbn=9781884964985 |access-date=2013-06-16}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=Definition of Italic |url=http://oxforddictionaries.com/definition/Italic |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110223205805/http://www.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/Italic |archive-date=February 23, 2011 |access-date=2013-06-16 |publisher=Oxford Dictionaries}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=Definition of Romance |url=http://oxforddictionaries.com/definition/Romance |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110426015754/http://oxforddictionaries.com/definition/Romance |archive-date=April 26, 2011 |access-date=2013-06-16 |publisher=Oxford Dictionaries}}</ref>

By the late 8th century, when the [[Carolingian Renaissance]] began, native speakers of Romance idioms continued to use Romance [[orthoepy]] rules while speaking and reading Latin. When the most prominent scholar of Western Europe at the time, English deacon [[Alcuin]], was tasked by [[Charlemagne]] with improving the standards of Latin writing in France, not being a native Romance speaker himself, he prescribed a pronunciation based on a fairly literal interpretation of Latin spelling. For example, in a radical break from the traditional system, a word such as {{IPA|{{angbr|viridiarium}}}} {{gloss|[[orchard]]}} now had to be read aloud precisely as it was spelled rather than {{IPA|*/verdʒjær/}} (later spelled as {{abbr|OF|Old French}} {{lang|fro|'vergier'}}).<ref>Wright (1982), pp. 104–7</ref>

Such a radical change had the effect of rendering Latin [[sermon]]s completely unintelligible to the general Romance-speaking public, which prompted officials a few years later, at the [[Third Council of Tours]], to instruct priests to read sermons aloud in the old way, in {{lang|la|rusticam romanam linguam}} or 'plain Roman[ce] speech'.<ref>Wright (1982), pp. 118–20</ref>

As there was now no unambiguous way to indicate whether a given text was to be read aloud as Latin or Romance, various attempts were made in France to devise a new orthography for the latter; among the earliest examples are parts of the [[Oaths of Strasbourg]] and the ''[[Sequence of Saint Eulalia]]''.

===Non-Latin influences===
==== Gaulish ====
{{further|List of French words of Gaulish origin}}

Some [[Gaulish language|Gaulish]] words influenced Vulgar Latin and, through this, other Romance languages. For example, classical Latin {{lang|la|[[wikt:equus|equus]]}} was uniformly replaced in Vulgar Latin by {{lang|la|[[wikt:caballus|caballus]]}} 'nag, work horse', derived from Gaulish {{lang|xtg|caballos}} (cf. [[Welsh language|Welsh]] {{lang|cy|ceffyl}}, [[Breton language|Breton]] {{lang|br|kefel}}),<ref>{{Cite book |last=Xavier |first=Delamarre |title=Dictionnaire de la langue gauloise |date=2003 |publisher=Errance |location=Paris |trans-title=Dictionary of the Gallic language |language=fr}}</ref>{{rp|96}} yielding {{abbr|ModF|Modern French}}  {{lang|fr|[[wikt:cheval|cheval]]}}, Occitan {{lang|oc|caval}} ({{lang|oc|chaval}}), Catalan {{lang|ca|[[wikt:cavall|cavall]]}}, Spanish {{lang|es|[[wikt:caballo|caballo]]}}, Portuguese {{lang|pt|[[wikt:cavalo|cavalo]]}}, Italian {{lang|it|[[wikt:cavallo|cavallo]]}}, Romanian {{lang|ro|[[wikt:cal|cal]]}}, and, by extension, English ''[[wikt:cavalry|cavalry]]'' and ''[[wikt:chivalrie#Etymology|chivalry]]'' (both via different forms of [Old] French: [[Old Norman]] and [[Francien language|Francien]]).
An estimated 200 words of Gaulish etymology survive in Modern French, for example 
{{lang|fr|[[wikt:chêne|chêne]]}} {{gloss|oak tree}} and {{lang|fr|[[wikt:charrue|charrue]]}} {{gloss|plough}}.<ref>Delamarre (2003, pp.&nbsp;389–90) lists 167</ref>

