The Genealogical Tree of the French Language: A Complex Origin

Extract

[...] An isogloss, also called a heterogloss, is the geographical boundary of a certain linguistic feature, such as the pronunciation of a vowel, the meaning of a word, or the use of a morphological feature. The main dialects in France are typically delimited by bundles of isoglosses, one can notably cite, based on the site "Le Français de nos régions", one can notice different logistic features tracing isoglosses on the French territory : " The pronunciation of the sound which is different between the inhabitants of the south and the rest of France1. This can be noticed particularly through words such as rose or thing. [...]

[...] The difference in the use of certain expressions under the influence of another language, for example in the east of France2. It is, for example, the case of Alsatian, influenced by the Germanic syntax, whose certain expressions are slightly different from the original expression in French. For example, the following expression can be cited wait for someone who becomes in the East and under the influence of the Germanic syntax wait on someone. Finally, another logistical feature differentiates the French territory by bringing an isogloss3 : the appearance of a particular vocabulary within the region. [...]

[...] Concerning the structure of the language and its status: it receives the definition of dialect and of proper language. In fact, although its grammar, grammatical structure, and vocabulary allow it to define itself as a language in its own right: one can think through a comparative work to the Monégasque language which also holds the status of a language although it is a derivative of Italian in some way, Alsatian remains a dialect due to its status within the territories that make it up. [...]

[...] Based on the resources provided, as well as the work proposed by the website lalanguefrançaise.fr, we can try to bring to light a genealogical tree of the French language: From an Indo-European root, this language has gradually changed through its structure to give birth to ten branches, of which French finds itself in the Romance language. This branch is in contradiction with another theory thinking of a multiple branch: Italo-Celtic, but it has had little success. Hence, if we rely on the theory of the Romance branch, French has its roots in a successive branch: Gallo-Romance, which allows the creation of the Langue d'oïl giving French. [...]