192 
LANGUAGE. 
which are daily extracted from the earth, and by the 
works of its living artilts, who rival the Grecian Ichool in 
the fublimity of their defigns and in the elegance of their 
execution. In this country, the youth can belt ftudy the 
fine arts; the air, the foil, the fituation, all confpire to 
fupply the means, and open the mind to receive their im- 
preffion!” 
The French language is allowed to have originated 
from corrupt Latin, ancient Gallic, and Teutonic, brought 
into Gaul by the Franks; but in the fouthern parts of 
France, bordering upon the Mediterranean, many Greek 
words are ltiil diftinguifhable, which are fuppofed to have 
been brought thither by the colonies of Phoceans planted 
therein remote antiquity,and perhaps by Greek merchants 
trading to Marfeilles. According to M. de Sainte Palaie, 
the principal difference between the French and Proven- 
gal languages during the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, 
confided in the terminations of the fame words. When 
the French ufed the e feminine, the Provencals ufed a or 
o, neither of which however was pronounced, as is the 
cafe in our words fax and people. The Provencal termi¬ 
nations refembled thofe of the Italian and Spanilh lan¬ 
guages, and, where the French ufed eux and eur, the Pro¬ 
vencals had os and or. 
M. de la Ravaliere obferves, that laymen in the pro¬ 
vinces began to write the vulgar language much earlier 
than in the capital, where Latin was longer underftood. 
The year 1130 was the date of the firft poem in French, of 
which, tradition has preferved the name; “Prife de Jeru- 
lalem, par le chevalier Bechada but no veftige of this 
work is come down to the prefent times. The moft an¬ 
cient remnants of the French profe language are the laws 
of William the Conqueror, who died 1087, and the fer- 
mons of St. Bernard, written early in the following cen¬ 
tury; in which it appears that this language differed con- 
fiderably from that of Provence, of the fame period, as it 
was wwitten by the Troubadors. See i’Abbe Lebeuf, 
Mem. de Litt. tom. xvii. 
It is difficult to feparate the Provencal dialeft from the 
language that was lpoken during the middle ages in other 
parts of the French dominions. The Normans made it 
their boaft at the beginning of the eleventh century, that 
they fpoke the Romance language with purity, particu¬ 
larly at Rouen. Some of the writers of thofe times call 
the French language Lingua Gallica, and fome Romana, or 
Romana Ritfica. The term Romance, derived from the lan¬ 
guage in which tales and novels were firft written, did not 
for many years after this period convey the fame idea as 
at prefent. Parler Roman was another expreflion for fpeak- 
ing French. In the time of Charles V. of France, the 
fame expreflion is ufed by Guillaume de Nangy. And, 
as the ruftic Romance language was that of the courts of 
French princes in general, every heroic hiftory and metri¬ 
cal narration, and indeed almoft every thing that w'as 
written in that language, was called Romans, or Romance. 
This is confirmed by a line of the Roman d’Alexandre, 
by Lambert le Cors: Vefu comme Francois, et fot parler 
Romans ; He dreffed like a Frenchman, and fpoke the 
Romance. 
It was not till the reign of Philip Auguftus, at the lat¬ 
ter end of the twelfth and beginning of the thirteenth 
century, fays M. de la Ravaliere, that men of learning and 
reputation in the capital ventured to write in the vulgar 
tongue ; when, (fill leaving the Latin language in poflef- 
iion of hymns, and other poems on facred fubjefls, they 
exercifed their talents upon themes merely fecular; but 
molt frequently in lyric compofitions. And we are told, 
that, in the regifter of the chamber of accounts of that 
time, there is a purity perceived almoft equal to that of 
the prefent age. 
