When Soldier's Latin Became French
Rea,
You know how you can understand some French words because they sound similar to Spanish? That’s not a coincidence! Both languages grew from the same ancient root - like cousins who share a grandparent.
Around 2,000 years ago, Roman soldiers marched into what we now call France (then called Gaul). These soldiers spoke Latin, the language of the Roman Empire. But they didn’t speak the formal Latin of scholars and poets. They spoke “Vulgar Latin” - the everyday street language full of slang and shortcuts.
As these Romans settled in Gaul, something fascinating happened. The local people started picking up Latin words from the soldiers, but they pronounced them differently based on their own language patterns. Over centuries, this mixture of soldier’s Latin and local dialects slowly transformed into something new.
Take the Latin word “aqua” (water). In Spanish, it became “agua” - pretty close to the original. But in French, it transformed into “eau” - pronounced simply as “o”! The same word changed in completely different ways.
Or look at numbers. The Latin “unus, duo, tres” (one, two, three) became “uno, dos, tres” in Spanish, staying quite similar. But in French, they evolved into “un, deux, trois” with very different pronunciations. Each region’s unique accent and speech patterns shaped how Latin words changed over time.
The first time anyone wrote down this new “French” language was in 842 CE, in a document called the Strasbourg Oaths. Before that, everyone just considered it bad Latin! Linguists have calculated that about 80% of modern French words have Latin origins - but many have changed so much they’re barely recognizable.
What’s remarkable is how this transformation happened naturally, without anyone planning it. Nobody sat down and decided to create French. It evolved word by word, sound by sound, as people communicated daily across generations.
This language evolution continues today. French teenagers use slang words their grandparents wouldn’t recognize. Spanish in Mexico has words that don’t exist in Spain. Languages are living things that grow and change as people use them.
Think of languages like rivers flowing from the same mountain. Spanish, French, Italian, Portuguese, and Romanian all started as Latin, but each flowed down a different path, picking up unique elements along the way. Though they’ve diverged, you can still see traces of their common source when you look closely at the words.
Love, Abba
P.S. Next time you learn a new French word, try to guess what it might be in Spanish. You might be surprised how often you can figure it out!
