Old French Translator

About Old French

Old French was spoken in northern France and neighboring parts of medieval western Europe, and it belongs to the Gallo-Romance branch of the Indo-European family. It developed from spoken Latin and is the main earlier stage of modern French. It no longer has native speakers, though it is studied by scholars and read by specialists. Old French was written with the Latin alphabet, with spelling that varied widely by region and period.

A distinctive feature of Old French was a two-case noun system, usually contrasting nominative and oblique forms, a remnant largely lost in later French. It also preserved more verbal and nominal inflection than modern French. Old French has major literary importance: the Song of Roland, composed around the late 11th century, is one of the best-known surviving works in the language and a central text of medieval French literature.