04-06-2006, 06:48 AM
Although several different groups of Northmen came to Gaul at this time, the most successful and influential were the Salian Franks. Gaul was also partially invaded by Attila the Hun, but the Scourge of God, as he styled himself, made it no farther than Orleans and was pushed back in 451 by an army composed of Goths, Franks, Burgundians and Gauls. The Franks, under Clovis, served as a military elite as much as a governing class. One area the Franks made little attempt to subdue was Armorica, also called Brittany, which was a Celtic stronghold that had gained many ÈmigrÈs when the British Celts fled the Saxon invasions. Even today, the Celtic langauge Breton is spoken there, alongside the national language, French.
Though the Franks were the conquerors, they slowly became Romanized by the Gauls, even adopting the language of the people they ruled. Although the areas of France and Germany were ruled by a common king for close to 500 years (from the Merovingian Dynasty in the fifth century through the Carolingian Dynasty, which ended in the late tenth century, Germany and France were united under a common ruler, if not in fact in one imperial state), remarkably, for the most part, the languages remained distinct. Even the shifting political borders between 20th century France and Germany seem to have had little effect on linguistic borders. Among the inhabitants of the much disputed Alsace-Lorraine area, traditional German speakers continue to speak German and French speakers continue to speak French, regardless of which nation officially claims sovereignty. The Frankish influence in the Middle Ages and, to some degree, the more recent effects of shifting political borders, have ultimately contributed approximately 400 Germanic words to the French language.
http://colfa.utsa.edu/drinka/pie/lang_french.htm
So you could assume that the french are the descendants of the romanized gauls with a bit of Frankish blood Burgundian blood, ...
Though the Franks were the conquerors, they slowly became Romanized by the Gauls, even adopting the language of the people they ruled. Although the areas of France and Germany were ruled by a common king for close to 500 years (from the Merovingian Dynasty in the fifth century through the Carolingian Dynasty, which ended in the late tenth century, Germany and France were united under a common ruler, if not in fact in one imperial state), remarkably, for the most part, the languages remained distinct. Even the shifting political borders between 20th century France and Germany seem to have had little effect on linguistic borders. Among the inhabitants of the much disputed Alsace-Lorraine area, traditional German speakers continue to speak German and French speakers continue to speak French, regardless of which nation officially claims sovereignty. The Frankish influence in the Middle Ages and, to some degree, the more recent effects of shifting political borders, have ultimately contributed approximately 400 Germanic words to the French language.
http://colfa.utsa.edu/drinka/pie/lang_french.htm
So you could assume that the french are the descendants of the romanized gauls with a bit of Frankish blood Burgundian blood, ...
Tot ziens.
Geert S. (Sol Invicto Comiti)
Imperator Caesar divi Marci Antonini Pii Germanici Sarmatici ½filius divi Commodi frater divi Antonini Pii nepos divi Hadriani pronepos divi Traiani Parthici abnepos divi Nervae adnepos Lucius Septimius Severus Pius Pertinax Augustus Arabicus ½Adiabenicus Parthicus maximus pontifex maximus
Geert S. (Sol Invicto Comiti)
Imperator Caesar divi Marci Antonini Pii Germanici Sarmatici ½filius divi Commodi frater divi Antonini Pii nepos divi Hadriani pronepos divi Traiani Parthici abnepos divi Nervae adnepos Lucius Septimius Severus Pius Pertinax Augustus Arabicus ½Adiabenicus Parthicus maximus pontifex maximus
