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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 .
The key lists the 22 main dialects of French .
Closeup , " Sprachkarte von Frankreich,“David Rumsey Map Collection
There were also words that were from different language families entirely : There were Gaelic languages ( Breton ) , Germanic language ( Alsatian ) , words with no known relatives ( Basque ) , and a language closer to Italian ( Corsican ) . They also had subdialects , as shew in this key .
Some of these are still utter in France today , but by very few citizenry . After compulsory education began in the previous 19th century , the Parisian dialect of the langue d’oïl became widespread . It already had particular status , but because most people had no need to converse in effectual or official linguistic context , they did n’t bother to learn it . A 1790 bailiwick find that only 10 percent of the population of France spoke stock French . This map was made in 1847 , before French had truly become the terminology of the whole of France . The oïl language are outlined in garden pink , the oc languages in blue . The rust fungus Robert Brown in the northeastward is Gaelic , the green , Germanic , and the yellow , Basque .
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