However, the French was (till a very imperfeft language 
till the reign of Francis I. The cuftom of fpeaking La¬ 
tin at the bar, and of writing the public a£ts and inftru- 
ments of the courts of juftice in that language, had made 
fhpm overlook the French, their own language. Befides, 
1 
the preceding ages had been remarkable for their igno¬ 
rance, which was owing, in good meafure, to the long 
and calamitous wars in which France had been engaged ; 
whence the French noblefle deemed it a kind of merit not 
to know any thing; and the generals regarded little, whe¬ 
ther or not they wrote and talked politely, provided they 
could but fight well. But Francis I. who was the reftorer 
of learning, and the father of the learned, changed the 
face of things; and, after his time, Henry Stephens printed 
his book, “ De la Precedence du Langage Frangois.” 
The change was become very confpicuous at the end 
of the fixteenth century, and under Henry IV. Amyot, 
Coeffeteau, and Malherbe, contributed towards bringing 
it to its perfection ; which the cardinal de Richelieu com¬ 
pleted, by the eftablilhment of the French academy ; an 
alfembly, wherein the moft diftinguilhed perfons of the 
church, the fword, and the gown, have been members. 
Nor did the long reign of Louis XIV. contribute a little 
to the improvement of the language; the perfonal quali¬ 
ties of that prince, and his tafte for the polite arts, and 
that of the princes of the blood, rendered his court the 
politeft in Europe. Wit and magnificence feemed to vie; 
and his generals might have difputed with the Greeks, 
Romans, &c. the glory of writing well, if they could not 
that of fighting. From the court, the elegance and purity 
of the language foon fpread itfelf into the provinces; and 
now there is fcarcely any body there who does not write 
and fpeak good French. One of the characters of the 
French language is, to be natural and eafy. The words 
are ranged in it much in the fame order as the ideas in. 
our minds; in which it differs exceedingly from the 
Greek and Latin, where the inverfion of the natural order 
of words is reputed a beauty. Indeed the Hebrew fur- 
palfes even the French in this point; but then it comes 
Ihort of it in copioufnefs and variety. 
The French has but few compound words: wherein it 
differs widely from the Greek, High Dutch, and Englilh. 
This the French authors own a great difad vantage in their 
language; the Greek and Dutch deriving a great part of 
their force and energy from the compofition of words, 
and frequently expreffing that in one founding word 
which the French cannot exprefs but by a periphrafis. 
The diminutives in the French are as few as the com¬ 
pounds ; the greateft part of thofe remaining in ufe hav¬ 
ing loft their diminutive fignification ; but what diftin- 
guifh the French moft are its juftnefs, purity, accuracy, 
and flexibility. 
French is the moft univerfal and extenfive language in 
Europe. The policy of ftates and courts has rendered it 
neceflary for the minifters of princes, and their officers. 
See. and the tafte for arts and fciences has had the fame 
effeCt with regard to the learned. In Germany, and elfe- 
where, the princes and perfons of diftinCtion value them- 
felves on underftanding French; and in feveral courts of 
Europe, French is almoft as much known as the language 
of the country; though the court of Vienna is an excep¬ 
tion from this rule : French is there very little ufed ; the 
emperor Leopold could not bear to hear it fpoken in his 
court; the Latin and Italian are there cultivated inftead 
of it. This extenfivenefs of the French language is no 
modern advantage ; William the Conqueror gave laws to 
England in the French language; and the ancient cuftoms 
of moft of the provinces of the Netherlands are written in 
the fame. Laftly, the French is the fame language every 
where ; not only in all the provinces of France, but, in 
all places where it is fpoken, out of France. 
For a critical acquaintance with what regards the French 
tongue, fee the Remarques of M. Vaugelas; and the ob- 
fervations M. Corneille has made on thofe remarks; the 
Remarques of F. Bouhours ; and the doubts of a Bas-Bre- 
ton gentleman, by the fame father ; the converfations of 
Arifte and Eugene ; the obfervations of M. Menage, and 
his etymologies, with thofe of M. Huet; F. Buifier’s 
French grammar, and that of the abbe Regnier, and fome 
performances of a later date. 
Of 
