Old French

Formerly spoken in

• Indo- European Italic Romance Languages Gallo-Roman Langues d' oïl Old French

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Fro

Old French refers to the langues d' oïl as a collective term of varieties of Romance languages ​​that were spoken in the northern half of France and parts of Belgium and Switzerland from the 9th to about the end of the 14th century. The Old French was replaced by the French agent.

• 4.1 Zweikasussystem
• 4.2 Pre-and Postdetermination
• 4.3 Verbal morphology

• 5.1 substrate
• 5.2 superstrate
• 5.3 native words and words book

• 9.1 Introductions and language stories
• 9.2 dictionaries
• 9.3 grammars

Introduction

A first indication of the use of a Romanesque vernacular in France can be found in the year 813, in a decision of the Council of Tours, in which the bishops are asked to convey through understandable preaching the basics of the Catholic faith. " And he (the bishop) aspire the same homilies each transfer course for itself in the commonly held Roman or German language, so the easier to understand all that is said. " - Et ut easdem omelias Quisque aperte transferre studeat in rusticam Romanam linguam aut Thiotiscam quo facilius cuncti possint intel casual quae dicuntur. Delimited is so oriented on use of Scripture and liturgical Latin grammatical rules of the not yet such a subject, rustic ' vernaculars Romansh and German ( lingua romana rustica or thiotisca ).

The first Old French language document are the Oaths of Strasbourg in the year 842, in which Charles the Bald and Louis the German conspired after the death of his father Louis the Pious against the first-born brother Lothar. In the traditional Latin text of Nithard are the oaths have got their brothers along with followers in their respective vernacular, Romanesque ' ( " romana lingua " ) and Old High German ( " teudisca lingua " ), quoted extensively in the text. The Romanesque part of the Vulgar Latin is a very closely related, but already the French text in a conservative latinisierenden, based on the royal law firms Latin letters with some purely Latin words again (excerpt):

From this it is seen that already in the Carolingian period in the Western Franks ( Francia occidentalis) was spoken a Romance vernacular. Used to, was required in the legal taking the oath, so that the font of the Latin insufficient knew Lore, whose content was the oath.

The Old French language is the first recorded in written documents Romance language at all. The first old French poetry is the characteristics of the Picard dialect having Eulalia sequence (approx. 884 ), follow her other religious and ecclesiastical seals use texts ( Jonas fragment). With the beginning of the Capetian dynasty 987, the coined by franzi dialect language gradually spread in France. By the 12th century sets the written tradition of their origin, however, older, intended for presentation by minstrels epic poem, the Chanson de geste to which soon the songs of Trouvères, the courtly knight and antique novels, history seals and French adaptations of biblical texts and didactic works are emerging. From the late 12th century, the French then finds as a deed language use, initially mainly in private documents, from the mid-13th century alongside the Latin documents in the royal chancery.

Phonology

Vowel system

The Old French vowel system goes back to the first occurring after the quantity collapse in the 3rd century replacement of the Latin vowel length by qualities.

As a consequence, especially vowels were in free position ( ie at the end of a syllable ) diphthongised, ie from simple vowels diphthongs arose very early produced, for example, the diphthong / ou / of / o / ( in louer, cour ), also produced the nasalization of / to / and / on /, as could be spoken nasal diphthongs such as / aim /, / ain /.

Consonants

Almost all consonants ( i) before a vowel were palatalized in Old French, that is, the debate shifted towards the palate ( the front palate). The out of the intervocalic / t / created / d / is in Old French to a " British " voiced th ( / ð / ) before this sound completely disappears from the French language (eg Latin VITA > vida > Vida > frz. vie).

Graphy

In Old French texts, the orthography is different (as in modern French ) significantly from the debate, that is, it is partly etymologisierend, partly written phonetically. The actual pronunciation can be reconstructed in the specific case of rhyme as forest: plaist; fais: apres or by examining the Wortentlehnungen in other languages, such as forest Middle High German: foreht; Old French: chastel, Middle High German: tschastel or engl. change, chapel, chief. In the letters were not distinguished in the Old French as / ts / palatalized c before e and i, and further as / k / implemented c before a, o and u, the cedilla to mark the palatalized pronunciation of c before a, o and u was introduced by the printing press in the 16th century.

