French language

French is a modern European language, a member of the Romance language family, which like others in this group owes much of its structure to Latin with some influence from the native languages of the pre-Roman Franks. In medieval times, French had evolved into two groups, a northern branch known as the "Langue d'oi," and a southerly group known as the "Langue d'Oc." However, after the political influence of the southerly group was crushed by the Albigensian Crusade, the northerly variety became dominant, and is the ancestor of modern "standard' French. French is also spoken in many former French colonies in West Africa and the Carribbean, the Canadian province of Québec, by some people in Vietnam, and in other places. In Tunisia, a former French colony, French is still one of the primary languages spoken.