Langues d'oïl

Langues d'oïl

The langues d'oïl are a group of old languages from northern France, southern Belgium, and the Channel Islands. They are part of a bigger family called the Gallo-Romance languages.

People in the north of Medieval France used these languages. They called them langues d'oïl because the word for “yes” in these languages was oïl. In the south, people said oc, which gave the name lengas d'òc or Occitan languages.

Today, the most common language from this group is French. The word oïl changed to oui in French. These languages have many different names, like Oïl dialects or Oïl languages.

There are five main groups of these old languages. They include Picard, Walloon, Lorrain, Francien, Burgundian, Bourguignon, Franc-Comtois, Angevin, Gallo, and Poitevin-Saintongeais.

These languages helped shape many others. For example, English took many words from Norman French after the Norman Conquest. French also influenced Portuguese and languages in North America.

Even though many of these languages are not used as much today, they still have a special place in history and culture. Some places still recognize them, like Wallonia in Belgium.