Factors Influencing the Development of the French Language, Literature, and Book Production

"Many factors influenced the shift from Latin to the 'mother tongue.' The change from an agrarian economy based on the land to a commercial economy in the towns and cities imposed a need for the middle classes to understand each other in written as well as oral forms. The centralization of French government and the rise of a nation state with the reign of King Philip Augustus (reigned 1180-1223) dictated a need for a language through which the court and the nobles could wield power far and wide. And, not least of all, women played a major role in the rise and evolution of medieval French as women readers, writers, and collectors. By the fifteenth century, vernacular language was well established as the language of literature, historical record, and personal expression" (Hindman & Bergeron-Foote, Flowering of Medieval French Literature “Au parler que m’aprist ma mere” [2014] 5).

"Quickly, the technology of the press provided greater access to the mother tongue and contributed to its standardization. Statistics of publications in French are indeed astonishing. Whereas in 1501 only 10% of books published in Paris were in French, by 1575, 55% of all books published in Paris were in French. The triumph of the French vernacular was also promoted by King Francis I, who in 1539, deemed French the official language of his kingdom. Then, in 1635, Cardinal Richelieu founded the Académie française whose mission was 'to codify the French language, to give it rules, to make it pure and comprehensible to everyone.' . . ." (Hindman & Bergeron-Foote, op. cit., 14).