Old French
Spoken in:	northern France, parts of Belgium and Switzerland
Language extinction:	evolved into Middle French by the 14th century
Language family:	Indo-European  Italic   Romance    Italo-Western     Western      Gallo-Iberian       Gallo-Romance        Gallo-Rhaetian         Oïl          Old French
Language codes
ISO 639-1:	none
ISO 639-2:	fro
ISO 639-3:	fro
Note: This page may contain IPA phonetic symbols in Unicode. This article is about the country For a topic outline on this subject see List of basic France topics. The Kingdom of Belgium is a Country in northwest Europe. It is a founding member of the European Union and hosts its headquarters as well as those Switzerland (English pronunciation; Schweiz Swiss German: Schwyz or Schwiiz Suisse Svizzera Svizra officially the Swiss Confederation According to some definitions an extinct language is a Language which no longer has any speakers, whereas a dead language is a language which is no longer spoken Middle French (le moyen français is a historical division of the French language which covers the period from (roughly 1340 to 1611. List of language familiesA language family is a group of Languages related by descent from a common ancestor called the Proto-language of that family The Italic subfamily is a member of the Indo-European language family's Centum branch The Romance languages (sometimes referred to as Romanic languages, or Neolatin languages) are a branch of the Indo-European language family comprising all Gallo-Romance languages Gallo-Italic languages Lombard Western Lombard Eastern The Gallo-Romance branch of Romance languages includes French, Occitan, Arpitan, and several other languages spoken in modern France Langues d'oïl is the linguistic and historical designation of the Gallo-Romance languages originating from the northern territories of Roman Gaul, ISO 639-1 is the first part of the ISO 639 international-standard language-code family ISO 639-2 is the second part of the ISO 639 standard, which lists codes for the representation of the names of languages ISO 639 -3 (ISO 639-32007 is an international standard for Language codes The standard describes three‐letter codes for identifying languages In Computing, Unicode is an Industry standard allowing Computers to consistently represent and manipulate text expressed in most of the world's

Old French was the Romance dialect continuum spoken in territories which span roughly the northern half of modern France and parts of modern Belgium and Switzerland from around 1000 to 1300. The Romance languages (sometimes referred to as Romanic languages, or Neolatin languages) are a branch of the Indo-European language family comprising all A dialect continuum is a range of Dialects spoken across a large geographical area differing only slightly between areas that are geographically close and gradually decreasing This article is about the country For a topic outline on this subject see List of basic France topics. The Kingdom of Belgium is a Country in northwest Europe. It is a founding member of the European Union and hosts its headquarters as well as those Switzerland (English pronunciation; Schweiz Swiss German: Schwyz or Schwiiz Suisse Svizzera Svizra officially the Swiss Confederation It was then known as the langue d'oïl (oïl language) to distinguish it from the langue d'oc (Occitan language, also then called Provençal), whose territory bordered that of Old French to the south. Langues d'oïl is the linguistic and historical designation of the Gallo-Romance languages originating from the northern territories of Roman Gaul, Occitan ( IPA BrE: /ˈɒksɪtn/ AmE: /ˈɑksəˌtɑn/ known also as Lenga d'òc or Langue d'oc (native name occitan Provençal ( Provençau) is one of several dialects of Occitan spoken by a minority of people mostly in Provence (in southern France

Contents 1 Grammar and phonology 1.1 Historical influences 1.1.1 Gaulish 1.1.2 Latin 1.1.3 Frankish 1.2 Earliest written Old French 1.3 From Vulgar Latin to Old French 2 Sound changes from Latin to Old French 3 Nouns 4 Verbs 4.1 Example of regular -er verb 4.2 Example of regular -ir verb 4.3 Examples of the auxiliary verbs 4.3.1 avoir (to have) 4.3.2 etre (to be) 5 Dialects 5.1 Derived languages 6 Literature 7 Notes 8 References 9 External links

Grammar and phonology

Historical influences

Gaulish

Gaulish, one of the survivors of the continental Celtic languages in Roman times, slowly became extinct during the long centuries of Roman dominion. Roland ( Italian: Orlando or Rolando, Frankish: Hruodland, Dutch: Roeland, Spanish: Roldán An Oath of fealty, from the Latin fidelitas ( Faithfulness) is a pledge of Allegiance of one person to another Charlemagne (ˈʃɑrlɨmeɪn Carolus Magnus or Karolus Magnus meaning Charles the Great) (747 – 28 January 814 was King of the Franks from 768 to his The chansons de geste, Old French for "songs of Heroic deeds lineages" are the epic poems that appear at the dawn of French literature Gaulish or Gallic is the name given to the Celtic language that was spoken in Gaul before the Vulgar Latin of the late Roman Empire became The Celtic languages are descended from Proto-Celtic, or "Common Celtic" a branch of the greater Indo-European Language family. Only a handful of Gaulish words survive in modern French—for example, chêne, ‘oak tree’ and charrue ‘plough’—but fewer than two hundred words in modern French — Delamarre (2003, pp. 389-90) lists 167 — have a Gaulish etymology. Etymology is the study of the History of Words &mdash when they entered a language from what source and how their form and meaning have changed over time Latin was the common language of almost the entire western Roman world, and its influence grew at the expense of that of Gaulish.

