Beautiful 1847 Map Shows the Many Languages of France
get through to enlarge , viaDavid Rumsey Map Collection Until the 20thcentury , there was a great deal of linguistic diversity in France . In the north were thelangues d’oïl , and in the south thelangues d’oc , so - named for the departure in the word foryesbetween the two group in chivalric time . ( Modern criterion French’souicomes fromoïl . ) Within those two radical there were a issue of dialects , sometimes with so little in common they could not be mutually understood ....