Celtic Symbols

English and French sound very dissimilar when you hear them spoken, but these two languages actually share quite a few commonalities, especially when written. Understanding the history of the two languages will help you understand the similarities and differences that they enjoy.

History of Modern French

Both French and English started in European countries. French is a “Romance” language, which means its origins lie in the ancient Roman Empire. Latin was the language of the Roman Empire, but since the Empire had such a vast reach, many areas developed their own dialects of the language, often mixed with the languages of the native people. When the area that is today known as France was invaded by Germanic tribes in the 400s, the language took on a decidedly Germanic flavor. The native tongue of the new governing body was mixed with the Latin the people were speaking to create a new dialect, decidedly Latin, but with Germanic pronunciations.

As the Germanic tribes maintained control of the area, the language digressed further from Latin and became its own distinct tongue. This required the language to be codified, or written, so that political and legal process could take place much easier. The language was named “French” for the Frankish people that lived in the area where it was predominantly spoken. French became the official language of the new country in 1539 by the Edict of Villers Cotterets. The grammar of the language has remained relatively the same since the early 1600s, which is when the language was standardized by the French Academy. Today it is the official language of 22 countries, and the co-official language of many others, including Canada, Switzerland, Madagascar, and Belgium.

History of Modern English

English is one of the most widely spoken languages in the world. A truly global language, it is the language of finance, technology, and diplomacy. This is surprising in light of the fact that the language originated on the tiny island of Great Britain.

The English language is not a Romantic language like French. Because the island was isolated from the Roman Empire, it was not influenced as heavily by Latin as the inland languages were. However, French and English share one main commonality, and that is the influence of invading Germanic tribes.

While different tribes invaded England than invaded France, they spoke similar languages. Prior to the Germanic invasion, the people of Great Britain spoke a Celtic language. However, the Germanic people spoke a language that eventually developed into Old English. This was the language spoken on the island until 1100.

In 1066, France and England’s histories overlapped, when the William the Conqueror, the Duke of Normandy, conquered the island and brought French to the land. While the people did not speak France, the government did, and the language began to influence the language of the common people, eventually developing into Middle English, a combination of French and Old English. This gradually developed into Modern English, the language that is spoken today, and the invention of the printing press made it possible to unify and standardize the language.

Words Common to French and English

The overlapping influence of the Germanic tribes and the French influence on English history cause there to be several words that the two languages share. The pronunciation may be different, but these common words include:

-Anniversary
-Art
-Armoire
-Attaché
-Ballet
-Belle
-Bric-a-brac
-Brunette
-Bureau
-Café
-Chaise lounge
-Chic
-Cliché
-Clique
-Commandant
-Concierge
-Cul-de-sac
-Décor
-Entrée
-Entrepreneur
-Extraordinaire
-Façade
-Faux
-Fiancé
-Forte
-Hors d’oeuvre
-Impasse
-Layette
-Laissez-faire
-Liaison
-Lieu
-Material
-Melee
-Montage
-Motif
-Mousse
-National
-Passé
-Petite
-Rapport
-Reconnaissance
-Restaurateur
-Sabotage
-Saboteur
-Sans
-Touché

The popularity of Iceland’s tourism sector is growing day by day and this ever increasing popularity is encouraging more and more people to turn towards this small country in northern Europe to spend their summer and winter holidays. If you are planning to go in summer, which is the best time to visit there, you must take care of necessary reservations of flights and accommodations in hotels. Also do not forget to book the tickets of cultural and art shows that take place there in summer season only. Through these shows one can get the closer view of Iceland and its language.

The most used language of Iceland is “the Icelandic” and it is one of the very famous Nordic languages group. This group is the sub-group of the Germanic languages. Normally, Germanic language is divided into two groups i.e. North Germanic or Nordic languages and West Germanic. Iceland was first inhabited in around 870 A.D and most of the first visitors were from Norway [west Norway], Sweden and Ireland. Some Celtics were also in the earliest arrivals to Iceland. The language that became the most popular in Iceland was that of the people of Norway. Some traces of Celtic language are also visible in Icelandic language. The only words borrowed from Celtic language are some personal names and some names of places. Till 14th century Icelandic and Norwegian language was almost same. It was after 14th century that they became totally different from each other. This change occurred due to significant changes in the language of Norway. Icelandic language didn’t change and this was due to rich Icelandic literature that was written in read in the same language in 12th and 13th centuries. Now it is said that not even a single word has changed in Icelandic language that’s why the texts written in twelfth century can be read by a ten year boy even now. Another quality of Icelandic language is its uniformity i.e. the absence of dialects. But, Icelandic language has seen a huge change in its phonetics.

Because of its closeness to North America Icelandic is quite popular there. There are many in North America that speaks Icelandic language. These communities came into existence because there was huge immigration of people between Iceland, Canada and America right from the final 25 years of nineteenth century and the initial years of twentieth century. The first immigration is said to have started as early as 1855 but it started on huge amount only after 1870. It is said that first small colony of Icelanders was set around Lake Michigan in Washington in 1870. In 1875, Icelanders reached Canada and formed their first colony there on the west shore of Lake Winnipeg “also called new Iceland”. Many of same colonies were formed in Alberta, Saskatchewan and British Columbia. Till now also hundreds and thousands of people there can still read, write and speak Icelandic language.

Since nineteenth century, language purism has been the national policy of the government of Iceland. According to this policy, they have decided that instead of using foreign words for new things they will coin the new words [neologism] or will revive the old words and use them after giving then new meanings. The Icelandic committee for language is responsible to guide government and public in general regarding the matters of language based on scholarly basis.

On the 21 November 2006, it was agreed by the EU that Irish would become the 21st official language of the EU. Irish is really an ancient Celtic language called Gaelic. Gaelic is also the official language of Scotland, thus far part of the UK. The two Gaelic languages are somewhat different, quite different in fact. The different languages.within our world are part of what makes it colourful and interesting and the debate about how many different languages that we, the people of this planet should use, will go on as long as the world exists.

About 30% of the Irish speak Gaelic, we are told; this is in the Southern independent part of Ireland, which gained its freedom from the UK in the early 19th Century, leaving only Northern Ireland as part of the UK.

Southern Ireland is part of the EU and has the Euro as its currency, Northern Ireland is part of the UK and as such also belongs to the EU, the UK (which includes Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland) does not use the Euro, so it is not the currency for those countries either.

Confused enough yet? The Welsh and the Scottish also have their own Parliaments (Assemblies) and can make certain laws of their own, so for someone going to work in the British Isles, this mix of currency, laws and language create a nice labyrinth to work out!

No doubt all this multi-partisan status exists all over the World in different countries, with differing interests, loyalties and histories. In that sense it seems that Globalisation is a force for the good as it unites the people of this tiny planet and helps them to acknowledge that we are all in this together and maybe it’s time to time to preserve the past, but not try live in it.

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