Latin

In one sense, Old French began when the Roman Empire conquered Gaul during the campaigns of Julius Caesar, which were almost complete by 51 BC. The Roman Empire was the post-Republican phase of the ancient Roman civilization, characterised by an autocratic form of government and large territorial Gaul (Gallia was the Roman name for the region of Western Europe comprising present day northern Italy, France, Belgium, western Year 51 BC was a year of the pre-Julian calendar. Events By place Rome Consuls Marcus Claudius Marcellus The Romans introduced Latin to southern France from around 120 BC (during the Punic Wars) when it came under Roman occupation. Latin ( lingua Latīna, laˈtiːna is an Italic language, historically spoken in Latium and Ancient Rome. The Punic Wars were a series of three wars fought between Rome and Carthage between 264 and 146 BC and were probably the largest wars yet of the ancient

Beginning with Plautus's time, the phonological structure of classical Latin underwent change, which would eventually yield vulgar Latin, the common spoken language of the western Roman empire. Titus Maccius Plautus (c 254–184 BCE commonly known as Plautus, was a Roman Playwright. Classical Latin is the form of the Latin language used by the ancient Romans in what is usually regarded as "classical" Latin literature. Vulgar Latin (in Latin sermo vulgaris, "folk speech" is a Blanket term covering the popular Dialects and Sociolects of the Latin This latter form differed strongly from its classical counterpart in phonology; and was the ancestor of the Romance languages, including Old French. Phonology ( Greek φωνή (phōnē voice sound + λόγος (lógos word speech subject of discussion is the systematic use of sound to encode meaning The Romance languages (sometimes referred to as Romanic languages, or Neolatin languages) are a branch of the Indo-European language family comprising all Some Gaulish words influenced Vulgar Latin and, through this, other Romance languages. For example, classical Latin equus was replaced in common parlance by vulgar Latin caballus, derived from Gaulish caballos (Delamare 2003 p. 96), giving Modern French cheval, Catalan cavall, Italian cavallo, Portuguese cavalo, Spanish caballo, Romanian cal, and (borrowed from Norman) English cavalry.

Frankish

The Old Frankish language had a large influence on the vocabulary of Old French after the conquest, by the Germanic tribe of the Franks, of the portions of Roman Gaul that are now France and Belgium during the Migration Period. Old Frankish was the language of the Franks and it is classified as a West Germanic language. The vocabulary of a person is defined either as the set of all Words that are understood by that person or the set of all words likely to be used by that person when constructing The Germanic peoples are a historical group of Indo-European -speaking peoples originating in Northern Europe and identified by their use of the Germanic The Franks or Frankish people (Franci or gens Francorum) were West Germanic tribes first identified in the 3rd century as an Ethnic group Gaul (Gallia was the Roman name for the region of Western Europe comprising present day northern Italy, France, Belgium, western This article is about the country For a topic outline on this subject see List of basic France topics. The Kingdom of Belgium is a Country in northwest Europe. It is a founding member of the European Union and hosts its headquarters as well as those The Migration Period, also called Barbarian Invasions, or sometimes Völkerwanderung ( German for "wandering of peoples" is the English name The name français is derived from the name of this tribe. A number of other Germanic peoples, including the Burgundians, were active in the territory at that time; the Germanic languages spoken by the Franks, Burgundians, and others were not written languages, and at this remove it is often difficult to identify from which specific Germanic source a given Germanic word in French is derived. The Germanic peoples are a historical group of Indo-European -speaking peoples originating in Northern Europe and identified by their use of the Germanic The Burgundians or Burgundes were an East Germanic tribe which may have emigrated from mainland Scandinavia to the island of Bornholm, whose The Germanic languages are a group of related languages that constitute a branch of the Indo-European (IE Language family. Philologists such as Pope (1934) estimate that perhaps fifteen percent of the vocabulary of modern French derives from Germanic sources, including a large number of common words like haïr ‘to hate’, bateau ‘boat’, and hache ‘axe’. See Comparative linguistics for the narrower field of "comparative philology" It has been suggested that the passé composé and other compound verbs used in French conjugation are also the result of Germanic influences. In Linguistics, a compound verb or complex predicate is a multi- Word compound that acts as a single Verb. In Linguistics, conjugation is the creation of derived forms of a Verb, Noun or Adjective from its Principal parts by Inflection

Other Germanic words in Old French appeared as a result of Norman settlements in Normandy during the 10th century. The Normans were the people who gave their names to Normandy, a region in northern France. Normandy (Normandie Norman: Normaundie) is a geographical region corresponding to the former Duchy of Normandy. The settlers spoke Old Norse; and their settlement was legitimised and made permanent in 911 under Rollo of Normandy. Old Norse is the North Germanic language that was spoken by inhabitants of Scandinavia and inhabitants of their overseas settlements during the Viking Age Events By Place Europe Autumn — Charles the Simple agrees to the Treaty of St Rollo, occasionally known as Rollo the Viking, (c 860 - c 932 was the founder and first ruler of the Viking principality in what soon became known as A few seafaring terms, notably the four points of the compass, were also borrowed via the Normans from Old English.

Earliest written Old French

While the earliest documents said to be written in French are the Oaths of Strasbourg (treaties and charters into which King Charles the Bald entered in 842), it is probable that the text represents an older Langue d'oïl or Gallo-Romance, a transitional stage between Vulgar Latin and early Romance:

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. The Oaths of Strasbourg ( Modern French: les serments de Strasbourg, Modern German: die Straßburger Eide, Latin Sacramenta Charles the Bald ( 13 June 823 – 6 October 877) Holy Roman Emperor (875–877 as Charles II) and King of West Francia Events By Place Europe February 14 - Charles the Bald and Louis the German sign a treaty Langues d'oïl is the linguistic and historical designation of the Gallo-Romance languages originating from the northern territories of Roman Gaul, The Gallo-Romance branch of Romance languages includes French, Occitan, Arpitan, and several other languages spoken in modern France . .

