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Frankish language in France
Was Frankish (or other germanic language) the dominant language in what is now France once in its history?
If yes, when was it? Do we know what percentage of the population spoke it as a native language? And how long did it lasted before being changed into french? And why did it change to french?
Yes, the French are largely descended from Franks who switched to a romance langauge just for the sake of it.
leasnam, thank you, but these articles doesn't say about the fact that if Frankish was once the main language in what is now France (official and widely spoken by the population - the lingua franca of France? the one people used in the streets and markets?). They talk about political history of frankish possessions, but not about the reality of the actual culture of the land they ruled.
they talk about the fact it was spoken in the "border" regions of modern France such as Lorraine, but elsewhere. How was it for northern France as a whole? Was it widely spoken in Paris? In Tours, Orleans, Reims, Nantes? And how about central France? In Lyon? Clermont-ferrand, Poitiers? And in the south? Was it spoken (even by the nobility) in Arles? Avignon, Marseille, Nice, Toulon, Montpellier, Bordeaux, Toulouse? If Frankish was widely spoken in the whole frankish empire why suddenly changed to old-french (which is a romance language, so that was supposed to be already spoken when the franks arrive) in some regions and continued to evoluted to low franconian in others? Curiously, the romance/germanic frontier of today is not far from what it was at roman times before the germanic invasions. How strange that after France has being germanized by frankish peoples, old-french would recovered the areas where latin was previously spoken. Or maybe is frankish language presence in France (outside "border regions") a myth? Do anyone knows where we could find any valid information about that.
The Germanic (Frankish) impact on French and France is heavily overestimated.
<<The Germanic (Frankish) impact on French and France is heavily overestimated. >>
Perhaps it is heavily underestimated. The paucity of information regarding it would suggest the opposite of what you claim.
Many French names are of Germanic (Frankish) origin-Albert,Alfred,Adolphe,Adelard,Everard,Guillaume,Robert,Gilbert,Hubert,Gerard ,Emeric,Richard,Leonard,Odette,Adele,Alphonse,Baudouin ,Clothilde etc.
Surnames too-Renault,Arnoult,Ferrand,Mitterand,Giscard,Ghislain,Vaugirard,Girardot,Archambault etc.
" Many French names are of Germanic (Frankish) origin-Albert,Alfred,Adolphe,Adelard,Everard,Guillaume,Robert,Gilbert,Hubert,Gerard ,Emeric,Richard,Leonard,Odette,Adele,Alphonse,Baudouin ,Clothilde etc. "
Is that a french specificity of french among the other romance language? what about Alberto, Alfredo, Guillermo, Roberto, Gilberto, Umberto, Gerardo, Amerigo, Ricardo, Leonardo, Alfonso, etc. ps: Everard, Adelard? I never have heard those names. Odette, Baudouin, very rare, old and old-fashionned. " Surnames too-Renault,Arnoult,Ferrand,Mitterand,Giscard,Ghislain,Vaugirard,Girardot,Archambault etc. " Well, nothing special here is the list of 10 most frequent Spanish names: Garcia, gonzalez, fernandez, rodriguez, Lopez, Martinez, Sanchez, Perez, Martin, Gomez. A big part of them are of germanic origin.
To be honest, French and Late Latin in the middle Ages were like the Gateways of Germanic words and names into other Romance tongues:
Frankish/German *Heimriki, Heimerihhi > Old French > LL Henricus ['Henri' in Modern French, Henry in English] > Spanish as Enrique same with Karl > LL Carolus > [Charles in French & English {cf. Eng Carl}] Spanish Carlos
tony smith : « Was Frankish (or other germanic language) the dominant language in what is now France once in its history? If yes, when was it? »
Jamais. Si l'on ne tient pas compte des régions germaniques intégrées à la France (Alsace, Moselle germanophone), aucune région française ne fut germanisée. tony smith : « Do we know what percentage of the population spoke it as a native language? » Très certainement insignifiant sur le plan numérique. tony smith : « And how long did it lasted before being changed into french? » Les chiens ne font pas des chats : le français n'est pas issu du francique. le francique est une langue germanique et le français une langue romane. tony smith : « And why did it change to french? » Question superflue puisque le fait est inexistant
oh be careful littles eyes what you read...oh be careful little ears what you hear...
French name Adélard is more popular in Quebec (Canada),than in France.Evérard is common French name-like Ulric or Henri.
Many place names in Northern France(I don't mean Flanders of France or Lorraine) are of Frankish origin.Place names near Beauvais-Reims -Valenciennes : Arenberg,Asfeld,Malham,Machault,Rotangy,Le Crocq,Voncq Billy -sur-Ourcq,Poulangues,Bourg-et-Comin,Gondelot,Les Etards(near Paris) and so on.
" Many place names in Northern France(I don't mean Flanders of France or Lorraine) are of Frankish origin."
How many of them are? What percentage of french towns in northern France have germanic names? If we know this number it could say about how much spoken was Frankish. |