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Little of the pre-Roman Celtic origins of the French language remains. ... However,
one Celtic language - Breton - was still alive in Britain until the end of the
19th century. In 52 BC, the Roman Empire imposed its language - Latin - in most
of the territories of modern France, a situation that lasted for five centuries
... After the fall of the Roman empire, the northern part of France was invaded
by Germanic peoples, and the dialects spoken in Gallos-Romans invaded regions
are Germanized, and form the group of dialects of the Language of Oil ( French,
Norman, Picard, Angevine,...) as opposed to the Language of Oc (Occitan, Provencal,
Catalan, ...) in southern France, mainly remaining by Latin .. In the Paris
region, a German people, the Franks became of particular importance. Their language,
French, prevailed over the whole territory of France, in a process as follows:
In 1549 the Ordinance of Villers-Cotterets installed French as the official
written (at the expense of Latin) and spoken language of France. At the end
of the reign of Louis XIV (18th century), the French territory reached its present
size ... However, France is an ethnic melting-pot and if French is in fact the
administrative language throughout France, it was spoken mainly in the north.
However, gained more influence under the political systems succeeding monarchy:
Republics, Empires, etc ... In the late 19th century, the Third Republic organized
a system of public services - among which was the `" Education Nationale" and
a network of institutions which completed the imposition of the French Language
as the first written and spoken language throughout the country At that time,
French was also the language of elites across Europe, as well as newcomers to
the French “family”: the colonized peoples on five continents. From the mid-twentieth
century, French met with a spiral of decline, due to: - The defeat of the 2nd
World War - Decolonization - Local conflicts of the Cold War in Indochina, Lebanon
and Africa, causing the disappearance of the French-speaking elites or their
emigration to France (or Quebec, Switzerland,etc ...) French is now spoken as
first language by 300 million people and remains popular as a second language
elites around the world.
In the early Christian Era, the Romans invaded the Celtic peoples living in
a territory corresponding to the current England: however, Latin at this time
had very little influence on the dialects of the British Isles, unlike the deep
linguistic transformation observed in France. However, the Christianization
of the region gave Latin a real influence, as it was the liturgical language
and the language of trade with the mainland. Some five centuries later, some
Germanic (Angles, Saxons) and Hansa (Frisians, Jutes, Normans) peoples invaded
England. The Celtic dialects evolved into a language group called Old English
... In 1066, William the Conqueror imposed upon this already linguisticaly complex
layer the use of the Franco-Norman dialect as the language of the elite, ie
of the lordship: Latin remained the language of lithurgic and written use. This
situation will lead to the ‘Language of Shakespeare’, which will very quickly
establish itself as the official written language of England at the expense
of Latin (15th century) and become the official spoken dialect, in England,
and then more or less of the United Kingdom (the territory of British Isles)
and its (very many) colonies - on five continents. One of them, the United States
of America, will undergo, in a period of less than two centuries, spectacular
territorial, demographic, economic technological development. This will help
install English as the language of international trade. From the mid-twentieth
century, English will ride a wave of development: - After the second world war,
largely in favor of English-speaking nations. - Decolonization and evolution
of the British Empire into a winning political structure: the Commonwealth -
Some local conflicts of the Cold War, such as in Indochina, Lebanon and Africa,
causing the weakening of the previous states of civilization in the countries
affected, and a reconstruction phenomenon inspired by the modern model of Anglo-Saxon
society: the capitalist system. English is now spoken as a first language by
700,000,000 people (or twice that if we include the poulation of India, as English
is informally the first language ofthat country) and became the most widespread
of the second languages of all the nations of the world, making it a vector
of primary importance in understanding and exchange ( trade, culture, tourism,
science,...) ... - between peoples worldwide.
In the early Christian era, the entire Indochinese peninsula was inhabited by peoples speaking Mon-Khmer dialects ... In this region, the Indian world had an influence, reflected not only by the adoption of Sanskrit (the liturgical language of Hinduism) as a written language of the elite, but also by a strong lexical enrichment (Sanskrit, and more later by Pali, the language of Theravada Buddhism, which is itself derived from Sanskrit) and of Mon-Khmer (also: Austronesian) languages spoken in Southeast Asian subcontinent, thus forming a link of cultural / spiritual unity which is particularly powerful. One of these peoples, from the north shore of the Great Lake, the Tonle Sap, the Khmer, will create a huge Empire and impose its language as the language of administration and of the elite (from the 9th to the 13th century) throughout the entire peninsula with the exception of Burma ... Peoples at that time likely spoke dialects of one Mon or Khmer afiliated language: kuy, saotch, pear, samr, braotch, khamu, jung, phnong, or more rarely an Austronesian language (Cham, Jaray,) with probable added influence from northern languages (Lao, Thai lan na, Tibetan dialects, ...) distilled from the great rivers that are the roads of Indochina. The Khmer language has been evolving from the 15th century through osmosis with one of its derivatives, a mixture of Mon and Thai: Siamese. In the late 19th century, the colonizing nations lead the region and drew the boundaries between the Indochinese nations, thus, ending this situation of osmosis ... Following the establishment of the Buddhist Institute in 1930, the Khmer language is found in a crystallized state of lexical and syntactic meeting of several dialects of Khmer languages of Cambodia + the incorporation of many new words from Sanskrit or Pali + French + incorporation of standardized spell ... Modern Khmer or Cambodian is now spoken by 15 million people in Cambodia and perhaps 10 million more speakers, including those in Thai and Vietnamese areas bordering Cambodia + the Khmer diaspora, scattered throughout the world. Khmer – the last Mon-Khmer language to be the official language of a country - Cambodia - is a particularly poetic language, being subtle, rich and effective . However, it is phonetically confusing (mostly because of the large amount of vowels) for non-Khmer speakers, especially Europeans. The Khmer language is atonal, where mono-syllabic words are the most numerous. Di-syllabic words do exist, but they are mainly alterations of mono-syllabics by pre-fixing or in-fixing ,or foreign (importations. Poly-syllabic terms also exist but they are all foreign in origin loans Khmer is a language without grammar or conjugation. The words are invariable in gender and number. Khmer syntax is primarily designed to agglutinate "micro-concepts" in necessary and sufficient number - and with the correct successive order imposed by the syntax - to produce a precise, understandable, and consistent with the context's sentence. Khmer and Thai languages are very close, lexically and syntactically, more so than French and English. What differentiates the two languages is primarily due to differences in pronunciation of words pronounced very similarly, plus the fact that unlike Khmer, Thai is a tonal language. However, scientists do not validate this linguistic osmosis and classify Thai and Khmer into different families (respectively Sino-Tibetan / Thai Kaday for one, Austro / Mon-Khmer for the other) Modern Khmer uses a character set originating from South India and belonging to the family of matrix Devanagari alphabets ... The Khmer alphabet is particularly attractive, clear in its written form, and phonetically complete (perhaps too much so: an excessive abundance of characters is often alleged) by conception using the footer-part of consonants - and can thus represent all sounds theoretically producible by the human throat. .