(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 Charles with my help in everything. . . )

The Royal House of Capet, founded by Hugh Capet in 987, inaugurated the development of northern French culture, which slowly but firmly asserted its ascendency over the more southerly areas of Aquitaine and Tolosa (Toulouse). For a full history of the Capetian family see Capetian dynasty. Hugh Capet (c 940 &ndash 24 October, 996) was the first King of France of the eponymous Capetian dynasty from his election to succeed the Events By Place Europe Hugh Capet, Count of Paris, is crowned King of France. Aquitaine (Aquitània Akitania archaic Guyenne / Guienne (Occitan Guiana) is one of the 26 Regions of France, in the south-western part of Toulouse ( pronounced in standard French, and in the local accent ( Occitan: Tolosa, pronounced) is a city in southwest The Capetians' Langue d'oïl, the forerunner of modern standard French, did not begin to become the common speech of the entire nation of France, however, until after the French Revolution. Langues d'oïl is the linguistic and historical designation of the Gallo-Romance languages originating from the northern territories of Roman Gaul, The French Revolution (1789–1799 was a period of political and social upheaval in the History of France, during which the French governmental structure previously an

Another example of an early Langue d'oïl or Gallo-Romance text is the Eulalia sequence, which is probably much closer to the spoken language of the time than the Oaths of Strasbourg (based upon language differences). The Sequence of Saint Eulalia (also known as the Canticle of Saint Eulalia or the Séquence or Cantilène de sainte Eulalie The Oaths of Strasbourg ( Modern French: les serments de Strasbourg, Modern German: die Straßburger Eide, Latin Sacramenta It is difficult to determine precisely how these extant Old French texts were pronounced.

From Vulgar Latin to Old French

A profound change in very late spoken Latin (i. e. , early Common Romance, the forerunner of all the Romance languages) whose effects are clearly reflected in Old French, was the restructuring of the vowel system of classical Latin. The Romance languages (sometimes referred to as Romanic languages, or Neolatin languages) are a branch of the Indo-European language family comprising all In Phonetics, a vowel is a Sound in spoken Language, such as English ah! or oh!, pronounced with an open Vocal tract Latin had ten distinct vowels: long and short versions of A, E, I, O, U, and three (or four) diphthongs, AE, OE, AU, and according to some, UI. In Phonetics, a diphthong (also gliding vowel) (from Greek grc δίφθογγος "diphthongos" literally "with two sounds" or "with ^[1] What happened to Vulgar Latin is set forth in the table.

Letter	Classical Latin	Vulgar Latin	Old French
			closed	open
Short A	/a/	/a/	/a, au/	/ɛ, iə/
Long A	/a:/
AE	/ai/	/ɛ/	/ɛ/	/iə/
Short E	/e/
OE	/oi/	/e/	/e, eu/	/ei/
Long E	/e:/
Short I	/i/	/ɪ/
Short Y	/y/
Long I	/i:/	/i/	/i/	/i/
Long Y	/y:/
Short O	/o/	/ɔ/	/ɔ/	/yə/
Long O	/o:/	/o/	/o/	/ou/
Short U	/u/	/ʊ/
Long U	/u:/	/u/	/y/	/y/
AU	/aw/	/aw/	/ɔ/	/ɔ/
(see International Phonetic Alphabet for an explanation of the symbols used);

Both the diphthongs AE and OE also fell in with /e/. The International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA is a system of phonetic notation based on the Latin alphabet, devised by the International Phonetic AU was initially retained, and turned into /O/ after the original /O/ fell victim to further changes.

Thus, the ten vowel system of Classical Latin, which relied on phonemic vowel length was new-modelled into a system in which vowel length distinctions were suppressed and alterations of vowel quality became phonemic. The phoneME project is Sun Microsystems reference implementation of Java virtual machine and associated libraries of Java ME with source licensed under the GNU In Linguistics, vowel length is the perceived duration of a Vowel sound Because of this change, the stress on accented syllables became much more pronounced in Vulgar Latin than in Classical Latin. This tended to cause unaccented syllables to become less distinct, while working further changes on the sounds of the accented syllables.

Old French underwent more thorough alterations of its sound system than did the other Romance languages. Vowel breaking was something that occurred generally in Proto-Western-Romance (here, Proto-Romance), although with different results in each of the daughter languages; Latin FOCU(M) (originally "hearth") becomes Italian fuoco, Romanian and Catalan foc, Spanish fuego, and French feu (all meaning "fire"). But in Old French the phenomenon went further than in any other Romance language; of the seven vowels inherited from Latin, only /i/ remained essentially unchanged. In stressed syllables:

• The sound of Latin E (short), turning to /ɛ/ in Proto-Romance, became ie in Old French: Latin MEL, "honey" > OF miel
• The sound of Latin O (short) > Proto-Romance /ɔ/ > OF uo: COR > cuor, "heart"
• Latin Ê > Proto-Romance /e/ > OF ei: HABÊRE > aveir, "to have"; this later becomes /oi/ in many words, as in avoir
• Latin Ô > Proto-Romance /o/ > OF ou: FLÔRE(M) > flour, "flower"
• Latin open syllable /a/ > OF /e/, probably through an intervening stage of /æ/; MARE > mer, "sea" This change also characterizes the Gallo-Italic dialects of Northern Italy (cf. Bolognese [mɛ:r]).

