Preliminaries; Contents; 1 From Vulgar Latin to the recognition of the new vernacular; 2 The language of the earliest French texts; 3 Old French: language or dialect?; 4 Middle French developments; 5 Progress and prestige in the sixteenth century; 6 Codification and standardisation: Classical and Neo-Classical French; 7 From the Revolution to the present day; 8 The defence of French; Appendix: The distribution of the French language in the world today; Suggestions for further reading; Index
Summary
This well-established and popular book provides students with all the linguistic background they need for studying any period of French literature