In the early Christian era, the entire Indochinese peninsula was inhabited by peoples speaking Mon-Khmer dialects ... In this region, the Indian world had an influence, reflected not only by the adoption of Sanskrit (the liturgical language of Hinduism) as a written language of the elite, but also by a strong lexical enrichment (Sanskrit, and more later by Pali, the language of Theravada Buddhism, which is itself derived from Sanskrit) and of Mon-Khmer (also: Austronesian) languages spoken in Southeast Asian subcontinent, thus forming a link of cultural / spiritual unity which is particularly powerful. One of these peoples, from the north shore of the Great Lake, the Tonle Sap, the Khmer, will create a huge Empire and impose its language as the language of administration and of the elite (from the 9th to the 13th century) throughout the entire peninsula with the exception of Burma ... Peoples at that time likely spoke dialects of one Mon or Khmer afiliated language: kuy, saotch, pear, samr, braotch, khamu, jung, phnong, or more rarely an Austronesian language (Cham, Jaray,) with probable added influence from northern languages (Lao, Thai lan na, Tibetan dialects, ...) distilled from the great rivers that are the roads of Indochina. The Thais began an expansion southwards in two steps: Before the 13th century as a progressive installation throughout the northern territories of the Khmer Empire (the Chiang May and Luang Prabang regions) ... After the 13th century, this influence will become an irresistible pressure, flooding the territories of the Khmer Empire, situated in the valleys of the Menam Chaw Praya (Siamese) and middle Mekong (Lao). The imperial powers ultimately found themselves moved out of Angkor to Sukhothai, Ayuthaya and finally to Bangkok (18th century). Finally, two modern Thai languages emerged: - Lao = Thai thoroughly mixed with Khmer-Angkorian and with the Khmer-khmus dialect spoken in this region of the Mekong. - The Siamese language = a mixture of Thai-Khmer Angkorian languages and the Mon-Khmer spoken in this part of the Menam Chaw Praya Basin. Siamese was formalized and popularized by Ramakhaeng (1238) and developed in first language of modern Siam until the early 20th century. In the late 19th century, the colonizing nations lead the region and drew the boundaries between the Indochinese nations, thus, ending the situation of osmosis between khmer and siamese languages. ... Siam, not colonized by the West, became separated from its principal vassal kingdoms and in the 1930s initiated a return to a purely Thai identity - in a nationalist and slightly fascistic dialectic designed to legitimize future territorial future claims, but negationist and contemptuous in reference to considering the powerful contributions of and earlier cultural mixes with Mon, Khmer and Burmese forming the basis not only of language but also of the whole of Thai culture. Thai, or Modern Siamese, the as official language of modern Thailand, is spoken by approximately 70 million people. Modern Siamese is a particularly poetic language, being subtle, rich and effective ... It is very melodious, being almost sung thanks to juxtaposition of different heights of tones on almost every syllable. The phonetics confusing to non-Thais, especially Europeans. Modern Siamese is a tonal and strongly monosyllabic language Di-syllabic words exist, but they are borrowed, mainly from Khmer. Poly-syllabic terms also exist but they are also foreign in origin. Modern Siamese is a language without grammar or conjugation. The words are invariable in gender and number. The syntax of modern Siamese is primarily designed to agglutinate "micro-concepts" in necessary and sufficient numbers - and with the correct successive order imposed by the syntax - to produce an precise, understandable, and consistent with the context's sentence. The modern Siamese uses a character set coming from South India belonging to the family of matrix Devanagari alphabets ... It is in fact a particularly effective reform of the Khmer alphabet used in the 12th century in Sukhotay, which includes adjusting the columns of the Devanagari matrix to the tonal character of Thai language. Khmer and Thai languages are very close, lexically and syntactically more than would the French and English. What differentiates the two languages primarily due to differences in pronunciation of words pronounced very similar + the fact that Thai is a tonal language unlike the Khmer ... But scientists do not validate the linguistic osmosis and classify the Thai and Khmer in different families (respectively Sino-Tibetan / Thai Kaday for one, Austro / Mon-Khmer for the other)