Latin AU did not share the fate of /ɔ/ or /o/; Latin AURUM > OF or, "gold": not *oeur nor *our. Latin AU must have been retained at the time these changes were affecting Proto-Romance.

Changes affecting the consonants were also quite pervasive in Old French. Old French shared with the rest of the Vulgar Latin world the loss of final -M. Since this sound was basic to the Latin noun case system, its loss levelled the distinctions upon which the synthetic Latin syntax relied, and forced the Romance languages to adapt a more analytic syntax based on word order. In Grammar, the case of a Noun or Pronoun indicates its Grammatical function in a greater Phrase or Clause; such as the A synthetic language, in Linguistic typology, is a Language with a high Morpheme -per- word ratio In Linguistics, syntax (from Ancient Greek grc συν- syn-, "together" and grc τάξις táxis, "arrangement" is the In morphological typology (in linguistics an isolating language (also analytic language) is any Language in which words are composed of Old French also dropped many internal consonants when they followed the strongly stressed syllable; Latin PETRA(M) > Proto-Romance */peðra/ > OF pierre; cf. Spanish piedra ("stone").

During the Old French period, Latin /u/ became /y/, the lip-rounded sound that is written 'u' in Modern French.

In some contexts, /oi/ became /e/, still written oi in Modern French. During the early Old French period this sound was pronounced as the writing suggests, as /oi/. This sound developed variously in different varieties of Oïl language - most of the surviving languages maintain a pronunciation as /we/ - but literary French adopted a dialectal phonology /wa/. The doublet of français and François in modern French orthography demonstrates this mix of dialectal features.

At some point during the Old French period, vowels with a following nasal consonant began to be nasalized. In Articulatory phonetics, a consonant is a Speech sound that is articulated with complete or partial closure of the upper Vocal tract, the upper vocal While the process of losing the final nasal consonant took place after the Old French period, the nasal vowels that characterise modern French appeared during the period in question.

Old French, along with Portuguese, exhibits the most thorough phonetic changes from Latin, as opposed to relatively conservative Romance languages like Spanish, Italian or Romanian. Portuguese ( or língua portuguesa) is a Romance language that originated in what is now Galicia (Spain and northern Portugal. Italian ( or lingua italiana) is a Romance language spoken by about 63 million people as a First language, primarily in Italy. Romanian or Daco-Romanian ( dated: Rumanian or Roumanian; self designation limba română, ˈlimba roˈmɨnə is a Romance As the example of pierre from PETRA(M) shows, many interior consonants were lost.

Sound changes from Latin to Old French

Through Proto-Western-Romance:

• Reduction of ten-vowel system to seven vowels; diphthongs 'ae' and 'oe' reduced to /ɛ/ and /e/; maintenance of 'au' diphthong.
• Loss of final -m (except in monosyllables, e. g. modern rien < rem).
• Loss of /h/.
• 'ns' > 's'.
• 'rs' > 'ss' when originating from Old Latin 'rtt', but retained when originating from Old Latin 'rct' (thus dorsum > Modern French dos, but ursus (compare Greek arktos) > Modern French ours).
• Final 'er' > 're', 'or' > 'ro' (cf. Spanish cuatro, sobre < quattuor, super).
• Vulgar Latin unstressed vowel loss: Loss of intertonic (i. e. unstressed and in an interior syllable) vowels between /k/, /g/ and /r/, /l/.
• Reduction of 'e' and 'i' in hiatus to /j/, followed by palatalization. Palatalization or palatalisation (ˌpælətəlɨˈzeɪʃən generally refers to two phenomena As a process or the result of a process Palatalization of /k/ and /g/ before front vowels.
  • /kj/ is apparently doubled to /kkj/ prior to palatalization.
  • /d'/ and /g'/ (from /dj/, /gj/, and /g/ before a front vowel) become /j/.

Through Proto-Gallo-Ibero-Romance:

• /k'/ and /t'/ merge, becoming /ts'/ (still treated as a single sound).
• /kt/ > /jt/.
• First diphthongization (only in some dialects): diphthongization of /ɛ/, /ɔ/ to 'ie, uo' (later, 'uo' > 'ue') in stressed, open syllables. This also happens in closed syllables before a palatal, often later absorbed: PEIOR >> /pejro/ > /piejro/ >> 'pire' "worst"; NOCTE > /nojte/ > /nuojte/ >> /nujt/ 'nuit'; but TERTIU > /terts'o/ >> 'tierz'.
• First lenition (did not happen in a small area around the Pyrenees): chain shift involving intervocalic consonants: voiced stops and unvoiced fricatives become voiced fricatives (/ð/, /v/, /j/); unvoiced stops become voiced stops. NOTE: /ts'/ (from /k(e,i)/, /tj/) is pronounced as a single sound and voiced to /dz'/, but /tts'/ (from /kk(e,i)/, /kj/) is geminate and thus not voiced. Consonants before /r/ are lenited, also, and /pl/ > /bl/. Final /t/ and /d/ when following a vowel are lenited.
• /jn/, /nj/, /jl/, /gl/ (from Vulgar Latin /gn/, /ng'/, /gl/, /kl/, respectively) become /ɲ/ and /ʎ/, respectively.
• First unstressed vowel loss: Loss of intertonic (i. e. unstressed and in an interior syllable) vowels, except /a/ when pretonic. (Note: This occurred at the same time as the first lenition, and individual words inconsistently show one change before the other. Hence MANICA > 'manche' but GRANICA > 'grange'. CARRICARE becomes either 'charchier' or 'chargier' in OF. )

