I know, I know, French is considered a Romance language, as it has some Latin (Rome) influence. I see that in many instances cognates in Italian, Spanish, and Portuguese, are vastly different in French.
The land we now know as France was once home to the Celts, and Franks. Invasions into what is now France included The Huns, the Vandals, the Ostrogoths, and Visigoths. All of whom, except for the Huns, are Germanic.
I think based on all this, and French's uniqueness, it is best called a hybrid language.
Am I too far off on this, or not?
2006-11-29 14:41:58 · 4 answers · asked by Benjamin W 3 in Society & Culture ➔ Languages
No, you are incorrect. French is a completely Romance language. Of course, it has some loanwords from Germanic and Celtic languages. All languages have a nice selection of loanwords, but French is 100% a Romance language. Its grammar and the bulk of its vocabulary are clearly and easily derived from Latin grammar. There have been many books published on Romance historical linguistics in general and French historical linguistics in particular. You should find one and your questions about the provenance of French will be answered. It is a Romance language without any debate whatsoever among linguists.
There are extremely few examples of mixed languages in the world--Michif and Mbugu being the two that have received the most study. Michif has French nouns and nominal morphology with Cree verbs and verbal morphology. Mbugu mixes Bantu Mbugu and Cushitic Para (I think that's the name of the Cushitic language). This is extremely rare. Just because a language has some loanwords does not make it a mixed language.
2006-11-29 15:39:37 · answer #1 · answered by Taivo 7 · 1⤊ 1⤋
All languages are hybrid. They suffer a constant interaction with other languages. By the way, you forgot to mention the Galos among the original inhabitants of France. The Franks were also invaders. They came after the Romans.
French does not have some Latin influence, it comes from Latin. The differences between the cognates with the other Romance languages comes because of the difference in the tribes that invaded Europe after the Roman Empire fell, and of the further evolution of each language.
Italian, for example, has not changed almost in the last eight centuries. You can read Saint Francis of Assisi's writings easily because his Italian is practically the same as it is now whereas Spanish has become very different during that time .
Bottom line: French comes from Latin mixed with the languages of the Franks, who came after the fall of the Empire. As you said it is a Romance language, like Spanish, Italian, Portuguese, Romanian , and Rumansh ( in Switzerland )
2006-12-01 11:38:59 · answer #2 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
Nothing is a pure language and no one is a pure race. WE of European decent have been crossing national and ethnic lines for thousands of years! Even Latin was influenced by Assyrian and Greek, and I am guessing by every nation that they conquered and the other conquered before the Romans!
2006-11-29 22:53:55 · answer #3 · answered by bugsie 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
As I understand it, French is a Romance language. The French people themselves (the Franks), though, are Germanic (which included the Goths). I have never studied French (I have studied German), so I don't really know how much Germanic influence is there.
2006-11-29 22:47:00 · answer #4 · answered by The Doctor 7 · 1⤊ 2⤋