French: A Fading Lingua Franca

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Hundreds of years ago, the King of England, the Queen of Spain, and the Pope all had one trait in common- they spoke French. French symbolized nobility, intelligence, and refinement. Only the best of the western world could speak it properly, and it was a valued trait in all royalty. It was the lingua franca, the language of diplomacy, and the language all people had in common.

However, the French language is slowly declining in world importance, and the once dominant language is being replaced by English and Chinese in more developed countries. Its last stronghold outside of the motherland(France) is Quebec, and they are fighting a cultural war against the invasion of English.

II. Background and Former Glory of French throughout the World

French was once the dominant language in the world, but it started out as a combination of many other European tongues. The language first deviated from Celtic Gaul in 59 A.D., when the Roman legionaries invaded, bringing vulgar Latin with them (Price). According to Joseph E. Price, who is a renowned French historian, in the 5th century A.D. many “Germanic tribes from the east (the Franks) and the Vikings from the North” invaded and added their own language to the hybrid French(Price). In the Middle Ages, France was divided into many small fiefdoms, and each region had its own dialect. Eventually, kings conquered the surrounding land and a single dialect spread throughout the country, or kingdom as they were known as back then. Finally, around 770 A.D. the language we think of as French started to emerge with the French king Charlemagne, and his many conquests (as Emperor of the Holy Roman Empire and warrior king of France) spread it to the far reaches of his kingdom (Sullivan 4).

After ...

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