Through Early Old French, in approximate order:

• Spread and dissolution of palatalization:
  • A protected /j/ (not preceded by a vowel), stemming from an initial /j/ or from a /dj/, /gj/, or /g(e,i)/ when preceded by a consonant, becomes /dʒ/.
  • A /j/ followed by another consonant tends to palatalize that consonant; these consonants may have been brought together by intertonic loss. (E. g. MEDIETATE > /mejetate/ > /mejt'ate/ > 'moitié'. PEIOR > /pejro/ > /piejr'e/ > 'pire', but IMPEIORARE > /empejrare/ > /empejr'are > /empejriɛr/ > OF 'empoirier' "to worsen". )
  • Palatalized sounds lose their palatal quality and eject a /j/ into the end of the preceding syllable, when open; also into the beginning of the following syllable when it is stressed, open, and front (i. e. /a/ or /e/). Hence *CUGITARE > /kujetare/ > /kujdare/ > /kujd'are/ >> /kujdiɛr/ OF 'cuidier' "to think". MANSIONATA > /maz'onada/ > /maz'nada/ > /majz'njɛðə/ > OF 'maisniée' "household".
    • /tʃ/ and /dʒ/ (including those from later sources, see below) eject a following /j/ normally, but do not eject any preceding /j/.
    • Double /ss'/ < /ssj/ and from various other combinations also ejects a preceding /j/.
    • Single /dz/ ejects such a /j/, but not double /tts/, evidently since it is a double sound and causes the previous syllable to close; see comment above, under lenition.
    • Actual palatal /l'/ and /n'/ (as opposed to the merely patalized varieties of the other sounds) retain their palatal nature and don't emit preceding /j/. Or rather, palatal /l'/ does not eject a preceding /j/ (or else, it is always absorbed, even when depalatalized); palatal /n'/ emits a preceding /j/ when depalatalized, even if the preceding syllable is closed, e. g. JUNGIT > *YŌNYET > /dʒoɲt/ > /dʒojnt/ 'joint'.
    • Palatal /r'/ ejects a preceding /j/ as normal, but the /j/ metathesizes when a /a/ precedes, hence OPERARIU > /obrar'o/ > /obrjaro/ (not */obrajro/) >> 'ouvrier' "worker".
• Second diphthongization: diphthongization of /e/, /o/, /a/ to 'ei, ou, ae' (later, 'ei' > 'oi', 'ou' > 'eu', 'ae' > 'e') in stressed, open syllables, not followed by a palatal sound (not in all Gallo-Romance).
• Second unstressed vowel loss: Loss of all vowels except /a/ in unstressed, final syllables; addition of a final, supporting /e/ when necessary, to avoid words with impermissible final clusters.
• Second lenition: Same changes as in first lenition, applied again (not in all Gallo-Romance). NOTE: Losses of unstressed vowels may have blocked this change from happening.
• Palatalization of /ka/ > /tʃa/, /ga/ > /dʒa/.
• Further vocalic changes (part 1):
• /ae/ > /ɛ/ (but > /jɛ/ after a palatal, and > /aj/ before nasals when not after a palatal).
• /au/ > /ɔ/.
• Further consonant changes:
  • Geminate stops become single stops.
  • Final stops and fricatives become devoiced.
  • /dz/ > /z/, when not final.
  • A /t/ is inserted between palatal /ɲ/, /ʎ/ and following /s/ (DOLES > 'duels' "you hurt" but COLLIGIS > *COLYES > 'cuelz, cueuz' "you gather"; JUNGIS > *YŌNYES > 'joinz' "you join"; FILIUS > 'filz' "son").
  • Palatal /ɲ/, /ʎ/ are depalatalized to /n, l/ when final or following a consonant.
    • In first-person verb forms, they may remain palatal when final due to the influence of the palatalized subjunctives.
    • /ɲ/ > /jn/ when depalatalizing, but /ʎ/ > /l/, without a yod. (*VECLUS > /vɛl'o/ > /viɛl'o/ > 'viel' "old" but CUNEUM > /kon'o/ > 'coin'. BALNEUM > /banyo/ > 'bain' but MONTANEA > /montanya/ > 'montagne'. )
• Further vocalic changes (part 2):
• /jej/ > /i/, /woj/ > /uj/. (PLACERE > /plajdzjejr/ > 'plaisir'; NOCTE > /nuojt/ > 'nuit'. )
• Diphthongs are consistently rendered as falling diphthongs, i. In Phonetics, a diphthong (also gliding vowel) (from Greek grc δίφθογγος "diphthongos" literally "with two sounds" or "with e. the major stress is on the first element, including for 'ie, ue, ui, etc. ' in contrast with the normal Spanish pronunciation.