Within historical phonology and studies of [[language contact]], various phonological changes have been posited as caused by a Gaulish substrate, although there is some debate. One of these is considered certain, because this fact is clearly attested in the Gaulish-language [[epigraphy]] on the pottery found at [[la Graufesenque]] ({{small|A.D.}} 1st century).
There, the Greek word {{Transliteration|el|paropsid-es}} (written in Latin){{clarify|reason=Is this the Latin transliteration of a Greek word, or a Greek word?|date=July 2021}} appears as {{lang|xtg|paraxsid-i}}.<ref name="Lambert">{{Cite book |last=Lambert |first=Pierre-Yves |title=La Langue gauloise |date=1994 |publisher=Errance |isbn=978-2-87772-224-7 |location=Paris |pages=46–47 |trans-title=The Gallic language |author-link=Pierre-Yves Lambert}}</ref> The consonant clusters /ps/ and /pt/ shifted to /xs/ and /xt/, e.g. {{abbr|Lat|Latin}} {{lang|la|capsa}} > ''*kaxsa'' > ''caisse'' ({{abbr|≠|unlike}} Italian {{lang|it|cassa}})
or ''captīvus'' > ''*kaxtivus'' > {{abbr|OF|Old French}} {{lang|fro|chaitif}}<ref name=Lambert/> (mod. ''chétif''; cf. Irish ''cacht'' {{gloss|servant}}; ≠ Italian {{lang|it|cattiv-ità}}, Portuguese {{lang|pt|cativo}}, Spanish {{lang|es|cautivo}}).
This phonetic evolution is common in its later stages with the shift of the Latin cluster /kt/ in Old French ({{abbr|Lat|Latin}} {{lang|la|factum}} > ''fait'', ≠ Italian {{lang|it|fatto}}, Portuguese {{lang|pt|feito}}, Spanish {{lang|es|hecho}}; or ''lactem''* > ''lait'', ≠ Italian {{lang|it|latte}}, Portuguese {{lang|pt|leite}}, Spanish {{lang|es|leche}}). 
This means that both /pt/ and /kt/ must have first merged into /kt/ in the history of Old French, after which this /kt/ shifted to /xt/. In parallel, /ps/ and /ks/ merged into /ks/ before shifting to /xs/, apparently under Gaulish influence.

The [[Celtic languages|Celtic]] [[Gaulish language]] is thought to have survived into the 6th century in France, despite considerable cultural Romanization.<ref name="Helix">{{Cite book |last=Laurence Hélix |title=Histoire de la langue française |publisher=Ellipses Edition Marketing S.A. |year=2011 |isbn=978-2-7298-6470-5 |page=7 |quote=Le déclin du Gaulois et sa disparition ne s'expliquent pas seulement par des pratiques culturelles spécifiques: Lorsque les Romains conduits par César envahirent la Gaule, au 1er siecle avant J.-C., celle-ci romanisa de manière progressive et profonde. Pendant près de 500 ans, la fameuse période gallo-romaine, le gaulois et le latin parlé coexistèrent; au VIe siècle encore; le temoignage de Grégoire de Tours atteste la survivance de la langue gauloise.}}</ref>
Coexisting with Latin, Gaulish helped shape the [[Vulgar Latin]] dialects that developed into French, with effects including loanwords and [[calque]]s 
(including {{lang|fr|oui}},<ref>Peter Schrijver, ''Studies in the History of Celtic Pronouns and Particles'', Maynooth, 1997, 15.</ref> the word for "yes"),<ref name=Savignac/> sound changes shaped by Gaulish influence,<ref>Henri Guiter, "Sur le substrat gaulois dans la Romania", in ''Munus amicitae. Studia linguistica in honorem Witoldi Manczak septuagenarii'', eds., Anna Bochnakowa & Stanislan Widlak, Krakow, 1995.</ref><ref>Eugeen Roegiest, ''Vers les sources des langues romanes: Un itinéraire linguistique à travers la Romania'' (Leuven, Belgium: Acco, 2006), 83.</ref> 
and influences in conjugation and word order.<ref name="Savignac">{{Cite book |last=Savignac, Jean-Paul |title=Dictionnaire Français-Gaulois |publisher=La Différence |year=2004 |location=Paris |page=26}}</ref><ref name="Matas">{{Cite journal |last=Matasovic, Ranko |year=2007 |title=Insular Celtic as a Language Area |journal=Papers from the Workshop within the Framework of the XIII International Congress of Celtic Studies |page=106 |series=The Celtic Languages in Contact}}</ref><ref name="Adams">{{Cite book |last=Adams, J. N. |url=https://archive.org/details/regionaldiversif600adam_341 |title=The Regional Diversification of Latin 200 BC – AD 600 |date=2007 |isbn=9780511482977 |location=Cambridge |pages=[https://archive.org/details/regionaldiversif600adam_341/page/n300 279]–289 |chapter=Chapter V – Regionalisms in provincial texts: Gaul |doi=10.1017/CBO9780511482977 |url-access=limited}}</ref> 
A computational study from 2003 suggests that early gender shifts may have been motivated by the gender of the corresponding word in Gaulish.<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Polinsky |first1=Maria |last2=Van Everbroeck |first2=Ezra |year=2003 |title=Development of Gender Classifications: Modeling the Historical Change from Latin to French |journal=Language |volume=79 |pages=356–390 |citeseerx=10.1.1.134.9933 |doi=10.1353/lan.2003.0131 |jstor=4489422 |s2cid=6797972 |number=2}}</ref>

