13. FRENCH LANGUAGE, in a general sense the language of France, more especially of the langue d'oui country, and of those re gions outside France speaking the same tongue as that of the French people. In a more re stricted sense it is applied to the literary lan guage of the country. In speaking of the French language it is customary to exclude the Provençal and kindred dialects of the langue d'oc country. Most reviewers of French litera ture state that the French language is divided into two great dialects, the langue d'oui and the langue d'oc, each having its own separate litera ture. But the reviewer usually contents him self with passing in review the activities of the langue d'oui, to the complete exclusion of those of the langue d'oc. Behind this attitude of the reviewers of French literature lies the influence of centuries constantly exerted, both consciously and unconsciously, to denationalize the Proven çal and native tongues of southern France.
Origin.— French is essentially a Latin lan guage, to which has been added a considerable admixture of Celtic, German, Greek and dia lectic Latin, with a very much smaller number of words borrowed from English, Italian and other languages. Not only does it belong rad ically to the great Indo-European family of lan guages, but its borrowings and admixtures have been alinost exclusively from sister languages all members of the same family. The Tuscan and Greek elements in French (exclusive of scientific terms) have come into the language almost exclusively through Latin. The Celtic elements are the survival of vocabularies from the languages and dialects spoken over a con siderable portion of Gaul before its occupation by the Romans. The German elements were introduced by the invading Germanic races who overran the country on the decline of the Roman Empire. Cmsar is the authority for the statement that, even in his day, Celtic, Iberian (Basque), German and Latin were spoken in different parts of Gaul. Of these tongues the most important, at this period, was the Celtic, which extended over the greater part of the country. Considerable German was spoken in the north of Gaul, especially in the Seine and Marne districts; while Iberian was the tongue of Aquitaine, Garonne and the Pyrenees re gions. A dialect of Latin was spoken in the Narbonnaise district. All of these had their influence on the changes undergone by the Latin language in its slow centuries of transforma into modern French and the various dia lects spoken in France to-day.
The Roman conquest of Gaul was partially a feat of arms; but it was much more a triumph of Roman diplomacy and genius for colonial government. Roman power in Gaul was cen tred in the larger cities and in their strongly fortified camps. There the laws and decrees of Rome were promulgated and the tribute of the conquered tribes received. There, too, the law courts were held and justice administered. Rome bent her efforts to the Latinizing of her newly-acquired possessions. Gridually she forced the inhabitants of the larger cities to use the Latin tongue. But this forcing was done in• a most diplomatic though effective manner. Even in the days of Cmsar, Latin was made the only medium for the administration of the law, the promulgation of decrees, the exer cise of the functions of government, the admin istration of justice and the performing of the offices of religion. It was the only medium of commerce and trade with the Romans; of litera ture and art, of the theatre and of social rela tions. Above all, it was the only road to office under the Roman government and to political preferment. The Roman officials in Gaul en couraged and rewarded the mastery of the Latin tongue and the acquirement of Roman culture, customs and manners. Thanks to this well-defined policy of the Roman government, native Gauls were found in important offices even in Czsar's time. The number of these Gallo-Roman offices increased rapidly, and their influence was steadily exercised in favor of the acquirement, by the natives, of the Latin lan guage. A greater inducement still was held out to the Gauls to acquire the ways and culture of their conquerors. This was the prospect of employment or political preference and honors in the imperial city of Rome itself. Under this pressure so diplomatically applied, the study of the Latin language, grammar, literature and oratory became a passion throughout the cities of Gaul, which were full of Roman merchants, traders, teachers, philosophers, lawyers, artists, sculptors and seekers for political and other offices. Latin was the symbol of success in
every avenue of life. Native Gauls became noted merchant princes, lawyers, soldiers, local potentates at home and favorites of powerful political personages in Rome, and even in the colonies outside Gaul. Natives of Gaul, too, reached the highest offices in the land, becom ing even members of the Senate; and later on, a native Gaul became one of the most noted of the Roman emperors. The political policy of Rome made the imposition of the Latin lan guage upon the cities of Gaul a comparatively easy matter, requiring only time to assure its accomplishment. Everywhere, throughout the populous cities of Gaul, there sprang up schools that rivaled, in their efficacy and reputation, the most famous institutions of Rome. Rich Romans sent their sons to these schools because of their excellence and the added advantage that they could acquire there a first-hand knowl edge of the life and customs of the natives, whom they might be called upon, in the future, to govern, or to have political or other rela tions with. Thus all urban Gaul traveled Rome ward — ((all roads led to Native Lan The influence of Ro man culture extended itself much more slowly over the rural districts, the inhabitants of which, in addition to being much more con servative and passionately attached to their native institutions and language, lacked the in centive of ambition and of commercial and trade necessity. A powerful Druidical priesthood held the rural Celts together and set their faces against Roman culture and religion. But even in the rural districts Latin made its way slowly and in a mangled form; yet none the less surely. This was accomplished almost entirely through the natural pressure from without exercised by the growing power of the Latin tongue, had greatly increased during the reign of the Emperor Claudius (41-54 A.D.). Claudius, who was born in Lyon and educated in Gaul, opened to the Gauls all the employments and dignities of the Empire. In the construction of the many extensive public works he employed many inhabitants of Gaul in positions requiring faith fulness, honesty and skill. These, in their turn, frequently drew laborers from the rural dis tricts of Gaul. These latter, during their resi dence in Rome or other Italian cities, or in the populous centres of Gaul, acquired some knowl edge of Latin. Thus, in time, through these and other agencies, a sort of lingua franca sprang up throughout the rural districts of Gaul and served as a medium of communication be tween the Celtic-speaking population and the inhabitants of the cities and towns. This con sisted of a frame of Latin words stripped of most of their inflections and subjected to word contractions and other modifications. Into this frame were fitted many native words which had already become the property of trade and com merce and the other activities of life in the city, town and country. Thus, as the influence of Latin became stronger in the cities, it con tinued to exercise greater pressure on the rural districts. This pressure soon began to react upon the centres of Latin culture. The unedu cated classes of Gaul everywhere, even in the cities, spoke very imperfect Latin, the genius of which is so different from that of the native tongues of Gaul. But while the cities afforded some correction for this universal tendency among the masses to corrupt the Latin lan guage, the life of the rural districts, where the native tongues were still universally spoken, made the disintegration of the highly-inflected Roman speech unavoidable. As the masses in the City and country became more Latinized, at the expense of their native tongues, the cor rupted Latin spoken over immense' districts of the country tended to pass current as the speech of the populace and to crowd out classi cal or school Latin. As this corrupted local Latin varied greatly in different parts of the country, due to linguistic and other influences, there resulted numerous Roman dialects throughout Gaul, many of which are still in existence.