Through Old French, of c. 1100 AD:

• /f/, /p/, /k/ lost before final /s/, /t/. (DEBET > Strasbourg Oaths 'dift' /deift/ > OF 'doit'. The Oaths of Strasbourg ( Modern French: les serments de Strasbourg, Modern German: die Straßburger Eide, Latin Sacramenta )
• 'ei' > 'oi'.
• 'wo' > 'we'.
• /a/ before /s/ becomes "darker": farther back and rounded. (Later, this becomes a separate phoneme, after /ts/ > /s/. )
• Loss of /θ/ and /ð/. When this results in a hiatus of /a/ with a following vowel, the /a/ becomes a schwa /ə/.
• Loss of /s/ before voiced consonant (perhaps passing through /h/), with lengthening of preceding vowel. Produces a new set of long vowel phonemes.
• /u/ > /y/.

Through Late Old French: c. 1250-1300 AD:

• /o/ > /u/.
• /l/ before consonant becomes /w/.
• Diphthongs shift to second element.
• 'we' and 'ew' > /œ/.
• 'oi' > 'we'.
• 'ai' > /ɛ/.
• /ɛ/ and /e/ merge in closed syllables.
• /ts/ > /s/, /tʃ/ > /ʃ/, /dʒ/ > /ʒ/.
• Loss of /s/ before any consonant, with lengthening of preceding vowel.

Nouns

Old French maintained a two-case system, with a nominative case and an oblique case, longer than did some other Romance languages (e. The nominative case is a Grammatical case for a Noun, which generally marks the subject of a Verb, as opposed to its object or other An oblique case (casus generalis in Linguistics is a Noun case of Synthetic languages that is used generally when a Noun is the object g. Spanish and Italian). Case distinctions, at least in the masculine gender, were marked on both the definite article and on the noun itself. In Linguistics, grammatical genders, sometimes also called Noun classes are classes of nouns reflected in the behavior of associated words every noun must belong Thus, the masculine noun li voisins, "the neighbour" (Latin VICÍNU(S) /wi'ki:nus/ > Proto-Romance */vetsinu(s)/ > OF voisins /voiziⁿs/) was declined as follows:

Singular:

Nominative: li voisins   (Latin ille vicinus)
Oblique:    le voisin    (Latin illum vicinum)

Plural:

Nominative: li voisin    (Latin illi vicini)
Oblique:    les voisins  (Latin illos vicinos)

In later Old French, these distinctions became moribund. When the distinctions were marked enough, sometimes both forms survived, with a lexical difference: both li sire (nominative, Latin SENIOR) and le seigneur (oblique, Latin SENIORE(M)) survive in the vocabulary of later French as different ways to refer to a feudal lord. In Linguistics, the lexicon (from Greek Λεξικόν of a language is its Vocabulary, including its words and expressions As in most other Romance languages, it was the oblique case form that usually survived to become the modern French form: l'enfant (the child) represents the old accusative; the OF nominative was li enfes. But some modern French nouns perpetuate the old nominative; modern French soeur (OF suer) represents the Latin nominative SÓROR; the OF oblique form seror, from Latin accusative SORÓREM, no longer survives.

As in Spanish and Italian, the neuter gender was eliminated, and old neuter nouns became masculine. In Linguistics, grammatical genders, sometimes also called Noun classes are classes of nouns reflected in the behavior of associated words every noun must belong Some Latin neuter plurals were re-analysed as feminine singulars, though; for example, Latin GAUDIU(M) was more widely used in the plural form GAUDIA, which was taken for a singular in Vulgar Latin, and ultimately led to modern French la joie, "joy" (feminine singular).

Nouns were declined in the following declensions:

• Class I (feminine, no case marking): la fame, la fame, les fames, les fames "woman"
• Class II (masculine): li voisins, le voisin, li voisin, les voisins "neighbor"; li sergenz, le sergent, li sergent, les sergenz "servant"
• Class Ia (feminine hybrid): la riens, la rien, les riens, les riens "thing"; la citéz, la cité, les citéz, les citéz "city"
• Class IIa (masculine hybrid): li pere, le pere, li pere, les peres "father"
• Class IIIa (masculine): li chantere, le chanteor, li chanteor, les chanteors "singer"
• Class IIIb (masculine): li ber, le baron, li baron, les barons "baron"
• Class IIIc (feminine): la none, la nonain, les nonains, les nonains "nun"
• Class IIId (isolated, irregular forms): la suer, la seror, les serors, les serors "sister"; li enfes, l'enfant, li enfant, les enfanz "child"; li prestre, le prevoire, li prevoire, les prevoires "priest"; li sire, le seigneur, li seigneur, les seigneurs "lord"; li cuens, le conte, li conte, les contes "count"

Class I is derived from the Latin first declension. Class II is derived from the Latin second declension. Class Ia mostly comes from feminine third-declension nouns in Latin. Class IIa generally stems from second-declension nouns ending in -er and from third-declension masculine nouns; note that in both cases, the Latin nominative singular did not end in -s, and this is preserved in Old French.

Class III nouns show a separate form in the nominative singular that does not occur in any of the other forms. IIIa nouns ended in -ÁTOR, -ATÓREM in Latin, and preserve the stress shift; IIIb nouns likewise had a stress shift from -O to -ÓNEM. IIIc nouns are an Old French creation and have no clear Latin antecedent. IIId nouns represent various other types of third-declension Latin nouns with stress shift or irregular masculine singular (SÓROR, SORÓREM; ÍNFANS, INFÁNTEM; PRÉSBYTER, PRESBÝTEREM; SÉNIOR, SENIÓREM; CÓMES, CÓMITEM).