Grammar

Zweikasussystem

The morphological system of Latin had five different declension and a case system. In Latin, there was an a / o -declension, a 3rd declension (i -declension, declination Consonantal and mixed declension ), an e- and a u - declination. Often the shapes aligned in different case. So could the shape rosae (a- declension ) the genitive singular, the dative singular and the nominative plural, respectively. In Old French there was an omission of the final consonant, in particular of -M and -S, it results in the following phenomena:

• A stronger fixation of the syntax
• The development of products that were still unknown in classical Latin
• The use of prepositions for all object instances

The Old French had a reduced two case system ( a so-called Zweikasusflexion ), which allowed a distinction between subject and object:

In modern French, the Obliquusformen prevailed. This also has to do with the fact that in the plural something " to come ", in this case, an -s is added to the stem: neufrz. mur ( wall), but murs ( walls ). Another motive was that the Obliquusformen were used far more often. This is also seen in the other Romance languages ​​, continue all the Latin accusative and only in very exceptional cases, the nominative: rum ( accusative ), the Italian / vulgar Latin pax (peace, nominative ) but pace (m). pace yields, Latin lux (light, nominative ) but luce ( m) ( accusative ), the Italian luce results or pater (father, nominative ), but patre ( m) ( accusative ), the. ital in. / span padre, O. Fr. Pedre > Modern-French. père or altfriaulisch padri lives > Friulian par.

The elimination of the Zweikasussystems in the 14th century by the complete silence of the final consonant marks the transition from Old French to Middle French.

Pre-and Postdetermination

In Latin, is

• Verbs in person, number, tense and mode
• Nouns in number, gender and case
• At increased adjectives Degree

Defined by the extension. By silencing of final consonants (in particular, S and T ) is the use of pronouns in Old French mandatory since about the 11th century. The morphological marker will be moved from the end of words to the word beginning.

Verbal morphology

The Latin knew especially the synthetic marking of tense and mood in the word inside. Already in Vulgar Latin can be a tendency for the analytical formation determine morphological tense and mood is so indicated by an attached auxiliary verb. Hence in Old French emerged, for example, the forms of the future tense and the conditional, such as the Old French Futur from CANTARE Habeo is (literally, I have to sing ) to chanterai. Also, the passive was formed by a periphrastic description with ESSERE KL AMAOR Altfrz Amatus SUM Neufrz je suis unpopular ones. Is particularly useful for the formation of the passive form, the form in modern French is an analytical form, and still no resynthesizing occurred. One of the main periphrastic circumlocutions, however, is the perfect, which is composed of Habeo Cantatum and an already completed process describes. The New French equivalent would be j'ai chanté. From the classic Latin Perfect CANTAVI the present passé simple has ever developed chantai. Other times like the past tense developed according to law from the Latin: Latin CANTABAM > vlat. cantava > Old French cantoe > French chantais.

Vocabulary

The Old French vocabulary goes back to the Latin, which had prevailed in Gaul after the conquest by Julius Caesar in 51 BC. The southern French -speaking countries has even been Latinized from 120 BC, on the coast and in the upper reaches of the Rhone is also also Greek language colonies (Nice, Marseille) had formed. Around the 3rd century, the Latin spoken in the territory of the Roman Empire had generally so strong against the font Latin of the Roman elite education changed that one sometimes demarcated it as a lingua latina rustica from the written language sermo urbanus; in the linguistic terminology translated later by the terms of speaking Latin or Vulgar Latin.

In its development, the Western subject in the colonies, and so also in Gaul, the dual impact on both the conquered by the Romans Peoples ( substrate), especially the Celts, as well as the immigrant as part of the great migration of Germanic peoples ( superstrate ). Both adapted the Latin each with their own pronunciation habits, and brought their own Wortgut in the vocabulary a. These influences were crucial for the breakdown of the Romance languages ​​in general that originated from the Latin speech, as well as for the internal structure of that Latin, which was spoken especially in Gaul. There were in the south of the Langues d'oc ( Oc - languages), also known as Occitan or pars pro toto referred to as Provencal language, while in the north the Langues d' oïl ( Oïl languages), French in the narrow sense, emerged. The language border went about following the Loire, more precisely along a line that runs from Grenoble to La Rochelle.

Substratum

The Latin in Gaul was initially influenced by the Celtic language that was spoken before the Roman conquest. The influence of this Gallic substrate is demonstrated in Old French, only to a small extent. It is found mainly in place names, also in the field of agriculture ( charrue, mouton, boue ) and individual crafts such as brewing beer ( Cervoise, brasser, brasserie). There are also some words of Celtic origin that the Romans very early stage of the Celtic inhabitants of other regions, particularly in northern Italy, took over, and therefore in other Romance languages ​​continue to live ( chemise, chemin, lieue ). Moreover, had the Celtic substrate in Gaul may influence the phonetic development as the palatalization, the development of the Latin / u / to French / u / or the vocalization of / l /.

