• French or la langue française is a Romance language of the Indo-European family. It descended from the Vulgar Latin of the Roman Empire, as did all Romance languages. French evolved from Gallo-Romance, spoken Latin in Gaul, and more specifically in Northern Gaul.
  • Its closest relatives are the other languages d'oïl—languages historically spoken in northern France and in southern Belgium, which French (Francien) has largely supplanted.
  • French was also influenced by native Celtic languages of Northern Roman Gaul like Gallia Belgica and by the (Germanic) Frankish language of the post-Roman Frankish invaders.