Lecture 6: Introduction and Pre-history of French

Question 1

Internal history

Answer 1

Change and developments within the linguistic system itself (e.g changes in pronunciation, word forms, sentence structures, vocabulary)

Question 2

External history

Answer 2

Change that is external to the language, but it has an impact on it (e.g the social and political change and events)

Question 3

Vulgar Latin

Answer 3

Colloquial form (everyday language) used by the mass of the Roman population

Question 4

Classical Latin

Answer 4

Written/literary form of Latin (formal)

Question 5

What is the Gallo-Roman or Proto-French period and what century was it?

Answer 5

A halfway house for the language –> not quite French as we know it yet
When Gaul splintered into numerous dialectal regions.
The main division was into 2 principal linguistic areas: Langue d’oïl in the North, and Langue doc in the South

Question 6

What was more intensive in the South?

Answer 6

Roman settlement

Question 7

What was more intensive in the North?

Answer 7

Germanic invaders

Question 8

What happened in the 5th and 6th Century?

Answer 8

Invasions by Germanic hordes- historical turning point
Each province began to develop its own regional variation of vulgar Latin