French language explained to kids

French is a Romance language that originated in France. It is the second most widely spoken Romance language after Spanish. French is spoken by around 220 million people in 51 countries. It is an official language in 29 countries and is one of the United Nations' six official languages. French is a relatively young language. It began to develop in the 8th century, when the Franks, a Germanic tribe, conquered Gaul, a region in present-day France. The Franks spoke a Germanic language, but over time, their language began to change under the influence of the Gallo-Romance languages spoken by the Gauls. This process was helped along by the fact that, after the fall of the Roman Empire in the 5th century, Latin (the language of the Roman Empire) became less widely used. The first French texts date from the 9th century, but French really began to develop as a written language in the 12th century, with the help of the trouvères, a group of lyric poets. French reached its golden age in the 16th century, during the reign of François I. During this time, French became the language of diplomacy and high culture, and many great writers, such as François Rabelais and Michel de Montaigne, wrote in French. Today, French is one of the most widely spoken languages in the world. It is the official language of many international organizations, such as the United Nations, the European Union, and NATO. French is also one of the working languages of the European Court of Justice.