The popular Latin of the Gallo-Romans gave rise to two
quite independent languages in medieval France. The first was used in the
southern part of the country; it was called Provençal (from Provence).
The second was spoken in the north, particularly in the region about Paris. The
unification of the French kingdom under Hugh Capet and his successors gradually
extended the speech of northern France over the entire country. Even to-day,
however, one may hear in the south of France the soft and harmonious
Provençal.
THE TEUTONIC LANGUAGES
The barbarians who poured from the wilds of central Europe
into the Roman world brought their languages with them. But the speech of the
Goths, Vandals, Burgundians, and Lombards disappeared, while that of the Franks
in Gaul, after their conversion to Christianity, gradually gave way to the
popular Latin of their subjects. The Teutonic peoples who remained outside what
had been the limits of the Roman world continued to use their native tongues
during the Middle Ages. From them have come modern German, Dutch, Flemish, [3]
and the various Scandinavian languages (Danish, Norwegian, Swedish, and
Icelandic [4]). In their earliest known forms all these languages show
unmistakable traces of a common origin.
[3] The language spoken by the natives of Flanders.
[4] Icelandic is the oldest and purest form of
Scandinavian. Danish and Norwegian are practically the same, in fact, their
literary or book- language is one.
