The French language came originally from Vulgar Latin that also is known from the Roman Empire as the vernacular Latin. At the time the Romans conquered Ancient Gaul (now known as France) in the 2nd and 1st Century B.C. they spoke a Celtic language called “Gaulish”.
Around the 5th Century a Romanized Germanic Tribe invaded Gaul. Even if modern French owes much of its vocabulary and structure to Latin a couple of hundred words of German and Celtic origin make apart of it.
Only by the 9th Century the language known in Gaul was almost the same as the one we know of modern France and it was enough different of the Latin language to be a distinct language. It is also known as Old French and was used from the 9th to the 13th Century. The oldest still remaining text dated from 842 in Old French is the Oaths of Strasbourg.
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French language is one of the official languages of the United Nations. It is spoken by more than 100 million people world wide. It belongs to the romance sub class of the Indo European language family. It is one of the most sweet, polite and musical language of the world. It is primarily spoken in France but sizeable speakers are present in Belgium, Switzerland, Italy and Canada. In Canada it is the second official language along with English.
The French language has a unique pronunciation system which makes certain alphabets silent in such a way as to produce musical sounds when speaking. To give you an example the last consonant of any French word is only pronounced if it is followed by a vowel otherwise it is kept silent. The second thing is that J is pronounced as Y in French and i as ee. Moreover the CH is always pronounced as SH in French. So the name Jacques Chirac is pronounced Yak Sheerac. For similar reasons the world famous city Paris is pronounced as Paghee- the sound of r is quite different in French and not easily pronounced by English speakers.
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France is the fourth most popular destination for Americans studying overseas. French is the second most popular language studied in the United States. While studying in the country; sample some of the best cuisine in the world, visit the Eiffel tower, spend a weekend browsing through the thousands of pieces of art in the Louvre, tour the beaches of the French Riviera, and even ski the mountain slopes along the Swiss and Spanish borders. The culture and beautiful countryside are truly some of the greatest jewels that Europe has to offer.
I traveled through France several times and have seen the country from the English Channel on the west coast to the border of Switzerland in the east and all along the French Riviera in the south. One trip, during a Graduate program in Europe, my school group spent three amazing weeks in Paris. I’ve fallen in love with the beauty that the countryside holds and the friendliness of the French people. The secret to finding open arms and a friendly smile is to learn and use some of the French language while shopping, strolling down the street, and eating in the restaurants. I’ve had a lot of great conversations with the locals in small outdoor cafes while sipping an espresso.
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