How do languages of the past influence modern day languages?

Florence (Year 12) explores the evolution of the French language.

The ancient name for the country of France was Gaul, and its people spoke a Celtic language known as Gaulish. French as we know it has not evolved from it’s ancient predecessor Gaulish, though it contains some influences of this language. Like many languages, it is instead influenced foreign influences who brought their own language to Gaul. This began in 58 BCE, the year of Caesar’s initial invasion of Gaul- the Gallic wars went on until 51 BCE when Gaul had been officially conquered. It was from this point onwards that Latin became a language spoken in ancient France.

The next major development, after the introduction of Latin, was the arrival of the Franks in the 5th century. They brought their West Germanic language, Old Franconian [Frankish], to France. Slightly later, during the Carolingian period, reforms attempted to standardise written Latin. There was a disparity between “Vulgar Latin” (or common speech) and the Latin used in the Catholic church. It was from this Vulgar Latin, and to some extent Gaulish and Frankish, that Old French was born. The earliest known text containing this language was the Strasbourg Oaths which can be dated to 842.

This language can also be found in a ninth century manuscript from a dictionary dating back as far as the fourth century, called “De compendiosa doctrina”. In the margins of this manuscript there are notes written in Latin with some Old French words replacing Latin ones, for example “rauger” instead of “rabere”, both meaning to be mad or go mad. Ancient manuscripts also contain examples of Latin words being replaced with those of Old Breton, the Celtic language of Brittany.

Whilst written evidence of French is sparse up to the 11th century, in the 12th century the number of manuscripts containing the language increased significantly. Over two thirds were Anglo-Norman, the variety of French used in England following the Norman conquest of 1066. It is this prevalence of Anglo-Norman texts that confirms the relevance of England in the history of French. The blossoming of Old French into a learned, literary language was, in part, due to the unique socio-cultural and multi-lingual context of twelfth century England.

Following this progression from Gaulish, Frankish and Latin to Old French and Anglo-Norman French became not only the main language of France but also the sixth language of England. It was described in a French prose text adapted from Henry of Huntingdon’s “Historia Anglorum”:

Ore devez saveir que en Bretaigne, ki ore est apelee Engletere, orent ja cinc languages e si vus dirai ques il sunt: Bretoneis e Engleis e Schoteis, Picteis e Latineis – ore i est la sime que l’om apele Normand e Francés – les ques sunt fait comuns a plusurs par la doctrine des anciens escriz.

Translated:

You should also know that in Britain, which is now called England, there were five languages and I will tell you what they are: Breton and English and Scottish, Pictish and Latin – now there is the sixth that is called Norman and French – which were known by many people through the teaching of old texts.

When we think of the difference between the ancient and the modern, particularly in terms of language, the divide seems very clear; the classics are referred to as dead languages, with grammar that behaves differently, different topics discussed, and they’re learnt in a different way. Whereas modern languages are learnt with the goal of future use, with contemporary cultural context. Clearly though, they are not as far removed from one another as it may appear. Without the languages of the past we would not have our languages of the present.