History of the French language

Throughout its history French has undergone many linguistic mutations from the Vulgar Latin of Antiquity to the modern forms we know today. This book explores this evolution tracing its passage from Latin to the earliest forms of French to its status as a national language under the Kingdom of France in the Middle Ages and then its standardization in the 18th century. Analyzing the grammatical phonetic and lexical changes that shaped French is essential to understanding its development as well as the cultural and social history of France.