Verbs

The verb in Old French was somewhat less distinct from the rest of Proto-Romance than the noun was. It shared in the loss of the Latin passive voice, and the reduction of the Latin futures of the AMABO type (I will love) to Proto-Romance *amare habeo (lit. In Grammar, the voice (also called gender or diathesis of a verb describes the relationship between the action (or state that the verb expresses and the participants identified "I have to love"), which became amerai in Old French.

In Latin, certain verbs shifted the accented syllable based on the Latin accentual system, which depended on vowel length. Thus, the Latin verb ÁMO, "I love," stressed on the first syllable, changed to AMÁMUS, "we love". Because the Latin stressed syllable affected Old French vowels, this syllable shift created a large number of strong verbs in Old French. ÁMO yielded j'aim, while AMÁMUS, moving the stress away from the first syllable, yielded nous amons. There were at least 11 types of alternations; examples of these various types are j'aim, nous amons; j'achat, nous achetons; j'adois, nous adesons; je mein, nouns menons; j'achief, nous achevons; je conchi, nous concheons; je pris, nous proisons; je demeur, nous demourons; je muer, nous mourons; j'aprui, nous aproions. In Modern French almost all of these verbs have been leveled, generally with the "weak" (unstressed) form predominating (but modern aimer/nous aimons is an exception). A few alternations remain, however, in what are now known as irregular verbs, such as je tiens, nous tenons or je meurs, nous mourons. In contrast to Regular verbs irregular verbs are those Verbs that fall outside the standard patterns of conjugation in the Languages in which they

In general, Old French verbs show much less analogical reformation than in Modern French. The Old French first singular aim, for example, comes directly from Latin AMO, while modern aime has an analogical -e added. The subjunctive forms j'aim, tu ains, il aint are direct preservations of Latin AMEM, AMES, AMET, while the modern forms j'aime, tu aimes, il aime have been completely reformed on the basis of verbs in the other conjugations. The simple past also shows extensive analogical reformation and simplification in Modern French as compared with Old French.

The Latin pluperfect was preserved in very early Old French as a past tense with a value similar to a preterite or imperfect. The pluperfect tense (from Latin plus quam perfectum more than perfect also called past perfect in English, is a Perfective This article is about the grammatical term To see the article relating to Eschatology and the Book of Revelation, see Preterism. The imperfect tense, in the classical grammar of several Indo-European languages, denotes a Past tense with an Imperfective aspect. E. g. (Cantilène de sainte Eulalie, 878 AD) 'avret' < HABUERAT, 'voldret' < VOLUERAT (Old Occitan also preserved this tense, with a conditional value).

Example of regular -er verb

	Indicative				Subjunctive		Conditional	Imperative
	Present	Simple Past	Imperfect	Future	Present	Imperfect	Present	Present
je	dur	durai	duroie	durerai	dur	durasse	dureroie
tu	dures	duras	durois	dureras	durs	durasses	durerois	dure
il	dure	dura	duroit	durera	durt	durast	dureroit
nous	durons	durames	duriiens/-ïons	durerons	durons	durissons/-issiens	dureriions/-ïons	durons
vous	durez	durastes	duriiez	dureroiz/-ez	durez	durissoiz/-issez/-issiez	dureriiez/-ïez	durez
ils	durent	durerent	duroient	dureront	durent	durassent	dureroient

Non-finite forms:

• Infinitive: durer
• Present participle: durant
• Past Participle: duré

Auxiliary verb: avoir

Example of regular -ir verb

	Indicative				Subjunctive		Conditional	Imperative
	Present	Simple Past	Imperfect	Future	Present	Imperfect	Present	Present
je	dors	dormis	dormoie	dormirai	dorm	dormisse	dormiroie
tu	dors	dormis	dormois	dormiras	dorms	dormisses	dormirois	dorme
il	dort	dormit	dormoit	dormira	dormt	dormt	dormiroit
nous	dormons	dormimes	dormiiens/-ïons	dormirons	dormons	dormissons/-issiens	dormiraions/-ïons	dormons
vous	dormez	dormistes	dormiiez	dormiroiz/-ez	dormez	dormissoiz/-issez/-issiez	dormiraiez/-ïez	dormez
ils	dorment	dormerent	dormoient	dormiront	dorment	dormissent	dormiroient

Non-finite forms:

• Infinitive: dormir
• Present participle: dormant
• Past Participle: dormi

Auxiliary verb: avoir

Examples of the auxiliary verbs

avoir (to have)

	Indicative				Subjunctive		Conditional	Imperative
	Present	Simple Past	Imperfect	Future	Present	Imperfect	Present	Present
je	ai	eus	avoie	aurai	ai	eusse	auroie
tu	ais (later as)	eus	avois	auras	ais	eusses	aurois	ave
il	ai (later a)	eut	avoit	aura	ai	eusst	auroit
nous	avons	eumes	aviens/-ïons	aurons	aions	eussons/-issiens	auravons/-ïons	avons
vous	avez	eustes	aviez	auroiz/-ez	aiez	eussoiz/-issez/-issiez	auravez/-ïez	avez
ils	ont	eurent	avoient	auront	ont	eussent	auroient

Non-finite forms:

• Infinitive: avoir (earlier aveir)
• Present participle: aiant
• Past Participle: eut

Auxiliary verb: avoir

etre (to be)