==== Frankish ====
{{further|List of French words of Germanic origin}}

The pronunciation, vocabulary, and syntax of the Vulgar Latin spoken in [[Roman Gaul]] in [[late antiquity]] were modified by the [[Old Frankish language]], spoken by the [[Franks]] who settled in Gaul from the 5th century and conquered the future Old French-speaking area by the 530s. The word {{lang|fr|[[wikt:français|français]]}} itself is derived from the [[Late Latin]] name for the Franks.

The Old Frankish language had a definitive influence on the development of Old French, which partly explains why the earliest attested Old French documents are older than the earliest attestations in other Romance languages (e.g. [[Strasbourg Oath]]s, [[Sequence of Saint Eulalia]]).<ref>[[Bernard Cerquiglini]], ''La naissance du français'', Presses Universitaires de France, 2nd edn., chap. 3, 1993, p. 53.</ref> It is the result of an earlier gap created between Classical Latin and its evolved forms, which slowly reduced and eventually severed the [[mutual intelligibility]] between the two. 
The [[Old Dutch|Old Low Franconian]] influence is also believed to be responsible for the differences between the {{lang|fr|langue d'oïl}} and the 
[[Occitan language|{{lang|fr|langue d'oc|nocat=yes}}]] (Occitan), being that various parts of Northern France remained bilingual between Latin and Germanic for some time,<ref>Cerquiglini 53</ref> and these areas correspond precisely to where the first documents in Old French were written.

This Germanic language shaped the popular Latin spoken here and gave it a very distinctive identity compared to the other future Romance languages. The first noticeable influence is the substitution of the Latin melodic accent{{Clarify|text=|reason=Latin also had a stress accent—is "melodic" a technical term?|date=July 2024}} with a Germanic stress<ref>Cerquiglini 26.</ref> and its result was [[diphthongization]], differentiation between long and short vowels, the fall of the unaccented syllable and of the final vowels:
* {{abbr|L|Latin}}  {{lang|la|decimus}}, ''-a'' {{gloss|tenth}} > {{abbr|OF|Old French}} {{lang|fro|disme}} > French {{lang|fr|dîme}} {{gloss|tithe}} (> English ''dime''; Italian {{lang|it|decimo}}, Spanish {{lang|es|diezmo}})
* {{abbr|VL|Vulgar Latin}} ''dignitate'' > {{abbr|OF|Old French}}  {{lang|fro|deintié}} (> English ''dainty''; Italian {{lang|it|dignità}}, Romanian  {{lang|ro| demnitate}})
* {{abbr|VL|Vulgar Latin}} ''catena'' > {{abbr|OF|Old French}}  {{lang|fro|chaeine}} (> English ''chain''; Italian {{lang|it|catena}}, Spanish {{lang|es|cadena}}, Occitan {{lang|oc|cadena}}, Portuguese {{lang|pt|cadeia}})