Superstrate

Had Altfränkische The language of the conquerors as a comparatively greater influence on the development of the Old French, which employs some five centuries after the beginning of Romanization. Frankish elements in French are, inter alia, proper names such as Gérard < Gerhard, Louis < Hlodwig, Charles < Karl, place names with Franconian suffix ( eg- anges < ingas ) or derived from Frankish personal names (eg Avricourt < Eberhardi curtis = " courtyard of the Eberhard " ), also terms of military nature ( beffroi " donjon " hache < hapja " hoe ", haubert < neck mount ), concepts of justice and social order ( ban, fief < feodum < fehu, rank, marc < marka ), words from the field of clothing ( gant < want, froc < hrokk " rock", écharpe < skirpja ) and the living culture ( hall, auberge < heri bergamot " shelter for the army ," fauteuil < faldistol, jardin < gard - ), also animal names and terms of Waidwesens ( épervier < sparwari " Sperber " gibier < gabaiti " Gebeize, falconry ," mésange < mesinga " tit ", hareng " herring " ), name of the plant ( hêtre < haistr " young master ", saule < Sahla ) and a few words of emotional life and abstracts ( honte with honnir < haunjan " mock " effroi with effrayer < Latin exfridare < ex frida " entfriedlichen ", or " make weak / powerless " émoi esmai with esmaier < ex magan ).

Visible are Frankish native words and Others on the graphical implementation of the Germanic / w / in the initial position, which is a voice / g / has in handwriting, / gu / result ( Frk werra > French guerre ). More superstrate languages ​​such as the Gothic, however, had only a minor influence.

Native words and words book

When considering the Latin word good in the French vocabulary to distinguish between Erbwörtern that originated in Old French from the talk Latin and evolved according to law, and secondarily from the Latin borrowed words most educational origin ( " book words " ), often also already in the Middle Ages and were especially taken into French since the time of humanism and have therefore not participated or later at the phonetic development of French. Example: chose and cause (Latin causa ), tôle and table (Latin tabula ), entier and Integré (Latin integer), droit and direct (Latin directus ) mâcher and mastiquer (Latin masticare ), and sûreté sécurité (Latin securitas ), nuisible and nocif (Latin nocibilis ).

Varieties

Since the Fran Zische prevailed until the 13th century in France as a national language as a dialect of the Ile de France and the basis of today's French, existed for a long time relatively independent dialects:

• The Burgundy in Burgundy, which was an independent and culturally upstanding Duchy long time;
• The Picard in Picardy, with a strong monastic tradition, some of the oldest old French texts are written in the Picard dialect (about Eulalie sequence), also belonging to the matière de France Chansons de geste are believed to have originated in Picardy.
• The Walloon in Wallonia in present-day Belgium south of Brussels, with the center of Namur;
• The Champagnische in Champagne, with a strong literary tradition, the epics of Chrétien de Troyes are written in the dialect champagnischen;
• The Norman, which was initially used in the area of ​​present-day Normandy by the Normans and was spoken after the conquest of England in the British Isles. Here one speaks also of Anglo -Norman, which exerted a strong influence on the development of today's English language. Especially the seals of Marie de France in the Anglo-Norman dialect became known;
• The Lorraine in the border region to the German -speaking world and a far-reaching political independence until the 17th century

However, can often do no unique dialect mappings based on the traditional ( literary) texts, as the works of the Old French term are generally supplies only through later copies.

Shall not be counted langues d' oïl to the Frankoprovenzalische in the region of Lyon to the French-speaking Switzerland and the dialects of the Langues d'oc southern France. Controversial is the status of dialects in the designated as croissant dialect border area in the Auvergne.

Old French literature

The medieval Old French literature can be chronologically and thematically divided into different eras. At the beginning of the Old French literature are mainly religious works ( saints ):

• La séquence de Sainte Eulalie ( Eulalia sequence, about 880 )
• Homily sur Jonas ( Jonas fragment, end of 10th century)
• Passion of the Christ (late 10th century)
• Vie de Saint Léger ( Leodegarlied, 10th century)
• Vie de Saint Alexis ( Alexiuslied, 11th century )
• Voyage de Saint Brendan ( Brendansreise, 1112)
• Jeu d' Adam (~ 1150-1175 )

This is followed by an era in which the genre of the chanson de geste ( epics ) dominates:

• Chanson de Roland ( Song of Roland, ~ 1075-1100 )
• Chanson de Guillaume ( William Song, 12th century)
• Chanson de Jérusalem

In the 12th century flourished the genre of ancient Romans, Old French were adapted in the ancient texts:

• Alexander Roman ( early 12th century)
• Roman de Thebes ( anonymously, ~ 1150 by Statius Thebaid of )
• Roman de Troie ( Benoit de Sainte -Maure, ~ 1160 )
• Roman d' Eneas ( anonymously, ~ after Aeneid by Virgil )

In the High Middle Ages, it came to the flowering of courtly romance. The most prominent author of this literary genre was Chrétien de Troyes (~ 1140 to ~ 1190 ):

• Erec et Enide (~ 1170, 6878 octosyllable )
• Cliges (~ 1176, 6664 octosyllable in cross rhymes )
• Chevalier de la charette ( Lancelot ) ( ~ 1177-81, 7112 octosyllable )
• Le chevalier au lion ( Yvain ) ( ~ 1177-81, 6808 octosyllable )
• Li Contes del Graal (~ 1181 )