What is the history of the French language?
The French language has a long and rich history, dating back to the Gallo-Romance period in the early Middle Ages. It was then that the first written texts appeared in the form of Latin documents, which eventually led to the development of the modern French language. During the Middle Ages, French became one of the most important languages in Europe due to its influence on other European languages such as Spanish, Italian, Portuguese, German and English. In the 16th century, French emerged as the international language of diplomacy, literature, science, technology, music and art, becoming an official language of the United Nations in 1945. Today, French is still widely spoken across the world, with over 120 million native speakers worldwide.