French
French is a Romance language, that is, a language descended from Latin, and.
belongs to the Indo-European family of languages which includes most of the
languages of Europe. Approximately 75 million people speak French as their native
language. It is the official language of France, Haiti, Luxembourg and more
than fifteen African countries. It is one of the official languages of Belgium,
Switzerland, and Canada, and it is considered an unofficial second language
in many countries, especially in Africa. It is also one of the six official
languages of the United Nations.
The French language as it exists today is the result of a long and complex evolution.
Ancient France saw many periods of invasion by different ethnic and linguistic
groups: Greeks, Romans, Celts, Franks and other Germanic tribes, and Arabs.
The name, France, actually comes from the name of the Germanic tribe, the Franks,
who entered France during late antiquity and gradually became the dominant people.
They adopted the late form of Latin being spoken in the country at the time,
but added many of their own words or changed some of the Latin forms to resemble
their own more closely. A French-speaking person today would not understand
the early forms of French spoken before the 12th century or so. For speakers
of English, the study of French is of particular value as French has had a huge
influence on English vocabulary Today, it is estimated that nearly half of all
English words come from French
Sources:
Transparent
Language
Ethnologue.com
Willamette
College
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