	Indicative				Subjunctive		Conditional	Imperative
	Present	Simple Past	Imperfect	Future	Present	Imperfect	Present	Present
je	suis	fus	etais, earlier eroie	serai	sois	fusse	soi
tu	es (sometimes suis, to fit the 1. person form)	fus	etais, earlier erois	seras	sois	fusses	serais	es
il	est (sometimes es)	fut	etait, earlier eroit	sera	soit	fusst	seroit
nous	sommes (sometimes spelled som)	fumes	etions, earlier eriens/-ïons	serons	soyons	fussons/-issiens	sommes
vous	etes	fustes	etiez, earlier eriez	seroiz/-ez	soyez	fussoiz/-issez/-issiez	serestes/-ïez	estes
ils	sont	furent	etaient, earlier eroient	seront	soient	fussent	seroient

Non-finite forms:

• Infinitive: etre
• Present participle: soiant
• Past Participle: fut, étu

auxiliary verb: avoir, earlier aveir

Dialects

Since Old French did not consist of a single standard, competing administrative varieties were propagated by the provincial courts and chanceries.

The French of Paris was one of a number of standards, including:

• the Burgundian of Burgundy, then an independent duchy whose capital was at Dijon;
• the Picard language of Picardy, whose principal cities were Calais and Lille. Burgundy (Bourgogne Burgund is a region historically situated in modern-day France and Switzerland, inhabited in turn by Celts ( Gauls) A duchy is a territory fief, or domain ruled by a Duke or Duchess. Dijon ( diʒɔ̃ is a city in eastern France, the capital of the Côte-d'Or departement and of the Bourgogne region Picard is a Language closely related to French, and as such is one of the larger group of Romance languages. Picardy (Picardie is an historical Province of France, in the north of France. Calais (kaˈlɛ in English often kæˈleɪ traditional English pronunciation /ˈkælɨs/ Kales is a town in northern France. Lille (lil Rijsel is a city in northern France. It is the principal city of the Lille Métropole, the fourth-largest Metropolitan area in the country It was said that the Picard language began at the east door of Notre-Dame de Paris, so far-reaching was its influence;
• Old Norman, spoken in Normandy, whose principal cities were Caen and Rouen. NotreDameFlyingButtressjpg|right|thumb|250px|Notre Dame de Paris Flying Buttress]] Notre Dame de Paris is a Gothic Cathedral on the eastern half of the Old Norman was one of many Langue d'oïl dialects It was spoken throughout the region of what is now called Normandy and spread into England Southern Normandy (Normandie Norman: Normaundie) is a geographical region corresponding to the former Duchy of Normandy. Caen (kɑ̃ is a commune in northwestern France. It is the Prefecture of the Calvados department and the capital of the Rouen (ʁwɑ̃ in French) is the historical capital city of Normandy, in northwestern France on the River Seine, and currently the capital The Norman conquest of England brought many Norman-speaking aristocrats into the British Isles. England is a Country which is part of the United Kingdom. Its inhabitants account for more than 83% of the total UK population whilst its mainland Most of the older Norman (sometimes called "French") words in the English language reflect the influence of this variety of Oïl language which became a conduit for the introduction into the Anglo-Norman realm, as did Anglo-Norman control of Anjou and Gascony and other continental possessions. English is a West Germanic language originating in England and is the First language for most people in the United Kingdom, the United States The Anglo-Norman language reflected a shared culture on both sides of the English Channel. The Anglo-Norman language is a term traditionally used to refer to the variety of French used in England and to some extent elsewhere in the British Isles following the Ultimately, this language declined and fell, becoming Law French, a jargon spoken by lawyers, which was used in English law until the reign of Charles II. Law French is an archaic language originally based on Old Norman and Anglo-Norman, but increasingly influenced by Parisian French and later English For Wikipedia jargon see WikipediaGlossary. For hacker slang see Jargon File. Law is a system of rules enforced through a set of Institutions used as an instrument to underpin civil obedience politics economics and society Charles II (Charles Stuart 29 May 1630 – 6 February 1685 was the King of England, Scotland, and Ireland. Norman, however, still survives in Normandy and the Channel Islands as a regional language;
• the Walloon language, centered around Namur in present-day Wallonia;
• the Gallo language of Brittany, language of the Duchy of Brittany;

Derived languages

This Oïl language is the ancestor of several languages spoken today, including:

• Bourguignon-Morvandiau
• Champenois
• Franc-Comtois
• French
  • Acadian French
  • Belgian French
  • Cajun French
  • Metropolitan French (Metropolitan France)
  • Quebec French
  • Swiss French
• Gallo language
• Lorrain
• Norman
  • Dgèrnésiais
  • Jèrriais
• Picard
• Poitevin
• Saintongeais
• Walloon

Literature

Main Article at Medieval French literature

See also: Languages of France, Anglo-Norman literature

Notes

References

• Delamarre, X. & Lambert, P. -Y. (2003). Dictionnaire de la langue gauloise : Une approche linguistique du vieux-celtique continental (2nd ed. ). Paris: Errance. ISBN 2877722376
• Pope, M. K. (1934). From Latin to Modern French with Especial Consideration of Anglo-Norman Phonology and Morphology. Manchester: Manchester University Press.
• Kibler, William (1984). An Introduction to Old French. New York: Modern Language Association of America.

External links

• DicFro- Old French Dictionary and Lexicon.
• Old French on the Web
• Old French Online from the University of Texas at Austin
• dictionnaire medievale - a wiki dictionary for middle french words and phrases
• GdfEdic, GdfCEdic, GdfLexEdic - an electronic version of dictionary of the Old French of Frédéric Godefroy: Dictionnaire de l'ancienne langue française.

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