Development of French language

 

That Alanic kingdom could be just the beginning of a political and cultural influence of Alans in France, we should know what happened afterwards, you can read part of the book "From Scythia to Camelot" by C. Scott Littleton and Linda A. Malcor here: http://ossetians.com/eng/news.php?newsid=370

 

"In the seventeenth century the Rohan family of the village of Josselin claimed that their lineage was more ancient than that of the kings of France, tracing their roots to the legendary Conan Meriadoc, who appears in the writings of Geoffrey of Monmouth. According to Bachrach this illustrious ancestor reputedly cut out the tongues of the Alanic women and children (the men were executed) whom he captured "so that the strange barbarian speech from the steppes would not corrupt the purity of the conquerors' language." Some scholars, however, argue that Meriadoc's barbaric treatment of the Alans is an onomastic legend rather than historical fact. Historical evidence indicates that a number of Alans survived this violent conflict with the Celts, with the Celts slotting into the existing social system in Brittany below the level of the nobility. Since at least some of these Alans appear to be ruling in the vicinity of Vannes throughout much of the Middle Ages, Meriadoc's people probably intermarried eventually with these powerful local Alans, if for no other reason than political expediency. Given the number of Alains in the Rohan line alone, this family at the very least seems to have adopted this practice."

 

About the cultural influence of Alans, for example it says "Markale argues that the religion of fifth-century Gaul was a synthesis of "oriental" cults, druidism, and Roman traditions. One of these "oriental" religions was that of the non-Christian Alans. ... Given the number of Alans who were in the church of Gaul by this time, there may well have been Alans among these monks. Alan mercenaries may have accompanied these monks as well. Perhaps this missionary activity was responsible for the legends of Joseph of Arimathea's arrival in Europe via Marseilles, of his missionary work in Britain, and of his carrying the Grail to that country, in the company of a bodyguard of soldiers from the East. "

 

Originally posted by Diviacus And another sentence : "In opposition to german people, the Alans didn't left any trace in the gallo-roman language. The French words that some people wanted to be due to them ("sur" or "cotte") are words borrowed to germanic languages, at a non defined period, to Iranian languages ( more likely Sarmatian), then passed through vulgar Latin to Roman" (ancestor of French language).

 

Some loanwords can't prove anything, there can be hundreds of them in a language but it can't show the linguistic influence of a language in the development of another language, but there are many other things which can prove this influence, one thing that I mentioned in my first post in this thread is the frequency of the voiced palato-alveolar fricative (zh sound) in the French and Alanic languages, bonjour!

 

1- Rome lost political control of Gaul, Spain and Italy about at the same time, against German peoples.

In Gaul, we have the great invasion of 406, and then the Frank invasion, end of the Vth century.

In Spain, the Wisigoths invaded the countyry in the Vth century.

In Italy, The Ostrogoths invaded the country end of the Vth century.

 

2- We have to reminder that the spoken Latin was different from the written one.

As the written Latin remained quite unchanged and became a dead language, but commonly used for centuries in all the territory corresponding to the Roman Empire, the Vulgar Latin (the spoken language) began to diverge from the classic one very soon, and in every country about at the same time.

That's in Spain that the Vulgar Latin is most likely to have diverged the sooner, because the country was at the end of the Empire. And then the Wisigoths and the Arabs altered the language.

And also, the first written texts in Roman languages have been written at about the same time, in the IXth century, in Italy and in France.

OK, for me, the Aquitanian language (we should say the Aquitanian languages) is from the same family as Basque (or Vascon), and as it is said in your Wikipedia sum-up, where it is described as a precursor of the (nowadays) Basque language.

It cannot be counted as a third one.

 

About your other comment, I have to think ...