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I often marvel at the direct impact that French has had on other Romance languages (e.g., Spanish). I know that French borrows from these languages as well, but its own lexical influence seems much larger. Were intellectual and literary spaces in France historically so much more productive compared to the rest? Was borrowing from French seen as superior rather than using or creating local terms? Or is there no reason in particular?

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    In Europe, French used to play a role similar to the one English plays worldwide nowadays but your question should probably better be asked at linguistics.stackexchange.com Commented Jan 16, 2024 at 3:56
  • Got this. Thank you! Commented Jan 16, 2024 at 4:35
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    French remained the language of diplomacy for several centuries, see e.g. here. And let's not forget that English is now the world's most widely spoken language, but from 1066 onwards French was the language of the king of England and its court for four centuries. Commented Jan 16, 2024 at 7:26
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    I’m voting to close this question because saying if borrowing from French was "seen as superior rather than using or creating local terms" doesn't meet the guidelines of the site. It would be more appropriate on Linguistics. Commented Sep 20, 2024 at 7:42
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    France was the dominant power in Europe in the 18th century. After that it declined. French was the lingua franca. Commented Sep 20, 2024 at 15:43

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In 1500, France population represented 20% of total Europe population (compared to 8% today), so it naturally had a big influence.

It also did have influential Universities (l'Université de Paris was founded in 1200, on the school created by the father of scholastique, Abelard ), imposed the French language in the whole country (ordonnance de Villers Cotteret in 1539), then we had l'Académie Française in 1634, the first latin Encyclopédie by Diderot (1751), and lot of authors, Voltaire dominated European theatre production with 50 pieces...

So it's a mix of population dominance, administrative resolutions and gifted authors.

Anyway, French still derives from vulgar latin which of course did also influence all latin languages.

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    Don't overestimate the Villers-Cotterêts ordinance influence. It was more aimed at obsoleting Latin than promote French per se. What boosted French usage in France was French Revolution and later mandatory school for everyone. On the other hand, it is true that until WWI the French and European elite was speaking French or at least was knowledgeable in it. The remaining people were mainly speaking whatever language or dialect was in use where they lived. Commented Sep 20, 2024 at 12:04
  • @jlliagre the question was about the influence abroad, not what boosted usage among population. I agree that at the end of XIXth century, France was vastly rural and most of the population still using dialects, but if you wanted to have a national audience, you would speak and write in french since roughly the XVIIth century. Descartes wrote in french. Commented Sep 21, 2024 at 16:27
  • Yes, I was commenting on the statement that French was imposed in the whole country in 1539 while in fact, a majority of the French citizens didn't speak French at home by the beginning of the 19th century, and a roughly a quarter of them not even as a second language. France was indeed largely rural as was Europe as a whole. French was mostly known and used by nobility all over Europe and by wealthy urban people, i.e. a minority of Europe's inhabitants. The elite, people attending university did use French but the majority of Europeans (including French of course) was illiterate. Commented Sep 21, 2024 at 17:45
  • Absolutely. I wrote that French was imposed by the ordinance of Villers Cotteret in the sense that it was made mandatory in administrative and legal affairs, pushing its official and academic usage, not in the sense that French actually became the only language used in every day life, by far. Commented Sep 22, 2024 at 13:41

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