Additionally, two phonemes that had long since died out in Vulgar Latin were reintroduced: {{IPA|[h]}} and {{IPA|[w]}} (> {{abbr|OF|Old French}} ''g(u)-'', {{abbr|ONF|Old Norman French??}} ''w-'' cf. [[Picard language|Picard]] ''w-''):
* {{abbr|VL|Vulgar Latin}} ''altu'' > {{abbr|OF|Old French}}  {{lang|fro|halt}} {{gloss|high}} (influenced by Old Low Frankish [{{abbr|OLF|Old Low Frankish}}] ''*hōh'' ; ≠ Italian, Portuguese  {{lang|und-Latn|alto}}, Catalan {{lang|ca|alt}}, Old Occitan {{lang|pro|aut}})
* {{abbr|L|Latin}}  {{lang|la|vespa}} > {{abbr|ONF|Old Norman French??}} ''wespe'', {{abbr|OF|Old French}}  {{lang|fro|guespe}}, French  {{lang|fr|guêpe}}, Picard {{lang|pcd|wèpe}}, Walloon {{lang|wa|wèsse}}, all {{gloss|wasp}} (influenced by {{abbr|OLF|Old Low Frankish}} {{lang|frk|wapsa|proto=yes}}; ≠ Occitan  {{lang|oc|vèspa}}, Italian  {{lang|it|vespa}}, Spanish  {{lang|es|avispa}})
* {{abbr|L|Latin}} {{lang|la|viscus}} > French  {{lang|fr|gui}} {{gloss|mistletoe}} (influenced by {{abbr|OLF|Old Low Frankish}} {{lang|frk|wīhsila|proto=yes}} {{gloss|morello}} with analogous fruits, when they are not ripe; ≠ Occitan {{lang|oc|vesc}}, Italian {{lang|it|vischio}})
* {{abbr|LL|Late Latin}}  ''vulpiculu'' {{gloss|fox kit}} (from {{abbr|L|Latin}} {{lang|la|vulpes}} {{gloss|fox}}) > {{abbr|OLF|Old Low Frankish}} ''golpilz'', Picard {{lang|pcd|woupil}} {{gloss|fox}} (influenced by {{abbr|OLF|Old Low Frankish}} {{lang|frk|wulf|proto=yes}} {{gloss|wolf}}; ≠ Occitan {{lang|oc|volpìlh}}, Old Italian ''volpiglio'', Spanish {{lang|es|vulpeja}} {{gloss|vixen}})

In contrast, the Italian, Portuguese and Spanish words of Germanic origin borrowed from French or directly from Germanic retain {{IPA|/gw/}} ~ {{IPA|/g/}}, e.g. Italian, Spanish {{lang|und-Latn|guerra}} {{gloss|war}}, alongside {{IPA|/g/}} in French {{lang|fr|guerre}}). These examples show a clear consequence of bilingualism, that sometimes even changed the first syllable of the Latin words.
One example of a Latin word influencing an {{abbr|OLF|Old Low Frankish}} loan is ''framboise'' {{gloss|raspberry}}, from {{abbr|OF|Old French}} {{lang|fro|frambeise}}, from {{abbr|OLF|Old Low Frankish}} {{lang|frk|brāmbesi|proto=yes}} {{gloss|blackberry}} (cf. Dutch ''braambes'', ''braambezie''; akin to German {{lang|de|Brombeere}}, English dial. ''bramberry'') blended with {{abbr|LL|Late Latin}} ''fraga'' or {{abbr|OF|Old French}} {{lang|fro|fraie}} {{gloss|strawberry}}, which explains the replacement {{IPA|[b]}} > {{IPA|[f]}} and in turn the final ''-se'' of ''framboise'' added to {{abbr|OF|Old French}} {{lang|fro|fraie}} to make ''freise'', modern {{lang|fr|fraise}} (≠ Walloon {{lang|wa|frève}}, Occitan {{lang|oc|fraga}}, Romanian {{lang|ro|fragă}}, Italian {{lang|it|fragola}}, ''fravola'' {{gloss|strawberry}}).<ref>{{Cite web |title=Etymology of ''frambuesa'' (Spanish) |url=http://buscon.rae.es/draeI/SrvltConsulta?TIPO_BUS=3&LEMA=frambuesa |access-date=2013-06-16 |publisher=Buscon.rae.es}}</ref>{{efn|Portuguese {{lang|pt|framboesa}} {{gloss|raspberry}} and Spanish {{lang|es|frambuesa}} are French loans.|name=|group=lower-roman}}

