Middle French
 | This article is missing information about the phonology of Middle French. (April 2020) |
| Middle French | |
|---|---|
| françois, franceis | |
| Region | France |
| Era | Evolved into Modern French by the early 17th century |
Early forms | Old Latin
|
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-2 | frm |
| ISO 639-3 | frm |
| Glottolog | midd1316 |
Middle French (French: moyen français) is a historical division of the French language that covers the period from the mid-14th to the early 17th centuries.[3][4] It is a period of transition during which:
- the French language became clearly distinguished from the other competing Oïl languages, which are sometimes subsumed within the concept of Old French(l'ancien français)
- the French language was imposed as the official language of the Kingdom of France in place of Latin and other Oïl and Occitan languages
- the literary development of French prepared the vocabulary and grammar for the Classical French(le français classique) spoken in the 17th and 18th centuries.
It is the first version of French that is largely intelligible to Modern French, contrary to Old French.
History
The most important change found in Middle French is the complete disappearance of the noun
Among the elites, Latin was still the language of education, administration, and bureaucracy. That changed in 1539, with the
The fascination with classical texts led to numerous borrowings from Latin and
Between the 1490s and the 1550s, the
There were also some borrowings from Spanish (casque) and German (reître) and from the Americas (cacao, hamac, maïs).[8]
The influence of the Anglo-Norman language on English had left words of French and Norman origin in England. Some words of Romance origin now found their way back into French as doublets through war and trade.
Also, the meaning and usage of many words from Old French transformed.
Spelling and punctuation were extremely variable. The introduction of printing in 1470 highlighted the need for
The period saw the publication of the first French grammars and of the French-Latin dictionary of Robert Estienne (1539).
At the beginning of the 17th century, French would see the continued unification of French, the suppression of certain forms, and the prescription of rules, leading to Classical French.
Phonological history
| Latin | Proto-Romance | Old French | Middle French |
Modern French | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 9th century | 12th century | 15th century | 18th century | 21st century | ||
| PEDEM 'foot' |
*/ˈpɛde/ | /pjeð/ | /pjeθ/ pied |
/pje/ | /pje/ | /pje/ pied |
| MĀTŪRUM 'mature' |
*/maˈturu/ | /maˈðyr/ | /məˈyr/ meür |
/my(r)/ | /myr/ | /myʁ/ mûr |
| SCŪTUM 'shield' |
*/(ɪ)sˈkutu/ | /esˈkyð/ | /esˈky/ escu |
/eˈky/ | /eˈky/ | /eˈky/ écu |
| SAETAM 'silk' |
*/ˈseta/ | /ˈsejðə/ | /ˈsej.ə/ seie |
/ˈsoj.ə/ | /ˈswɛ.ə/ | /swa/ soie |
| FĒMINAM 'woman' |
*/ˈfemɪna/ | /ˈfemnə/ | /ˈfemːə/ femme |
/ˈfãmə/ | /ˈfam(ə)/ | /fam/ femme |
| HOMINEM 'man' |
*/ˈɔmɪne/ | /ˈɔmnə/ | /ˈɔmːə/ homme |
/ˈɔ̃mə/ | /ˈɔm(ə)/ | /ɔm/ homme |
| BELLUS 'beautiful' |
*/ˈbɛlːʊs/ | /bɛɫs/ | /be̯aws/ beaus |
/be̯o/ | /bjo/ | /bo/ beau |
| HABĒRE 'to have' |
*/aˈβere/ | /aˈvejr/ | /aˈvɔjr/ avoir |
/aˈvwɛ(r)/ | /aˈvwɛr/ | /aˈvwaʁ/ avoir |
| IŪDICĀTUM 'judged' |
*/judiˈkatu/ | /dʒyˈdʒjeð/ | /ʒyˈʒje/ jugié |
/ʒyˈʒe/ | /ʒyˈʒe/ | /ʒyˈʒe/ jugé |
| COLLŌCĀRE 'to place' |
*/kolːoˈkare/ | /koɫˈtʃjer/ | /kuˈtʃjer/ couchier |
/kuˈʃje(r)/ | /kuˈʃe/ | /kuˈʃe/ coucher |
Literature
Middle French is the language found in the writings of
The affirmation and glorification of French finds its greatest manifestation in La Défense et illustration de la langue française (The Defense and Illustration of the French Language) (1549) by the poet Joachim du Bellay, which maintained that French, like the Tuscan of Petrarch and Dante Alighieri, was a worthy language for literary expression and promulgated a program of linguistic production and purification, including the imitation of Latin genres.
Notes
- ^ Hammarström, Harald; Forkel, Robert; Haspelmath, Martin; Bank, Sebastian (2022-05-24). "Glottolog 4.8 - Shifted Western Romance". Glottolog. Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology. Archived from the original on 2023-11-27. Retrieved 2023-11-11.
- ^ Hammarström, Harald; Forkel, Robert; Haspelmath, Martin; Bank, Sebastian (2024-11-16). "Glottolog 5.1 - Gallo-Rhaetian". Glottolog. Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology. Retrieved 2024-11-16.
- ISBN 978-2-13-061687-0.
- ^ "Dictionnaire du Moyen Français (1330–1500)". ATILF – CNRS & Université de Lorraine. 2015.
- ^ Larousse, xxvi.
- ^ Larousse, vi, xiii–xiv, xvii; Bonnard, pp. 113–114.
- ^ Wartburg, p. 160; Bonnard, p. 114.
- ^ Bonnard, p. 114.
References
- Larousse dictionnaire du moyen français. Paris: Larousse, 1992.
- H. Bonnard. Notions de style, de versificiation et d'histoire de la langue française. Paris: SUDEL, 1953.
- W. von Wartburg. Évolution et structure de la langue française. Berne (Switzerland): Francke A.G., 1946.
