UNIVERSITY F IFORNIA THE STUDENT'S FRENCH GRAMMAR. BOOK I.-INTRODUCTION. § 1. Philologists have divided the languages of the world into different families : The Turanian family. The Aryan family. They have separated the Aryan family into two great divisions : The Southern or Asiatic. The Northern or European. They have further separated the Northern or European division into various groups, of which the following are the chief: The Slavonic. The Hellenic or Grecian. The Teutonic. The Celtic. The Italic or Romanic. § 2. The only important language of the Italic group is Latin. From popular Latin, with a greater or less admixture of words from different sources, sprang a number of languages, of which the following are the chief: Spanish and Portuguese. Italian. Langue d'Oc, or Provençal. The Langue d'Oil, or Old French, had four principal dialects: The Normandy dialect. The Picardy dialect. The Burgundy dialect. The dialect of the Isle of France. From the dialect of the Isle of France, with a greater or less number of forms from the other dialects, and at various times words from other languages, has arisen Modern French. § 3. Till the end of the thirteenth century the language spoken in Gaul was "synthetic." (§ 23.) Then came a period of confusion; afterwards the language became as now, "analytic." In tracing the growth of Modern French from Latin, it will be convenient to divide its history into four periods: The Latin period, from about B.C. 50 to A.D. 800. The Old French period, from about A.D. 800 to A.D. 1300. The Transition or Middle French period, from about A.D. 1300 to A.D. 1600. The Modern French period, from about A.D. 1600 to the present day. § 4. The Latin period, from about B.C. 50 to ad. 800The introduction of Latin into Gaul can almost be traced as far back as B.C. 122, when C. Sextius Calvinus, victorious over the Salyes, who lived about Arles, established a Roman colony named Aquae Sextiae (modern Aix) eighteen. miles north of Marseille. In B.C. 118, the Romans settled a colony at Narbo (Narbonne); and not long after they took and plundered Tolosa (Toulouse). The colonization of Narbo may be considered as the time when the Romans finally settled the Province of Southern Gallia, which they termed Gallia Provincia (Provence). Thus as early as B.C. 118 thè Romans had settled in the south of France, and had brought the Latin language with them. But it appears that when Caesar invaded Gallia, the Latin language had not penetrated beyond the limits of the Roman Provincia. § 5. Celtic was a written language at least between the Seine and the Garonne. The Druids of the Celts could write, and we may suppose that the princes and other great people could write too.. They used Greek characters, which they had learned from the Greek settlers at Massilia (Marseille) and other Greek towns on the coast. When Caesar defeated the Helvetii in B.c. 58, there were found in their camp tablets written in Greek characters; these tablets contained the muster-rolls of all men who had left their home on the expedition, and were able to bear arms, and also separate rolls of the children, of the old men, and of the women. The Celts had some civilization. They possessed walled towns, roads, and bridges, and even chain cables for their ships. There are also extant many Gallic medals, which numismatists consider to be genuine; if the natives stamped these medals themselves, they had made some progress. However this may be, it is certain that when Caesar (B.c. 58) invaded Gaul, and when by force of arms and by cruelty he had begun to make of Gaul a Roman province, he found a people ready to accept the civilization of Rome; the upper classes applied themselves diligently to the study of the language, and soon were reckoned among the most eloquent Latin orators. But while the opulent classes and the dwellers in towns thus adopted the new language and customs, the Roman influence was long resisted by the common people. It was not till nearly the end of the fifth century that Latin could be reckoned as the language of the whole of Gaul. Even then in Auvergne and in Armorica, on the coast of the Atlantic, where Celtic had taken refuge with the Druids, and in the country of the Basques or Iberians, in the southwest of France, the aboriginal language remained.* § 6. We must pause for a moment, to consider what the Latin spoken by the people in Gaul, would probably be compared with the classical tongue of Rome. A language * Celtic is still spoken in the north-west of France, and Basque in the south-west. written by men of culture and genius ceases to be identical with the vulgar idiom; it adopts new modes of expression, and coins new words wherein to clothe its new ideas. To this rule Latin was no exception. Roman authors had largely modelled their writings upon Greek literature, and had built up a noble language, but one as unsuited, as it was unintended, to express every-day wants and occupations. Now it was not this "classical" Latin which finally established itself, but the language of the merchants, the soldiers, and slaves who accompanied the conquerors. (§ 24.) Again, though Celtic was superseded to such an extent that in French scarcely a vestige remains of the language (§ 25), the Latin which took its place was greatly modified by contact with it, by the new uses to which it was put by Romans and Celts alike, by the ignorance of the latter, and perhaps above all by their new style of pronunciation. In short, the popular Latin in Gaul, during the third and fourth centuries, was a vulgar, corrupt tongue, which Cicero would have failed to recognise as the language of Rome. § 7. But it was destined to meet with many more vicissitudes on this foreign soil. Throughout her history, as far as it is known to us, Gaul has been perpetually menaced by barbarous tribes. Bands of Vandals, Goths, Allemans, and Franks had crossed the Rhine in succession, pillaging and destroying everything in their way, and either establishing small colonies in the midst of a terrified population, or returning to their homes laden with booty. After Gaul had become a Roman province, the lands which had been laid waste on the left bank of the Rhine were assigned by Rome to the conquered Germans, on condition of their protecting the frontier. But the Barbarians made their appearance none the less at each crisis of the Roman history. They established themselves among both Celts and Romans, and took possession little by little of Gaul and of the most important posts in the government of the country. But these colonies of Germans were, even after the great invasion of the fifth century, only a handful of men in the midst of a conquered people. Reversing the part taken by the Gauls in the Roman conquest, the conquerors now adopted the language and customs of the conquered. Still their influence gradually worked upon the language and upon the people, and many words of German origin found their way into the vocabulary of the Gallo-Romans. (§ 26.) § 8. Old French Period, A.D. 800 to 1300.-Four centuries passed away after the German conquest, four centuries of violence and suffering, during which the country had gradually relapsed into barbarism and darkness. At the end of that period a new dawn began to glimmer in the horizon. Charlemagne made great efforts to revive the old Roman civilization in his empire, and although men's minds were not prepared to receive it, nothing that this great man did left a deeper impression. It is at this time that the struggle between literary Latin and the popular Latin becomes more clearly manifest. (§ 27.) Common Latin, already named "Lingua Romana," was almost universally spoken, and the judgment of Charlemagne enabled him to apprehend the importance of this popular speech. He established schools where it was taught, and did his utmost to collect the poems and songs of the period. At the same time he sought instruction himself in the language spoken by so large a portion of his subjects. § 9. When he died (A.D. 814), the provinces which he had united under a single rule were again separated. His three grandsons, Lothaire, Louis, and Charles, after much fighting and bloodshed, divided the empire into three kingdoms; Italy, Germany, and France. It was in 842, the year from which may be dated the national history of France as distinct from those of Italy, Spain, etc., that a new language* was It is probable that, leaving aside certain restrictions, only one lingua romana was known at first all over Gaul. This language remained more pure in the Provençal than in the French, which as early as the ninth century began to separate itself. The Oaths may represent this common language. (§ 27.) |