[[Mildred Pope]] estimated that perhaps still 15% of the vocabulary of Modern French derives from Germanic sources. This proportion was larger in Old French, because [[Middle French]] borrowed heavily from Latin and Italian.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Pope |first=Mildred Katherine |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=K9JRAQAAIAAJ |title=From Latin to Modern French with Especial Consideration of Anglo-Norman: Phonology and Morphology |date=1934 |publisher=Manchester University Press |isbn=9780719001765 |access-date=15 March 2023}}</ref>
<!-- Nevertheless a large number of words like [[wikt:haïr|''haïr'']] "to hate" (≠ {{abbr|Lat|Latin}} ''odiare'' > Italian ''odiare'' / Occitan ''asirar'') or [[wikt:honte|''honte'']] "shame" (≠ {{abbr|Lat|Latin}} ''verēcundia'' > Occitan and Portuguese ''vergonha'', Italian ''vergogna'', Spanish ''vergüenza'') are still common.-->

===Earliest written Old French===
The earliest documents said to be written in the Gallo-Romance that prefigures French – after the [[Reichenau Glossary|Reichenau]] and [[Kassel glosses]] (8th and 9th centuries) – are the [[Oaths of Strasbourg]] (treaties and charters into which King [[Charles the Bald]] entered in 842):

{{Poem quote|''Pro Deo amur et pro Christian poblo et nostro commun salvament, d'ist di en avant, in quant Deus savir et podir me dunat, si salvarai eo cist meon fradre Karlo, et in aiudha et in cadhuna cosa ...''

(For the love of God and for the Christian people, and our common salvation, from this day forward, as God will give me the knowledge and the power, I will defend my brother Karlo with my help in everything ...)}}

The second-oldest document in Old French is the [[Eulalia sequence]], which is important for linguistic reconstruction of Old French pronunciation due to its consistent spelling.

The royal [[House of Capet]], founded by [[Hugh Capet]] in 987, inaugurated the development of northern French culture in and around [[Île-de-France]], which slowly but firmly asserted its ascendency over the more southerly areas of [[Aquitaine]] and Tolosa ([[Toulouse]]); however, the [[Capetian dynasty|Capetians]]' {{lang|fr|[[langue d'oïl]]}}, the forerunner of modern standard French, did not begin to become the common speech of all of France until after the [[French Revolution]].

===Transition to Middle French===
{{Further|Middle French}}

In the Late Middle Ages, the Old French dialects diverged into a number of distinct {{lang|fr|langues d'oïl}}, among which [[Middle French]] proper was the dialect of the [[Île-de-France]] region.
During the [[early modern France|Early Modern period]], French was established as the official language of the Kingdom of France throughout the realm, including the {{lang|fr|langue d'oc}}–speaking territories in the south.
It was only in the 17th to 18th centuries – with the development especially of popular literature of the ''[[Bibliothèque bleue]]'' – that a standardized [[Classical French]] spread throughout France alongside the regional dialects.